A Ukrainian drone has struck a residential skyscraper not far from Moscow’s business district, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said.

The UAV struck the 52-story residential building known as the House on Mosfilmovskaya Street, 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, with some saying 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 laws 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, saying its key difference from last year was a stronger focus on turning ideas into practice.

”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.

He also stressed the forum’s human-centered approach.

”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. A key feature of the dialogue was continuity, with essayists from previous years serving as experts.

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 about $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 his first chief of staff. 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.

A “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?

Some 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.

Russia has conveniently been turned into a “model external enemy” by European propaganda seeking to justify the continent’s internal problems, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said, arguing that such efforts are unlikely to succeed.

European officials have frequently blamed Moscow for a range of challenges, especially since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Meanwhile, many in the EU have pushed for increased militarization over what they describe as a “Russian threat,” including claims that Moscow could attack the EU after the conflict ends. Russia has repeatedly dismissed such claims as “nonsense.”

In an interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin for the news agency Vesti released on Sunday, Peskov said Europe is facing a slew of deepening crises: “These are economic crises, existential crises, a security crisis, and, most importantly, a crisis in understanding itself and its core values.”

European propaganda has been trying to cast Russia as a convenient “model external enemy” simply because it is “a large and powerful country.”

Peskov also stressed that Russia is part of Europe, and that the continent’s security architecture is “unthinkable” without its participation and without taking its interests into account.

“Unfortunately, the current generation of European politicians is choosing a line of total Russophobia as its primary focus,” he said. “Declaring Russia the main threat to Europe’s existence is unwise. It’s a mistake… “Russia cannot be the main threat to Europe,” because as a Eurasian country it is an integral part of Europe, the spokesman said.

On Ukraine, Peskov said Moscow has repeatedly urged Kiev “to muster the will” and make the decisions needed to reach an agreement, but so far without success. He warned that delaying them will only make it worse: “Even more painful decisions will have to be made further on.”

Earlier this month, Vladimir Zelensky called on European backers to form a new military bloc involving the EU, UK, Ukraine, Türkiye, and Norway to deter Russia, claiming that such a force could surpass Russia in military strength. Commenting on the remarks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ridiculed Zelensky’s apparent attempt to portray himself as Europe’s “defender” and the leader of a new military alliance, warning it “won’t end well” and criticizing calls for Ukraine’s rapid EU accession under what he described as “an openly Nazi regime.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has ruled out Ukraine’s immediate accession to the European Union, instead calling for a phased approach to integration, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Friday.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg cited an unnamed EU official as saying that leaders had signaled preliminary conditions are in place for Ukraine to begin the first stage of the membership process, with talks potentially starting in the coming weeks or months.

“It is clear to everyone that an immediate accession of Ukraine to the EU is, of course, not possible,” Merz said as cited by the news agency after an EU summit in Cyprus. “I also want to enable closer integration into the European institutions, for example through participation in European councils without voting rights.” 

The comment comes as European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in a joint statement, called for immediate “opening of negotiation clusters” on Ukraine’s EU membership.

At the same time, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky rejected any lesser form of membership, insisting on full accession and saying his country is “defending common European values.” He has repeatedly urged Brussels to set a concrete date, arguing it should come no later than 2027.

Von der Leyen, who granted Ukraine candidate status within weeks of its 2022 application, has previously rejected the idea of setting a firm date, telling Zelensky in February: “From our side, dates by themselves are not possible.”

The country’s accession has been consistently opposed by Slovakia and by Hungary under the outgoing government of Viktor Orban. They argue that Ukrainian membership could draw the EU into an open conflict with Russia and undermine the bloc’s economy.

Moscow says it does not oppose Ukraine joining the organization, but has criticized what Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called its transformation into an “aggressive military-political bloc” and an “appendage of NATO.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also warned that Ukraine’s accession could undermine the EU and even lead to its collapse.

Nine people were injured early on Saturday when a Ukrainian drone hit a residential building in central Ekaterinburg, about 1,700 km (over 1,000 miles) inside Russia, according to regional Governor Denis Pasler. He added that fifty residents were evacuated due to safety concerns.

Moscow has repeatedly highlighted that Kiev is attacking civilians because it cannot halt Russian advances on the battlefield.

One woman was hospitalized following the attack, Pasler said. He added that none of those who sought medical help were in serious condition and that most were diagnosed with mild smoke inhalation; they have continued to receive care.

The governor noted that emergency services were working at the scene, stressing that a “carpet” emergency plan had been introduced in the region and that air defense systems were operating.

Russia’s aviation authority earlier reported temporary restrictions on arrivals and departures at the city’s Koltsovo Airport.

The Russian Defense Ministry has stated that 127 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight over several regions.

The remote-controlled aircraft were shot down over Crimea, Tatarstan, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Orel, Smolensk, Rostov, Volgograd, Astrakhan, Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions, as well as over the Black Sea.

Moscow has accused Kiev of resorting to terrorist tactics and inflicting damage to third parties not involved in the conflict between the two nations.

The Kremlin has also noted that US-mediated talks with Ukraine had been placed on hold due to the war in the Middle East.

Ukraine’s military has been hit by a starvation scandal after disturbing images surfaced of frontline soldiers so badly emaciated that relatives said some were fainting from hunger and drinking rainwater to survive.

The men, identified in Ukrainian and Western reporting as troops from the 14th Separate Mechanized Brigade operating near Kupyansk on the left bank of the Oskol River, had allegedly gone days without food and were relying on drone deliveries in one of the most dangerous sectors of the front.

The scandal erupted after relatives posted the images online and accused commanders of ignoring desperate pleas for help. Ukraine’s General Staff swiftly responded to the viral post, saying it had launched an investigation, replaced one commander, and demoted another.

Ukrainian and some Western outlets have framed the case as a result of brutal frontline conditions, with near-constant Russian drone strikes making logistics so dangerous that even food and medicine have to be flown in. Ukraine’s Joint Forces Task Force, however, described the case as a “horrible management shame,” saying commanders had failed to report the real situation up the chain of command.

Kiev has cycled through multiple defense ministers during the conflict. The only one to have any military experience, Aleksey Reznikov, was ousted in 2023 after procurement scandals that included overpriced military food contracts. Since then, corruption allegations have continued to plague senior wartime officials, and lower-level abuses have been tied to Kiev’s increasingly brutal military conscription drive.

Ukraine’s police chief has admitted that many citizens are now afraid to call law enforcement because they believe officers might help draft officials seize their relatives. Earlier this week, an alleged kidnapping ring was busted in Odessa, in which conscription officials, aided by police informants, targeted affluent men and threatened them with forced mobilization unless they paid bribes.

Moscow will continue supplying Cuba amid the US blockade squeezing the island, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

In late March, Russia delivered 100,000 tons of crude to the island, which has faced severe fuel shortages and power cuts since late last year, when Washington began to escalate its decades-long trade embargo into a full-blown oil blockade. Russian Energy Minister Sergey Tsivilev has indicated that a second tanker is on its way.

“We will continue to provide humanitarian aid to our Cuban friends during this difficult period,” Zakharova said in a press briefing.

Cuba has faced nationwide blackouts and severe fuel shortages in recent months, since Venezuela, at one point the island’s main oil supplier, stopped crude shipments under pressure from Washington.

However, late last month, after a Russian oil tanker bypassed the US blockade, he told reporters that Washington doesn’t “mind having somebody get a boat load” into the island, as “they need to survive.”

According to Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, the island relies on imports for between 40-60% of the seven million tons of fossil fuels it needs per year.

Cuba has had to lean more heavily into renewable energy sources like solar and biofuels due to the blockade, which has had a “tremendous impact on health systems,” education, transportation, and civilian infrastructure like water distribution, he said in an interview with journalist Breno Altman in Havana on Wednesday.

Russia and Ukraine have conducted a prisoner of war exchange involving nearly 200 servicemen from each side, the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on Friday. The United Arab Emirates and the US provided mediation, the ministry said. 

In a statement on Friday, the MOD announced that “193 Russian servicemen have been returned from the territory controlled by the Kiev regime” and in exchange, the same number of Ukrainian Armed Forces prisoners were also transferred.  

The Russian soldiers are currently in Belarus and are receiving psychological and medical assistance. They will later be transported to Russia for treatment and rehabilitation. 

The previous POW exchange took place earlier this month during a temporary ceasefire for Orthodox Easter. The two sides exchanged 175 service members each. The swap also involved the return of seven civilians from Kursk Region, said to have been the last hostages taken in the Ukrainian incursion last year. 

Since the resumption of direct Russia-Ukraine talks in May 2025, the two countries have regularly carried out exchanges of POWs, as well as of the bodies of fallen troops. 

Moscow has condemned the EU’s decision to withdraw a €2 million ($2.34 million) grant from the Venice Biennale after the prestigious event allowed Russia to return.

The Italian cultural exhibition announced in early March that Russia would participate again this year, prompting the European Commission to warn it could lose funding. On Thursday, commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier confirmed that the EU would follow through, urging the Italian authorities to take action.

“This move by Brussels is disgraceful and shows that claims by the European establishment about being open to dialogue with Russia are empty,” Mikhail Shvydkoy, a Russian presidential aide for international cultural cooperation, told RBK on Friday.

“This is also blatant interference in Italian domestic politics, since cultural policy remains under national purview in the European Union,” he added.

Russian officials and commentators questioned whether the funding cut would have any meaningful impact. Shvydkoy described the €2 million grant as significant but not essential for an institution of the biennale’s scale.

Art critic Elizaveta Likhacheva echoed that view, arguing that EU leaders were overestimating their leverage. “They are making a mistake by trying to use financial pressure,” she told BFM.ru, suggesting the funding represents only a small portion of the event’s overall resources – enough “for pencils and sweets.” According to Likhacheva, both Rome and Brussels must realize that their influence is limited.

There are multiple government programs supporting Ukrainian culture in Russia. Unlike Russian in Ukraine, Ukrainian is an official language in some Russian regions.

Ukrainian conscription officers in Lviv have run over a woman as she desperately tried to prevent the forced mobilization of her son, local news outlets reported on Thursday, citing eyewitness video circulating on social media.

The incident comes as Kiev faces growing domestic and international criticism over increasingly aggressive conscription tactics adopted amid escalating manpower shortages and mounting battlefield losses in the conflict with Russia.

One video depicts at least four draft officers struggling with an unwilling conscript while a woman, restrained by another officer, tries to intervene. Other footage appears to show the same woman attempting to block the vehicle into which the man was forcibly pushed, moments before she was struck by it.

According to the Telegram channel Strana UA, police witnessed a draft officers’ vehicle strike a woman and immediately detained the driver. An investigation has reportedly been launched, while the regional conscription office later claimed to the channel the woman herself was at fault.

In recent weeks, local media have reported a rise in such incidents. In April alone, footage showed several separate events in Odessa, including pepper spray being used on a woman trying to prevent the mobilization of a man, the violent seizure and beating of an unwilling conscript, and an attack on a 16-year-old boy by draft officers.

In another widely shared video, a man is seen resisting several conscription officers with a metal chain, forcing them to withdraw and leave the scene.

Physical confrontations and tense altercations between draft officials and the public have recently led to violence against officers. Earlier this month, two conscription officers were stabbed by a passerby in Vinnytsia after a document check, while another draft officer was fatally stabbed in Lviv.

Moscow has accused Kiev of waging the conflict “to the last Ukrainian” in the interests of the West. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said Ukraine lost nearly 500,000 military personnel in 2025 alone, which he claimed has left Kiev unable to replenish its forces even through mandatory conscription.

A total of 2,500 people have registered on a new Russian portal designed for skilled foreign nationals seeking expedited relocation, with 170 applicants having already submitted all the documentation, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) has reported.

ASI established the Headquarters for Support of Repatriation and Adaptation in late 2024, following an order from Russian President Vladimir Putin to streamline the relocation of skilled foreigners.

The body brings together representatives from the Presidential Administration, the State Duma, federal ministries, state corporations and pilot regions to coordinate the effort.

Russian officials presented the figures on Wednesday at a meeting of ASI’s headquarters, covering the first nine days since the “Time to Live in Russia” portal launched on April 15.

“We managed to develop and launch a mechanism to attract foreign specialists who are of interest to Russia in a fairly short time,” ASI head Svetlana Chupsheva said. She noted that the new process provides a clear path for talented foreigners who want to contribute to the country’s development.

Coordination is led by the Agency for Attracting Foreign Talent (APIT). The head of the agency, Irina Korotkova, said 54% of applicants who submitted full documentation are in-demand specialists, 16% are students and 15% are scientists; the average age ranges between 40 and 45.

Russia’s Interior Ministry has issued the necessary orders to implement the decree, First Deputy Head of the Migration Service Konstantin Bukreev said. Under a separate program, the ministry has already received nearly 3,400 applications for temporary residence permits from citizens of Western countries, he added.

Alexander Vaino, the headquarters’ secretary, said 14 of the 40 planned measures have been completed, including allowing visa issuance at any Russian consulate and simplifying access to state services.

