The ongoing “hybrid war” between Russia and its adversaries is set to go on for a long time, Putin’s spokesman says

There’s no political or diplomatic solution for the ongoing conflict with Ukraine at the moment, with Moscow seeking to resolve it through military means, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Speaking to Russian journalists on Wednesday, Peskov reiterated Moscow’s resolve to reach its goals, which were outlined by President Vladimir Putin at the start of the military operation over a year ago.

“We have repeatedly said that Russia’s goals … can be achieved in various ways. These are politico-diplomatic or – if politico-diplomatic are currently impossible, and in the case of Ukraine, they are impossible, to our regret – through military means, that is, through the special military operation,” Peskov stated.

The spokesman did not provide any estimates on when exactly the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev might end, re-addressing the question to the country’s Defense Ministry. At the same time, he said the broader conflict – a “hybrid war” between Russia and its adversaries – is likely to drag on for a long time.

“This confrontation with hostile states, with the unfriendly countries, this is a hybrid war that they unleashed onto our country, it’ll be there for a long time,” Peskov said.

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Separately, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin confirmed that the goals of Moscow in the Ukraine operation are unchanged, and reaching them is the only way to achieve a “comprehensive, just and sustainable peace in Ukraine and Europe.” They include a neutral, non-aligned status of Ukraine, Kiev dropping its plans to join NATO and the EU, confirmation of its non-nuclear status, as well as the demilitarization and denazification of the country, he explained in an interview on RTVI on Wednesday.

Apart from that, Kiev and the international community must recognize the new “territorial reality” on the ground, Galuzin stressed, apparently referring to the incorporation of the four former Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye, as well as of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics into Russia following referendums held last September.

Moscow has repeatedly expressed its readiness for a diplomatic solution to the ongoing hostilities, blaming the lack of any diplomatic efforts on Kiev and its Western backers, who are seeking to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia.

“Washington, European capitals, but first of all, Washington is filled with the desire not to let, under any pretext, [Kiev] enter into peace negotiations. They simply do not let Kiev even think about it,” Peskov said earlier this month.

Clinging to the Donbass city of Artyomovsk cost Kiev dearly and possibly sealed its fate, Evgeny Prigozhin concluded

The head of the Wagner Group private military company (PMC) Evgeny Prigozhin has described Ukraine’s losses in the battle for the city of Artryomovsk as almost fatal to Kiev’s entire military. The sacrifices made by his force for the sake of Russia were worth it, he added.

“As of today, the battle for Bakhmut has almost destroyed the Ukrainian army,” Prigozhin said in a statement on Wednesday, using the name by which Kiev calls the city. The clash also “gave a serious beating to PMC Wagner,” he acknowledged.

He called the battle the “general engagement” of the entire conflict and said that in it Wagner troops got pitted against Ukrainian armed forces and “foreign units installed into them.” A victory by his troops would be “a turning point” and a historic event, securing a Russian victory, Prigozhin predicted.

“The Russian army alone will be left on the chessboard, and all other pieces will be removed,” he forecast. “Even if PMC Wagner is destroyed in the Bakhmut meat grinder but takes the Ukrainian army with it … it would mean that we have accomplished our historic mission.”

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The fight for Artyomovsk has emerged as one of the most intensive and bloody engagements of the armed conflict in Ukraine, with both sides reportedly suffering significant casualties. Western officials said that the city poses no strategic military value, but Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky pledged to defend it as long as possible after proclaiming the city a fortress.

The Ukrainian leader explained his refusal to withdraw in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week. He claimed that if Russia were to capture Artyomovsk, his government would come under international and domestic pressure to seek peace with Moscow.

“Our society will feel tired,” he told the news agency of this scenario. “Our society will push me to have compromise with them.”

The death is believed to be linked to a drive-by shooting in Ingushetia earlier this week

A dead man found in the city of Karabulak in the southern Russian Republic of Ingushetia is believed to be connected to an attack on a police checkpoint earlier this week, local media outlets reported on Wednesday.

Ingush police suspect that the deceased individual was part of the gang behind the drive-by shooting, who got wounded and was left behind by fellow attackers, the reports say. According to a source cited by RIA Novosti, the flag of an international terrorist organization was discovered next to the body.

Images circulating on social media, which were purportedly shot at the scene, show a seemingly dead man laying on his back on a stack of construction materials, with the black flag of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) covering his chest.

