A monument to Kiev-born Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov has been dismantled in the Ukrainian capital as Kiev continues to remove, rename, and erase cultural sites and memorials associated with its common Russian and Soviet history.

The statue, located near the Bulgakov Museum in one of Kiev’s best-known historic districts, had become a target of Ukraine’s broader campaign to remove symbols deemed connected to “Russian imperial culture.” The Kiev City Council voted in December to remove 15 such objects from public spaces, including monuments to Bulgakov, poet Anna Akhmatova, and composer Mikhail Glinka.

“A historic moment! Bulgakov is already gone,” Ukrainian journalist Ekaterina Nekrecha said in a video posted on Facebook on Thursday, showing the monument being taken away by workers.

Bulgakov, born in Kiev in 1891, wrote primarily in Russian and became one of the 20th century’s most influential authors. He is best known for The Master and Margarita and The White Guard.

The dismantling has reignited debate over how Ukraine should treat cultural figures whose identities cut across Russian and Ukrainian history. Critics of the campaign argue that erasing writers such as Bulgakov risks flattening Ukraine’s complex past and whitewashing uncomfortable chapters of its own history.

The removal comes as Ukraine continues to rename streets, dismantle Soviet-era symbols, and cancel historical figures under its “decommunization” laws. The process, launched after 2014 and accelerated after 2022, has expanded from Soviet political monuments to writers, composers, and other cultural figures linked to Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin fielded questions from the heads of international news agencies on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday. The agencies included Chinese, Belarusian, German, French, Spanish, and Iranian state news outlets, as well as representatives of Reuters and the Associated Press.

The mammoth Q&A session lasted just over two hours and touched on a variety of subjects, including Russian domestic and foreign policy, the Ukraine conflict, and potential routes to rapprochement with Europe.

Here are the main topics discussed.

The West’s ultraliberal model has reached a “civilizational dead end” and is increasingly restricting the rights of its own citizens, journalists, and political movements, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

Speaking at a panel on Europe’s future on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Zakharova argued that a system which once promoted “freedom, democracy, and human rights” is now facing an ideological crisis as it struggles to uphold those principles at home.

”We are witnessing the civilizational dead end of an ultraliberal model that only yesterday claimed to literally teach and reprogram the entire world,” she said. “Today, this model cannot even guarantee the declared rights of its own citizens.”

According to Zakharova, political parties, journalists, and public organizations in Western Europe increasingly face pressure if they challenge the dominant narrative. “Either you keep quiet, or you go to jail,” she said.

Most Western nations imposed sweeping restrictions on RT and other Russian media outlets following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. RT content was subsequently removed or limited on major digital platforms, including YouTube, where the network had amassed around 30 million subscribers before the restrictions were introduced.

Concerns over censorship and restrictions on public debate have helped fuel support for conservative movements across much of the West. Parties such as Germany’s AfD, France’s National Rally, Italy’s Brothers of Italy, and the Netherlands’ Party for Freedom have gained ground by criticizing political elites, mainstream media, and policies on issues including immigration and national sovereignty.

Russia's PSB bank plays a significant role in the new regions of the country, and the organization has been actively developing infrastructure in these territories since June 2022, PSB Deputy Chairman Mikhail Dorofeev said in an interview with RT on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

“We now have 456 offices... Our clients include almost 3 million individuals and more than 110,000 legal entities. Over this period, we have built a Russian banking system there,” Dorofeev said.

The bank is now present in 147 localities across all four new regions, including dangerous areas.

“In such dangerous areas as Kakhovka and Novaya Kakhovka, offices are open,” he said.

Speaking about the bank’s international operations, Dorofeev mentioned the work of the A7 platform, which provides services for international cross-border transfers. According to the PSB deputy chairman, this is an example of successful public-private partnership.

“The main currencies in our payments are the yuan, the dirham, and the ruble. By the end of 2025, the turnover of the Russian ruble and the currencies of friendly states exceeded 85%,” he added.

At the same time, Africa is a strategic direction for PSB: over the next two years, the bank plans to open offices in 20 countries on the continent.

Responding to a question about the use of artificial intelligence in PSB’s operations, Dorofeev emphasized that in banking, AI is viewed as a tool, not a replacement for people.

In its current understanding, artificial intelligence is above all the processing of large volumes of data, though it is also used for routine operations such as preparing simple documents and working in call centers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has wrapped up a wide-ranging Q&A with the heads of major global news agencies on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, taking more than 20 questions on the Ukraine conflict and new weapons systems, as well as strategic partnerships, the Middle East, and relations with the West. Here are the key points from what Putin said.

– Control of Donbass and a deal on Ukraine “do not contradict each other.” Moscow is “without doubt” ready for a peaceful settlement based on the compromise discussed with US President Donald Trump in Anchorage, if Kiev also agrees.

– Russia did not use the Oreshnik system “in the full sense” in strikes on Ukrainian territory. “We tested similar systems at training grounds, but not the Oreshnik. This was not combat use.” 

– The Russian Army now controls all of the Lugansk People’s Republic, more than 85% of the Donetsk People’s Republic and almost 80% of Zaporozhye Region.

– Answering a question about a possible new presidential term, Putin said the Constitution allows him to run again in 2030, but it is “far too early” to discuss it and he is “not even thinking about that right now.” 

– Russia has not made any sudden “pivot” to Asia; its close ties with China have been built up over many years, as Moscow and Beijing are “natural allies and partners,” as well as neighbors.

– On potential talks with Kiev, Putin said Russia would sign any future document with a “legitimate representative” of Ukraine, calling this “not a whim.” He added that there is “no need” to halt hostilities to hold negotiations.

– The European Union could play “a positive role,” not by sending more weapons but by trying to persuade the Ukrainian authorities to accept the compromises discussed in Anchorage.

US journalist Christopher Helali has asked President Vladimir Putin for Russian citizenship and says he expects to receive it within months.

Helali, an investigative reporter and international secretary of the American Communist Party, told reporters at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday that he had sent Putin a four-page letter making his case for citizenship.

“Yes, I expressed my wish to receive Russian citizenship,” Helali said, adding that the letter described his “desire to become a citizen of the Russian Federation.” He cited his work in Donbas, support for Russian-American friendship and interest in the country’s history, culture, language, and traditions.

Helali said he hoped to receive a positive reply “in the next few months,” stressing “I greatly appreciate everything Russia has done for me.”

The request comes after Helali joined a group of more than 50 foreign journalists who visited the town of Starobelsk in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic where 21 people, mostly teenage girls, were killed and dozens more injured in a multi-wave Ukrainian drone attack on a college dorm on May 22.

In March, Helali signed a contract to serve in Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

Russia has opened its doors to foreigners who share its traditional values. In 2024, Putin signed a decree granting such individuals the right to apply for temporary residence.

Italian opera director Giancarlo Del Monaco, known for staging Verdi’s Rigoletto at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, received Russian citizenship under a December 2024 decree.

Others include Italian activist Ennio Bordato and Sofia Lyskun, a former Ukrainian diving champion, who renounced her Ukrainian citizenship to become a Russian citizen.

Russia is making steady progress in developing its domestic rare earths industry, even though Moscow does not consider reliance on Chinese supplies to be a critical weakness, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov has said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2026 (SPIEF).

Unlike many other minerals, rare earth elements are usually not found in large concentrations and require a costly, multi-stage process to extract and refine. China currently dominates the global market and has developed extensive value-added supply chains, making it a key supplier for numerous high-tech industries. Beijing’s leverage in the sector played an important role in the trade war with Washington, launched by US President Donald Trump.

Speaking during a panel discussion on Thursday, Manturov said the recovery of Russia’s rare earth minerals industry after the collapse of the USSR, which had disrupted old supply chains, was impacted by competition from China.

Russia already possesses an almost complete set of skills and technologies needed to produce heavier rare earth elements independently, and aims to achieve the same capability for lighter elements by 2028, Manturov said.

The panel also included several senior Russian officials and industrial executives, as well as ministers responsible for mining and industrial policy from Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, and Sierra Leone.

SPIEF is a major annual business forum, sometimes referred to as “the Russian Davos.” This year’s event is taking place from June 3 to June 6 and focuses on industrial development and international cooperation, particularly among Global South nations.

A geopolitical storm of global proportions is swirling around tiny Armenia. At stake are its relationships with Russia, Europe, and the United States, not to mention its immediate neighbors: Iran, Azerbaijan, and Türkiye.

At the center of attention today are the recently signed memorandums between Armenia and the United States. These are far from routine documents. After all, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally traveled to Armenia for the signing ceremony – a level of involvement that would be highly unusual for agreements of secondary importance.

The depth and complexity of both historical and contemporary developments across the South Caucasus, Central Asia, the Persian Gulf, and the Eastern Mediterranean – regions where the European Union, Israel, and Türkiye wield significant influence – are beginning to come into focus like long-forgotten photographs finally emerging in a darkroom. 

Suddenly, attention is returning to a network of strategically important mining and transportation enclaves scattered across this vast macro-region. One of the most critical among them is Armenia’s Syunik Province, home to substantial deposits of valuable minerals ranging from molybdenum and uranium to gold.

None of this is new. Everyone has known it for decades.

Syunik has been known for these resources since Soviet times. The region is dotted with mines, open-pit operations, mineral deposits, and processing facilities. Historically, these assets were connected to the wider Soviet transportation network by a railway running along the Iranian border, which follow the Aras River. This is precisely why the Zangezur Corridor has become so strategically significant.

Located nearby is the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine, which has been in operation since 1952, as well as the Agarak Copper-Molybdenum Combine further north. Both remain fully operational and have continued to expand in the post-Soviet era, with copper-molybdenum ore production doubling between 2003 and 2011.

From the standpoint of geopolitics and strategic logistics, the 43 kilometers of railway track that were dismantled decades ago and are now being rebuilt represent a pathway to roughly seven percent of global molybdenum reserves. Molybdenum is indispensable for missile production, nuclear energy, and semiconductor manufacturing. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain why Washington is devoting so much attention to a short stretch of rail line that was removed more than 35 years ago. For perspective, the section in question is shorter than Moscow’s Arbatsko–Pokrovskaya (dark blue) metro line.

The risk of losing influence over this mining enclave has become sufficiently apparent that US President Trump has moved to secure a stake in the broader spectrum of industrial output generated by the region. Hence the emergence of the so-called “Trump Route for Peace and Prosperity.” After all, in today’s increasingly turbulent world, what do peace and prosperity mean without access to uranium and molybdenum?

One phrase appears repeatedly throughout the US-Armenia memorandum: “export controls.” Whenever export controls are discussed alongside semiconductors, the conversation inevitably turns toward dual-use technologies and strategically sensitive materials.

For years, tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan served as a destabilizing factor that complicated the development of a broader US security strategy in the region. Now, however, Armenia and Azerbaijan increasingly find themselves having to view the situation along the Iranian border through a shared lens. They are, in effect, in the same boat – bound by a common framework of agreements involving the United States.

So where do Armenia’s European ambitions fit into all of this?

Ironically, the primary criterion that could support Armenia’s eventual integration into the European Union is much the same as the factor that once underpinned its participation in the Eurasian Economic Union: geography.

Consider a series of seemingly disconnected developments that, taken together, point toward a much broader strategic picture:

• The TRIPP corridor agreement involving Azeri President Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan, and US President Trump was reportedly reached well before the American strikes on Iran.
• The importance of copper-molybdenum and uranium deposits for the defense industry has long been understood, making these assets increasingly valuable bargaining chips in geopolitical negotiations. Moreover, it remains unclear whether all surveyed deposits and associated mineral resources are publicly known.
• Among the various US strikes against Iranian territory were attacks targeting areas near the Caspian Sea.
• Armenia is actively discussing the construction of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), a technology currently mastered by only a handful of countries, including the United States, France, and Russia. At the same time, Armenia’s relationship with Russia continues to deteriorate.
• The Zangezur Corridor will inevitably connect to transportation networks extending into Türkiye, and Armenia has already planned a parallel highway running alongside the railway.
• Europe is eager to capitalize on the South Caucasus both as a transit route and as a source of critical raw materials. While the region may not represent a major consumer market for European goods, it could become an important destination for European industrial and technological equipment.