Officials also approved an updated “Regional Standard” for adapting foreign arrivals. The framework formalizes a federal operator, introduces the term “repatriate” and is due to be rolled out across 14 regions, including Moscow and Kaliningrad.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has dismantled a neo-Nazi cell that was plotting to assassinate officials from the country’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor. The suspects, some of whom were minors, were allegedly directed by Ukrainian intelligence to prepare car bombs and gather personal data on the agency’s top brass.

The ringleader was killed in a shootout, and investigators seized weapons, grenades, homemade explosives, and neo-Nazi imagery from the hideouts. A total of seven group members were apprehended in raids across multiple Russian cities.

The suspects testified that they were gathering and sharing personal information about Roskomnadzor head Andrey Lipov and his deputies and discussed ways to attack their cars.

Among the suspects are several minors, who have regularly been the target of recruitment efforts by Ukrainian intelligence services in recent years using grooming and blackmail, often through the Telegram messenger.

RT correspondent Murad Gazdiev has compiled a full report on the investigation, Ukraine’s continued recruitment activities, and Russia’s efforts to get Telegram to take action against destructive content on its platform.

Watch the full report below.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has likely participated in embezzlement involving the country’s top officials, Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC), has claimed.

Kiev has been rocked by several corruption scandals in the last few years, with the most notable occurring in November 2025 when anti-graft agencies uncovered a $100 million kickback scheme at the state nuclear operator Energoatom.

The investigation implicated Timur Mindich, a close associate of Zelensky, as the mastermind of the criminal operation. The scandal led to the resignations of several high-ranking officials, including the Ukrainian leader’s influential chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, and Energy Minister German Galushchenko, who was later arrested.

In her interview with Ukrainska Pravda last week, Kaleniuk said that there is “a high probability” that Zelensky was “directly involved” in corruption, despite him repeatedly denying any knowledge of any schemes by members of his government.

“All of his closest friends and most likely he himself built homes for themselves” since he came to power, the head of the Ukrainian NGO, which has been around since 2012 and receives funding from the EU and US, stressed.

“The anti-corruption bodies that are doing their job can stop doing their job at any moment,” Kaleniuk warned.

The Ukrainian leader already tried putting NABU and SAPO under his control last summer, but was forced to reverse course after backlash from Kiev’s foreign backers and protests in the streets.

Despite the ongoing corruption scandals, the EU approved another €90 billion ($106 billion) for Ukraine on Thursday, with the European Council saying that it would begin disbursements “as soon as possible” in the second quarter of 2026.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharov insisted previously that the US and EU, which “coddled” Zelensky, should share the responsibility for the corruption in Ukraine.

A group of Russian neo-Nazis guided by Ukraine has been foiled while conspiring to conduct a bomb attack against the leadership of the Russian media regulator, Roskomnadzor, the Federal Security Service (FSB) reported on Friday.

A total of seven members of the network were targeted in a series of raids in Moscow, Ufa, Novosibirsk, and Yaroslavl last Saturday, the statement said. A man in his early 20s identified as the ringleader was killed in the Russian capital after opening fire at officers trying to apprehend him, the agency said.

According to footage released by the FSB, at least two of the suspects are female and all are young adults. In their interviews they said they were gathering and sharing personal information about Roskomnadzor head Andrey Lipov and his deputies and discussed ways to attack their cars.

At some addresses, officers seized neo-Nazi imagery, including hand-drawn swastikas and what appeared to be an Imperial Russian flag with a pattern associated with white supremacism, the video showed. Officers also found a collection of weapons, including a silenced handgun that the ringleader reportedly used during the firefight in which he was killed, a hand grenade, and a 1-kilogram homemade bomb.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who moved from Russia to the United Arab Emirates, is a vocal advocate of maximum free speech. His position has resulted in friction with many governments over the years, infamously including France, where he was charged with assisting crimes in which alleged perpetrators used the messenger to communicate.

The FSB’s long-standing position is that foreign messengers that fail to cooperate with Russian investigations are de facto tools of Ukrainian special services, used to radicalize the youth and recruit citizens susceptible to coercion for various crimes, including targeted assassinations.

France and Poland are preparing joint military exercises simulating conventional and nuclear strikes on Russia and Belarus, according to Polish media. Moscow has claimed that NATO will practice the blockade and seizure of Russia’s Kaliningrad Region at the same time. 

The Wirtualna Polska (WP) news outlet reported on Thursday, citing sources within the military, that the nuclear drills are set to take place “soon” over the Baltic Sea and northern Poland, and are meant to develop a “Polish-French military arm… outside of NATO bureaucracy” to deter supposed Russian aggression.  

Moscow has consistently dismissed the claims as nonsense, stressing it has no intention of attacking any foreign states and accusing NATO of openly preparing for a military confrontation.  

Under the scenarios, reportedly discussed during French President Emmanuel Macron’s meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk earlier this week, Polish F‑16 jets will conduct long‑range reconnaissance and target identification, and will strike “high‑value targets in the vicinity of St. Petersburg” using conventional JASSM‑ER cruise missiles.  

French Rafale B fighters, armed with ASMP missiles carrying nuclear warheads, will also fly from France to the Budapest‑Kaliningrad line and simulate nuclear strikes on targets in Russia and Belarus.  

Responding to the reported French-Polish nuclear drills, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that they “show Europe’s aspiration for further militarization and nuclearization” and warned that such steps “do not contribute to stability and predictability on the European continent.” 

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko also said on Thursday that NATO’s UK-led Joint Expedition Forces (JEF) has been practicing scenarios of a naval blockade and seizure of Russia’s Kaliningrad Region and is “deliberately pursuing a path of increasing confrontation.” 

Meanwhile, the Finnish parliament took up a bill to allow the import and storage of nuclear weapons on the country’s territory. The move would overturn legal barriers that had banned such devices in the country since the 1980s.  

Moscow has warned that any deployment of nuclear weapons in Finland would be a direct threat to Russia and would trigger retaliatory measures.

Speaking exclusively to RT on Thursday, Andrey Kartapolov, chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, warned that Finnish lawmakers would be making a “big mistake” if they voted in favor of the bill. The arrival of foreign nuclear weapons in the Nordic country would significantly undermine its own security, according to the senior Russian MP.

The relevant military installations on Finnish soil would inevitably end up on Russian strategic forces’ priority target list, Kartapolov predicted.

The Second Open Dialogue ‘The Future of the World. A New Platform for Global Growth’ will be held at the National Center RUSSIA in Moscow from April 27 to 29.

Participants can expect lectures by international experts, pitch sessions and idea presentations by essay authors, networking and exchange of experience, as well as discussions with participants from more than 40 countries around the world.

One of the speakers and jury members will be Moroccan researcher Younes Bennane, director of the Institute for Social and Media Studies. Last year, he presented a bold idea for a transcontinental corridor linking Asia and Africa via the Northern Sea Route, with its southern link centered on the Dakhla Atlantic port.

In 2026, he is presenting an initiative to create a pan-African carbon exchange that would allow the continent to control its own environmental and economic resources.

“For me, participation in the Open Dialogue is a strategic opportunity to present this research to the professional community and to show that researchers from the Global South are capable of proposing solutions to the key problems of the 21st century,” Bennane said.

“We are observing their accelerated development, but now we are talking about a qualitatively different model: African states are striving for multiple sovereignty. This is no longer the logic that underpinned Africa’s post-colonial ties with Western countries,” Bennane added.

The dialogue’s program is built around four strategic tracks: “Investment in People: human capital development, education, demography”; “Investment in Technology: artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and smart cities”; “Investment in the Environment: human-centered territorial development, ecology, and the circular economy”; and “Investment in Connectivity: the future of trade, digital currencies, infrastructure, and logistics.”

More than 300 essays from around the world devoted to ideas for the development of the global economy made the Open Dialogue longlist.

Registration for the Open Dialogue is still open, and applications can be submitted on the official website.

A draft enforcement squad in the Western Ukrainian region of Volyn has reportedly shoved an unwilling recruit off the roof of a private home where he was apparently trying to evade capture, according to local media and eyewitness footage circulating online.

The incident is said to have taken place in the village of Strymovka outside of Lutsk. Eyewitness videos depict a Territorial Recruitment Center officer demanding that a man on the roof of a single-story building get down of his own accord. The draft enforcer then addresses the onlookers who are shooting the video, saying: “Youths, we will get all of you who are filming – I’m telling you – we’ll come over to you, too… Put down your cameras!”

The conscription officer then leans a ladder against the porch roof while telling his colleague to “get the gun” and threatening to shoot the unwilling recruit in the legs.

In a separate video, the official is seen struggling with the man on the roof for some time before eventually pushing him to the ground and tumbling off the sloping surface himself. Two other draft enforcers quickly grab the man by the arms and legs and haul him away, apparently toward their vehicle waiting outside.

The Volyn Territorial Recruitment Center has confirmed that the press gang, together with police officers, was patrolling the area when they spotted a vehicle whose driver attempted to flee after seeing the officials, as quoted by local media. The authorities claimed that the man, who climbed up to the roof, then supposedly asked the draft enforcers to rescue him due to a “fear of heights.”

According to the regional Territorial Recruitment Center, the man ended up admitting to being a draft dodger and was subjected to a medical checkup in short order.

The practice, commonly known as “busification,” involves military-age men being captured on the streets, at their places of work, as well as in residential areas, then taken to recruitment centers against their will and reportedly dispatched to the front almost immediately, after only cursory training.

Ukrainians are increasingly afraid to engage law enforcement because they believe doing so could result in themselves or others being drafted, according to the country’s police chief.

The National Police, a civilian force, is tasked with assisting military authorities in enforcing mandatory conscription, a policy that has generated widespread resentment due to incidents of violence and alleged corruption.

“People lately are questioning whether they should call the police,” Ivan Vygovsky said in an interview with RBK Ukraine published Thursday. “They think: ‘If I call this in, the police will come and take away me, my family or someone else.”

Ukraine aims to mobilize roughly 30,000 recruits per month to sustain its numbers at the front. Hundreds of videos circulating online show tension and confrontations between the Defense Ministry’s press gangs and members of the public, with officials routinely resorting to force against their uncooperative targets and bystanders.

Police image tarnished too

Two recent high-profile incidents have tarnished the force’s reputation. In one case, draft officials were accused of a kidnapping scheme aided by police informants. In another, police officers were filmed fleeing the scene of a shooting, leaving civilians unprotected.

The alleged kidnapping ring was busted in Odessa on Tuesday. According to investigators, military officials working at a local conscription office targeted affluent men, threatening them with forced mobilization unless they paid bribes. Media reports said several police officers had supplied tips about people with expensive property or vehicles.

Public anger intensified after footage showed the officers running away as a civilian fell on the ground after apparently being struck by a bullet. The press contrasted their actions to those of one of the victims, a street cleaner, who died while shielding a child from gunfire.

Rebranding instead of solutions

The Defense Ministry is considering reforms to the conscription system, including rebranding draft centers and expanding police involvement in enforcement.

Lawmaker Roman Kostenko has criticized the proposal, arguing it is designed to shift public anger with the draft onto the civilian authorities without addressing the underlying problem.

Kiev argues harsh methods are lamentable but necessary to supply reinforcements to frontline units. Vladimir Zelensky’s government has said it intends to continue fighting despite the cost, claiming that no compromise with Moscow can be reached.

A Ukrainian press gang in the city of Odessa used pepper spray on a woman as she desperately attempted to prevent the forced mobilization of a man, according to eyewitness video circulating on social media.

The footage, shared on Wednesday, depicts at least eight draft officers struggling with an unwilling conscript while the woman attempts to intervene. At one point, the officers pull her away and apparently pepper-spray her, leaving her sitting on the ground and screaming: “My eyes!”

The man is eventually escorted to an unmarked minibus, as bystanders suggest rinsing the woman’s eyes with milk to alleviate the burning sensation.

Amid mounting losses in the conflict with Russia and a shortage of willing recruits, 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.

In one case, draft enforcers shoved a woman to the ground and pepper-sprayed bystanders as they detained a man.

In another incident, a press gang pepper-sprayed the occupants of a car after the male driver refused to get out and called a lawyer instead.

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Earlier this month, two draft enforcers were stabbed during a document check in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnitsa. In a separate incident in Lviv, a conscription officer was fatally stabbed in the neck.

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.

There is “rampant Satanism” in certain EU member states, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has alleged, citing their connivance in the Ukrainian authorities’ “blasphemous practices” at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Orthodox monastery.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, the government in Kiev has intensified its crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church over allegations that it has connections to Moscow. The Ukrainian authorities have since conducted numerous raids on monasteries and launched dozens of criminal cases on collaboration charges against clerics, as well as property seizures.

At the same time, Vladimir Zelensky’s government has backed the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which the Russian Orthodox Church considers schismatic.

Speaking at a Russian Foreign Ministry reception on Wednesday dedicated to Orthodox Easter, Lavrov stated that the Ukrainian leadership has rejected “their spiritual and civilizational roots.”

“The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been persecuted for over a decade now, with churches [forcibly] taken over, vandalized and clergy and parishioners harassed,” he said.

According to Lavrov, the “Ukrainian Ministry of Culture used this bureaucratic formula to conceal its legalized blasphemous practices, while several European countries have turned a blind eye to these developments or even directly supported them.”