The shooting happened around midnight on Monday on a road in the Nazranovsky District of Ingushetia, the police reported. An officer was taken to the hospital after being shot in the leg during the incident, but his life was not in danger.

READ MORE: US continues to use terrorists in Syria – Russia

There are unconfirmed claims online that two other members of the same gang got trapped on Tuesday night in the neighboring Chechen Republic. There was a firefight in the city of Gudermes, which ended with the two suspected militants killed by law enforcement, local authorities said.

The operation conducted on the outskirts of the city lasted “mere minutes,” after the two individuals refused to surrender and tossed a grenade at officers, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on social media.

The failed scheme could land the Muscovite behind bars for ten years, according to local media

A Russian man hoping to strike it rich has ended up facing a lengthy prison term after he was caught stealing 12,000 lottery tickets, local media reported on Wednesday.

The suspect, 50-year-old Moscow resident Andrey Vanchuk, began working at a kiosk belonging to the ‘Stoloto’ brand in the south of the Russian capital around a year ago, RBK reported, citing sources.

Vanchuk allegedly invented a scheme which saw him pocket tickets instead of selling them, with the aim of increasing his chances of hitting the jackpot.

Between February and September 2022, he is accused of stealing a whopping 11,979 tickets, worth around 1.4 million rubles (around $ 18,000), sources claimed.

Vanchuk’s alleged activities were eventually uncovered by police, with a criminal case launched on Wednesday, according to the Baza Telegram channel.

READ MORE: Lottery winner who bought ticket with stolen credit card arrested, but who gets the money?

He now faces charges of large-scale embezzlement and could be slapped with a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

A hybrid war is being waged against Moscow and it has to be confident in itself, says Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov

Russia needs to remain firm and be confident in itself for a long-term fight against the West, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday. Asked to give an estimate of when Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine could end, Peskov referred the issue to the Ministry of Defense.

As for “war in the broad definition of the word, as a confrontation between hostile and unfriendly countries,” Peskov stated that the “hybrid war unleashed against Russia” by the West is bound to last “for a long time.”

“Here we need firmness, self-confidence, purposefulness and unity around the president” in order to succeed, the spokesperson said.

Moscow has repeatedly accused the West of essentially waging a “proxy war” against Russia in Ukraine and has insisted that the US and its allies have long aimed to destabilize and break Russia apart.

“The US and its satellite states are waging an all-encompassing hybrid war that they have long been preparing for, and are using Ukrainian radical nationalists as a battering ram against us,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated last month, adding that states in the West is no longer even trying to hide their true intentions.

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That’s as Western nations have continued to provide extensive military aid to Ukraine, spending billions of dollars on increasingly advanced weaponry and munitions for Kiev’s forces while at the same time imposing multiple rounds of sweeping sanctions on Russia. 

Moscow has insisted that the West’s actions have at this point made them a de-facto party to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with Lavrov stating on Wednesday that NATO is now essentially fighting on the side of the Kiev regime and “couldn’t be any more involved” in the hostilities.

Both Russian and Western politicians have on several occasions admitted that the conflict in Ukraine, and the subsequent standoff between Moscow and the West, could turn out to be a long-term conflict. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned just last week that “even when the war is over, not everything will be normal overnight” and stated that the consequences of this conflict “will keep us busy for a long time.”

Saboteur groups may be sent to Belarus seeking to topple the government, according to a senior Russian diplomat

Belarusian “nationalist units” fighting for Ukraine could be sent back to their own country to conduct acts of sabotage, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin has warned. The official, however, expressed confidence that Minsk will be able to thwart such attempts, adding that Moscow will assist in doing so if necessary.

The diplomat noted that the rhetoric coming from members of “Belarusian nationalist formations… who are actively supported by the Kiev authorities and their Western backers, has become significantly tougher” lately.

“The leaders and commanders of those cut-throat mercenaries openly say that they plan, in the future, to apply their combat experience to topple the current Belarusian leadership,” Galuzin said in an interview with the Russian news network RTVI on Wednesday.

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He cited several incidents, in which the Ukrainian conflict spilled over into Belarus in recent months, including the February drone attack allegedly targeting a Russian A-50 early warning and control aircraft stationed at an airfield near Minsk. Bypol, a Belarusian anti-government group, claimed responsibility for the incident.