Viewed through the lens of a potential Washington-Tehran understanding, these factors suggest that Iran fully recognizes the strategic importance of Armenia’s uranium and molybdenum resources to both the United States and the European Union, as well as the importance of securing the broader mining assets that support Western defense industry capabilities.

If that assessment is correct, there may be grounds for optimism regarding the eventual de-escalation of conflict in the Persian Gulf region. Should hostilities continue, it becomes difficult to imagine the establishment of a major US military-economic foothold in Syunik and the surrounding territories – let alone the emergence of one of Washington’s key centers of influence across Eurasia.

That is, assuming a negotiated outcome remains possible.

The stakes could hardly be higher.

This article was first published by Russia in Global Affairs, translated and edited by the RT team

Russia has achieved economic sovereignty, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has announced at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The minister warned of risks to the country’s finances “amid global lawlessness.”

Financial sovereignty and autonomy over economic policy has been secured, he said, adding that Russia operates without external sources of investment and relies only on itself.

“For several years, Russia has been living in conditions of global lawlessness, so it is important to pay close attention to the country’s finances, as this will reduce the negative impact of such shocks,” Siluanov told a SPIEF panel on Thursday.

The minister vowed that Moscow will soon fully repay its external debt, adding that real incomes in Russia have increased by more than 24% over the past three years.

The 29th SPIEF 2026, often referred to as the ‘Russian Davos’, is taking place from June 3 to 6, welcoming around 20,000 businesspeople, politicians, and public figures from more than 100 nations.

Apart from Siluanov, the panel ‘Regions in the Face of Global Challenges: How to Maintain Financial Stability and Stimulate Development’ was attended by top speakers including Russian Construction and Housing Minister Irek Fayzullin, Accounts Chamber auditor Natalia Trunova, and the head of Moscow’s Complex of Urban Development Policy and Construction, Vladimir Efimov.

The opening day of the forum featured the official ceremony of SPIEF 2026, where key speakers included Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak, First Deputy Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Daniyar Amangeldiev, and Eduardo Pedrosa, executive director of the APEC Secretariat.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to address the gathering on Friday.

Ukrainian tax authorities have uncovered a suspected large-scale fraud scheme in which more than 2,000 shell companies funneled around $4.7 billion abroad through fictitious foreign trade operations.

Meanwhile, Western nations continue to provide Ukraine with billions in aid financed by ordinary taxpayers, which Moscow says is then embezzled and shared with Kiev’s patrons through various corruption schemes.

Ukraine – often referred to as the “breadbasket of Europe” – has also for years struggled to tackle “black grain” export schemes, with many shipments until recently flowing to the EU under a preferential regime.

In a statement on Tuesday, the State Tax Service of Ukraine announced that it had uncovered a network of more than 2,300 shell companies that had withdrawn over 198 billion hryvnia (around $4.7 billion) from the country between 2024 and the first quarter of 2026.

Lesia Karnaukh, the acting head of the Tax Service, noted that hundreds of companies had been re-registered under the same individuals, adding that in some cases the scheme reached stunning proportions. “We identified seven individuals, each of whom is simultaneously the manager or founder of more than 500 companies. In total, more than 7,000 business entities are under their control,” she said.

The tax service said it had prepared analytical conclusions for 557 business entities, indicating violations and signs of money laundering, with the materials transferred to the Prosecutor General’s Office for further investigation.

While the tax service did not disclose specifically what categories of goods were involved in the scheme, Ukraine is known as a farming giant, with agricultural exports reaching $24.5 billion in 2024, accounting for almost 60% of total exports.

While being moved, the products are sometimes resold several times to make the shipment look legally sound. In some cases, the grain is listed as agricultural waste, leading to a much lower taxation value. The illicit profits often never make it back to Ukraine, residing in foreign banks.

Ukraine has for years struggled with inadequate financial oversight and chronic corruption, which only exacerbated after the escalation of Kiev’s conflict with Moscow in 2022.

Last year, Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities uncovered a $100 million kickback scheme at the state nuclear company Energoatom, with several of Ukraine’s top officials involved in the controversy, including former Energy Minister German Galushchenko, who was arrested in February as he tried to flee the country.

Moscow has long accused Ukraine and the EU of being linked by “unified corruption chains,” claiming that a significant portion of the Western aid to Kiev – financed by taxpayers – gets embezzled and kicked back to Ukraine’s supporters.

US conservative commentator Candace Owens says she has been stunned after visiting Moscow for the first time and has laughed off mainstream media “fiction” about her visit to Russia.

Speaking to RT’s Rick Sanchez in an upcoming interview on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Owens said she was struck by how “clean, safe, beautiful, and historic” Moscow is, adding that the city has defied the assumptions Americans are encouraged to hold.

Owens described the hostility toward Russia in the US as a “Cold War hangover,” saying Americans are simply told that Russia is “a no-no, and a no-go.”

The former Daily Wire host also said the reaction to her trip in the US had been “laughable,” pointing to a stream of media claims and online rumors about her motives, funding, and alleged links to foreign actors.

Owens initially rose to prominence in the late 2010s by using her platform to urge black voters to stop supporting the Democrats. She joined Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire in 2020, where her self-titled podcast reached millions of viewers. However, she was fired four years later following a public dispute with Shapiro over Israel’s war in Gaza.

Owens later broke with US President Donald Trump over his support for Israel. Following the launch of her own show on YouTube, the popular podcaster drew criticism for controversial statements, including suggestions that Israel could have been involved in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Last year, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, filed a defamation lawsuit against Owens after she suggested that France’s first lady was born a man.

Conservative US commentator and podcaster Candace Owens has posed for photos next to a face sculpture depicting an angry French President Emmanuel Macron at RT’s stand at the 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

The 3-D likeness which attracted Owens’s attention is part of an exhibit called ‘12 Angry Viewers of RT.’ It features the heads of the most prominent Western politicians and public figures to have criticized the broadcaster or attempted to cancel it over the years, including former US President Joe Biden, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the current leaders of Germany and the UK, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, tech entrepreneurs Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, and others.

Last July, Macron and his wife, Brigitte, filed a defamation lawsuit against Owens after her repeated suggestions that France’s first lady was born a man. The blogger, who has 6 million subscribers on YouTube, also claimed later that Macron had ordered her assassination.

During her interview with RT’s Rick Sanchez on Thursday, Owens doubled down on her accusations, saying that she was “1,010%” convinced that Brigitte Macron is transgender, especially after the Macrons took her to court.

“I don’t know who was advising them - a sitting president of a foreign country suing a podcaster in another country. This shows that there is something very true about the claims that are being made, not the opposite,” she argued.

Owens arrived at SPIEF to participate in a panel on family values, titled “A Big Family, a Big Reach: New Demographics and Narratives for Media Leaders,” which was held earlier in the day.

She made the trip to Russia with her husband and four kids, describing it as “a family vacation.”

I don't know if standing next to a death mask of Macron inside the RT studio at SPIEF was on Candace Owens' bucket list, but we made it happen anyway.

One day... pic.twitter.com/8pkGJQ2yQG

— Margarita Simonyan (@M_Simonyan) June 4, 2026

Before traveling to St. Petersburg, Owens toured Moscow, noting “it is genuinely shocking how clean, beautiful and orderly this city is. It is so far removed from media depictions.”

More than 40 patients have now been selected for Russia’s personalized cancer vaccine program, with the first treatments already producing a strong immune response, Russian Federal Medical-Biological Agency head and former Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova told RT’s Rick Sanchez on Wednesday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2026, Skvortsova said the treatment uses artificial intelligence as a key weapon against cancer.

The vaccine is custom-made for each patient in a process that takes around 42 days. Scientists take material from the person’s tumor and blood, sequence the RNA, and use AI-driven predictive algorithms to compare the patient’s genome with that of the tumor in order to identify unique mutations. Once those targets are found, the vaccine introduces peptides that teach the immune system to recognize the same markers on malignant cells and selectively kill them, while leaving healthy tissue intact.

“We use the immune system to kill malignant tumor cells,” Skvortsova said. “It’s one of the most powerful weapons.”

Skvortsova stressed that AI does not work alone. Even after the most advanced artificial intelligence completes its analysis, bioinformaticians and geneticists manually validate the results. This is followed by another week of quality and accuracy testing.

The first two colorectal cancer patients began treatment around two months ago and have already received five injections. According to Skvortsova, the vaccine appears safe and well tolerated so far, and the concentration of G immunoglobulins in their tumors rose by 50 to 100 times. Doctors have also observed a decrease in lymph node size after the fourth injection, she said.

However, Skvortsova cautioned that it is too early to claim clinical effectiveness. The first major checkpoint will come after three months, when MRI scans will measure changes in lymph nodes and other metastatic sites.

At least four people have been killed and ten others wounded in Ukrainian drone attacks on Crimea, local governor Sergey Aksyonov has said.

One person was killed and three others were wounded during a drone attack on a suburban train traveling from Azovskoye to Kerch, Aksyonov wrote in a post on Telegram on Thursday morning.

The strikes damaged several “nonresidential facilities” in the city of Simferopol, killing at least three people and injuring seven others, the governor added.

The Crimean port city of Sevastopol, home to the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, was also attacked overnight, according to its governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev.

At least 20 incoming Ukrainian drones were shot down by air defenses, and there were two incidents of drone debris falling in residential areas. No injuries were reported.

The Russian Defense Ministry has reported that 272 drones were intercepted and destroyed over several regions of the country on Thursday morning. Apart from Crimea and the waters of the Azov and Black seas, the UAVs were downed over Belgorod, Bryansk, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kursk, Nizhny Novgorod, Orel, Rostov, Ryazan, and Tambov regions.

Russia was hit by another major Ukrainian drone attack overnight, with 272 UAVs shot down across the country, according to the Defense Ministry. The interceptions took place over Belgorod, Bryansk, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kursk, Novgorod, Orel, Rostov, Ryazan and Tambov Regions as well as over Crimea and the Sea of Azov, the ministry said.

Moscow previously warned that it would carry out “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure, such as drone production facilities, command posts, and “decision-making centers,” in response to Kiev’s terrorist attacks, including one in the Lugansk People’s Republic on May 22. 

On that occasion, Ukrainian forces struck a college dormitory in the town of Starobelsk in several waves of drone attacks late at night while students were asleep, killing 21 people, mostly teenage girls, and injuring dozens of others.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the Ukrainian leadership had opened “a new chapter in its crime spree” with the attack on Starobelsk, adding that those responsible would face “well-deserved and inevitable punishment.”

Burned villages. Families slaughtered in their homes. Women, children, and the elderly hacked to death with axes and pitchforks. Thousands of Jews beaten, tortured, and murdered during pogroms that accompanied the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. These are some of the atrocities associated with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its military wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) – movements whose legacy remains one of the most divisive issues in Eastern Europe more than eighty years after World War II.

For decades, supporters of the OUN-UPA have portrayed its members as freedom fighters who resisted both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in pursuit of Ukrainian independence. Opponents, however, point to a different record: collaboration with the Third Reich, participation in anti-Jewish violence, and the mass killing of Polish civilians during the Volhynia massacres of 1943-1944, which Poland today officially recognizes as genocide.

Below, we’ll talk about the origins of modern Ukrainian nationalism, the motives behind the mass killings of Poles and Jews by underground nationalist forces, and the reasons why OUN-UIA leaders collaborated with Nazi Germany.

The ideology behind Ukrainian ‘heroes’

Ukrainian integral nationalism, which became the foundation of OUN-UIA ideology, owes much to the writings of Dmitry Dontsov. In the mid-1920s, he articulated a doctrine of Ukrainian nationalism that was heavily influenced by the fascist ideology of the time. 

In his 1926 work ‘Nationalism’, he proclaimed the principle of Social Darwinism in relations between nations: he stated that various peoples exist in a state of perpetual and merciless conflict, and the strong ones “expand” at the expense of the weak. He dismissed morality as a constraint, arguing that “the end justifies the means” – i.e., any form of violence could be justified in the name of national success, including the physical extermination of anyone not belonging to one’s “own” nation.