“There is rampant Satanism in these countries, too,” the Russian foreign minister concluded.

Last March, the first reports emerged of Ukrainian government officials and police forcing their way into the catacombs of what is considered the nation’s most significant monastery and the final resting place of several Christian saints.

Incidentally, this is not the first time Lavrov has suggested there are Satanic tendencies in the West.

Speaking in February, after the US Department of Justice released a large trove of the so-called Epstein files, the Russian foreign minister said that the materials had “revealed the face of the West.”

“Every normal person knows this is beyond comprehension and pure Satanism,” Lavrov stated then.

A Moldovan court has sentenced businessman and opposition politician Vladimir Plahotniuc to 19 years in prison in a high-profile bank fraud case.

The charges are related to a 2014 bank scandal in which $1 billion was siphoned from three of the largest financial institutions in the country. Plahotniuc stood accused of receiving only a fraction of the money, namely $39 million and €3.5 million ($4.1 million) from the affected banks.  

The politician fled the country in 2019 after his Democratic Party lost the elections and has denied any wrongdoing, insisting the case against him is politically motivated. He was arrested in Greece in July last year and promptly extradited to Moldova to face trial. Plahotniuc requested to be sent to Moldova rather than to Russia, where he has been wanted since 2017 over a failed assassination attempt on a banker.

The 2014 bank fraud affair, locally known as the “heist of the century,” sent shockwaves through the political landscape of the ex-Soviet nation, implicating many high-profile figures. Former Moldovan Prime Minister and founder of the Democratic Party, Vlad Filat, was sentenced to nine years for corruption and influence peddling in 2016, but was released on parole in 2019. Filat has maintained his innocence, repeatedly accusing his former ally Plahotniuc of fabricating the case against him.  

Another opposition politician and businessman, Ilan Shor, was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in 2023 over his role in the bank fraud. Shor fled the country in 2019 and has remained abroad ever since, first taking refuge in Israel and ultimately moving to Russia, where he was granted citizenship. The businessman has long maintained his innocence as well, insisting the charges against him are politically motivated.

Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, the country’s wealthiest man, has reportedly broken the world record for the most expensive residential real estate transaction in history, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek investigation. 

Although the deal has not been publicly disclosed, the outlet has cited private documents that suggest Akhmetov purchased a sprawling five‑floor penthouse in Monaco for a staggering $554 million. The 21‑room, 2,500 square meter waterfront property, which features a private swimming pool, a jacuzzi and at least eight parking spaces, is located in the “Le Renzo” building in the principality’s exclusive, newly built Mareterra district. The sale was reportedly finalized in 2024.

Akhmetov’s holding company, System Capital Management (SCM), has confirmed it had made an investment in the “Le Renzo” project but declined to disclose details about the property or its cost.

The reported price shatters previous records, surpassing the sale of developer Nick Candy’s Chelsea mansion for more than $350 million and the $240 million New York penthouse bought by hedge fund manager Ken Griffin.

Akhmetov’s acquisition in Monaco appears to have come shortly before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, which has inflicted severe damage on his business empire. Some energy facilities operated by his DTEK group, Ukraine’s largest private electricity provider, have been destroyed, and he has lost some of his major assets, including his entire media empire, which he was forced to hand over to the Ukrainian state. 

Nevertheless, he has remained one of Kiev’s most prominent backers. In December 2024, Russia designated the oligarch as an extremist, accusing him of financing the Ukrainian military and terrorist groups such as the neo-Nazi Azov regiment through his business network.

Two people were killed and at least 12 others injured when a Ukrainian drone strike led to the partial collapse of an apartment block in the city of Syzran in Russia’s Samara Region, local authorities have said.

The bodies of a woman and a child were recovered from the rubble of the four-story building, Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev wrote in a post on Max on Wednesday morning. Two of the injured required hospitalization, while the rest received treatment on site, he added.

“I express my sincere condolences to those who lost their loved ones. We’re seeing another inhumane criminal act against civilians,” the governor said.

The local emergencies ministry said earlier that there were at least two children among the wounded.

Some 300 rescuers and more than 80 units of specialized equipment had been involved in the search and rescue operation, which went on for several hours, according to the ministry.

A fire broke out in another multi-story apartment block in the same area of Syzran as result of a UAV attack, Shot Telegram channel reported.

There were no injuries and the blaze was being extinguished at the time the story was posted. Two cars parked outside were destroyed by fire due to being hit by debris from the drone, according to the channel.

Russia was subject to another major Ukrainian drone attack overnight, with the Defense Ministry in Moscow saying that a total of 155 UAVs were destroyed by air defenses in Kursk, Samara, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Saratov, Penza, Ulyanovsk, Volgograd, Rostov and Krasnodar Regions as well as in Crimea and over the Black Sea.

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

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

Russia’s adversaries are busy thinking about how to “shape” the country’s victory in the Ukraine conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested.

The president made the remarks in response to comments by the head of the local legislature of the city of Nizhny Novgorod, Evgeny Chintsov, during a meeting with representatives of the country’s municipalities. Chintsov said that “nobody, including the enemy” doubts that the conflict will result in Russia’s victory.

Putin agreed but appeared to caution against making overly bold statements prematurely. 

“Yes, they are just thinking about how to shape it all; we’ll see. However, military action is always a very complicated and dangerous thing. We know how everything will end, but we will not make any public statements about it. We will simply strive to achieve the goals we have set,” the president said.

Moscow has repeatedly signaled openness to resolve the hostilities through diplomacy, should its demands be met, while maintaining its readiness to achieve its goals by force should the negotiating efforts ultimately fail. Territorial issues seem to have become the main obstacle in the negotiations, as Kiev has repeatedly refused to withdraw its forces from the parts of Donbass it still controls.

Several Ukrainian mobilization officers accused of taking bribes have been arrested in a dramatic roadside raid in the southern city of Odessa. Video footage reportedly of the incident shared by local media shows security service of Ukraine (SBU) officers descending on a van at a traffic light in the city as gunfire rings out.

The incident comes amid growing scrutiny of the country’s mobilization practices as its battlefield losses mount.

Images posted on local Telegram channels on Tuesday show several men in military uniform lying face down on a busy road in broad daylight as armed officers carry out the detentions. Gunfire can be heard during the operation. 

The detainees are reportedly officers from a Territorial Recruitment Center (TCC), suspected of attempting to forcibly mobilize a man before allegedly demanding $30,000-50,000 from him under threat of weapons, despite him reportedly having a legal deferment. Local media, citing sources, reported that the victim had alerted the SBU in advance.

Odessa’s regional recruitment center confirmed that its personnel had been detained. The heads of the regional and district recruitment centers have been suspended pending the outcome of an internal investigation. A criminal case has been opened, and a service inquiry is ongoing.

Reports and videos have been mounting across Ukraine of violent conscription practices known as ‘busification’ – snatching men off the streets and then shoving them into unmarked minibuses. Conscription officers have been recently caught on video attacking a 16-year-old boy in Odessa. Last month, a local resident fought off four Odessa TCC officers using a heavy metal chain, smashing their vehicle’s windows. In Kharkov, armed conscription officers reportedly shot and killed a man during an attempted forced mobilization in March.

With volunteer rates plummeting and the military suffering heavy casualties, less than 10% of new recruits join voluntarily, Ukrainian lawmaker Vadim Ivchenko admitted last month. Desertion and draft evasion remain rampant, with an estimated 2 million potential conscripts on a wanted list.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that it is “simply not respectful” for US President Donald Trump’s peace envoys to hold multiple rounds of talks in Moscow while never visiting Kiev.

Zelensky delivered the remarks on Monday in a wide-ranging interview with Ukrainian outlet Fakti ICTV when asked what the chances were of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner eventually coming to Ukraine.

In response, the Ukrainian leader preemptively downplayed any expectation of a visit, stressing that the media “should not turn the arrival of Jared and Witkoff into some kind of special sensation, because we are in contact with them.”

“I believe their visit is needed not by us, but by them. It is not respectful to travel to Moscow and not come to Kiev. It’s simply not respectful. I understand that our logistics are more complicated. But everyone is travelling,” he said.

Witkoff, who has played a key role in the peace process, has made six trips to Moscow since US President Donald Trump took office, including multiple meetings with President Vladimir Putin. Kushner has joined him on some of those occasions. Witkoff has held talks with Ukrainian officials, but never in Kiev. The most recent meeting was in Miami last month.

Zelensky rebuked the US negotiators earlier this month for their perceived proximity to Putin, lamenting they “spent too much time” with the Russian leader. “The problem is they trust Putin. And it’s a pity,” he said.

According to multiple media reports, Ukraine and the US have also been at odds over the terms for settling the conflict. Zelensky has claimed Washington was conditioning US post-war security guarantees for Kiev on a full military withdrawal from Russia’s Donbass. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, has rejected the allegation, accusing Zelensky of “lies.”

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has been on a European “concert tour” begging for more money and weapons for years, but the Middle East is now taking up all the attention, Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, has said.

Speaking at a UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine on Monday, Nebenzia accused Kiev and its backers of staging a “cheap, shoddy show” in the UN halls as they fear that the Iran war is drawing attention away from Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.

Zelensky, a comedian-turned-politician, “is perfectly aware that moving the Ukrainian file to the backburner of international politics due to the escalation in the Middle East can significantly reduce the profits reaped from his concert tour over European countries,” Nebenzia said.

The Ukrainian leader has been courting his Western backers, particularly in the EU, for weapons and financial assistance for years, while constantly complaining that the aid is not enough.

According to the Kiel Institute, Ukraine received €207 billion ($243 billion) from Europe and €115 billion ($135 billion) from the US since the escalation of the conflict in 2022. Media reports suggest, however, that the Iran war could slow the pace of deliveries.

Nebenzia noted that faced with this conundrum, Zelensky “did not lose his bearings,” and started raving about Ukraine “singlehandedly unblock[ing] the Strait of Hormuz.”

The envoy was referring to Zelensky’s claims that Ukraine provided Gulf countries with drone expertise, and in return securing defense deals. US President Donald Trump, however, dismissed the offer of support from Kiev, saying “the last person we need help from is Zelensky… we know more about drones than anybody.”

Zelensky’s claims about Ukraine’s decisive role in the Hormuz crisis are “nothing but a figment of the imagination of the thieving Kiev ringleader, and he is trying to sell his whimsical illusions to anyone willing to pay for them,” Nebenzia said.

He also highlighted the dire situation for Ukraine at home. “Ordinary Ukrainians are refusing to fight for the blatantly corrupt country’s leadership, they are dodging the draft, deserting,” he said, adding that reluctant recruits are being maimed, stunned, and nearly beaten to death by recruitment officers.

”Is this the kind of ‘security’ Zelensky is looking to ‘export’ throughout the globe?” Nebenzia said.

The West is being swept by a “pandemic of historical revanchism” as it seeks to erase the memory of World War II and rewrite the Soviet victory over Nazi ideology, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned.

Zakharova made the remarks in an interview with TASS on Sunday on the occasion of Russia’s Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People, which is being observed for the first time this year.

The spokeswoman said that while for a time Russia was absolutely certain that WWII was “a sacred topic for the whole world,” many Western countries adopted a different approach. “They think… the Soviet victory in WWII was accidental and inadmissible. They think that now is the time to rectify this accident, or a mistake, as they see it,” Zakharova stated.

Some Western countries, Zakharova said, do not accept the results of WWII and the rulings of the Nuremberg Tribunal. “No, they do not want to give up the idea of taking over the Ukrainian black soil, Russian oil and gas,” she said, adding that Western ambitions extend to seizing the resources of Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

She also cited an escalating war against monuments to those who fought Nazism, but said the most dangerous sign of revanchism was that “they want a revenge which would allow them to prevail in remaking the world order and seizing resources around the globe.”

Moscow has for years sounded the alarm about resurgent Nazi ideology in Europe, citing in particular marches in Baltic states honoring Waffen SS veterans. It has also pointed to torchlit marches celebrating the birthday of Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera, whose Ukrainian Insurgent Army collaborated with Nazi Germany and killed tens of thousands of Jews and Poles during WWII.

Moscow has said Ukraine’s denazification is one of the key goals of its military operation against the neighboring state.

On April 18, the reigning Russian national champions – who train at Alina Kabaeva’s Sky Grace Rhythmic Gymnastics Academy – took bronze in the all-around group competition at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup which has now concluded in Baku, Azerbaijan. The team was made up of Alyona Seliverstova, Alina Proshchalykina, Zlata Remchukova, Nelli Reutskaya and Nicole Andronchik.

Their routine with three hoops and two pairs of clubs was performed cleanly and at a high level, without major errors. The group scored 26.350 for the exercise, finishing with a total of 52.900 points.

Israel won gold with 54.300 points, while Spain placed second on 54.050.

The same Russian lineup also claimed silver in the group event with three hoops and two pairs of clubs, earning 26.750 points. Spain took first place in that discipline with 27.950.

The Russian group also leaves Baku with the AGF Trophy for the highest execution score.