Earlier this month, Minsk reported arresting the ringleader of the team behind the attack, which it said caused only minor damage to the Russian spy plane. President Alexander Lukashenko accused Ukraine’s security service SBU of masterminding the operation, and branded his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelensky, “scum” over the incident.

In his interview with RTVI, Galuzin suggested that such cases could be attempts to “feel out” the defense capability of a joint Russian-Belarusian task force deployed in the country, and “a preparation for military aggression”.

The task force was formed last year, after Minsk complained of an increased threat posed by NATO troops stationed in Eastern Europe. Galuzin said the presence of Russian soldiers in Belarus also “serves as a deterrence factor” in the Ukraine conflict, as it forces Kiev “to keep significant reserves” in the north, instead of sending them to the frontline.

Words of potential GOP presidential candidates cast doubt over support for Kiev, which “will not win” without it, president said

The level of Washington’s aid to Ukraine, which may dwindle after next year’s US presidential election, “worries” Vladimir Zelensky, Associated Press (AP) has reported, after conducting a lengthy interview with the president.

“The United States really understands that if they stop helping us, we will not win,” the Ukrainian leader told the news agency this week, during what it described as a “morale-building journey” by train across the country. The interview was published on Wednesday.

US President Joe Biden was criticized by some Republican politicians for what they described as writing a “blank check” to Kiev. Last year, his administration secured $112 billion in Ukraine-related funding from Congress. It included paying for weapons being sent to Ukraine by the Pentagon and for propping up the country's budget so that the government in Kiev remained operational.

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Earlier this month, Fox News host Tucker Carlson sent a questionnaire to potential and declared candidates for the GOP presidential nomination in the 2024 election, urging them to put their positions on the Ukraine conflict and confrontation with Russia on the record. Former President Donald Trump said that, were he to be elected again, Kiev should expect that “there will be little more money coming from us.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the conflict as a “territorial dispute” that was not a “vital strategic interest” for the US. After criticism by some hawks in the Republican Party, he later clarified that he recognized Ukraine’s sovereignty over its former parts that have transitioned to become Russian territory, including Crimea.

Zelensky was careful not to name either US politician during his interview, even as he shared concerns over a possible political shift in Washington, AP said.

He also explained his reasons for not withdrawing troops from the city of Artyomovsk, which Kiev calls Bakhmut. He claimed losing it would put his government under pressure internationally and domestically to seek compromise with Russia.

A rocket division in Siberia is training to deploy nuclear-tipped Yars missiles, the Defense Ministry has reported

Russia is testing the combat readiness of its strategic missile forces with a training exercise involving around 3,000 troops and road-mobile Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday.

The maneuvers are being conducted by the Novosibirsk Rocket Division, a unit headquartered in the Western Siberian city of the same name. The force belongs to one of Russia’s three army-level units of its ground-based strategic deterrence branch.

The ministry released footage of Yars launchers and support vehicles rolling out of their hangars, and a statement said that around 300 pieces of military hardware will be involved in the exercise.

In addition to demonstrating their skill at deploying nuclear weapons, troops will train at hiding their movements from enemy reconnaissance, the ministry added. The latter part of the mission will be conducted in cooperation with other sections of the Russian military, including the Air and Space Forces.

The statement stressed that the use of drones will be a crucial part of the drills.

The RS-24 Yars ICBM is the latest version of the Topol-M missile family currently in service in the Russian military. The solid-propellant projectile can be deployed in silos or on road-mobile launchers, and is believed to carry up to four nuclear warheads.

The two-year prison term imposed for criticizing the Russian military could see the man’s daughter end up in an orphanage

The head of the Wagner Group private military company Evgeny Prigozhin has written to a regional prosecutor, asking him to review the legality of a two-year prison sentence imposed on a single father over online posts criticizing Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

“We consider the sentence handed to Aleksey Moskalev to be unfair, especially considering that his daughter Masha would have to grow up in an orphanage,” Prigozhin wrote in a letter on Tuesday, which was also signed by a Wagner PMC unit commander and the head of a group representing veterans of military conflicts.

The signatories asked Tula Region’s prosecutor Aleksey Gritsaenko to “check the legality of this sentence” and allow their lawyers to participate in the case on the side of the defendant.

The letter pointed out that some orphaned children of Wagner troops, who were killed in the conflict in Ukraine, have also ended up in asylums. “We consider it to be a huge tragedy for Russia and the future of our country,” it stated.