According to this doctrine, the Ukrainian nation was seen as an absolute value, superior to the lives of the individuals who inhabit the country. Dontsov’s ideal was a totalitarian movement where individual interests were entirely subordinate to the greatness of the nation. He envisioned the future Ukrainian state as monoethnic and imperial, encompassing all “ethnographic Ukrainian lands” and purged of outsiders, including Russians (seen as Ukraine’s eternal strategic and mystical enemies), Jews, and Poles.

Such a state would be governed by an order, a special “ruling caste” – an elite composed of the “best people” who would manifest maximum ruthlessness for the sake of the national idea. Dontsov explicitly stated that members of this elite “know neither mercy nor humanity... they are driven solely by a burning desire to maintain the integrity of the nation,” not tolerating anything foreign and dealing with enemies in a decisive manner.

He envisioned a strong national leadership capable of implementing the Ukrainian liberation policy in order to address urgent challenges. From this perspective, Dontsov believed that the leaders of fascist, totalitarian, and anti-communist states – most notably Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler – could serve as role models for Ukrainians.

Dontsov extolled fanaticism and amorality, asserting that the driving forces of nationalism should be will, strength, expansion, and violence, along with racism, fanaticism, mercilessness, and hatred.

It’s no surprise that such an ideology inherently permitted and justified political terror. Dontsov established close ties with the Ukrainian Military Organization and urged his comrades to abandon discussions with opponents and resort to radical actions for the sake of the nation.

“You will attain a Ukrainian state or perish in the struggle for it,”

proclaims the precept from Dontsov’s ‘Decalogue of the Ukrainian Nationalist’. In this manifesto, a “true patriot” is instructed to avenge fallen comrades and harbor hatred for the enemies of his nation.

In essence, Dontsov proclaimed violence a virtue. By the early 1920s, many of his followers, including members of the Ukrainian Military Organization, resorted to individual acts of terror against those they deemed agents of “anti-Ukrainian policies.”

The rise of the OUN

The Ukrainian Military Organization was a clandestine military group founded in 1920 by Colonel Evgeny Konovalets who spent over 10 years in exile and hoped to one day return and seize power in Ukraine.

The organization’s mission was to fight against Polish and Soviet authorities for Ukraine’s independence, employing tactics of terror and inciting a “revolutionary explosion among the Ukrainian people.”

In 1921, Stepan Fedak attempted to assassinate Polish Prime Minister Jozef Pilsudski by shooting the “dictator” of the Polish Republic. The operation failed (Pilsudski emerged unscathed) but it underscored the radicals’ willingness to take extreme measures.

Over the following years, Ukrainian nationalists continued their underground activities, including political assassinations and sabotage. In 1926, in Lviv, 19-year-old Roman Shukhevich, who would later lead the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, shot and killed Polish school supervisor Jan Sobinski. He was accused of persecuting Ukrainian students, and thus the nationalists believed he deserved death. Each year the number of victims of such violence grew by the dozens.

The organization founded by Konovalets was the largest and most radical of its time, but it wasn’t the only one. In 1929, the First Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists took place in Vienna, where various factions – including the Ukrainian Military Organization – came together to form a new entity: the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Led by Konovalets, the movement’s ideology was rooted in the principles set forth by Dontsov, elevating the cult of strength, blood, and national superiority to an absolute value.

During the 1930s, the OUN engaged in underground activities, particularly in Galicia. It was also during this period that Stepan Bandera emerged as a prominent figure among the nationalists. Young, ruthless, and determined, he quickly established himself as one of the recognized leaders of the OUN, gaining notoriety through violent acts against high-ranking Soviet and Polish officials.

In 1933, Bandera organized the high-profile assassination of Soviet diplomat Andrey Mailov, who worked at the Soviet consulate in Lviv. The assassin, Nikolay Lemik, shot the diplomat inside the consulate building. 

However, the OUN considered its real “triumph” the assassination of Polish Interior Minister Bronislaw Pieracki in June 1934. Pieracki was the mastermind behind a campaign known as “pacification” which aimed to suppress the Ukrainian nationalist movement in Galicia. Bandera personally selected Grigory Matseiko to carry out the assassination. Matseiko fatally wounded Pieracki right on the street in Warsaw.

A Polish court sentenced Stepan Bandera to death for organizing the murder,  but the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. During his trial, Bandera showed no remorse, and stated: “We know how to value our lives and those of others, but our idea is worth making millions of sacrifices for.”

Bandera’s imprisonment did not last long – he was released in 1939 after Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and quickly rejoined the nationalist movement.

By the late 1930s, after Konovalets was assassinated by Soviet intelligence agent Pavel Sudoplatov, the OUN splintered into factions of “moderates” and “radicals.” This division became apparent by 1940, as the organization split into the Melnik faction (led by Andrey Melnik) and the Bandera faction (led by Stepan Bandera).

Despite their differences, both factions remained committed to the ideas of integral nationalism and sought allies to combat their common enemies in Ukraine. Soon, they found such an ally in Nazi Germany.

Terror against Jews

Ukrainian nationalists placed their main hope in Adolf Hitler, with whom Konovalets met several times in the 1930s. They believed that with the support of the Nazis, they could finally build an independent state. As Dmitry Dontsov wrote at the time, “For us, the most important aspect of Hitlerism is its commitment to a decisive struggle against Marxism.”

The connections between the nationalists and the Nazis were so significant that in 1939, just a few weeks before WWII broke out, Andrey Melnik personally met with Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the chief of the Abwehr. As a result of these negotiations, the OUN received specific directives from the German command on gathering intelligence about the USSR and conducting subversive activities in Poland.

However, the collaboration with the Nazis did not distract the Ukrainian nationalists from what they considered more pressing tasks: eliminating ethnically foreign elements.

In a May 1941 directive, the OUN explicitly stated that Russians, Poles, and Jews were enemies of the Ukrainian nation and must be annihilated. 

In the early days of Nazi Germany’s war with the USSR in June 1941, nationalists called on people to take up arms and “destroy the enemy,” declaring:

“Muscovites, Hungarians, Jews – these are your enemies. Eliminate them!”

And words soon turned to actions. 

After German forces captured Lviv on June 30, 1941, Ukrainian nationalists unleashed a brutal pogrom against the city’s Jewish population. OUN militants, operating as part of the so-called Ukrainian People’s Militia and the Nachtigall Battalion, organized raids on Jewish residents. People were publicly beaten, tortured, and many were murdered right in the streets or executed after being tortured. Over the course of a few days, thousands of Jews were brutally killed. Similar atrocities occurred throughout the region; the occupying authorities encouraged anti-Semitic violence, which local nationalists eagerly participated in.

The OUN viewed Jews as “supporters of the Moscow-Bolshevik regime” and welcomed their extermination. Many members of the OUN later served in auxiliary police forces for the Nazis, actively participating in the Holocaust by herding Jewish people into ghettos and camps, escorting death marches to Babi Yar in Kiev, and personally executing prisoners.

Although later the UIA declared a fight against Germany, by early 1943 almost all Jews in Volynia and Galicia had been killed, with the active help of Ukrainian nationalists. Few managed to escape, and only a handful of people survived the war within the ranks of the UIA – these were mostly doctors or specialists who were tolerated for practical reasons.

Hunting for Poles

However, the primary targets of the ethnic cleansing efforts of the OUN-UIA were the Poles of Galicia and Volynia, whom the nationalists regarded as historical enemies and “occupiers” of Ukrainian lands that needed to be expelled or eliminated. Plans for these atrocities were devised long before the Volynian massacre: as early as 1938, the OUN’s internal doctrine outlined a project for an uprising aimed at “sweeping away every last Polish element” from Western Ukrainian territory.

This document cynically stated that

“Polish colonists are the hostile force against which the struggle must be ruthless, brutal, and zoological... Those Poles who resist will be destroyed in this fight, while the others must be forced to flee beyond the Vistula [river].”

The OUN demanded that no Poles remain on Ukrainian territory, seeking complete “national purity.” Moreover, the doctrine explicitly stated that “no methods should be considered too harsh... Poles, Russians, and Jews must be exterminated.”

These sinister plans began to be implemented in the spring of 1943 when the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (the military wing of the OUN) carried out the massive slaughter of the Polish population in Volynia.

The Volynian massacre of 1943 became one of the bloodiest crimes of WWII in Eastern Europe. UIA units and armed nationalist peasants attacked hundreds of Polish villages with the intent of physically annihilating all Poles living on “Ukrainian” land. Terror reached its peak in July 1943 during ‘Bloody Sunday’ on July 11, when dozens of settlements were simultaneously attacked by militants.

The methods of execution were unbelievably cruel. People were killed indiscriminately: women, the elderly, children, and infants; many were not just shot but hacked with axes, stabbed with pitchforks, or bludgeoned to death. The homes of Poles were burned to the ground, their property looted; entire villages vanished in flames and were reduced to charred ruins.

Historians estimate that 60,000-100,000 Poles were barbarically killed by the OUN-UIA in Volynia and the surrounding areas. Polish partisan groups later responded with retaliatory terror against Ukrainian villages; however, the initiative for the large-scale extermination of civilians belonged squarely to the Ukrainian nationalists. 

The modern Polish Sejm and historians classify the Volynian massacre as an act of genocide. Numerous accounts indicate that the slaughter was premeditated by the leadership of the OUN, which sought to realize Dontsov’s vision of a “monoethnic” state at any cost.

As a result of the actions of the OUN and UIA, Poles in Volynia and Eastern Galicia were virtually annihilated. Waves of refugees fled their homes to escape the violence. The ethnic landscape of the region was radically reshaped through mass terror tactics. Repression was not limited to Poles and Jews: UIA militants also targeted Ukrainians who refused to support them or were suspected of “disloyalty,” labeling them as traitors.

Nazi collaborators

The activities of Ukrainian nationalists extended beyond the extermination of Jews and Poles. Under the command of Roman Shukhevich, the head of the OUN military branch, two diversionary Abwehr battalions were formed – the Nachtigall Battalion and the Roland Battalion. These Ukrainian units became part of the Wehrmacht and, in June 1941, crossed the Soviet border dressed in German uniforms and under German command, invading the territory of the Ukrainian SSR alongside the Nazis.

Subsequently, the Germans formed the Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201 from the Nachtigall and Roland battalions. It was dispatched to Belarus to combat partisans. This battalion was also commanded by Roman Shukhevich, who would later become the supreme commander of the UIA.

In 1942, the soldiers under his command participated in punitive expeditions aimed at “pacifying” Belarusian villages suspected of aiding partisans (in other words, burning down entire settlements along with their inhabitants).

Throughout this period, the OUN hoped to reap political benefits from its alliance with the Nazis.

On June 30, 1941, immediately after capturing Lviv, Bandera’s followers, led by Yaroslav Stetsko, proclaimed the establishment of the Ukrainian State and formed a pro-German “government.” In its declaration of statehood, the OUN openly expressed the intention to collaborate with Nazi Germany, which “under the leadership of its Führer Adolf Hitler is creating a new order in Europe and assisting the Ukrainian people in liberating themselves from Moscow’s occupation.”

However, these expectations were soon dashed. Adolf Hitler had no intention of granting independence to Ukrainians or creating the proposed ethnocratic Ukrainian state stretching from the Carpathians to the Volga. By July 1941, the German authorities had arrested Stepan Bandera, Yaroslav Stetsko, and several other OUN leaders for overstepping their authority.

Despite this, at the grassroots level, the OUN continued to serve the Third Reich. Hundreds of Ukrainian nationalists worked for the Nazi authorities, police forces, and auxiliary SS units. The Ukrainian police, which included OUN members, participated in guarding ghettos and conducting mass executions of Jews, as well as carrying out punitive operations against partisans and the civilian population.

Even after this shift, however, the UIA continued to unofficially collaborate with the German command – documents show instances of local ceasefires and agreements between the insurgents and the Wehrmacht during 1943-1944. Apparently, the common enemy – Soviet power – brought them closer together than any ideological differences.