The team was personally prepared for the tournament by Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva, who remained in contact with the athletes throughout the competition. The routine was developed with choreographer Irina Zenovka

On April 19, 15-year-old Sofia Ilteryakova added two more medals to the Russian tally, taking silver in the clubs event and bronze in hoop. In clubs, she was beaten only by Olympic champion Darya Varfolomeyeva.

In total, the Russian gymnasts finished the Baku World Cup stage with two silver medals and two bronze medals.

They competed at the tournament under neutral status.

Western leaders are figureheads dependent on wealthy donors who “do not care about their people,” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said in an interview with RT’s Rick Sanchez.

Speaking at the presidential palace in Minsk, Lukashenko discussed the Western political system, Belarus’ relations with neighboring countries, US President Donald Trump, and a range of other topics.

Leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz “are all just temporary placeholders… They’re here today, gone tomorrow,” Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994 and is Europe’s longest-serving current leader, said.

“They’re just trying to grab something while they can. That’s the foundation of their policies,” he added, while highlighting his own style of governance.

“I appoint the government, supervise its work, and bear responsibility for the outcomes,” Lukashenko said. He argued that in the West, “it’s not clear who appoints who and who’s responsible for what… the people there don’t know who they can hold accountable.”

The Belarusian leader said Western politicians owe their positions to “rich donors who finance them,” and “over time, they begin to prioritize the interests of these donors, not the people of Germany, France, or the UK.”

Watch the full interview here:

The EU will find ways to hand out more money to Ukraine regardless of Hungary’s veto power, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. He made the remarks after the opposition Tisza party defeated Hungary’s longtime prime minister, Viktor Orban, in a high-stakes parliamentary election.

Orban previously blocked a $106 billion loan package for Ukraine. Tisza leader Peter Magyar, however, campaigned on repairing relations with the EU and signaled that Budapest will drop its opposition to aid for Kiev.

Ukraine’s European backers, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, openly celebrated Magyar’s victory.

In a news segment aired on Sunday, Russia 1 journalist Pavel Zarubin asked Peskov whether Russia-EU relations could deteriorate further following Orban’s defeat. “No, they can’t get any worse than now,” Peskov replied.

“One way or another, the EU would have found a way to unblock the funds, with or without Orban. We should have no illusions about it,” he added.

A longstanding critic of the EU’s decision-making process, Orban has argued that military aid to Ukraine has pushed the bloc closer to an open war with Russia, while the ban on energy imports from Russia has hurt member states economically.

Von der Leyen has said the “momentum” from the Hungarian election should be used to begin reforms aimed at reducing the veto power of member states on issues such as loans for Ukraine. “Moving to qualified majority voting in foreign policy is an important way to avoid systemic blockages, as we have seen in the past,” she said.

In February, Hungary sued the EU over its decision to phase out energy supplies from Russia. Slovakia has said it will formally join the lawsuit this week. Both countries argue that the EU has no right to override their opposition to sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine conflict.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has told RT’s Rick Sanchez that he wants his country “to remain a land of opportunity.”

When asked what would follow his eventual resignation, Lukashenko, 71, said that he hopes that Belarus will remain safe and stable.

“I’ve done a lot to make Belarus what it is today… You said it’s a decent country, that people live good lives here. A peaceful, safe country,” he said.

“Naturally, I want to see that preserved. I want it to remain a land of opportunity, where anyone can realize themselves. In that sense, we’ve succeeded.”

Choosing his successor will be up to “the people of Belarus,” Lukashenko told Sanchez when asked whether equal opportunities would be afforded to anyone vying for the position. “However they choose, that’s how it will be.”

Lukashenko was first elected in 1994, during the turbulent period following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

“That was a very different time, there was vote rigging, even violence. And I still got 80.3%. I remember it well. The people stood by me, very strongly,” he said.

“I believe that long before I pass on… there will be a capable new person leading Belarus. We’ve got plenty of smart, talented people.”

Watch the full interview on RT on Monday at 8:30 AM Moscow time (6:30 AM GMT).

The Second Open Dialogue ‘The Future of the World. A New Platform for Global Growth’ is set to take place at the National Centre RUSSIA in Moscow from April 27 to 29. Participants can expect lectures by international experts, pitch sessions, idea presentations, networking, and discussions with representatives from more than 40 countries.

The program is built around four tracks: investment in people (education, demography), in technology (artificial intelligence, cybersecurity), in the environment (ecology, circular economy), and in connectivity (trade, digital currencies, logistics).

A total of 1,638 essays were submitted to the competition from various countries. More than 300 made the longlist. The most popular topic among authors was investment in people, which accounted for 40% of submissions. This was followed by technology (24%), connectivity (20%), and the environment (16%). Among foreign participants, the greatest interest was in the use of technology in agriculture.

An AI assistant, ODI, was used to assess the texts: it checked the essays for plagiarism and evaluated the extent to which generative models had been used. Only original works written with minimal involvement of artificial intelligence reached the final. This year, the quality of submissions rose noticeably – 75 authors hold academic degrees.

The competition’s geography has also expanded: participants from 18 new countries joined the project, including Nepal, Armenia, Nicaragua, and Uruguay.

A distinctive feature of the dialogue is its principle of continuity: essayists from previous years will serve as experts and jury members. In this way, an intellectual community is being formed in which participants gradually become carriers of ideas themselves.

The event is being held at the Russia National Centre in partnership with the Third Rome Center for Cross-Sector Expertise, with support from the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. President Vladimir Putin approved the initiative, noting its importance for shaping a new global agenda.

Registration for the Open Dialogue is ongoing. Applications can be submitted on the event’s website.

The suspect in a mass shooting in which six people were shot and killed and more than a dozen others were injured in Kiev on Saturday reportedly ranted on social media about eradicating Jews.

The man, identified as Dmitry Vasilchenkov, allegedly fired at bystanders at random before barricading himself inside a grocery store, where he was later killed by police.

Vasilchenkov was born in Moscow in 1968, but was a Ukrainian national and served in the Ukrainian army until the early 2000s. He reportedly lived in Russia from 2015 to 2017 before returning to Kiev.

Ukrainian news outlet Toronto Television said the suspect made erratic posts riddled with anti-Semitic slurs on an old Facebook page active from 2016 to 2019. In the posts, he allegedly called for Jews to be “wiped out,” making references to pogroms and the Holocaust.

In a post from October 2017 titled ‘On Jews and Jewry’, Vasilchenkov reportedly wrote that the Inquisition, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin “killed and killed, but did not kill enough.”

“On what to do – study Pope Borgia (15th century), Kotovsky, Petlyura, Hitler, Bandera, Brezhnev,” he wrote.

Stepan Bandera was one of the leaders of Ukrainian nationalists who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II, and whose followers were involved in massacres of Jews and Poles. Bandera and other WWII-era nationalist figures are celebrated in modern Ukraine as heroes and freedom fighters.

Ukrainian media also reported that Vasilchenkov sued the government in 2023 and 2024, demanding an increase in his military pension, and had prior run-ins with the law. TSN released a video allegedly showing him attacking a shopper inside a grocery store in 2023.

Russia’s patience is not unlimited and could eventually “run out,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned, accusing the West of pushing Ukraine into a wider conflict and repeatedly crossing Moscow’s red lines.

Speaking at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Türkiye on Saturday, Lavrov rejected what he called a growing Western perception that Russia is unable or unwilling to respond to provocations. He cited reports of Ukraine using the airspace of several NATO states for drone strikes on Russian territory as another breach of Moscow’s “red lines,” warning against dismissing Russia as a “paper tiger” amid its restraint.

“There is a chorus of voices saying that Russia should not be feared… some may even call us a paper tiger... But I would warn against such parallels,” Lavrov said. “We have, in our national character, such a quality as patience. We say: ‘God endured, and told us to endure as well.’ But at some point, patience runs out.”

“I think it is even good that no one understands where that red line is,” he said, emphasizing that Russia is capable of acting if needed. “The president has said more than once: we have something to respond with,” he added without elaborating.

Speaking amid continued Western military support for Kiev, Lavrov said the crisis fits a broader historical pattern, casting European NATO members as its main driver. He accused the West of trying to turn Ukraine into “a trigger for a global threat” and described the conflict as “a war against Russia that the West has been preparing for years.” He argued that, as part of the drive for NATO expansion, Kiev was turned into a hostile state well before the open hostilities began.

Russia has long accused the West of waging a proxy war against it through Ukraine, citing NATO expansion as a key root cause of the conflict. Moscow insists that any lasting settlement must address NATO’s eastward expansion, Ukraine’s military alignment with the West, and recognition of Russia’s new borders.

Russia and Ukraine have held several rounds of direct talks, along with trilateral meetings involving the US over the past year, but the peace process has stalled amid the US-Israeli war on Iran.

An armed man has opened fire and seized a supermarket in Kiev, leaving at least six people dead and several wounded, the Ukrainian authorities have confirmed.

The incident unfolded on Saturday evening in the southwestern Goloseyevsky district, where the attacker reportedly began shooting at random before barricading himself inside a Velmart supermarket, taking several people hostage.

Police said special forces units were deployed and a cordon established around the area in an operation to detain the suspect. 

Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko initially said at least five people were killed and 15 others wounded. He confirmed that a child was among the wounded and has been taken to the hospital; several victims were receiving treatment at the scene. He later said another victim died in the hospital from injuries, bringing the death toll to six.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has expressed condolences following the attack. He said the circumstances of the shooting “are being clarified” and that he instructed the interior minister and the head of the National Police to provide information to the public as soon as it becomes available.

According to local reports, the gunman was armed with an automatic weapon. 

Ukrainian media reported that the shooter set fire to his apartment before the attack, a claim later confirmed by Klitschko. Videos circulating online appear to show a large blaze coming from the windows of the suspected residence. Klitschko said a four-month-old child in a neighboring apartment was treated for carbon monoxide poisoning. Police have not yet confirmed any connection between the shooter and the burning apartment.

Police later said the shooter was killed when officers stormed the store where he was hiding. The motive remains unclear, and the authorities have not released details about the suspect.

Footage shared by Ukrainian media purports to show the suspected gunman running through a residential neighborhood carrying what looks like an automatic rifle. Another video apparently shows him shooting a pedestrian who tried to stop him.

Recent videos shared by the media show hostages being evacuated from the building. Some reports suggest that the gunman may have been forcibly conscripted days earlier and fled his unit before carrying out the attack.

Ukrainian police said both officers have been suspended pending an investigation.

Ukrainskaya Pravda claims that the shooter was identified as Dmitry Vasilchenkov, 57, who was born in Moscow and holds Ukrainian citizenship. Strana.ua, which also identified the shooter as Dmitry Vasilchenkov, claims he previously faced charges for causing minor bodily harm after assaulting a man during a dispute in 2023. The case was dropped in 2024 after the parties reached a settlement. The outlet also claimed he sued the Pension Fund and secured an additional payment of around 2,000 hryvnia ($45 dollars), with court records suggesting that he was a former serviceman receiving a military pension.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko, later said the attacker was a 58-year-old “native of Moscow,” but did not confirm his identity.

Following the incident, Interior Minister Igor Klimenko told the media that the shooter legally owned a registered weapon and renewed his permit in December last year after submitting a medical certificate. He added that the attacker made no demands to the authorities during the brief siege of the supermarket, and that the operation to detain him began after he killed one of the hostages.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has told RT’s Rick Sanchez that he knows the West wants him out of power, but still negotiates with the US because it’s in his country’s economic interests.

Minsk and Washington have held several rounds of talks this year, discussing what US President Donald Trump has called “a big deal” aimed at normalizing relations between the two nations. They focus on the release of prisoners, lifting sanctions, and other economic issues. In March, Lukashenko pardoned 123 people convicted over “espionage, terrorist and extremist activities” as part of the process.

In an interview set to be aired on Monday, the Belarusian leader stressed that “the real politics of the West has been known to us for a long time. No matter what negotiations the West conducts with me, I understand perfectly well that I’m not their favorite son.”

Belarus produces “more than half of our material resources and services and sell them in foreign markets. We have an open economy, so we must recognize our interests in the West, in Russia, in China and in Africa,” Lukashenko explained.

He added that he is “conducting dialogue with the Americans, not against Russia or China.”

Lukashenko said he told the US representatives from the start: “Guys, Russia and China are not just long-term partners. They are our friends. When you impose sanctions on us, the Americans and Europeans, China and Russia opened their doors to us. We were basically saved because of that.”

Watch the full interview on RT on Monday at 8:30 AM Moscow time.

Russia’s elite Rubicon drone unit has released footage showing the interception of Ukrainian UAVs used to strike targets deep inside Russian territory.

The video shows Russian FPV drones trailing and striking Ukrainian UAVs, including FP-2 and E-300 Enterprise heavy kamikaze drones.

The unit also shared footage of surveillance drones identifying ground targets for Russian airstrikes.

Earlier this week, the Russian Defense Ministry published what it said was a list of addresses of European companies producing military drones for Ukraine, warning of “an acute escalation.”

Russian officials have said that US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine have effectively been put on hold due to the war in the Middle East.

The US is a “dictatorship” that is “willing to bomb, break and destroy without regard to human rights” in order to rob other countries of natural resources, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has told RT’s Rick Sanchez.