Aleksey Moskalev, a 53-year-old resident of the town of Yefremov in Tula Region, was sentenced to two years in prison by a local court on Tuesday after being found guilty of repeated discreditation of the Russian Armed Forces.

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The decision by the judge has left the man’s 13-year-old daughter in a social institution as he had been raising her without a mother.

Moskalev was sentenced in absentia as, according to the court, he cut off his ankle tag and fled house arrest the night before the trial. His whereabouts currently remain unknown.

He was initially fined for criticism of the Russia military operation in Ukraine on social media in April last year. He was investigated shortly after his daughter’s school alerted the police about her drawing in a fine arts class, which reportedly featured Russian and Ukrainian flags, along with an image of a woman and a child, and flying missiles.

Moskalev has written several more pro-Ukrainian posts since then, which led to a criminal case being launched against him before the New Year. In early March, he was placed under house arrest. His daughter is currently staying at a social rehabilitation center in Yefremov. It’s yet to be decided whether she will move in with some distant relatives or will be sent to an asylum, the lawyers said. The court hearing is scheduled to take place in early April.

READ MORE: Controversial Russian journalist sentenced for ‘military disinformation’ 

In March 2022, shortly after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict, Russia adopted a law making the deliberate dissemination of “false information” about the country’s military punishable by up to 15 years in jail and a heavy fine. Under the same legislation, those found guilty of “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces can be jailed for up to five years and fined.

If Russia captures Artyomovsk, Ukrainians will demand that their government seek a compromise with Moscow, the president says

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said that if his troops were to surrender the city of Artyomovsk, known as Bakhmut in Ukraine, his government would come under domestic and international pressure to seek peace with Russia. 

“Our society will feel tired,” he told the Associated Press (AP) in an interview released on Wednesday. “Our society will push me to have compromise with them.”

Western officials have described Artyomovsk, the scene of fierce fighting for several months, as lacking in military importance. Behind closed doors, they – along with Zelensky’s own military leadership – have reportedly urged the president to order a withdrawal, so that his forces can focus on preparing a counteroffensive with heavy weapons provided by the US and its allies.

Speaking to AP mostly in English, during what the agency described as a “morale-building journey” by train across Ukraine, Zelensky suggested that Russia would be emboldened if it were to capture Artyomovsk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin would “sell this victory to the West, to his society, to China, to Iran,” he predicted. “If he will feel some blood – smell that we are weak – he will push, push, push.”

“We can’t lose the steps because the war is a pie – pieces of victories. Small victories, small steps,” Zelensky added.

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The battle for Artyomovsk, a key logistics hub, has been one of the fiercest and bloodiest in the Ukraine conflict so far. According to media reports, Kiev has lost some of its most experienced troops while holding the city. It has also allegedly been pouring in newly conscripted, untrained soldiers, to shore up the defensive line, leading to significant casualties.

In the interview, Zelensky also complained about his lack of contact with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who visited Moscow last week. The Ukrainian leader claimed that as president he chose to “unite” the country rather than divide it.

Zelensky was elected in 2019 on a promise to end ongoing hostilities in Donbass and reintegrate the then-breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics into a federalized Ukrainian state. However, while in office, he maintained the policy of his predecessor Pyotr Poroshenko by stonewalling the so-called Minsk Agreements. Poroshenko later admitted the accords were used by Kiev to buy time to rebuild its military.  

Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, days after recognizing the two republics as independent states and demanding that Kiev withdraw its troops from them. Zelensky rejected the call.

Skiing prodigy Veronika Stepanova took offense at the restrictive “recommendations” rolled up for her compatriots

Olympic cross-country skiing champion Veronika Stepanova has slammed the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for its “recommendations” on Russian athletes, suggesting the body should “go to hell.”

Among other things, the IOC has urged International Federations (IFs) to set up special commissions to analyze public statements by Russian athletes, barring anyone who had somehow shown support for Moscow’s military operation against Ukraine from competing.

Stepanova, the Beijing Winter Olympics champion in 4x5km women’s relay, said the provision was completely unacceptable.

“Won’t you go to hell with all your conditions and recommendations, dear IOC? I will not let any ‘international commission’ analyze my views and beliefs, and decide whether to let me go to the World Cup. Go and race yourselves then. And I can just repeat what I’ve been saying for this whole year: We will overcome all difficulties. Certainly and without a doubt,” Stepanova wrote in a Telegram post.