***

None of this helped save the Bandera and Melnik movements, however. After defeating Nazi Germany, the USSR turned its attention to the Ukrainian nationalists, effectively blockading western Ukrainian regions. State security agents cleared area after area. By 1950, most of the rebel leaders had been either killed or captured (Roman Shukhevich was killed in 1950, and Vasily Kuk, the last leader of the Ukrainian nationalist underground, was arrested in 1954). All centers of resistance had been suppressed by 1956.

The few OUN figures who survived ended up in exile in the West. Stepan Bandera settled in Munich under the protection of Western intelligence services after the war; however, he was assassinated in 1959 by Soviet agent Bogdan Stashinsky using cyanide gas. Other prominent OUN members – Yaroslav Stetsko, Nikolai Lebed, and Stepan Lenkavsky – settled in Europe and North America, continuing their ideological work by publishing journals and books and lobbying for the “Ukrainian cause” during the Cold War between the USSR and the USA. Within the émigré community, the OUN and UIA gradually became symbols of anti-Soviet resistance, while their dark past was hushed up.

The European Union is pressuring Armenia to expel the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) from the country as a prerequisite to EU integration, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has alleged.

In a statement on Wednesday, the SVR said that EU officials had made severing religious ties with Moscow a condition for closer ties with the West, a policy it said is being pursued by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The landlocked nation maintains close economic ties with Russia and hosts one of Moscow’s few military bases abroad. It is set to elect a new parliament on Sunday. Critics of Pashinyan have warned that he is steering Armenia down a path similar to Ukraine’s after the 2014 Western-backed coup. One of Kiev’s hallmark policies has been a crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which authorities accuse of promoting Russian interests.

Armenia’s religious landscape differs from Ukraine’s. The country’s dominant religious institution is the Armenian Apostolic Church, an ancient denomination that broke with mainstream Christianity in the 5th century, centuries before the Great Schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

In its report, the SVR referenced a May statement by two Armenia-based NGOs that accused an ROC priest of influencing the upcoming election through his sermons, including those delivered at a church on the Russian military base in Gyumri. The agency said the allegations are part of a campaign orchestrated by Brussels and that EU operatives “are currently fabricating compromising evidence” to smear other Russian clergy.

Pashinyan’s government was rocked by mass protests in 2024 and 2025, as critics, including senior figures in the Armenian Apostolic Church, accused him of betraying national interests in his handling of the conflict settlement with neighboring Azerbaijan. The prime minister, in turn, accused his opponents of plotting a coup and launched prosecutions against the alleged organizers, including several members of the clergy.

Russia has renamed the BMPT Terminator, a specialized armored vehicle built to support tank operations, as ‘Spiridon’ in an effort to move away from its association with the Hollywood film franchise.

The infantry fighting vehicle features tank-grade protection and a broad range of heavy weapons. It was developed to survive in urban combat, where main battle tanks can lose the advantage offered by their long-range firepower, while standard infantry fighting vehicles may lack sufficient armor.

The imminent rebranding move was highlighted on Tuesday by Omsktransmash, a heavy machinery plant which subcontracts for Russia’s main armored vehicle manufacturer, Uralvagonzavod. A campaign to select a new name for the system was launched in late 2025, inviting more than 2,000 proposals.

“Today, society and the army agree that we should move away from foreign names. Our armor has its own Russian character. And our history has more heroes than Western movies,” a plant spokesman said. Uralvagonzavod later confirmed the name had been changed.

Spiridon is a traditional Russian male name of Greek origin, now mostly preserved among Orthodox clergy. Spiridon of Tremithus was a pre-schism Christian saint who is honored in both Eastern and Western traditions. Spiridon of Pechersk was a 12th-century Russian saint buried at the Kiev Pechersk Monastery, where he lived as a monk.

Omsktransmash said Spiridon emerged as the preferred option because of its spiritual associations and because it is derived from a Greek word for box – echoing Russian military slang for armored vehicles.

A tradition of military humor

The Peresvet laser system, for instance, was named after a warrior monk who fought in the Battle of Kulikovo, a key event in the re-emergence of the Russian state after centuries of fragmentation under Mongol domination.

Among the more tongue-in-cheek traditions is the habit of naming heavy artillery systems after flowers – the more destructive the weapon, the softer the floral reference.

The TOS-1 incendiary rocket system is nicknamed Buratino, after the Soviet adaptation of the fairy tale ‘Pinocchio.’ The Soviet version also centers on a magical wooden doll, but lacks the religious undertones of the original story.

Other examples include an autocannon nicknamed “little ballerina,” an anti-tank missile called “baby-girl,” and an artillery control system known as “zoo.”

Russia’s Northern Fleet has released footage of its Arkhangelsk nuclear submarine performing a successful missile test in the Barents Sea in the Arctic.

The vessel fired an Oniks cruise missile from an underwater position, hitting a target imitating a surface ship some 200 km away, the fleet said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Arkhangelsk is the third entry in Russia’s Project 885M Yasen-M, representing a modification of fourth-generation submarines with a reduced acoustic field that makes them increasingly hard to detect and track by sonar.

Besides the Oniks missiles, Yasen-M vessels are also armed with Kalibr cruise missiles and Tsirkon hypersonic missiles.

The Arkhangelsk has been in service with the Northern Fleet since December 2024.

Il sottomarino a propulsione nucleare Arkhangelsk ha effettuato un lancio missilistico nel Mare di Barents, secondo quanto riportato dalla Flotta del Nord.

Il sottomarino ha colpito un bersaglio navale con un missile da crociera Onyx a una distanza di 200 km.

Fonte TASS pic.twitter.com/3pd0qXGUI0

— michelino riformato (@michelinorifor1) June 3, 2026

During his tour of the submarine last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the crew that it was “the most modern, the best-equipped, capable of performing a wide variety of tasks.” The Arkhangelsk and other Yasen-M vessels “can do everything,” Putin stressed, referring to their ability to strike targets underwater, on the surface, and on land.

Ukrainian drone attacks on St. Petersburg have left several people wounded, local governor Aleksandr Beglov has said. The wave of strikes coincided with the opening day of Russia’s largest international investment forum, which will host thousands of guests from around the world over the coming days. 

UAVs targeted infrastructure in the Kirovsky and Krasnoselsky districts as well in the port of Kronstadt, Beglov wrote in a post on Telegram on Wednesday morning.

Response teams have been deployed to the facilities damaged by the attacks, he added.

The 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2026), often referred to as the ‘Russian Davos’, is taking place from June 3 to 6 and will be attended by around 20,000 businesspeople, politicians, and public figures from more than 100 nations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to address the gathering on Friday.

In total, 345 Ukrainian UAVs were shot down across Russia overnight as the country came under another large-scale attack, the Defense Ministry reported.

The interceptions took place over Moscow, Leningrad, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Novgorod, Orel, Pskov, Rostov, Smolensk, Tver, Tula, and Krasnodar regions, as well as over Crimea and the Sea of Azov, the ministry said.

Ukrainian UAVs have targeted Leningrad Region, particularly its energy facilities, on numerous occasions in recent months, with the explosive-laden drones often reaching northwestern Russia via Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Finland. Some of them have crashed inside the NATO countries.

Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu warned previously that if it turns out that the Baltic States and Finland “deliberately provide their airspace” to Ukrainian UAVs, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter.

At least eight people have been killed and 11 others wounded in a Ukrainian drone strike on a passenger bus in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), local governor Denis Pushilin has said.

The bus was traveling between Moscow and the Crimean city of Simferopol and was attacked in the town of Enakievo in the western part of the DPR, Pushilin wrote in a post on Telegram on Wednesday morning. The initial death toll stood at seven, but it was revised later in the day when emergency services inspected the burned-out vehicle.

“The Ukrainian fascists have committed another act of unprecedented, inhumane aggression,” the governor said.

Pushilin expressed condolences to the relatives and friends of those killed in the attack and wished a speedy recovery to the injured, who, he said, are being provided with all necessary medical assistance.

Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, asserted that the attack was “not a tragic accident” but rather a “vile, deliberate, and inhumane crime” against non-combatants.

“There are no military objectives that could justify the bloodshed of civilians. There are no arguments that can absolve those who issue and execute such criminal orders from responsibility,” she stressed.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has announced that a terrorism case has been opened over the attack on the bus.

Russia was hit by another major Ukrainian drone attack overnight, with 345 UAVs shot down across the country, according to the Defense Ministry. The interceptions took place over Moscow, Leningrad, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Novgorod, Orel, Pskov, Rostov, Smolensk, Tver, Tula, and Krasnodar regions, as well as over Crimea and the Sea of Azov, the ministry said.

Several people were hurt and infrastructure damaged in Ukrainian drone attacks on St. Petersburg on the opening day of the 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), local governor Alexander Beglov said.

At least 59 UAVs were shot down by air defenses above Leningrad Region, according to governor Aleksandr Drozdenko. Leningrad Region surrounds St. Petersburg, which has the status of a federal city.

SPIEF 2026, which is often referred to as ‘Russian Davos’ due to being the main global economic event hosted by the country, is taking place between June 3 and 6. This year’s forum will be attended by some 20,000 businesspeople, politicians, and public figures from more than 100 nations. Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to address the gathering on Friday.

Moscow previously warned that it would carry out “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure, including drone production facilities, command posts, and “decision-making centers,” in response to Kiev’s terrorist attacks, including the one in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic on May 22.

Ukrainian forces struck a college dormitory in the town of Starobelsk in several waves of drone attacks late at night while students were asleep, killing 21 people, mostly teenage girls, and injuring 70 others.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the Ukrainian leadership had opened “a new chapter in its crime spree” with the attack on Starobelsk, adding that those responsible would face “well-deserved and inevitable punishment.”

For the first time in a long while, Belarus has again found itself at the center of the Ukraine conflict. For more than a month, Vladimir Zelensky has been warning Ukrainians about a supposed threat from the north. Minsk, he claims, is preparing to enter the war and he’s even threatened Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko with either a pre-emptive strike or a kidnapping in the style of Nicolas Maduro.

The rhetoric has now reached the point where Zelensky has ordered preparations for the circular defense of cities in Ukraine’s northern regions, including Kiev itself. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has called Lukashenko for the first time since 2022, apparently to persuade him not to enter the conflict.

The problem is that nothing visible is happening on the Belarusian side of the border. There’s no mobilization and no unusual concentration of Belarusian forces and no redeployment of Russian units. The only recent event that could be stretched into a military signal was last week’s Russian-Belarusian nuclear exercise. But even that took place in the Osipovichi district, in the center of Belarus, and was more about strategic deterrence than any ground operation against Ukraine.

The more obvious question is why Lukashenko would want to join the military operation at all. Such a move would be wholly out of character for him and would run against the geopolitical role he has tried to carve out for Belarus.

Lukashenko has always sought to preserve room for maneuver and he kept doing so after 2020, when he became de facto persona non grata in the West, and even after the conflict escalated in 2022. In the Ukrainian crisis, Belarus has remained largely a passive observer and that arrangement has suited Moscow. For Russia, he’s a valuable diplomatic asset, not a military one.

Could the reverse be true? Perhaps Zelensky is preparing to strike Belarus first, overthrow Lukashenko and open a second front against Russia. His pointed invitation to the fugitive opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya gives this theory a certain surface logic, but the military reality makes it deeply implausible.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ last major offensive operation was the incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region. To mount it, Kiev gathered around 30,000 troops, weakening its positions in Donbass and losing large areas there as a result. Even then, the operation failed to produce a decisive strategic outcome. A serious attack on Belarus would require far more resources. Since then, Ukraine’s army has weakened further and its present ceiling is local counter-attacks in Donbass, so it’s in no position to open a major new front.

Nor would it make strategic sense. Any escalation with Belarus would risk creating another 1,000-kilometer front stretching across Ukraine’s northern flank, with direct threats to Kiev. However odious the Kiev regime may be, it can’t fail to understand this.

The timing is telling. Zelensky began to raise the alarm just as relations between Minsk and Washington showed signs of thawing. In March, the US eased sanctions on Belarus and Washington spoke of reopening its embassy. There was even talk of a possible Lukashenko visit to America and a meeting with Donald Trump.