In an interview set to be aired on Monday, Sanchez asked the Belarusian leader about US foreign policy staying the same regardless of whom Americans vote into the White House.

Washington’s policy in Venezuela and Cuba, as well as its Middle East wars “show that you are true dictators,” Lukashenko said, arguing that US rhetoric about democracy and human rights strikes hollow in light of massacres like the attack on the Iranian school in Minab in February. The bombing killed at least 175 people, most of them children, according to Tehran.

Washington pursues its main interests, “control over oil and gas,” by “any means necessary,” he said. “You’re willing to bomb, break and destroy without regard to human rights. That’s the essence of a dictatorship.”

Watch the full interview on RT on Monday at 8:30 AM Moscow time.

Russia has the right to retaliate if Finland and the Baltic states are found to be deliberately allowing Ukrainian drones to pass through their airspace, Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu warned on Thursday.

“Recently, there has been an increase in Ukrainian drone strikes against Russia via Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia,” Shoigu told journalists. “As a result, civilians are suffering and significant damage is being caused to civilian infrastructure.”

Either Western air defenses are proving ineffective, or these four countries “deliberately provide their airspace, thereby becoming open accomplices in aggression against Russia,” he added. In the latter case, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the security chief stressed.

In recent weeks, Kiev has intensified drone strikes on Russia in what Moscow has characterized as “terrorist attacks,” with the Russian military regularly reporting hundreds of UAVs downed in a single night.

Late last month, Kiev attacked Russia’s Baltic Sea ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk with swarms of UAVs. The raids resulted in fires in both towns, which house extensive petrochemical infrastructure.

Multiple Ukrainian drones have also struck the territories of Finland and the three Baltic states since early March. Despite this, all four nations have avoided condemning Kiev outright for violating their airspace.

Moscow has already formally warned Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia against allowing Ukraine to send drones via their territory, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week. “If the regimes in these countries are smart enough, they will listen. If not, then they will have to deal with the consequences,” she said.

The Russian armed forces carried out mass strikes on Ukrainian military and energy sites on Thursday in response to a drone attack that killed two children in the country’s Krasnodar Region, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

Russian strikes hit facilities involved in the production of cruise missiles and medium- and long-range UAVs, the MOD said in a statement on Thursday, adding that energy infrastructure sites used to support Ukraine’s military were also targeted.

”In response to terrorist attacks by Ukraine against civilian targets on Russian territory, a mass strike has been carried out over the past day using long-range precision weapons launched from land, air, and sea, as well as strike drones,” the ministry statement read.

”The objectives of the strikes have been achieved. All designated targets have been hit,” it added.

The strike followed a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian Black Sea port city of Tuapse, in which two children aged five and 14 were killed.

Ukraine also attacked a Liberian-flagged oil tanker in Russian territorial waters, injuring the vessel’s captain, a Turkish national, who has been hospitalized, Russia’s Investigative Committee announced on Thursday.

Ukraine has frequently targeted Russian port infrastructure and energy facilities, as well as tankers and cargo ships.

Russia has accused Kiev of using Western-supplied weapons to target civilians, with the Russian Defense Ministry on Wednesday releasing a list of European companies it said are involved in manufacturing military drones for Kiev.

The ministry stated that, rather than strengthening the security of European states, the actions of some of the continent’s leaders were increasingly dragging their countries into a war with Russia.

Stockholm’s allegations that a pro-Russian hacker group attempted to disrupt a thermal power plant in Sweden last year are unfounded and lacking concrete evidence, Russia’s ambassador to the country, Sergey Belyaev, has said. 

Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin claimed on Wednesday that a group linked to Russian intelligence attempted to attack a district heating plant in western Sweden in the spring of 2025. Bohlin stated that Swedish security services had identified the actor behind the attack, which he said was thwarted by the plant’s built-in security systems. 

“The Swedish Security Service handled the case and was able to identify the actor behind it, which has ties to Russian intelligence and security services,” Bohlin told reporters. 

However, Belyaev has rejected the allegations as baseless, noting that Stockholm has not sought any consultations with the Russian side over the issue, which suggests that “there are no specific facts or evidence.” 

He further stated that claims about the alleged involvement of “certain Russian hackers in such illegal activity remain at the level of the ‘highly likely’ principle, beloved by Western countries, that is, unfounded suspicions.” 

Moscow has repeatedly denied Western accusations of involvement in hacking activities as warmongering and has consistently expressed willingness to cooperate on cybersecurity matters. 

The latest Swedish allegations come amid heightened tensions between Moscow and NATO. The military bloc has cited the supposed threat of Russian aggression to justify a massive military buildup and developing offensive cyber capabilities.  

In February, the EU’s tech chief Henna Virkkunen also said it was “not enough” to have defensive measures and that the bloc needs also to have “offensive capacity.” 

The number of DDoS attacks on Russian companies exceeded 186,000 in 2025, marking a 2.7‑fold increase from the previous year, according to the RED Security cybersecurity firm. In 2026, the upward trend has continued, with weekly attacks on state resources surging from an average of 350 to 949 in the spring, according to the Russian authorities.

Ukraine has attacked a Liberian-flagged oil tanker in Russian territorial waters, injuring the vessel’s captain, Russia’s Investigative Committee has said. 

The ship’s captain, a Turkish national, has been hospitalized, the agency reported on Thursday. Investigators have examined the scene, documented the damage, and ordered a forensic explosives analysis.

Ukrainian drones have also targeted a number of coastal cities in Russia’s southern Krasnodar Region, including Sochi and Dagomys, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.

The greatest damage from the overnight attack was recorded in the town of Tuapse, where two people were killed, including a 14-year-old girl. Seven others were injured, officials said.

In the port city of Novorossiisk, drone debris struck a civilian vessel, causing a fire and injuring one person, Kondratyev said. The authorities suggested the vessel may have been the tanker cited by the Russian Investigative Committee.

Two children have been killed and two other people injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea port of Tuapse, a senior regional official has said. The victims were aged five and 14.

Krasnodar Region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev wrote on Telegram on Thursday that an apartment block and five houses were damaged in what he described as “a massive UAV attack.”

Kondratyev added that “many fragments” fell on unnamed industrial sites near the city’s seaport, while drones also damaged a house in the village of Loo, outside Sochi.

Russia has accused Ukraine of using Western-supplied weapons and equipment, including drones, to target civilians. On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry released what it said was a list of European companies involved in manufacturing military drones for Kiev.

“Instead of strengthening the security of European states, the moves of European leaders are increasingly dragging these countries into the war with Russia,” the ministry said.

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, launched a stinging rebuke of EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas’ address at the UN Security Council in New York on Monday.

Kallas has since been accused of “criminal” double standards in her speech by Amnesty International for ignoring US and Israeli crimes against Iran.

The controversial diplomat spoke during the annual Security Council session on EU-UN cooperation, during which she lamented the “greatest breakdown of international law since the Second World War,” without once mentioning the US or Israel, but mentioning Russia 11 times.

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard slammed Kallas in a post on X, blasting her “deliberate failure to mention the two actors responsible for the greatest violations of international law,” referring to the US and Israel.

So today, at the Security Council, High Representative Kaja Kallas has lamented the gravest violation and breakdown of international law since the Second World War, evident, I quote "in today’s two pre-eminent global crises — Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the war…

— Agnes Callamard (@AgnesCallamard) April 14, 2026

Kallas’ unwillingness to name them “is not just cowardice. It is criminal,” Callamard said, adding that such double standards are what is “destroying international law.”

Kallas, like EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, has a long history of avoiding criticism of Washington while regularly engaging in unhinged attacks on Moscow.

Her claim to have been surprised that Russia and China, who together lost some 35 million people during WW2, are considered among the conflict’s victors was described by Responsible Statecraft as “shocking ignorance.”

“It would be very interesting to meet Mrs. Kallas’ history teacher,” Nebenzia retorted.

A list of Ukraine-linked manufacturing facilities scattered across Europe, which was published by the Russian military, should be treated as a register of potential targets, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said.

The Russian Defense Ministry rolled out the list earlier on Thursday, claiming that Kiev’s Western backers have been planning to sharply ramp up production of long-range drones to target Russia. The plan is bound to drag European nations involved in the effort closer to direct conflict with Moscow, the military warned.

Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, urged European nations to take the warning at face value.

“[The] Russian Defense Ministry’s statement must be taken literally: the list of European facilities which make drones & other equipment is a list of potential targets for the Russian armed forces. When strikes become a reality depends on what comes next. Sleep well, European partners!” the ex-president wrote on X.

Kiev’s Western backers want to ramp up production of long-range drones to prop up Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry has said, warning the move is bound to drag the European nations conserned into a direct conflict with Moscow.

The ministry said a network of facilities producing drones and their components is operating in a number of European countries, including the UK, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Poland. Additional sites were identified outside the continent, including in Türkiye and Israel. At least four facilities are located in Italy alone.

According to the ministry, Kiev’s Western backers are seeking to ramp up production of long-range unmanned aerial vehicles, a move Moscow described as a “deliberate step leading to a sharp escalation of the military-political situation throughout Europe.” It added that such efforts risk turning host countries into “Ukraine’s strategic rear area.”

“The implementation of terrorist attack scenarios against Russia… using supposedly ‘Ukrainian’ UAVs manufactured in Europe is leading to unpredictable consequences,” the ministry said, referring to repeated statements by Ukrainian officials about expanding long-range strikes.

Instead of strengthening the security of European states, the actions of European rulers are rapidly drawing these countries into a war with Russia.

The ministry named multiple drone manufacturing facilities located in the UK, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Poland.

At least four sites producing drone components were identified in Italy, with several plants involved in such activities located in Türkiye, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Israel.  

Ukraine has been regularly launching one-way drones deep into Russian territory, targeting assorted civilian infrastructure, industrial sites, and residential buildings. The attacks have seemingly intensified in recent weeks, with Kiev sending in hundreds of fixed-wing UAVs daily. 

Russian officials have described the strikes as indiscriminate “terrorist” attacks aimed at compensating for frontline setbacks the Ukrainian military has been suffering. Moscow has retaliated with a long-range strike campaign of its own against dual-use infrastructure and military installations, maintaining it never targets purely civilian sites.

Ukrainian conscription officers have been caught on video attacking a 16-year-old boy in Odessa, local media have reported. The incident marks one of the latest episodes in Kiev’s increasingly desperate and violent mobilization drive amid mounting losses in the conflict with Russia.

Footage captured by an alleyway security camera shows several men in camouflage, apparently Territorial Recruitment Center (TCC) officers, jump out of an unmarked van and start running after the teenager. They then beat the boy in a crowd and, according to the victim’s brother, used pepper spray and kicked him in the back. 

Neighbors noticed the incident, contacted the boy’s family, and intervened, causing the conscription officers to flee in their minibus. The boy’s face was reportedly covered in blood and he had bruises all over his body when medics arrived.

According to the teenager’s relatives, the police were also called. However, when they arrived, they reportedly found no evidence of a crime and left without taking action. The boy’s family now intends to seek punishment for the TCC officers.

The incident follows a string of violent conscription episodes throughout Ukraine that have become known as ‘busification’ – the forcible stuffing of men into minibuses. In Odessa last month, a local resident fought off four TCC officers using a heavy metal chain, smashing their vehicle’s windows. In Kharkov, armed conscription officers reportedly shot and killed a man during an attempted forced mobilization in March.

Moscow has 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.

The US is trying to shift the burden of “containing Russia” onto European NATO members, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Speaking during a visit to China on Wednesday, Lavrov blamed the EU and UK for “torpedoing” US-Russian talks aimed at normalizing diplomatic ties and criticized large-scale European rearmament programs.

“European elites see militarization as a guarantee of their survival. And Americans encourage this European militarization as it shifts responsibility for security of the Old World,” he said.

Washington is content for European states to bankroll Kiev against Moscow and even create a new military bloc involving Ukraine, as this places “the main responsibility [on them] for containing Russia,” Lavrov said.

According to the diplomat, the broader Western agenda is to “preserve and renew their hegemony” and put in place new tools to make sure they “live at the expense of others” – as slavery and colonialism did in the past. But as their relative power declines, internal frictions in the West intensify, he said.

“Europe says it is getting off the needle of Russian oil and gas. And it risks getting impaled by an aspen stake, which [the US] is actively sharpening for the Europeans,” he said.

The top Russian diplomat stated that officials in Brussels, Paris, Berlin, and London are making efforts to prolong the Ukraine conflict and keep the US involved in it. They have largely nullified the outcome of US-Russian negotiations in Alaska last year, even as President Donald Trump has moved away from his predecessor’s policy of open-ended support for Kiev, Lavrov said.

Moscow has no illusions about the fact that the US pursues dominance over global energy markets, including through recent military operations against Venezuela and Iran and the continuation of sanctions on Russia, the minister concluded.

Russia can plug any oil supply gap triggered by the Middle East conflict and help China and other countries withstand US “aggressive adventures,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, signaling Moscow is ready to offset shortages if Iranian exports are squeezed. 

US President Donald Trump announced the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for roughly 20% of global oil, on Sunday after Pakistani-mediated talks failed to produce a peace deal with Iran. Trump had previously failed to rally European NATO members to help secure Hormuz, which Iran closed to “enemy ships” in response to the US-Israeli bombing campaign launched on February 28. 