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The 22-year-old skiing star has been very vocal on the attitude towards Russian athletes exhibited by the international sporting bodies, criticizing the IOC itself, as well as the organizers of the Blink festival in Norway. She has also sparred with Western media over what she perceives to be the unfair treatment of Russians in foreign media.

The IOC unveiled a set of “recommendations” on Russian and Belarusian athletes earlier in the day. While enabling them to compete as neutrals, the body barred them from team competitions, as well as disqualified those linked to the militaries of the two countries or any of their security agencies.

The conditions have already been rejected by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), with its boss, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, slamming them as “unreasonable, legally void and excessive” and suggesting they actually breach the IOCs own principles and potentially amount to human rights abuse.

Moscow has already slammed the guidelines as discriminatory and “absolutely unacceptable”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has stood by its plans to enable Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals, unveiling a set of “recommendations” for them on Tuesday.

The IOC sanctioned Russia and Belarus after the beginning of the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev back in February 2022, but now wants the athletes back to compete as neutrals. International competitions, where athletes from the two countries still compete, show their participation “works,” the IOC president Thomas Bach argued. 

“The participation of athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports in international competitions works,” Bach said in his address before the IOC’s executive board meeting in Lausanne. “There have been no security incidents happening in any of these competitions,” he added.

The “recommendations” provided by the IOC for International Federations (IFs) urge them to allow “athletes with a Russian or a Belarusian passport” to compete under a neutral flag. At the same time, the IOC said teams composed of such athletes “cannot be considered,” while athletes contracted to Russian and Belarusian militaries, as well as to any of their security agencies, should remain banned from competitions as well.

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The committee also singled out “athletes who actively support the war,” stating they should not be allowed to compete either.

The IOC recommended the IFs set up special commissions to analyze the background of athletes, examining their public remarks on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, partaking in any events in support of the ongoing special military operation, displaying symbols associated with it and so on.

The “recommendations” have already been slammed as “discriminatory” by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). The president of ROC, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, said the guidelines amount to “human rights abuse” and are clearly in breach of the IOC’s own principles and the UN charter.

“The announced recommendations are absolutely unacceptable. Neutral status is a violation of human rights, which was pointed out by a UN representative. We consider the proposed conditions unreasonable, legally void and excessive,” Pozdnyakov told reporters.

The official also slammed the ban on team competitions, stating that it affects roughly a third of Russian athletes. “As for the ban on participation of Russians in team competitions, here, in our opinion, this is not just discrimination based on a passport, but also in the disciplines they represent,” Pozdnyakov said.

A new problem is affecting Elon Musk’s satellite communication service, on which Kiev depends

Many Starlink users across Ukraine have seen their terminals stop working, the Kiev outlet Strana reported on Tuesday. According to experts who spoke to the outlet, the outage is not some nefarious plan by Elon Musk to harm Ukraine, but the result of criminals trying to scam Starlink parent company SpaceX.

The typical scenario is that a terminal stops working and flashes the message “No active account,” Vladimir Stepanets, founder of a Starlink support group, told Strana. “When they contact SpaceX technical support, the terminal owners are told there were signs of fraudulent activity,” he explained. 

SpaceX provided the Kiev government with a number of Starlink terminals beginning in February last year, which Ukraine has used for military communications. Musk has objected to the “weaponization” of his technology, and last month restricted Kiev’s ability to use Starlink for remotely controlling drone strikes. When one US senator complained, Musk replied that his company “will not enable escalation of conflict that may lead to WW3.”

The current problem is not due to some kind of Musk censorship, experts tell Strana, but rather the consequence of scam artists exploiting the flow of Starlink donations to Ukraine. Because demand for Starlinks has always outpaced their supply, and equipment sold directly by SpaceX costs 30% more than in Poland or Czechia, many “enterprising individuals” buy the terminals there and then resell or donate them to Ukraine.

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Stepanets and engineer Oleg Kutkov described the scheme by which the scammers use promotions and discounts to acquire the Starlinks, but then use “chargeback fraud” to not pay SpaceX.

“Starlink can be stolen, bought for a promotion for one euro, or listed for return, and the router that comes with it is resold to Ukraine. Then the person who bought it installs the router, and the account is blocked,” Kutkov told Strana.