For Kiev, this is dangerous because Zelensky may fear that the eloquent Belarusian leader could charm Trump and persuade him to increase pressure on Ukraine to bring the conflict to an end. Lukashenko might also secure further sanctions relief, potentially turning Belarus into a hub for the transit of American goods to Russia.

From Kiev’s point of view, that scenario must be prevented. Hence the effort to present Minsk as an imminent threat, because if Belarus can be cast once again as Russia’s military accomplice rather than as a possible diplomatic channel, any US-Belarusian rapprochement becomes far harder to sustain.

In such conditions, inflating a new military threat is politically useful as it allows Zelensky to tell Ukrainians that the gravest crisis is still ahead, and that he remains the horse that cannot be changed midstream.

But the old ‘Russian card’ is wearing thin in the fifth year of hostilities. Ukrainians are tired, mobilized society is fraying, and endless emergency politics no longer works as it once did. So now Kiev is reaching for the ‘Belarus card’.

Will it work? Probably not. At most, it may buy Zelensky a little time, a little fear, and a little more room to maneuver, but as a strategy, it’s thin gruel. Or to put it more appropriately, it is worthy only of a carrot, and a dry one at that.

This article was first published by the online newspaper Gazeta.ru and was translated and edited by the RT team

Moscow has added five British nationals to its blacklist over London’s hostile actions, spread of disinformation, and the concentrated effort “to pump up the Kiev regime with weaponry,” the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.

The ministry announced the move on Tuesday, urging London “to renounce aggressive anti-Russian steps, as well as its support for the [Vladimir] Zelensky regime.” The UK’s effort to prolong the Ukraine conflict no matter what leads only to “further civilian casualties” and ultimately the “destruction of Ukrainian statehood,” it said. 

The latest addition to Russia’s no-entry list includes journalists and experts involved in “disseminating slanderous fabrications and false information.” It also features two heads of “British security companies” that recruit personnel to prop up the Kiev regime under the guise of “implementing pseudo-humanitarian projects in Ukraine,” the ministry stated.

The sanctioned individuals are Catherine Belton and Richard Holmes, journalists with the Washington Post and The i Paper, respectively. The list also includes Alexander Browder, a self-styled corruption and money-laundering expert, described by the ministry as the author of a misleading report for the Henry Jackson Society think tank.

Russian diplomats said work on the blacklist, as well as other retaliatory measures, is bound to continue unless London abandons its hostile stance. 

“We warn that any efforts by British political elites to further fuel Russophobia, deliberately damage our country’s international reputation, and accelerate the anti-Russian sanctions will inevitably be met with a decisive response,” the ministry stated. 

London has emerged as a key backer of Kiev in the Ukraine conflict, actively seeking to derail attempts to resolve it through diplomacy and focusing on inflicting a defeat on Russia instead. The UK has been leading various initiatives to supply Ukrainian forces with increasingly sophisticated weaponry, and to rally additional foreign monetary and military support.

A Colombian mercenary captured by Russian forces after being wounded in combat has spoken with his family for the first time since his detention, describing his decision to fight for Ukraine as the worst mistake of his life.

William Andres Gallego Orozco’s relatives in Colombia learned he was alive after seeing an interview he gave to RT last month. Following the broadcast, family members reached out and contact was established, leading to an emotional video call.

RT correspondent Donald Courter looks back at Gallego Orozco’s capture, his previous interview about the realities faced by foreign fighters in Ukraine, and the reunion with his family after they learned of his whereabouts through RT’s reporting.

Gallego Orozco’s case reflects a broader trend of Colombian nationals joining Ukraine’s military. The South American country has become one of Kiev’s largest sources of foreign recruits as it seeks to offset manpower shortages on the battlefield. According to a February investigation by Ukrainian outlet NV, between 1,000 and 2,000 Colombians were serving with Ukrainian forces at the time, while up to 7,000 are believed to have passed through the country’s ranks since 2022.

The trend has drawn criticism from Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who has argued that his country’s citizens are “dying for nothing” in a foreign conflict. Petro has repeatedly stressed that mercenary activity is illegal under Colombian law and accused recruiters of exploiting vulnerable people. Last October, he voiced concern over the treatment of Colombian fighters in Ukraine and urged those being used as “cannon fodder” to return home immediately.

Watch the video call between William Andres Gallego Orozco and his family in full below.

In May, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan cemented Armenia’s geopolitical pivot away from Russia and toward the EU. At the beginning of the month, Yerevan hosted the 8th summit of the European Political Community. This was the first time that the event was held in a member state of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

While the event itself may seem vague in terms of concrete outcomes, one thing is clear: it allowed EU countries to show political support for certain governments, while those governments demonstrated their loyalty to the bloc.

Just a few days after the summit, Pashinyan directly stated that “Armenia is not an ally of Russia on the issue of Ukraine.” It was already apparent to Russia that Armenia was not neutral on this matter and that it politically backed the Kiev regime. However, highlighting this point was necessary to reaffirm it’s allegiance to Brussels.

The recent European Political Community summit could have been another routine event organized by Brussels to dangle the carrot of ‘European prospects’ before nations aspiring to join the EU. However, it became more than that, turning into a platform for voicing sensitive threats to Russia. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky used the occasion to threaten a strike against Moscow ahead of its Victory Day parade, while French President Emmanuel Macron rhetorically questioned why there is still a Russian military base in Armenia.

Pashinyan must have realized that such statements would irritate Moscow, and could have made an effort to mitigate the fallout with the country that, at least rhetorically, he continues to call a ‘partner’. Nonetheless, he chose to ignore the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council held on May 29 in Astana, sending Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan in his place. Combined with other actions taken by Armenia’s leadership, this sends a strong political signal – not just to Russia, but to the entire EAEU, which, by the way, provides significant economic benefits to Yerevan.

It would be incorrect to say that relations between Moscow and Yerevan have only recently begun to deteriorate. Pashinyan’s pivot toward the EU has been evident for some time, particularly following October 2022, when the Armenian prime minister signed the Prague Statement, recognizing the borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991. 

This tied the borders of the two countries to the state boundaries established at the time of the USSR’s collapse, giving Azerbaijan sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh. In doing so, he fulfilled the wishes of European politicians who were eager to resolve the conflict. Pashinyan seemed to expect assistance from Europeans in defending Armenians in Karabakh, yet all he received were calls for a quick peace that demanded painful concessions from Armenians.

This step had additional consequences. Armenia has never legally recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as its territory, but by signing the Prague Statement, Pashinyan questioned the mandate of Russian peacekeepers who had been in the region since 2020 and ensured adherence to the ceasefire between the parties. Consequently, the issue of the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh officially became an internal matter for Azerbaijan, which Baku acted upon by dissolving the unrecognized state.

In 2025, the Armenian parliament passed a law to initiate the process of joining the EU. Later, while in Washington, Pashinyan agreed to establish the so-called Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (T.R.I.P.P.), a transport corridor that would link Azerbaijan with its exclave Nakhchivan via Armenian territory and would be under US oversight. Essentially, Pashinyan handed over control of this future route to external powers, further compromising Armenia’s sovereignty.

Throughout each stage of this rapprochement, Moscow repeatedly warned Yerevan that integrating into EU structures and markets contradicted Armenia’s participation in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

On May 21, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan emphasized that Yerevan had no intention of leaving the EAEU. Pashinyan echoed this sentiment on May 28, stating that Armenia was not preparing to exit the union. Overall, it’s understandable why Armenian politicians are cautious about leaving the group.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently elaborated on the advantages of the EAEU for Armenia. First and foremost, it gains access to a protected market encompassing the entire group of nations, which includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan — this is a massive market encompassing a population of up to 186 million. Armenia enjoys duty-free trade with these countries, along with shared technical regulations and phytosanitary standards. The logistics established during the Soviet era have been further refined in the context of these nations’ independent development.

Additionally, Russia supplies natural gas to Armenia at a highly subsidized rate — around $150 per 1,000 cubic meters, compared to the European market price of €600. 

Putin also pointed out that Armenia has received significant investments totaling $4.9 billion, with 86% originating from Russia. In contrast, the EU has invested only a few hundred million euros over the past three years while trying to pull Yerevan into its sphere of influence. The EU has stated its intention to invest €2.5 billion in Armenia’s economy, which is considerably less than what Yerevan has already gained from its engagement with the EAEU.

The Armenian GDP could shrink 14% if Armenia loses access to the benefits of the EAEU.

Seemingly hoping to gain some advantage from the current situation, Pashinyan emphasized the need to make a concrete offer instead of resorting to threats. However, this was clearly a rhetorical move; the Armenian leader cannot fail to understand the preferences his country would lose in if it departs the EAEU, and that this, in itself, is Russia’s ‘offer’: benefits which are already in effect, unlike vague promises made by the EU. 

Another pressing issue is the status of Armenian citizens in Russia. Should relations between Yerevan and the EAEU sour, they would face the same requirements as other CIS nationals – such as needing work permits, navigating more complex procedures for obtaining legal status, and experiencing delayed access to compulsory health insurance. This is especially concerning given that remittances from labor migrants constitute a significant part of the income for thousands of households in Armenia.

In Ukraine’s footsteps but with a Moldovan twist

The situation in Armenia strikingly mirrors the developments in Ukraine, where the EU also forced a painful choice upon the government. The Armenian authorities have long followed a similar script, labeling the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as a threat to the country’s sovereignty, branding Russia as a party engaged in “hybrid warfare” against Armenia, and asserting that “Armenia is no longer a brother to Russia.”

On June 7, Armenia will hold parliamentary elections, and it seems unlikely that anyone can challenge Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party. The opposition remains fragmented, and surveys by Europe Elects show a surge in support for the ruling party – from 24% to 65% in just eight days. Yet back in April, Civil Contract’s ratings hadn’t even surpassed 25%.

This has largely been a result of intense pressure on opponents. Samvel Karapetyan, who attempted to defend the Armenian Church from state attacks, remains imprisoned. Other opposition leaders, including Robert Kocharyan, Serzh Sargsyan, and Gagik Tsarukyan, are also under pressure. We observed similar ‘European values’ during last year’s elections in Moldova.

Pashinyan appears increasingly unconcerned about his public image. During a meeting with voters, he told one woman to be grateful for not having had her head cracked open; he also expelled critics from rallies and referred to the Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh as “runaway degenerates”. And all of this occurs as part of an electoral campaign meant to attract new supporters and unify the populace. Perhaps this is the ‘European perspective’ Pashinyan envisions for his citizens. 

The upcoming elections will show whether this resonates with voters. However, we may again remember the example of Moldova, where President Maia Sandu lost domestically but secured votes from the diaspora that allowed her to claim victory. 

The annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) will be held over June 3-6. In its nearly three decades of existence, this event has borne witness to fundamental global shifts – and it has shifted along with the world.

Founded with the aim of facilitating foreign investment in Russia, it became known as Russia’s Davos in the 2000s, when Western executives descended upon St. Petersburg in their private jets in the hopes of securing lucrative business deals. In recent years, SPIEF has a very different feel but it has remained one of Russia’s most important economic forums and is now a key platform for discussing the transformations taking place in the global economy.

This year’s event, as usual, will draw many in the upper echelons of Russia’s business and political elite, as well as foreign business and government representatives from across the globe. Famously dubbed by Alexander Pushkin a “window to Europe,” St. Petersburg is becoming a window to a new multipolar world.

History

SPIEF dates its origin back to 1997, when Russia was struggling through a chaotic and difficult transition to a market economy. Initially, the main goal of SPIEF was to attract foreign investment and project an image of being ready to do business in the post-Soviet world. Just over a year after the first SPIEF was held, Russia would default and plunge into a severe economic crisis.

However, the forum persevered, and as Russia’s economy expanded during the 2000s, Western banks, energy firms, consultancies, and industrial companies started showing up to SPIEF in droves. The event became one of the key stops on the global business calendar.

Russia’s current role in the vanguard of multipolarity has led many to assume that SPIEF has always been centered on Eurasia, BRICS, and the Global South. It wasn’t. Somebody striding through the forum halls around 2010-2013, for example, would have encountered major Wall Street banks and major European energy companies – and possibly European heads of state. Attendees in years past have included, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, EU Jean-Claude Juncker, ex-IMF chief Christine Lagarde, Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfein, and Exxon’s Rex Tillerson. This was a time when Russia was trying to position itself as a central player inside the existing global economic order.