Iran has since demanded recognition of its “sovereignty” over the waterway and the right to impose tolls.

He said the US and Israel targeted Iran in part over “oil markets,” adding Washington is now trying to shape them while backing Israel.

“Russia and China, thank God, have all the necessary capabilities – already in use, in reserve and planned – to avoid dependence on such aggressive adventures that undermine the global economy and energy markets,” he said.

Lavrov’s remarks came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned on Tuesday that China is “not going to be able to get their oil… not Iranian oil,” as Washington moves to choke off Tehran’s crude flows through a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. He described China as an “unreliable global partner” for stockpiling oil and limiting exports during the conflict.

The move comes as US forces ramp up enforcement in the Strait of Hormuz, deploying more than 10,000 troops and around a dozen naval vessels to halt Iran-linked shipments after talks collapsed.

The US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire last week, raising hopes for an end to the conflict, which has disrupted global trade and driven up energy prices, but both sides have since traded accusations over unacceptable terms.

There is no quick fix to the crisis surrounding Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. The US must recognize its underlying causes, including Israel’s goal of destroying the country, he added.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to China on Wednesday, Lavrov described the situation as “a crisis knot that will be extremely difficult to untangle.” He explained that “some parties are trying to cut it now – I don’t believe that would produce a [favorable] result.”

According to Lavrov, the current crisis stems directly from the US-Israeli attack on Iran in late February. The resulting disruption to global markets and the Iranian damage to Arab states hosting US military facilities were foreseeable consequences, he stressed.

“Israel appears totally convinced that Iran must be destroyed. I cannot understand how such a belief is possible,” Lavrov said, adding that remarks by US President Donald Trump about wiping out Iran’s civilization had sparked strong international backlash.

US and Israel hurting the Middle East

Commenting on recent US-Iran peace talks in Pakistan, Lavrov expressed hope that Washington would be “realistic, take the region’s interests into account and suspend its unprovoked aggression.”

He expressed solidarity with Gulf nations damaged in the conflict, but stressed that “those who started the war also have intentions not to allow normalization between the Arabs and Iran.”

Lavrov pointed to China’s quiet role in facilitating the 2023 agreement between Saudi Arabia and Tehran, which restored diplomatic ties after seven years and led to the reopening of embassies between the regional rivals.

Iran’s nuclear rights must be respected

Lavrov dismissed claims by the US and Israel that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, citing reports from international inspectors that found no evidence of such activities.

Concerns over Iran’s nuclear program were addressed under the 2019 multilateral agreement known as the JCPOA, Lavrov said, adding that “the United States destroying this initiative as Israel always wanted is a sad fact of modern history.”

He also criticized the European Union for acceding to Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement and playing “the most malicious role” in pushing snapback UN sanctions targeting Iran.

Russia, he said, remains ready to assist in finding a solution, provided that Iran’s right to develop a peaceful nuclear program is upheld.

Russia expects to maintain “pragmatic” relations with Hungary after Peter Magyar’s Tisza party defeated Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz in the general election, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has stated.

Magyar’s center-right opposition Tisza party secured over 53% of the vote in Sunday’s vote, which gives it a qualified majority in the country’s 199-seat parliament.

Orban, who conceded defeat, had charted an independent course, ruffling more than a few feathers in Brussels. During his time in office, he consistently opposed the EU’s sanctions against Russia and military aid to Ukraine, vetoing the bloc’s planned €90 billion loan package for Kiev. His government had advocated pragmatic relations with Moscow, especially in terms of energy supplies.

Fidesz also strongly opposed EU-imposed policies regarding migration and LGBTQ rights.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Peskov said that Russia has taken note of Magyar’s recent statements expressing a readiness to continue dialogue with Moscow.

He pointed out that Moscow and Budapest have a number of joint projects that “need to be finalized together.”

“We are open to dialogue with [the new Hungarian leadership], we are open to building friendly [and] mutually beneficial relations,” the Kremlin spokesperson reiterated. Whether or not this will be a success largely depends on the new Hungarian government’s position, which has yet to be articulated clearly, he concluded.

Russian rhythmic gymnasts competing under a neutral flag have won four medals at the FIG World Cup in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Maria Borisova led with gold in the individual all-around – topping reigning Russian-born German Olympic champion Darya Varfolomeeva – and silver in the hoop, in the team’s first World Cup outing.

The finals were held on Sunday as part of the second stage of the 2026 FIG World Cup series. All seven Russian competitors train at the Sky Grace Rhythmic Gymnastics Academy, founded in Sochi in 2022 by 2004 Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva, and all were making their World Cup debuts.

Coached by Irina Gusarova, the 18-year-old Borisova finished ahead of Varfolomeeva and Uzbekistan’s Takhmina Ikromova in the all-around, then claimed silver in the hoop behind Ikromova.

The group of five – coached by Anna Ustsova – won silver in the five-balls final and bronze in the three-hoops-and-two-pairs-of-clubs, bringing the total to one gold, two silvers, and one bronze.

Kabaeva remained in direct contact with the gymnasts throughout the competition.

Russian forces only have a few kilometers left before Donbass has been liberated, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Speaking to Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin on Sunday, Peskov was asked to comment on a recent statement by US Vice President J.D. Vance, who said the Ukraine conflict has fundamentally “stopped making sense,” and that the sides are “haggling at this point over a few square kilometers of territory.”

Peskov confirmed that the territorial issue is now down to “ just a few kilometers, roughly speaking.” He stated that Russia still needs to liberate around “18-17% of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)” in order to reach the region’s borders. 

Once the army reaches the borders of Russia’s new regions, he said, “a complex, painstaking, and not fast negotiation process” will begin, in which the details of a settlement with Ukraine will have to be determined.

Peskov’s remarks came after the Russia Defense Ministry announced on Friday that it has established control over the village of Dibrova in the DPR and the village of Miropolskoye in Sumy Region.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed that Moscow issued a two-month deadline for Ukrainian troops to retreat. The Kremlin rejected the claim, stressing that Zelensky should have issued the withdrawal order long ago, which could have “saved the lives of thousands of people and stopped the hot phase of this war.”

Trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the US have been on hold due to the Iran war, with Peskov describing the pause as “situational.” 

Zelensky has rejected any territorial concessions, calling a withdrawal from Donbass a threat to European security. 

Moscow insists that a lasting peace must include Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and recognition of the regions that voted to join Russia.

Ukrainian forces violated a 32-hour Easter ceasefire more than 6,500 times over the weekend, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the unilateral pause last week. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky signaled that Kiev would also observe the truce, and called on Moscow to extend it beyond the holiday period.

According to the Russian military, combat activity decreased significantly on Saturday and Sunday but did not fully stop. The ministry said most of the 6,558 reported violations involved short-range unmanned aerial vehicles. It listed 4,685 strikes by first-person-view (FPV) drones and 749 munitions dropped from drones. Ukrainian forces also reportedly conducted 694 artillery and tank attacks on Russian positions.

Russian air defenses reportedly intercepted 33 long-range drones, including 11 over the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk.

Moscow has declared temporary ceasefires during previous Orthodox holidays, including Christmas 2023 and Easter 2025. According to the Russian military, the previous Easter truce saw more than 3,900 violations by Ukraine.

Russian officials have rejected calls from Kiev for longer ceasefires, citing a lack of trust. They argue that Ukraine intends to use extended pauses to regroup and reinforce its forces with Western support rather than pursue genuine peace negotiations.

Moscow has also said that Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Donetsk People’s Republic would be viewed as a meaningful step toward a resolution and a basis for a longer ceasefire, but Zelensky has refused to order a withdrawal.

Scientific knowledge should go hand-in-hand with religious faith for humankind to avoid a potential catastrophe, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has said while speaking to the Russian cosmonauts working at the International Space Station (ISS).

The Patriarch delivered his address to the cosmonauts via video link on Sunday as Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter. This year, one of the most revered Orthodox holidays coincides with Cosmonautics Day, which marks the anniversary of the first crewed space flight made by Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961.

Speaking to the cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergey Mikayev, and Andrey Fedyaev, the Patriarch spoke about the importance of maintaining a balance between scientific and technical advances and religious faith, arguing the latter is key to keeping the potentially dangerous progress at bay.  

“This is possible, since faith in God strengthens a person’s understanding of their own limitations. This is crucial – the recognition of what you can do and what you cannot. And another important point: faith in God affirms the need to strengthen and develop a moral sense within a person,” he added. “Where there is a moral sense, there is conscience. And without conscience, a person cannot live. And the planet will not be able to live – everything will simply be destroyed.”

Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff Kirill Budanov has acknowledged that mobilization has created what he called a “huge” problem in Ukrainian society, exposing an increasing gap between Kiev’s calls to “fight until victory” and widespread draft evasion.

The Ukrainian military faces a severe manpower crisis driven by battlefield losses, draft evasion, and desertion. With few volunteers, Kiev increasingly relies on mandatory conscription – a highly divisive policy. Recruitment officers are often accused of heavy-handed tactics, and videos of so-called ‘busification’ – the forced detention of military-age men – circulate widely.

In an interview with Ukrinform earlier this week, Budanov conceded that society is split, though he stopped short of linking the divide to growing backlash over coercive mobilization.

“There are real problems... in our society. Because on the one hand, everyone says we need to fight until victory – and on the other, everyone is running away from mobilization. It's a huge, huge problem,” he said, acknowledging a contradiction in which both frontline troops and draft dodgers are lauded as “heroes.”

Tens of thousands of draft-age men have been caught attempting to flee since 2022, Ukrainian border authorities reported, with dozens dying while trying to cross dangerous routes such as into neighboring Romania, a top destination for draft evaders. Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov recently revealed that around two million potential recruits are wanted for draft evasion, while some 200,000 troops have deserted.

Public backlash against mobilization has been mounting with videos showing civilians intervening in forced conscription. Earlier this month, three enforcement officers were stabbed, one fatally, while performing their duties.

A March survey cited by Slovo i Delo found roughly that 40% of Ukrainians would refuse military service, while only 16% said they would willingly serve.

In mid-2025, Gallup reported that 69% of Ukrainians favored a negotiated end to the conflict, a massive swing from 2022, when 73% were in favor of fighting until victory.

Polish Defense Minister Władyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz suggested that draft-age Ukrainians should return home, while Estonian Interior Minister Lauris Laanemets even offered to track down and extradite Ukrainian draft dodgers.

Ukraine attempted to strike a Russian cosmodrome the same day as a rocket carrying satellites into orbit was taking off, Russia's space agency Roscosmos has confirmed. Speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin, agency head General Dmitry Bakanov said that an attempted drone strike on the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the northern part of the country was foiled.

Bakanov, who has led Roscosmos since February 2025, made the comments on Saturday prior to Cosmonautics Day, which marks the first human journey into outer space, undertaken by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961.

Putin praised the March 23 launch as a key milestone for Russia’s space program, while Bakanov said that Ukraine had attempted to disrupt it. Plesetsk Cosmodrome lies about 800km north of Moscow and roughly 1,300km from the Ukrainian border.

Bakanov did not provide details on the attack. The Russian Defense Ministry did not explicitly comment on the space base assault, but reported the downing of dozens of drones across the country around that date.

The Roscosmos chief was referring to the launch of a Soyuz-2.1b rocket, a medium-lift launch vehicle used as the workhorse in the Russian space industry. The rocket was carrying 16 satellites belonging to the Rassvet constellation, developed by Russian private aerospace firm Bureau 1440 – widely described as Moscow’s answer to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system.

Russian officials have been suspicious of Starlink, which is not operating in the country, but is actively used by Ukrainian forces.

The Russian satellites operate as 5G base stations, interconnected via laser communication links and capable of transmitting data at speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s. Their target orbital altitude is 800 km. Bureau 1440 is planning to deploy more than 900 low-orbit relays by 2035.

The conquest of frontiers and expansion into the unknown are often considered distinctly American pursuits. And indeed, it’s hard for modern people to grasp the monumental efforts undertaken by early settlers. 

However, Russians share a similar passion for filling in blank spaces on maps. And when there were no uncharted territories left on Earth, they turned their gaze toward the stars.

April 12 is Cosmonautics Day in Russia – a day when every Russian can reconnect with their childhood dream of becoming a cosmonaut, and on streets and TV screens across the country, we once again see images of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin.

In medieval times, Russian expansion often contradicted the wishes of the country’s rulers. Many of the pioneers settling in the country’s northern and southern frontiers were runaway serfs or simply sought a freer life. The colonization of Siberia even began against the wishes of Tsar Ivan IV, who was preoccupied with the Livonian War and was reluctant to divert attention eastward. However, the Stroganov merchant family financed an expedition beyond the Ural Mountains. 

Soon, Moscow recognized the vast wealth that lay hidden in Siberia, and waves of settlers migrated there. Some sought riches, while others ventured farther to escape the growing imperial bureaucracy. These pioneers were often generously rewarded with money, trade monopolies, promotions, titles, and land.

When no unclaimed territories remained on earth, restless individuals turned their attention to the skies. 