Stepanets said “tens of thousands” of terminals were in effect stolen from SpaceX through chargeback fraud, including many operated by the Ukrainian military.

Ukrainian users have no way of knowing whether their terminal is legitimate or stolen – until it stops working. Because SpaceX blacklists accounts associated with stolen equipment, users also have no way of reloading their subscription balance, while the debt continues to accrue.

Stepanets also warned users not to attempt any “life hacks” through the military or the Ministry of Digital Development. “This can have bad consequences not only for you, but for the whole country. And it definitely won't work,” he told Strana.

The official representative office of Starlink in Ukraine can’t help anyone either, as it has not yet opened – although the Kiev authorities granted it the required license last summer.

Minsk has pointed to the practice of “nuclear sharing” by the NATO alliance as a precedent

Military co-operation between Moscow and Minsk is in “strict accordance with international law,” the Belarusian foreign ministry said on Tuesday, denying Western nations had grounds to criticize a deal to host Russian tactical nuclear weapons.

Over the past few years, Belarus has been subjected to “unprecedented political, economic and informational pressure” by the US, the UK, other NATO countries and the EU, the ministry said, blasting their “direct and blatant meddling” in its affairs. The nuclear hosting deal is in response to those actions, according to Minsk, which is “taking necessary actions to strengthen its own security and defense capability.”

The ministry went on to state that “the training of Belarusian pilots to fly aircraft with specific munitions, the modernization of such aircraft, as well as the deployment of nuclear warheads on the territory of Belarus without transferring control over them to Minsk,” would not qualify as a breach of non-proliferation agreements.

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“Moreover, this is not a novelty in the field of military cooperation between non-nuclear and nuclear powers. NATO has long had the practice of ‘joint nuclear missions,’ the planes of the alliance member countries are certified for flights with nuclear weapons, the flight personnel for such ‘missions’ is being trained, and appropriate exercises are being conducted,” the statement continued, adding that currently, “more than 150 US tactical nuclear weapons are stored on the territory of European NATO member countries.”

The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarusian territory was announced last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Currently, Moscow is finishing the construction of a specialized storage facility for such munitions, following repeated requests by Minsk to station them on its soil, he said.

The move was condemned by Western officials, with the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, threatening to impose new sanctions against Russia’s ally unless it withdraws its approval.

“Belarus hosting Russian nuclear weapons would mean an irresponsible escalation and threat to European security,” Borrell said on Sunday. “Belarus can still stop it, it is their choice,” he added, warning the bloc was “ready to respond with further sanctions” if necessary.

Estonia has allegedly been renewing its own arsenal at the expense of the EU while sending old stocks to Kiev’s forces, according to the outlet

A number of EU diplomats are growing increasingly concerned that some member states may have exploited the European Peace Facility (EPF) fund, which is intended to partially reimburse countries that have sent military aid to Ukraine, Politico reported on Tuesday. 

The outlet’s Playbook project claims it spoke to seven EU diplomats and officials, who chose to remain anonymous to discuss classified information. According to them, one country in particular – Estonia – has been accused of using the fund to upgrade its own military arsenal at the expense of its EU neighbors while sending its old stocks to Ukraine.  

Under the EPF rules, all EU states are set to receive the same rate of reimbursement for what they spend on Ukraine – some 84% of the total price paid. However, as noted by Politico, there aren’t any agreed-upon rules for how countries calculate the price of the equipment they send to Kiev.  

According to classified data from the EU Foreign Affairs and Defense Department (EEAS) obtained by Playbook, six countries – Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, France and Sweden – are believed to have calculated their reimbursement claims based on the purchase price of new materials, rather than the value of what they sent to Ukraine. 

Estonia has topped the list in absolute terms, Politico claims, citing an overview by the EEAS. The country reportedly received a reimbursement of €134 million after having officially declared spending over €160 million on donations to Ukraine. 

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is now being accused of “sanctimonious behavior” after she publicly led calls in the EU for increased military support for Ukraine, only to later use the EPF to “generously” support her own army, according to the outlet. 

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“They are sending their scraps to Ukraine and buying brand new material for themselves, financed with EU money,” one EU diplomat told Politico. 

According to the diplomats, one example of how Estonia manipulated the system was sending old Soviet-made Strela surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine but then citing the price of a modern Stinger missile in the reimbursement claim. “This is also why Estonia’s military support appears to be so much higher per capita than that of other countries in the statistics everybody cites,” one diplomat noted. 