There was traditionally a strong energy angle to SPIEF. Top Western oil and gas executives were a common sight in the midnight sun of St. Petersburg in June. Bankers and businessmen would mingle on the sidelines of the event, sometimes with serious propositions at stake.

Throughout the late 2000s and 2010s, SPIEF became a venue for announcing major energy and infrastructure agreements involving Russia, European states, China, and others. Even when deals were negotiated elsewhere, they were often unveiled at SPIEF because the event provided maximum visibility and prestige.

Over the years, the presidential address became one of the forum’s defining features. Analysts routinely scrutinize these speeches for policy signals.

The Western media has tended to mock the post-2022 SPIEF as passé and insular, with one former attendee telling The Guardian that an invitation to it is “totally toxic.” The lack of Western dignitaries is seen as a step down in prestige. Often left unremarked upon in these accounts is the collapse in popularity and trust in the West itself of the same Western elite that now shuns the forum.

Last year’s event, meanwhile, saw 24,200 participants and media representatives from 144 countries and territories, while over a thousand agreements were signed. The largest delegations came from Indonesia and China.

In the spotlight this year: AI

AI has become a significant area of focus for the Russian government. President Vladimir Putin has established a presidential commission devoted to the development of AI technologies to streamline state policy.

A senior executive at Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank and an innovation leader, recently told RT that “Russia has fertile soil for AI-linked business development.” The bank also released Russia’s first comprehensive guide on integrating artificial intelligence into the production cycle of digital companies.

Not surprisingly, AI is a prominent theme at this year’s SPIEF. In fact, 14 of the roundtable sessions scheduled explicitly mention AI in the title – and that’s only a surface analysis. AI will invariably come up in numerous other talks throughout the three-day event as well.

What is noteworthy is the extent to which the AI discussion has shifted in just a couple of years. For comparison, SPIEF in 2023, which came just months after ChatGPT burst into public consciousness, reflected much of the techno-optimism of the time. The official press release on Sberbank’s AI Journey at SPIEF 2023 displays a focus mostly on AI capability and how its capabilities can be best harnessed. The questions being asked were the same ones many countries were being asked at the time. Implicit was the notion that Russia catching up in an exciting new field.

A session entitled “The Struggle for Economic and Cognitive Influence in the AI Era” promises to address not so much AI as a technology, but, according to the program, “who controls the flow of information and the logic by which it is constructed in this new system” and “whose narratives are reproduced and scaled.”

In other words, this is a shift from asking what AI will deliver to asking what kind of environment AI is producing and who will control it. For Russia, as for a number of other countries, the concept of AI sovereignty has become a central concern. Russia is treating AI very much within the context of a larger state and even civilizational narrative.

What else is on the agenda

The overall theme for this year´s forum is: “Pragmatic Dialogue – The Path to a Stable Future.” A major point of focus is governance in a multipolar world. Whereas Davos might assume the current West-led globalization as the baseline and inquire how it could be better managed, SPIEF is looking to help build a new model of global development. Accordingly, much of the forum will not merely address the question of boosting economic growth, but will grapple with the institutional and technological foundations of a changing world order.

Several thematic blocks have been chosen: A Platform for Global Growth: Shaping a New Development Model, “Putting the People First: A New Development Paradigm”, “Raising the Quality of the Environment for Living and Growth”, “The Technologies Shaping the Future.”

This reflects something of a shift in how sovereignty is being understood. Traditionally associated with territory and borders, sovereignty is increasingly being discussed in the context of scaffolding: supply chains, payment systems, data infrastructure, artificial intelligence, media ecosystems, and technological standards. Many of the forum’s discussions begin from the assumption that countries will seek greater control over critical systems rather than rely exclusively on globally integrated networks.

Return of the West?

After the Ukraine conflict began in 2022, top-level Western representation largely disappeared, although the Western presence didn’t dry up entirely. Now, however, the winds seem to be shifting again.

This comes as numerous Western companies have begun to demonstrate an interest in returning to the Russian market. Several Western oil majors met with Russian industry representatives during an energy conference in Abu Dhabi last November, according to The Economist. Several American firms that had left Russia, including Apple and McDonald’s, have recently registered new Russian trademarks.

In an interview with Russia’s Channel 1 late last year, Putin said: “We have letters from American companies, letters they have sent us where they ask us not to forget about them. These are our former partners who left Russia not on their own will.”

The bottom line

The forum has always been able to change with the times, meeting a panoply of profound challenges throughout its 30-year history. This year, perhaps uniquely, the greatest challenge will not be geopolitical. While old dialogues are rekindled, the rooms of business leaders and politicians will certainly be examining how best to deploy AI, perhaps in a manner that will incubate the tech from the political and economic crisis management that the humans at St. Petersburg have always practiced. 

Armenian citizens will suffer significant economic damages should incumbent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan implement his strategy of breaking trade with Russia in favor of integration with the EU, Russian Parliament Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has said.

Armenians will go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new parliament. The vote is widely viewed as a referendum on the country’s geopolitical alignment, as Pashinyan claims the land-locked post-Soviet republic can benefit greatly from closer ties with the West. 

Volodin on Tuesday accused Pashinyan of misleading voters by downplaying the negative consequences of his proposal, reacting to the prime minister’s promise to compensate farmers from the state budget for any produce that spoils if they lose privileged access to the Russian market.

Armenia is one of five members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) – alongside Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan – an economic organization that operates a single market and harmonizes regulations to facilitate trade, investment and other forms of economic cooperation. Yerevan has been previously warned that membership in the EAEU is incompatible with its EU aspirations.

“Apparently, Pashinyan has made a personal pledge to see Armenia join the EU… while trying to put the costs on the EAEU and Russia,” Volodin wrote. “Obviously, he does not care about the fate of the Armenian people and statehood. He cares about staying in power.”

“The price will be steep,” the official warned.

Volodin compared Armenia’s current trajectory to that of Ukraine, arguing that Kiev’s expectations of greater access to EU markets had failed to materialize and that the country’s agricultural exports had instead faced tariff quotas and other restrictions. He warned that Armenia could face similar risks.

Armenia remains heavily reliant on the Russian market. According to UN data, Russia accounted for nearly 24% of Armenian exports in 2024, making it the country’s second-largest export destination after the UAE. Statistics show that Armenia’s overall exports shrank by nearly 35% year on year in 2025, driven by a decline in Russia-related re-exports and reduced export opportunities amid instability in the Middle East.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Pashinyan reportedly said the referendum on EU membership could only be held if his country formally applies to join the bloc or comes close to obtaining candidate status. Until then, “there will be no referendum,” he said, as quoted by Armenpress. The prime minister described the benefits of EAEU membership as “obvious,” but claimed that the regional organization should create new opportunities for Armenia.

A video showing Russians reacting without hostility to being addressed in Ukrainian on the street has gone viral on social media.

In the clip, filmed last week in the Ural city of Ekaterinburg, blogger Andrey Gorlivsky asks passersby in Ukrainian for directions to the musuem to legendary Russian actor, poet, songwriter and performer, Vladimir Vysotsky.

None of the those approached appeared surprised or offended by the use of Ukrainian, instead responding in Russian, and readily offering help.

The blogger also asked several Ekaterinburg residents how they were able to understand Ukrainian. One man said he has a Ukrainian friend, while another noted that the two languages share many similarities.

Viewers online have contrasted the footage with numerous videos from Ukraine showing disputes over the use of Russian. Despite Kiev’s ongoing efforts to reduce the language’s role in public life, it remains widely spoken across the country and is the primary language for millions.

The effort intensified after the escalation of the conflict in February 2022. Moscow has repeatedly cited the protection of Russian speakers and the restoration of their language rights among its key conditions for a peace settlement.

In December, the Ukrainian parliament stripped Russian of protections granted under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Earlier this year, Kiev also moved to establish a legal basis for a broad ban on Russian literature, paving the way for the removal of such books from circulation.

A graft scheme has been exposed at Energoatom, a Ukrainian energy giant previously linked with an alleged extortion ring run by businessman Timur Mindich, a close associate of Vladimir Zelensky. The alleged crimes were exposed by the same Western-backed anti-corruption agencies.

Mindich, dubbed “Zelensky’s wallet” by the media, fled the country last November shortly before the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) charged him and his associates with running a $100 million extortion scheme at Energoatom. Investigators alleged that contractors were forced by corrupt company management to pay kickbacks from their state contracts.

The newly alleged scheme revealed on Wednesday reportedly involved the theft of at least $3.8 million in public funds during the construction of critical infrastructure for the Tashlyk Pumped-Storage Power Plant in Nikolaev Region. The facility was originally conceived as a Soviet-era project and approved in 1981, but was later scaled back following the collapse of the USSR. Two of its turbines were commissioned in the mid-2000s, while a third was launched only in late 2021.

The anti-corruption agencies said that the de facto owner of several construction companies involved in the project and a former senior manager at Energoatom’s engineering branch had been charged with large-scale embezzlement.

Wartime money cow

Energoatom operates three Soviet-built nuclear power plants, as well as the Tashlyk facility and the Aleksandrovka hydroelectric power station – which complement the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant helping cover peak power grid loads.

While Ukraine and Russia have struck each other’s energy infrastructure during the conflict, nuclear and hydropower sites have largely been spared, as damage to such facilities could trigger major environmental disasters. With Ukraine’s overall generating capacity reduced, Energoatom remains a major source of revenue.

A big graft club in Kiev

The scandal sent shockwaves through the Ukrainian government, as Mindich’s alleged ring involved several senior officials, including a former energy minister, his former deputy who later replaced him in a cabinet reshuffle, and former Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov.

Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, was forced to resign over suspected links to Mindich and has since been charged in a separate alleged money-laundering case connected to the financing of a luxury property development outside Kiev, reportedly owned by Yermak, Mindich, Chernyshov, and Zelensky.

The fugitive businessman’s other interests reportedly focused on the arms giant Fire Point. Leaked surveillance records suggest Minidich secretly ran the company, profiting from his influence on then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who still retains a senior security position in the government.

A plant owned by Fire Point, a Ukrainian defense company widely linked to a high-level corruption scheme involving Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle, has been struck during a Russian raid, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

In a rare occurrence, the ministry provided a detailed list of Ukrainian defense industry enterprises that had been attacked as part of the latest wave of airstrikes on the country earlier on Tuesday.

A Fire Point facility, which produced parts for long-range attack UAVs and missiles, was hit in Dnepropetrovsk Region, it said in a statement.

Originally established as a film scouting agency linked to associates of Vladimir Zelensky, Fire Point was later exposed in leaked conversations involving members of the Ukrainian leader’s inner circle as a vehicle for siphoning off lucrative arms contracts.

Leaked recordings published by Ukrainian media since April suggested that businessman Timur Mindich – who is wanted in Ukraine over an alleged $100 million corruption scheme in the energy sector – effectively controlled Fire Point throughout 2025.

The tapes also indicated that Mindich enjoyed preferential treatment from then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who now serves as secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that ten enterprises manufacturing weapons, inducing UAVs, have been attacked in Kiev. Three recruitment centers have also been hit in the Ukrainian capital, it added.

In the city of Zaporozhye, the Omelchenko machinery plant and the Motor Sich aircraft engine plant were targeted, the statement read.

The raid also targeted six military airfields in Cherkasy, Rovno, Zhytomir, Kirovograd, Khmelnytsky and Kiev Regions, it added.

According to the ministry, the large-scale missile and drone strike against military-related targets in Ukraine was carried out in response to Kiev’s terrorist attacks on civilians, including the one in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic on May 22.

Ukrainian forces struck a college dormitory in the town of Starobelsk in several waves of drone attacks late at night while students were asleep, killing 21 people, mostly teenage girls, and injuring dozens of others.

Ukraine launched explosive-laden drones towards Finland, triggering an alert that affected 1.8 million people, Helsingin Sanomat reported on Monday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The incident took place on May 15 and set off a major security alert in the southern Finnish region of Uusimaa, which includes the country’s capital, Helsinki. The warning halted air traffic at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport and triggered a lockdown order by the authorities.