Most Russian philosophers showed little interest in politics or laws but passionately debated the nature of humanity and civilization. By the late 19th century, spurred by a surge of interest in physics and astronomy, many became interested in space. Thus, Russian cosmism emerged. 

Its followers sought to understand humanity’s place in space and arrived at some optimistic conclusions:

- Humans should not submit to nature but should explore and transform it to improve the world 

- Humanity will inevitably venture into space and inhabit the universe 

- Space exploration has the potential to make people better – they can unite for a common purpose, setting aside wars to pursue new worlds 

- Humans are part of the cosmos and should not fear the unknown

Some cosmists were captivated by the ultimate goal of conquering space: Defeating death and even ‘resurrecting ancestors’. Others, including self-taught scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, focused more on practical matters like the construction of rockets and space stations, believing that these ideas were not mere flights of fancy.

“First, inevitably, the idea, the fantasy, the fairy tale. Then, scientific calculation. Ultimately, fulfillment crowns the dream,” Tsiolkovsky famously said. 

During a time when politics and materialism dominated intellectual discourse, cosmism remained less popular. However, cosmists had their followers. It is said that one of them visited Tsiolkovsky after the Civil War to discuss his engineering career and was encouraged by the scientist in his plans to build rockets. 

This engineer was Sergey Korolev. Little did he know then that he would send the first man into space – a realm where no one had ventured before.

Engines of the space race

Stalinist industrialization had many issues and brought a lot of unwarranted suffering. Yet it established the infrastructure necessary for rapidly mobilizing vast resources and tilted production capacities toward the military industry. As a result, when the space race began, the Soviet government was able to swiftly recover from post-war devastation and embark on ambitious new projects.

The space program benefited from close collaboration with military projects. For example, when there was a need to build a new launch site to test the new R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile, designed to deliver a hydrogen bomb, engineers and generals quickly realized that they could develop space launch vehicles at the same location. 

Thus, the world’s largest spaceport, Baikonur, was established. Located in a desolate area far from major population centers yet conveniently close to a railway, it provided ideal conditions for large-scale secret and potentially hazardous projects. Construction progressed rapidly: Within two years of breaking ground, Baikonur launched Sputnik-1, the first artificial Earth satellite, into orbit.

Sergey Korolev headed the program. He began his scientific career in aircraft engineering but soon transitioned to rocket science. Like many top engineers of his time, he learned from internationally-renowned former imperial professors who remained in the Soviet Union. Specialists in his field were scarce, so after the war, he collaborated on many classified projects. 

Korolev was inspired by the ideas of Tsiolkovsky and urged party officials to pursue space exploration. The obvious next step after the launch of Sputnik was to send a human into space. The USSR already possessed the resources, technology, and talented scientists for it, but lacked the cosmonaut.

Ultimately, Korolev was presented with three candidates, the leading one being Yuri Gagarin – a 25-year-old senior lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force. He had a charming smile, loved sports, demonstrated initiative, and had good leadership qualities. Friends noted his enthusiasm for heroism and said his favorite word was ‘work’.

Time for preparation was limited; Korolev was informed that the Americans were also gearing up to send a man into space, and the Soviets needed to beat them. Scientists, engineers, and cosmonauts worked tirelessly but met the deadlines. By April 1961, it became clear that history would soon be made at Baikonur.

Despite the initial success of space programs, many skeptics, both in the USSR and around the world, thought that a manned flight would end in catastrophe. The Soviet authorities were cautious. They prepared three statements for the media: One in case of a successful flight, one in case of an emergency landing, and one in case of tragedy.

On April 8, the mission for the space flight was officially approved, with Gagarin confirmed as the pilot. Two days later, an unofficial meeting took place between cosmonauts, engineers, and Soviet military leaders.

At 3:00 AM on April 12, final checks began on the launch pad. Korolev himself was present. At 5:30 AM, Gagarin was woken up with the words, “Yura, time to get up.” After a medical check-up, he had breakfast consisting of meat puree, currant jam, and coffee. By 6:50 AM, Gagarin exited the bus at the launch site and climbed into the rocket.

For the next two hours, he ran system checks in coordination with mission control. During this process, a malfunction was discovered – the hatch wouldn’t close – but it was fixed within seven minutes.

At 9:00 AM, one-minute readiness was announced. Gagarin hummed the song ‘Fly, Doves, Fly’. At 9:07 AM, ignition was activated, and Gagarin uttered the legendary phrase, “Let’s go!”

Throughout the flight, Gagarin maintained communication with Earth, professionally reporting on his condition and what he could see. However, even this seasoned pilot couldn’t help but marvel at the breathtaking views around him.

The spacecraft completed one orbit around Earth and landed at 10:53 AM near the village of Smelovka in Saratov Region. The flight lasted 106 minutes.

Close to the landing site, the cosmonaut met the bewildered wife of a local forester and her daughter. Gagarin joked, “Don’t be afraid, comrades, I am a Soviet citizen like you!” Soon after, military personnel arrived and transported the cosmonaut to their base.

Messages of congratulations flooded in from heads of state around the world, from France, Japan, India, and Cuba. John F. Kennedy also sent a note expressing hope that “the Soviet Union and the United States may work together on the matter of mastering the Universe.”

In the USSR, a wave of patriotism surged. Yet public affection wasn’t directed towards the party, the military, or the scientists, but toward Gagarin himself. He didn’t deliver speeches about the triumph of communism or talk of the ‘enemies of the people’. Gagarin remained humble, met with ordinary people, and signed autographs. He continued to smile broadly, even during a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, who broke royal protocol to take a photo with him.

On March 27, 1968, Gagarin died in a plane crash in Vladimir Region while conducting a training flight. He was just 34 years old. The USSR declared a national day of mourning – an unprecedented move for someone who was not a head of state.

Some believe that his early death further solidified Gagarin’s legend. The world never saw him grow older or become involved in politics – though he could have easily become a political figure. Gagarin will forever be remembered as the young, smiling pilot.

The new leadership in the USSR under Brezhnev showed less interest in the space program. Korolev’s proposals for missions to the Moon and Mars were rejected as the country faced an increasing shortage of consumer goods, and budgets shifted to other sectors.

With the end of the Cold War, space lost its strategic importance for a long time.

Recently, however, interest in space has been rekindled in Russia. A new space program aims to create a Russian orbital station to replace the ISS, along with a three-phase lunar mission culminating in the establishment of a permanent lunar base.

On Cosmonautics Day, however, Russians tend to focus not on ambitious plans, but rather on the smiling pilot who calmly accepted the offer to journey into the unknown. And they remember the words he spoke shortly after his return: 

“Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!”

A Ukrainian man was violently seized and beaten by conscription officers in the southern city of Odessa, according to footage circulating online, in the latest incident highlighting the brutality of Kiev’s conscription drive.

As Ukrainian forces suffer mounting losses in the conflict with Russia and the pool of willing recruits continues to shrink, draft enforcement squads have increasingly turned to coercion to fill the ranks. The practice, commonly known as ‘busification’, involves military-age men being snatched from the streets, workplaces, and residential areas, then taken to recruitment centers against their will, often triggering clashes with relatives, neighbors, and passersby.

In a video published by a local Telegram channel on Friday, five officers from Ukraine’s Territorial Recruitment Center are seen hauling a man out of the entrance to a residential building in Odessa. Grabbing him by the arms and legs, they drag him toward a waiting vehicle as he resists and cries out for help.

“What are you doing? Let him go, you bastards!” a woman filming from a nearby balcony is heard shouting. Another voice calls on bystanders to call the police, while one of the officers repeatedly punches the man.

The backlash has been building alongside the violence. Ukraine’s military ombudsman, Olga Reshetilova, said that even schoolchildren are now increasingly “harassing” draft officers after watching viral videos of their violent behavior.

Some Ukrainian officials have acknowledged the depth of the recruitment crisis. According to Vadim Ivchenko, a member of parliament’s national security committee, only around 8-10% of new personnel entering the armed forces are willing recruits.

Moscow has accused Kiev’s Western backers of fighting “to the last Ukrainian.” Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov has estimated that Ukraine lost nearly 500,000 servicemen in 2025 alone. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has suggested that the country’s total military casualties have surpassed 1 million.

Millions of Russians are celebrating Orthodox Easter, the most important holiday in Christianity and one that carries deep cultural significance across the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the Easter night service at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia traditionally leads the Easter Matins and Divine Liturgy.

The Holy Fire was delivered to Moscow from Jerusalem on Holy Saturday, arriving at Vnukovo airport before being taken to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior for the Patriarchal Easter service. The flame, lit annually inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the site associated with the burial of Jesus Christ, was transported by a delegation of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation aboard a Roscosmos aircraft and later distributed to churches across the capital.

After the service, the Russian president and Patriarch Kirill exchanged traditional gifts. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church also thanked the head of state for facilitating the transfer of the Vladimir and Don icons of the Mother of God, calling the move a historic event. The Russian leader crossed himself after the remarks.

In Russia, Easter goes beyond its strictly religious meaning. In a country shaped by diverse cultures and faiths, including Islam and Buddhism, the holiday is observed not only by Christians, but also by many non-believers and followers of other religions.

Some 73% of Russians plan to celebrate Easter this year, according to a survey published on Friday by the state-run pollster VCIOM. Only 15% of respondents said they do not intend to mark the holiday.

Only about 20% observe Lent – a nearly seven-week period of fasting preceding Easter in the Orthodox tradition, the poll suggests. Around 15% of respondents named egg painting as one of the most significant Easter traditions in Russia, while 10% highlighted family gatherings.

Millions of Russians are expected to attend church services on Saturday night as part of traditional Easter celebrations.

Orthodoxy is experiencing a resurgence in Russia, according to VCIOM, with the number of followers growing, particularly among young people. The share of people aged 18-24 who identify as Orthodox Christians has grown from 25% to 45% in recent years, the agency said in July 2025.

Seven Russian civilians, the last held by Ukraine since the 2024 Kursk incursion, have been freed after nearly 500 days in captivity, Moscow has said.

Their release came as part of a prisoner swap on Saturday, with 175 Russian servicemen returned in exchange for 175 Ukrainian soldiers, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.

“We fought for nearly two long years to bring home all Kursk residents who became hostages in Ukraine during the occupation of our border region,” Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova wrote on social media. “Today, the last seven of our compatriots have been freed and can finally embrace their loved ones. In total, 165 residents of Kursk Region had been illegally held by the Ukrainian side since 2024.”

Earlier, she said that Kiev had sought to exchange the civilians for Ukrainians detained in Russia for various crimes. Moskalkova called such demands unacceptable, arguing that the Russians had been held by Ukraine without legal grounds and in violation of international norms, had not committed any actions that would harm Ukraine.

In January, Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik, who leads a Foreign Ministry mission that tracks alleged Ukrainian war crimes, also said that Kiev was trying to secure “the return of Ukrainian war criminals held in our custody” in exchange for civilians.

The Ukrainian advance into Kursk Region in August 2024 was quickly halted and fully repelled in April 2025. In January, Moskalkova said that the Russian authorities found 524 bodies in “mass burial sites” in the border region following its liberation.

Russian officials have reported numerous testimonies alleging war crimes, including rape and abductions, as well as abuses of POWs, during the Ukrainian presence.

Russia and Ukraine have conducted a POW swap involving 350 captives, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Saturday, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a temporary ceasefire for the Orthodox Easter weekend.

In a press release, the Russian MOD said that “175 Russian service members were returned from territory controlled by the Kiev regime, while in exchange, 175 Ukrainian Armed Forces prisoners of war were handed over.” The ministry added that separately, seven civilians from Kursk Region – said to have been the last hostages still held from the Ukrainian incursion last year – were released and will soon return home.

According to the ministry, the Russian servicemen are currently in neighboring Belarus, where they are receiving psychological and medical assistance before being transported to Russia for treatment and rehabilitation.

Since the resumption of direct Russia-Ukraine talks in May 2025, the sides have regularly carried out exchanges of POWs as well as of the bodies of fallen troops. The previous exchange occurred on April 3, when the sides swapped 600 captives.

Moscow has previously declared unilateral pauses during Orthodox holidays, but last year’s Easter truce was only partially successful: Kiev violated the truce more than 3,900 times, according to the Russian MOD. This time, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky pledged to “observe a ceasefire regime” and “act exclusively in a mirror manner.”

The Easter weekend ceasefire announced by Russia has come into force. President Vladimir Putin ordered the nation’s military to halt all operations against Ukrainian forces from 16:00 Moscow time (13:00 GMT) on Saturday until the end of Sunday.

According to the Kremlin, the move is a humanitarian gesture, not a substitute for a lasting peace with Ukraine.

The Russian military will be ready to respond to any Ukrainian offensive operations or provocations, Moscow stated.

“We expect the Ukrainian side to follow Russia’s lead,” the Kremlin said when it announced the ceasefire earlier this week.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky responded by claiming that Kiev was “ready for mirror steps.” He also called for a prolonged truce extending beyond the Easter weekend.

“We want not a ceasefire, but a lasting, sustainable peace,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, commenting on the development. He added that peace could be reached if Zelensky “takes responsibility” and makes the necessary decisions.