Estonian officials have rejected the claims made in Politico’s report, with Defense Ministry Secretary General Kusti Salm dismissing them as “malicious slander” meant to slow down support for Ukraine.

The offer comes as Kiev moves to expel the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from a historic monastery

Pope Francis is willing to serve as a conduit for talks between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in the dispute over the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, a personal friend told Russian media on Tuesday.

“He said he is ready to mediate,” Leonid Sevastyanov, the head of the World Union of Old Believers, told TASS. The pontiff said he could help the UOC and OCU establish contact and maybe aid the UOC in defending its position, Sevastyanov added.

“In the case of the Lavra, he has called for respecting the sanctity of the place and stopping the current actions, but he has no legal mechanism to intervene,” Sevastyanov explained. “He can only call for peace, dialogue and negotiations.”

Sevastyanov is a personal friend of the pontiff and corresponds with him regularly. The private message follows the pontiff’s public expression of concern over the Orthodox monks at the Lavra. On March 15, he asked the Kiev government to “respect religious places.”

Earlier this month, the Ukrainian government ordered the UOC to vacate the 11th-century monastery by March 29, claiming the church was violating the 2013 deal to administer the property, which is designated a national culture preserve. No specific violations were cited.

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President Vladimir Zelensky has endorsed the eviction, saying it would strengthen Ukraine’s “spiritual independence.” His government has accused the UOC of being pro-Russian, without evidence or due process.

After the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concern over the crackdown, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry told it to “refrain from unbalanced political assessments.”

Ukraine respects freedom of religion, but that “does not equate to a right for activities that undermine national security,” ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said.

UOC hierarchs attempted to meet with Zelensky on March 20, but he turned them away. The Lavra was surrounded by police on March 23.

Culture Minister Aleksandr Tkachenko has said that UOC monks can stay, but they would need to join the OCU, a rival church set up by the state in 2015. The UOC is in communion with the Russian Orthodox Church, while the OCU was recognized by the pro-Western Patriarch of Constantinople. The government previously evicted the UOC from two cathedrals adjacent to the Lavra and handed them over for use to the OCU.

Many on the continent are aware of Russia’s role in liberating them from colonialism, says Oleg Ozerov

African countries are beginning to recognize their own national interests and are breaking away from the West’s forcefully imposed democratic world order, Oleg Ozerov, the head of the Secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, claimed in an exclusive interview to RT. 

Speaking to RT host Oksana Boyko, Ozerov noted that African-Russian relations have been on a significant upswing in recent years and that Russia is treating its African partners in a dramatically different manner than Western countries, which have retained a colonial mindset in their dealings with the continent. 

This mindset “manifests itself in the form of patronizing attitudes, lecturing and moralizing, insisting that the Western model alone should be accepted as a gift from the gods by our African friends” the diplomat explained, adding that this “aura of arrogance” is backed by a desire to keep African nations dependent and subservient to the West. 

Meanwhile, Ozerov pointed out that many African people are “aware of the role Russia has played in liberating them from colonial bondage,” which is why the majority of Africans feel nothing but “disgust and revulsion” when they witness attempts to label Russians as imperialist or claims that Russia aims to plunder the continent. 

According to Ozerov, contrary to the West’s belief that its political model is the only acceptable one, Russia, as well as China, is promoting a new model of international order that recognizes different forms of political governance and treats them with respect. 

Ozerov noted that while Russia uses the same diplomatic tools to negotiate with Africa as the West, what sets it apart is that Moscow has no hidden agendas in its dealings. 

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One example provided by Ozerov is the West’s attempts to impose green energy policies on the African continent while simultaneously “sucking out” its natural resources such as oil, gas and coal to use back in Europe. The diplomat argued that African nations are beginning to realize that this approach is ultimately meant to prevent real industrialization on the continent.  

Russia, however, is instead offering its extensive expertise in nuclear power to help the continent establish a reliable source of clean energy and further develop its industry, Ozerov said. 

The diplomat also touched upon the issue of hunger in Africa, stating that Russia has a large amount of agricultural and fertilizer products that it is willing to offer to the continent, but noted that such exports are currently blocked by the West’s “illegal” sanctions.