Finnish officials did not initially disclose details of the alert, stating only that the drones could be approaching from Russia, creating the impression that the threat was linked to Moscow.

According to HS, however, the emergency measures were prompted by a warning from Ukraine, which said it had accidentally sent drones carrying explosives toward Finland.

The Finnish Defense Forces later said no violation of Finnish airspace had been detected. HS reported that it remains unclear why the drones never entered the country, noting that Russian air defenses may have shot them down en route.

The report has prompted criticism from Finnish lawmakers. Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee said they were not told that the warning came from Ukraine, which was essential information that should have been shared immediately.

Last month, Estonia shot down an alleged Ukrainian drone over its territory for the first time, while Latvia saw Ukrainian drones hit oil storage facilities near the Russian border, which ultimately led to the collapse of Prime Minister Evika Silina’s government.

Moscow has repeatedly accused NATO countries of quietly allowing Ukraine to use their airspace for attacks on targets in northwestern Russia, particularly energy infrastructure in Leningrad Region. Russian officials have also warned that Kiev could stage provocations involving drones to draw NATO deeper into the conflict.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo previously said he had told Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky that Helsinki considers Ukrainian aircraft entering its airspace “unacceptable.” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur has likewise urged Kiev to keep its drones away from Estonian territory and to “control their activities better.”

Russian forces have carried out a large-scale missile and drone strike against military-related targets in Ukraine in response to terrorist attacks by Kiev, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

The overnight raid focused on defense industry facilities in the capital, Kiev, parts of Zaporozhye and Kherson regions still under Ukraine’s control, as well as in Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Khmelnitsky, and Sumy regions, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Fuel and transport infrastructure facilities used by Ukrainian forces and military airfields were also hit, it added.

Land- and sea-based precision weapons, including hypersonic missiles and drones, were deployed during the attack, the ministry said.

Multiple videos have been posted on social media, purporting to show explosions in various parts of Ukraine. Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko confirmed partial blackouts in several districts of the capital during the raid.

Moscow previously warned it would carry out “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure, including drone production facilities, command posts, and “decision-making centers,” in response to a terrorist attack in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic on May 22.

Ukrainian forces struck a college dormitory in the town of Starobelsk in several waves of drone attacks late at night while students were asleep, killing 21 people, mostly teenage girls, and injuring 70 others.

Speaking to RT, American journalist John Varoli has defended Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian targets as “legitimate” and fully “allowed by international law,” arguing that Moscow has “a right to dismantle any infrastructure that supports terrorism.” Varoli said “Russian punishment against the Kiev regime is going to continue” and “is going to intensify,” accusing Western nations of backing “a terrorist regime” in Ukraine.

Western intelligence agencies hacked the phones of Russian officials and other people with access to sensitive information, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.

Devices belonging to Russian diplomats, politicians, high-ranking officers and journalists were allegedly compromised, allowing foreign spies to record everything around them and collect vast amounts of data, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

The FSB said that its operatives uncovered “one of the largest operations involving the installation of malicious software on mobile devices.” The scheme had attempted to gather data through covert access to content and messaging, wiretapping of phone conversations, acoustic and video surveillance of the gadget’s surroundings, and through the collection of geolocation and contact data, it added.

“It appears that Western intelligence agencies assumed it would be easier and cheaper to mass hack cell phones than to recruit costly informants among holders of state secrets,” the agency noted.

The sheer volume of information gathered by Western spy agencies would have been impossible for humans to process just a few years ago, but AI is now being used to analyze it within minutes, it stressed.

According to the FSB, the investigation began in 2023 after experts at Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab detected unusual network activity on employees’ Apple devices.

A representative of Kaspersky Lab explained that those targeted by foreign intelligence had received an undetectable message via the standard Apple messaging app, which launched a spy program that quickly gained “complete control” of the phone.

Among other things, the malicious software could “start an audio recording for the next three hours, and it didn’t matter whether the phone had no connection or internet access. As soon as the phone regained connection, that audio recording would be sent to the attacker’s server,” he explained.

The US has been developing its cyber-espionage infrastructure for decades, particularly since the adoption of the Patriot Act in 2001. Introduced in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the legislation gave American intelligence agencies broad powers to demand information from IT companies in the name of national security.

Multiple videos have been published on social media showing explosions rocking Kiev and other Ukrainian cities amid Russian airstrikes. The Defense Ministry in Moscow confirmed carrying out a major raid on military-related targets across Ukraine in response to terror attacks by Vladimir Zelensky’s government.

The first wave of blasts in the Ukrainian capital was heard at around 1:30 AM local time, followed by more explosions in early morning hours, according to Ukrainian officials and media.

In one clip, a powerful blast is followed by the lights going out, plunging much of Kiev into darkness.

Other footage captured the sounds of repeated secondary explosions. The exact locations and types of facilities hit are difficult to verify as Ukrainian authorities tightly restrict information about strike sites and penalize those who share footage of impacts, except when civilian infrastructure is affected.

Multiple blasts were also reported in parts of Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye still under Ukrainian control, as well as in Sumy and Kharkov regions.

Later on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that its bombardment targeted defense industry facilities, fuel and transport infrastructure facilities used by Ukrainian forces, and military airfields across the country.

Land- and sea-based precision weapons, including hypersonic missiles and drones, were deployed during the attack, it said.

The attack on the Starobelsk college dormitory, conducted in several waves late at night while students were sleeping inside, left 21 people dead, mainly teenage girls.

With the Starobelsk massacre, “the Kiev leadership has decided to open a new chapter in its crime spree, to add a new dimension to the conflict as a whole,” President Vladimir Putin said on Monday, adding that the perpetrators will suffer a “well-deserved and inevitable punishment.”

Moscow has accused France and the UK of engaging in “piracy” after French and British naval forces intercepted and diverted a cargo ship sailing from Russia’s Murmansk to Cameroon in international waters.

The vessel, the Tagor, was stopped on Sunday, more than 400 nautical miles off the coast of Brittany, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. French authorities claim the ship was operating under a “false” flag.

In a statement on Tueday, Zakharova said the Russian Embassy in Paris has demanded full information concerning the circumstances of the detention, warning that the operation violated international maritime law. She also stated that Moscow is taking measures to protect Russian crew members aboard the vessel.

The spokeswoman rejected France’s justification for the operation, which cited Article 110 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The provision allows warships to board and inspect vessels on the high seas under limited circumstances, including when a ship is suspected of having no nationality.

However, international maritime law does not permit a warship to compel a vessel to alter course and escort it from international waters to a national port, according to Moscow.

Zakharova also dismissed French President Emmanuel Macron’s insinuation that the ship was violating “international sanctions,” arguing that only restrictions approved by the UN Security Council qualify as international sanctions. Unilateral measures imposed by European states cannot be considered international under law, she said.

The spokeswoman accused European governments of selectively interpreting legal norms to suit their interests, while cautioning that attempts to enforce sanctions in areas governed by freedom of navigation could have broader consequences for global shipping.

She added that many vessels operating in the interests of European countries sail under so-called flags of convenience, cautioning that extending such enforcement practices to the high seas could prove costly for international maritime trade.

Russia has launched this year’s LNG shipment season (NSR), with its nuclear powered icebreakers clearing paths through Arctic ice to keep the Northern Sea Route open for energy exports.

Russia operates the world’s largest fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers. These massive ships support rapid Arctic development and maintain shipping along the NSR – the shortest sea link between Europe and the Asia Pacific, which is faster than traditional routes via the Suez and Panama canals.

An RT crew boarded Russia’s Yamal – one of the world’s most powerful nuclear icebreakers – for a rare look at how the crew lives and works for weeks at a time. Aboard this floating behemoth, a canteen serving four hot meals a day, a fully equipped gym, a sports court, a sauna, a swimming pool, and a Soviet era library help sailors unwind after long shifts. “Every corner of the ship is designed to keep you sharp, fit, and safe,” RT correspondent Anastasia Volodina reports. 

The General Court of the European Union has registered a Central Bank of Russia lawsuit against the European Parliament and the EU Council over the bloc’s €90 billion ($105 billion) loan to Ukraine.

The filing contests an EU mechanism adopted in February that allows proceeds from frozen Russian sovereign assets held in Europe to be used to repay a joint loan to Kiev, the central bank said.

Kiev’s Western backers froze about $300 billion in Russian sovereign state assets after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Moscow has repeatedly said any use of its frozen assets would amount to theft.

The Bank of Russia said the scheme amounts to “an illegal and disguised form of using assets as collateral for a loan,” arguing that it effectively legitimizes the expropriation of sovereign assets.

According to the regulator, the mechanism violates EU law, property rights, and the international legal principle of sovereign immunity afforded to states and central banks.

The Bank of Russia separately challenged that decision before the EU’s General Court in February. In that case, it argued that the asset-freeze regime infringes property rights, the right to effective judicial protection, and the sovereign immunity protections recognized under international law and EU legislation.

The regulator also claimed the measure was adopted through “serious procedural violations,” arguing that it should have required unanimous approval by EU member states rather than a qualified-majority vote.

The Bank of Russia is also locked in a legal dispute with Euroclear, the Belgium-based depository that holds the bulk of Russia’s frozen assets. Last month, Moscow's arbitration court awarded the regulator $230 billion in damages. Euroclear has pledged to appeal.

The Armenian government is forcing the country onto the same anti-Russian path taken by Ukraine, former President Robert Kocharyan has warned ahead of upcoming elections.

In Sunday’s vote, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party will seek a mandate to pursue closer integration with the European Union – a course that could ultimately lead to a break with Russia.

Pashinyan’s party is facing a divided opposition field that includes three major players: Strong Armenia, launched earlier this year by businessman Samvel Karapetyan; the Armenia Alliance, led by former President Kocharyan; and Prosperous Armenia, headed by businessman Gagik Tsarukyan.

While the opposition groups differ over how the landlocked post-Soviet nation’s problems should be addressed, they all blame the current leadership for causing them.

Armenia, he argued, “should stop playing on the differences of great powers and provoking them, putting its own people in harm’s way.”

Yerevan facing either-or choice

Pashinyan, who came to power following street protests in 2018, has presided over a string of crises, including border clashes and a proxy war with neighboring Azerbaijan, an influx of refugees from the now-defunct self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, major protests that he suppressed by accusing critics from the Armenian Apostolic Church of plotting a coup, and a broader economic slowdown.

The prime minister has also accused Russia of failing Armenia in its confrontation with Azerbaijan and has claimed that deeper integration with the EU, along with transit revenues, would deliver a significant economic boost.

Asked about calls to put Armenia’s geopolitical course to a referendum, a proposal voiced by the EES last week, Pashinyan said holding a vote before the choice becomes unavoidable would be “illogical.” Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev compared the approach to the Bolshevik government’s attempt to unilaterally withdraw from World War I without signing a formal peace treaty with Germany.

Leo Trotsky’s formula, often summarized as “no peace, no war, and disband the army,” backfired badly, forcing Soviet Russia to accept the highly unfavorable Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with a country that was later defeated by the Entente powers.

Misleading polls

Without a single consolidated opposition force, Pashinyan appears positioned for a landslide victory, Euronews claimed on Sunday, citing opinion polls. The outlet pointed to a survey by the pollster Breavis, in which 65% of respondents said they planned to vote for the ruling party.

Armenia, Breavis poll:

KP~EPP|~S&D: 65% (+41)
Mer dzevov-*: 12% (+3)
HD/ARF-S&D: 6% (+3)
MPA-*: 4% (+3)
BHK-*: 2% (-1)
DOK-*: 2% (n.a.)
MT-*: 2% (+1)
BDE-*: 2% (n.a.)

+/- vs. 03-13 February 2026

Fieldwork: 05-11 May 2026
Sample size: 1,551

➤ https://t.co/ImUIujL15i pic.twitter.com/SzL4v5va8M

— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) May 30, 2026

However, responses from 51% of those surveyed were excluded because they refused to answer, said they had not yet decided, intended to spoil their ballot, or planned to skip the election altogether.