Moscow has said it remains open to negotiations, but insists that any lasting settlement must address the root causes of the conflict. These include Kiev’s neutrality and the reversal of discriminatory policies targeting ethnic Russians and Russian culture.

Ukrainian forces violated the Easter ceasefire 1,971 times from 4:00 PM on April 11 to 8:00 AM on April 12, the Russian Defense Ministry said earlier on Sunday.

All Russian troops strictly observed the ceasefire and remained at their previously held lines and positions, the Defense Ministry added.

Russia has previously declared unilateral ceasefires for Orthodox religious holidays. In 2023, it observed truces during the Orthodox Christmas holiday in January and over the Easter weekend in April. In 2025, Moscow declared an Easter truce, but it was violated by Kiev more than 3,900 times, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to develop a national plan for the deployment of AI technologies, emphasizing that the accelerated adoption of AI is crucial for the country’s future.

Speaking on Friday at a meeting on AI development, the president called for faster integration of the technology in the economy and public administration, adaptation of education, risk assessment, and advances in defense and security, while also stressing the need to promote Russian solutions abroad.

“Artificial intelligence, along with digital platforms and autonomous systems, is shaping a fundamentally new image of the economy, social relations, the social sphere, education, healthcare, logistics and industry, defense and security — and indeed the entire life of the country,” Putin said.

Russia must develop its own artificial intelligence solutions for national defense and security, the president said, warning that the country’s sovereignty and very existence depend on its ability to keep pace with global change. 

“We must possess the most advanced technologies and rely on fully sovereign domestic products,” he stressed.

“These artificial intelligence agents are already approaching a new level of independence. They are learning to plan their actions, evaluate the results they achieve, and interact with people and the real world,” he said.

In late March and early April, Ukraine launched a series of drone strikes against the Baltic ports in Ust-Luga and Primorsk, as well as oil terminals on the south of the country in the city of Novorossiysk. This was clearly an attempt to disrupt Russia’s ability to export petroleum products. Additionally, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have targeted other Russian regions to inflict further damage to the oil and gas industry and strain Russia’s air defense network tasked with protecting critical infrastructure. 

Given the current global situation, increasing exports of petroleum products would provide Russia with much-needed revenue. This income could help offset losses from Western sanctions and stabilize economic growth. Of course, these additional revenues would also benefit Russia’s military-industrial complex, a fact that Kiev is undoubtedly aware of.

Ukraine’s intensified strikes on Russian oil and gas infrastructure, particularly export terminals, aim to reduce Russia’s export capacity. A secondary goal may be to influence the media narrative by demonstrating the AFU’s enhanced strike capabilities. The third objective involves depleting the missile stockpiles of Russia’s missile defense systems through massive drone attacks.

Routes, tactics, and technological edge

In March 2026, the AFU set a record for long-range drone usage. According to Western sources, Ukraine deployed over 7,000 drones. This has been possible due to the mass production of relatively inexpensive drones of various types, with a range of up to 1,500km. Notably, the cost of these drones is quite low, and Ukraine faces no shortage of components, as sanctions and other restrictions do not hinder this supply chain. Drone manufacturing can be decentralized, with some production potentially taking place outside Ukraine. Final assembly likely occurs in several facilities in various locations, disguised as ordinary manufacturing or logistics centers. Clearly, the mass production of drones is a major state industrial effort that also involves commercial companies.

While the flight paths of drones from Ukraine to Novorossiysk raise no questions, the routes by which the drones reached locations as remote from Ukraine as Ust-Luga in Russia's northern Leningrad Region remain less clear.

Several hypotheses exist regarding the flight paths of Ukrainian drones. One hypothetical route extends from northern Ukraine, over Russian territory along the eastern border of Belarus to Leningrad Region, and then onward to the Baltic ports. This route is supported by data on air-raid alerts in western Russia and various accounts. The use of Belarusian airspace is theoretically possible, yet Belarus possesses a robust air defense and detection system. If drones were to infringe upon its airspace, it seems likely that such incidents would be reported.

There is also another interesting hypothesis: the drones may be taking a roundabout route through Poland and the Baltic states, then flying over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea to approach the ports from the sea. The absence of surface-to-air missile defense systems over the sea lends some credence to this theory, especially considering the reports of drones crashing in the Baltic states and in Finland. It’s also quite possible that NATO countries may allow drones to be routed through their territory. However, this theory lacks ample supporting evidence, and the Russian Foreign Ministry’s response came only several days later and included no substantial details.

Considering the current advancements in autonomous navigation systems, it seems more likely that the drones were routed through Russian territory, using the natural characteristics of the terrain to approach targets from unexpected angles. Drones routed over the sea may be easier to detect – though that’s not always the case. For example, it wasn’t easy for air defense systems to detect drones traveling over the Black Sea.

As a conspiracy theory, one could speculate about the installation of radio beacons in Russia or neighboring countries to enhance the navigation of attacking drones under conditions of electronic countermeasures against existing navigation systems. This is technically possible and does not necessarily violate airspace, although it would require an intelligence network. I believe the military has already figured out how the drones reached their targets. 

So, what steps should be taken to defend against such attacks? What scenarios and methods need to be implemented for effective protection?

The main priority is timely detection. Lightweight drones with piston engines are notoriously difficult to track with traditional airspace radar. However, they can be spotted visually and detected by the sound of their engines. Given that these drones have been in widespread use for some time, appropriate detection measures should be deployed. I hope this issue is being addressed at a level beyond volunteer initiatives, as part of the country’s air defense. 

The second task involves informing all relevant parties about threats. All the structural elements of the army’s missile defense forces must have real-time access to information on detected drones, their flight paths, and potential targets. This will enable swift countermeasures – deploying mobile units, preparing weapons, providing targeting data, and organizing layered defense. This should be the responsibility of a unified governmental structure within the armed forces; departmental or regional units aren’t efficient enough for this mission. Ultimately, the devices used to communicate this information to end users should be simple and user-friendly tablets, not multi-ton trucks. I believe this work is already underway and in the testing phase.

Finally, the third task is the destruction of the drones. On the one hand, any means necessary can be employed; on the other hand, using traditional surface-to-air missile systems (SAMs) isn’t always justified. Firstly, conventional SAMs may not be effective against small, lightweight drones. Secondly, the cost of a missile is many times higher than that of the drone itself.

This is one of the most pressing modern challenges: cheap drone attacks can financially devastate advanced missile defense systems. This is a global issue that affects all technologically advanced nations.

There are several options, each with its pros and cons. The most cost-effective solution in terms of firing costs is laser weaponry. The expense per shot can be measured in mere dollars. However, the systems themselves can cost millions of dollars. Moreover, lasers have limitations regarding range; as the distance to the target increases, the beam’s power significantly diminishes. These large, energy-intensive systems are stationary and primarily serve as a last line of defense. Nonetheless, they can effectively neutralize drones, cruise missiles, guided bombs, and other types of munitions.

Specialized interceptor drones are another promising and already deployed solution. Almost every nation focusing on drone defense is currently developing and implementing such interceptors. They are relatively low-cost, but they do come with a significant drawback: due to their design, they carry very small payloads or rely on kinetic interception – i.e., engage the target through high-speed physical impact. When deployed en masse, however, interceptor drones can prove effective in certain areas and situations. 

Lightweight, short-range surface-to-air missiles are another option. These missiles can utilize both radar and laser guidance; target illumination can originate from the launch platform or a separate carrier. They can be fired from specialized systems like the Pantsir missile system, as well as from aircraft, similar to American APKWS missiles. Their costs are comparable to those of long-range drones.

Additionally, we must consider the tactical construction of air defense. Ideally, we wouldn’t know exactly how this is organized – when it comes to missile defense, all armies protect their tactical secrets. However, it’s reasonable to assume that an effective air defense strategy combines layered stationary defense with mobile air defense units that establish operational lines in directions that are deemed a threat. In this regard, having a comprehensive and accurate picture of the air situation in the region would be invaluable – without such information, mobile units might prove entirely ineffective.

***

The massive waves of Ukrainian drone attacks have become a real test for Russia’s air defense system. Steps have already been taken to enhance both detection and response capabilities against such attacks. Efforts are continuously underway to modernize existing systems and develop new weapons designed to target lightweight drones. Tactics for countering large-scale drone swarms are being refined, and the production of ammunition for these systems is ramping up. Intelligence operations aimed at locating and destroying the production, storage, and launch sites of drones are also likely a priority for the military. Such a comprehensive approach is essential for effectively addressing the threat posed by drone attacks.

The Kremlin has clarified that Russia’s Easter ceasefire is a humanitarian gesture, not a substitute for a lasting peace with Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin has ordered a halt to hostilities from Saturday afternoon through Sunday.

“We want not a ceasefire, but a lasting, sustainable peace,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday. “And this peace could come today, if [Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky takes responsibility and makes the appropriate decision,” Peskov added, referring to Moscow’s repeated demands that Kiev withdraw its forces from Russia’s Donbass region.

Putin announced the unilateral Easter truce on Thursday, ordering Russian troops to pause offensive operations from 16:00 Moscow time on April 11 until the end of April 12. The Defense Ministry has been instructed to maintain readiness to repel any Ukrainian provocations.

“We expect the Ukrainian side to follow Russia’s lead,” the Kremlin said.

Moscow has previously declared unilateral ceasefires for Orthodox religious holidays. In 2023, Russia observed truces both during the Orthodox Christmas holiday in January and on Easter weekend in April at the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 2025, an Easter truce was declared again, but was only partially successful as Kiev violated the pause more than 3,900 times, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Trilateral peace talks involving Russia, Ukraine, and the US have been on hold for weeks due to the Iran war, with no new date set. Moscow has consistently said it remains open to negotiations but insists that any lasting settlement must address the root causes of the conflict, including Ukrainian neutrality and recognition of the Donbass republics as part of Russia.

The cooperation of private capital and state funding in space exploration and infrastructure became a key topic at the inaugural Russian Space Forum taking place in Moscow ahead of the upcoming Cosmonautics Day. The event will also delve into the use of AI, robotics and prospective medical technologies needed for flights beyond Earth orbit, such as to the Moon or Mars.

Kicking off ahead of the 65th anniversary of Yury Gagarin’s April 12, 1961 flight as the first human in space, the event brought together government officials, scientists, and investors from over 40 countries, including Russia, China and India.

“The advancement of the rocket and space sector, alongside the strengthening of its scientific, human resources, and technological potential, remains among our unconditional priorities. It is of utmost importance to expand satellite constellations and to widely integrate new materials, digital and nuclear technologies,” President Vladimir Putin said in a greeting message to the participants.

Just last month, Russia launched 16 communication satellites for the Russian Rassvet (Sunrise) high-speed internet project, which is being helmed by domestic company Bureau 1440, Bakanov said. The program will give Russia its own alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink.

“We work closely together, sometimes formalized through the regulatory framework, sometimes manually, to help companies thrive, to ensure fertile soil, and to create an investment climate conducive to people investing in the sector,” Bakanov said.

Real-time coordination between Roscosmos and private space firms was also discussed, to prevent potential collisions in orbit, which many fear could lead to the so-called Kessler Syndrome, a runaway chain reaction of crashes that could render entire orbital regions around Earth unusable.

China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) deputy director Bian Zhigang, speaking at a panel on future challenges and national strategies, spoke out against the weaponization of space.

“We need to support technologies in different countries in order to aid urban planning, resource exploration and disaster prevention. This requires all countries to cooperate,” he said, calling space “an important bridge” that facilitates this international collaboration.

The forum will also serve as the launchpad for a number of cooperation agreements between Roscosmos and Russian nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, as well as with private players in the space sector.

Russia’s Space Week, established by Putin to promote national achievements and popularize the industry, will conclude on Cosmonautics Day on Sunday with a number of other themed events all across the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the nation’s military to halt all operations against Ukrainian forces over Orthodox Easter weekend, the Kremlin has announced. The unilateral pause is scheduled to last from 16:00 (Moscow time) on Saturday until the end of Sunday.

According to the Kremlin, Russian troops should still be ready to respond to any Ukrainian offensive operations or provocations, with relevant orders given to Defense Minister Andrey Belousov and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

“We expect the Ukrainian side to follow Russia’s lead,” the statement read.

Moscow has previously declared unilateral pauses during Orthodox religious holidays throughout the Ukraine conflict. In 2023, Russia observed truces both during the Orthodox Christmas holiday in January and on Easter weekend in April at the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 2024, a pause was not announced, with Putin arguing that Kiev could use it to rearm and regroup its forces. In 2025, an Easter truce was declared again, but was only partially successful. Although a certain lull in the hostilities was observed, Kiev violated the truce more than 3,900 times, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky rejected Hungary’s calls for a Christmas truce last year.

Moscow and Kiev held several rounds of direct talks in Istanbul last year, as well as trilateral talks that also involved the US. The negotiations led to several major POW exchanges but ended without a decisive breakthrough. The trilateral discussions have been paused over the past months because of the US and Israeli war on Iran.

Russia has repeatedly stated that it is ready to resolve the Ukraine conflict through diplomatic means, as long as its root causes are addressed and the situation on the ground is taken into account.