The former national security advisor thinks the US isn’t paying enough attention to the deepening ties between Moscow and Minsk

Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton has warned that the Biden administration may not be taking Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pledge to move tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus seriously enough. Bolton added that he could foresee Russia and Belarus potentially merging into a single state.

“[Putin] may not be bluffing here in the sense he may actually move tactical nuclear weapons into Belarus,” Bolton told CNN on Monday. 

Putin announced on Saturday that Russia will move some of its tactical nuclear weapons to facilities in Belarus as early as this summer. The Russian president said that he made the decision after the UK announced it would transfer toxic depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine, a move he described as “absolute recklessness.”

While Bolton is taking Putin’s words seriously, the White House has brushed them off. “We haven’t seen any movement of any tactical nuclear weapons or anything of that kind since this announcement,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday. Anonymous US and EU security officials told Politico they haven’t seen any indication that Russia plans on moving the weapons in the immediate future.

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Bolton’s concerns go beyond the stationing of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus. He told CNN that the possibility of Russia reabsorbing the entire territory of Belarus is “something I don’t think we’ve been paying enough attention to.”

Belarus was made a territory of the Russian Empire by Catherine the Great in the 18th century, and was subsequently united with Russia under the Soviet Union. Since declaring its independence from the USSR in 1990, Belarus has remained a close ally of Russia, with Minsk and Moscow signing the Union State treaty in 1999, establishing a customs union and granting each other’s citizens freedom of movement.

Military cooperation between the two states has since deepened, with a 2021 doctrine establishing a joint group of forces stationed in Belarus to deter threats from the West. Russian and Belarusian troops have held multiple military drills since last year, and Russian forces pushed south into Ukraine from Belarusian territory last February. As a result, Belarus has been hit with many of the same Western sanctions as Russia.

Bolton is well known for advocating regime change and military intervention around the world, and last year called for the overthrow of Putin. However, he has persistently warned about the consequences of current US foreign policy. Before cautioning about the growing ties between Russia and Belarus, he warned earlier this month that “the Chinese, the Russians, Iran, North Korea and several others are moving to shore up their relations” amid an apparent lack of strategic objectives in Washington.

In a first, the Russian military says it has neutralized a GLSDB guided missile during the campaign in Ukraine

Russian forces managed to shoot down a long-range Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) during the continuing hostilities in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday. It is the first time Moscow has reported downing such a weapon.

In a statement, the ministry said that Russian air defenses “had intercepted 18 HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket System] missiles and one GLSDB guided missile”.

While Russian forces have on numerous occasions thwarted attacks by US-supplied HIMARS, it is the first time the ministry has reported the destruction of a GLSDB smart bomb. Those munitions were promised by US President Joe Biden in early February as part of a $2.17 billion military assistance package. In total, since the start of the conflict, the US has committed more than $32.5 billion in security aid to Ukraine.

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The GLSDB, which is made by Sweden’s SAAB Group and US-based Boeing, can hit targets at up to 150 km, making it one of the longest-range weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal. It can be launched from ground-based missile systems such as the M270 and HIMARS.

Moscow has repeatedly warned the West that any deliveries of long-range weapons are a “red line,” and that any arms shipments make it a direct participant in the conflict. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that “everyone should understand” that the longer the range of Western weapons systems being delivered to Ukraine, the farther Russia will be forced to move the threat away from its borders.

This is the first verdict regarding the dissemination of false information about predators, local animal activists say

A court in Russia’s Far East has fined a man for spreading fake photos of encounters with a wild animal. The suspect shared a photo of a tiger that he falsely claimed had emerged from the woods and approached people.

The image quickly spread, prompting a local woman to warn the police that a tiger was spotted nearby. However, no traces of the animal were found.

According to the court order, the 30-year-old man will have to pay a fine of 50,000 rubles ($650) and hand over his smartphone.

Tiger encounters have become a growing concern for residents of the Far East region. Experts say the incidents are due to the proximity of landfills and rural residents that own cattle. In 2023, local media reported a significant increase in tiger attacks on domestic animals, including dogs and sheep.

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In February, a tiger in nearby Khabarovsk Region attacked two hunters, who had to shoot it to save their lives. One of the men was severely injured, and had to have his arm amputated.

The Amur tiger is a rare predator that can survive without discomfort in thick snow at -40C. It is on the brink of extinction and is classified in both the Red Book of Russia and the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature as endangered.