Pashinyan has taken leave from his duties as prime minister to campaign, and some of his appearances have cast him in an unfavorable light, showing him as short-tempered and thin-skinned. “Be glad your head is not smashed in at the closest toilet,” he told a woman who accused him of betraying national interests.

🇦🇲 Pashinyan shouts down woman who accused him of destroying Armenian statehood at campaign rally

During yet another pre-election event, the Armenian PM lost his composure at a woman in the crowd who accused him of dismantling Armenian statehood.

She stated that the Armenian… pic.twitter.com/aBKEeBOQpR

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) May 18, 2026

When a head of government makes such threats, opinion polls are likely to produce distorted results.

Russia is preparing to host the 12th annual Primakov Readings International Forum, one of the country’s leading platforms for discussion of global politics and the world economy. The event, themed ‘World Without Rules: Power Game?’, will take place in Moscow on June 23–24, 2026, at the Radisson Blu Leninsky Prospect Hotel, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of IMEMO.

The forum is expected to bring together senior Russian officials, including presidential aide Yury Ushakov, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev, alongside leading Russian and international experts in international security, global politics, and economics, as well as diplomats, politicians, and representatives of public organizations.

According to organizers, the program will focus on some of the most pressing challenges in international affairs. Key themes will include the global fallout from regional conflicts, the domestic drivers of US foreign policy, the Middle East conflict and its дальнейшая evolution, scenarios for a new world order, risks to global trade and investment, Eurasian security during Russia’s chairmanship of the CSTO, and AI-driven international competition alongside a new round of military-technological rivalry.

Special attention will be given to prospects for de-escalation in the Middle East, the possible creation of a new regional security architecture, and the role of non-Western countries in stabilizing the region. Participants are also expected to discuss the consequences of the termination of the New START treaty, the risk of a broader collapse of the arms-control system, and the impact of emerging military technologies on strategic stability as the arms race accelerates.

“Both in Russia and globally, the liberal ‘rules-based’ world order has faced harsh and fair criticism. In 2022–2026 it ultimately faded into history,” said Aleksandr Dynkin, president of the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) and a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “We are witnessing a breakdown: there is an obvious fragmentation of the global political and economic architecture, and an almost complete dictatorship of force in international security backed by states’ combined economic and military power, ignoring international law and its institutions.”

Dynkin said that under these conditions, the importance of the remaining “anchors of stability” is growing, along with the demand for strengthening international institutions that can serve as alternatives to Western-led ones. He named Russia-China and Russia-India ties among such anchors, and pointed to BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and ASEAN as key institutions shaping this process.

The event is expected to bring together around 50 experts from 20 countries, including China, India, the US, Iran, the UK, Uzbekistan, and Belarus.

Organized by IMEMO together with the Evgeny Primakov Center for International Cooperation, the forum continues the legacy of Evgeny Primakov, the statesman and scholar after whom it is named. First launched in 2015, the Primakov Readings have become an annual gathering of leading specialists in international relations and the global economy.

Media representatives can apply for accreditation via the official website of the Primakov Readings forum.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has condemned the French seizure of an oil tanker in international waters as “borderline piracy.” Paris had hailed the move as the enforcement of anti-Russian sanctions.

The crude oil tanker Tagor was boarded by French commandos in the Atlantic, with support from the UK and other countries, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday while presenting footage of the raid.

Macron claimed the vessel posed environmental and safety risks and was engaged in the “circumvention of international sanctions,” referring to restrictions adopted by a number of Western countries targeting Russian foreign trade. The measures were imposed without a UN mandate following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

Peskov rejected Macron’s claim that French forces had acted in accordance with international law. He said Russia would “draw on this negative experience” when adjusting the “measures we take to ensure the safety of our shipments.”

La Marine nationale a arraisonné hier matin un nouveau pétrolier sous sanctions internationales en provenance de Russie : le Tagor. Notre détermination est constante et totale.

Cette intervention a été effectuée en Atlantique, en haute mer,… pic.twitter.com/zxEslYjbUE

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 1, 2026

Western raids and Ukrainian bombs

Kiev’s Western backers have accused Russia of using a so-called ‘shadow fleet’ to conceal and maintain international trade flows that they seek to restrict in order to weaken Moscow and aid Ukraine.

Last month, an LNG tanker that had arrived at Russia’s Baltic port of Ust-Luga from Antwerp was found to have been fitted with limpet mines. Moscow said the discovery had prevented what it described as a Ukrainian attempt to trigger a major explosion near the port’s export terminal.

The British backseat driver

According to public maritime tracking data, the Tagor sails under the flag of Madagascar and had previously visited an oil terminal near the northern Russian port of Murmansk. The vessel stopped transmitting transponder data more than a week ago while sailing off the Norwegian coast. Macron did not disclose what role Britain played in the capture of the Tagor.

France carried out a similar operation in March, when its navy intercepted the Deyna, an oil tanker Paris alleged was part of ‘Russian shadow fleet,’ as it sailed through the Mediterranean after having departed Murmansk. The ship was released in mid-April after its owner paid a fine to French authorities over paperwork irregularities.

President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Kazakhstan last week was an important moment in bilateral relations. It gives us the opportunity to think more broadly about the current state of Russia’s relations with those former Soviet republics that remain most friendly towards us.

This is especially necessary now, as elections approach in Armenia and its leadership speaks openly about moving closer to the European Union. Once again, we hear the familiar claim that Russia is “losing” the post-Soviet space. The argument is not new and it’s supported, in different ways, by the open desire of some neighboring states to strengthen cooperation with the West, and by the less visible but steadily growing presence of Western corporations, NGOs and political actors in countries near Russia.

But we should begin with a simple fact. Against the background of the geopolitical catastrophe of 1991, Russia has retained, and continues to retain, considerable influence over its immediate neighborhood.

There are two reasons for this. First, Russia’s size, economy, culture and geography make it a natural center of attraction for states that don’t make hostility to Moscow the organizing principle of their existence. Even Georgia, after bitter experience, has learned that the West is not always capable of helping those it encourages.

Second, most of our neighbors are themselves acting with a degree of statesmanship in that they may maneuver and diversify their foreign relations, but they’re not usually seeking to sever ties with Russia. The established states of the former USSR pursue pragmatic policies and understand the value of their special relationship with Moscow and, in recent years, Russia has also found new ways to ensure that those who benefit from cooperation outnumber those who profit from conflict.

Kazakhstan remains one of the countries with which Russia has the closest and most trusting relations and this was confirmed during Putin’s visit. Kazakhstan’s president, along with the leader of Uzbekistan, attended the May 9 celebrations in Moscow, and cooperation between our countries extends far beyond economics or routine social contacts.

At the same time, Kazakhstan is building relations not only with Russia but also with our adversaries, and while this doesn’t mean Astana wants to distance itself from Moscow, it does mean Kazakhstan must remain part of the global economy on which its export revenues depend. What matters is that it is confidently seeking ways to avoid harming its cooperation with Russia.

A recent example is revealing. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Justice announced that it would not comply with a ruling by the International Financial Centre in Astana upholding a Swiss arbitration decision in the case brought by Ukraine’s Naftogaz against Russia’s Gazprom for more than $1.4 billion. This is precisely the kind of practical behavior that matters more than loud declarations

Armenia presents a more difficult case. The country’s defeat in its confrontation with Azerbaijan has produced deep moral exhaustion and a desire for peace almost at any price. The political forces now in power are exploiting these feelings and trying to convince society that rapprochement with the West is the key to a peaceful future.

The deeper point is that even the best diplomacy cannot always overcome the objective consequences of social development in neighboring states. We understand how profoundly Russian society has changed in recent years and we shouldn’t forget that our neighbors are also undergoing internal transformations.

New generations are coming of age and often they are more nationalistic, partly because they have less direct experience of international engagement and of the shared Soviet past. New elites want to displace older establishments that historically had closer ties with Moscow while longstanding economic problems remain unresolved, often because these states simply lack the resources to solve them.

In Armenia, many young people support the current government not because they hate Russia, but because they see the “European choice” as a route to personal self-fulfillment in the West. Often they are disappointed with their own country and Russia cannot realistically absorb everyone who wants a different future.

Ukraine is another case altogether and the reason for the tragic turn of events there wasn’t primarily a mistake in Russian policy, but the failure of the Ukrainian people to build durable statehood, combined with a systemic Russophobia that had been developing since Soviet times. Georgia’s turn away from a disastrous course after 2012 wasn’t the result of Russian pressure or assistance, but of the Georgian elite and society recognizing their own circumstances. Finland’s anti-Russian shift after 2022, meanwhile, was the product of an internal crisis made irreversible by its entry into the European Union’s political and economic system.

Most importantly, we must think long term because history doesn’t end with tomorrow’s statement from Brussels or Donald Trump’s next social media post. Russia’s relations with its neighbors move in cycles and the setbacks we are seeing now will eventually be followed by a return to a more favorable trajectory.

We often admire the ability of the United States to influence other countries, but what Russia should learn most from the Americans is their historical optimism and not their pressure tactics. Even in Latin America, the region closest to the US, Washington’s influence has never been absolute and look at how Venezuela has been governed since 1999 by forces openly unfriendly to America. Cuba has remained outside American control for decades and Nicaragua returned Daniel Ortega, an old friend of the USSR, to power after years of pro-American rule.

None of this led Washington to conclude that history was over or that every unfriendly turn was irreversible. Russia should adopt the same patience. The Soviet Union weakened itself partly through excessive spending on its external presence. We must not repeat that mistake, because for a military superpower, the most dangerous enemy is often itself.

Russia’s own socio-economic stability is more important than events in the post-Soviet space or anywhere else. This doesn’t mean retreating from our neighbors and, on the contrary, we should strengthen ties through trade and human contact, and we shouldn’t treat every ebb and flow in these relations as a tragedy.

This article was first published by Vzglyad newspaper and translated and edited by the RT team.

Moldova is not ready to join NATO because its own citizens don’t want the membership, Foreign Minister Mihai Popsoi has admitted.

Popsoi, a close ally of pro-Western president Maia Sandu, made the remarks on Saturday in an interview with Vocea Basarabiei TV, where he was asked whether he thought the former Soviet republic should seek closer ties with NATO or pursue full membership.

While Popsoi called himself “a sincere supporter of everything related to Euro-Atlantic security,” he acknowledged that public support is not there.

“Integration into NATO, as into any other international structure, depends on the will of our citizens. Once there is a significant majority support for joining the North Atlantic Alliance, this can be examined as a natural option... In our case, historically, for various reasons, this significant majority has not existed,” he said.

In addition to insufficient popular support, another factor blocking Moldova’s potential membership is the breakaway region of Transnistria, which seceded from the country after a short war in the early 1990s. Transnistria currently hosts Russian peacekeepers to maintain the ceasefire and guard Soviet-era weapons and ammunition stockpiles.

The Sandu government has been pushing for integration with the EU, but the president herself also acknowledged the lack of public appetite for NATO membership. She, however, tried to explain the overbearing “fear of NATO” by what she described as “years of propaganda by the Russian Federation.”

Russia has long been vehemently opposed to any NATO expansion, viewing it as an existential threat. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also suggested that Moldova’s current authorities are making a “serious mistake” by making Russia their antagonist for the sake of building relations with the West.

Popsoi also weighed in on another politically charged question: unification with neighboring Romania – which would automatically bring Moldova into NATO. He said that while he is personally in favor, such a move would require “a pragmatic discussion [and] a dialogue with all our citizens.” According to an IMAS poll, only 30% would back unification.

“Would you like me to help with the other problems on the list?”

That was the sentence a physics teacher recently found at the end of a pupil’s homework assignment. The solution itself was elegant and correct. Unfortunately, it was not produced by the child. It was generated by artificial intelligence and copied so carelessly that the pupil left in the chatbot’s question.

A video on this went viral because it was funny in the uneasy way bad news can be funny. Today’s schoolchildren, it seems, are not only forgetting how to think, but some are forgetting how to cheat properly.

This might have remained another sad school anecdote if President Vladimir Putin had not instructed the State Council at around the same time to prepare proposals for changing federal education standards and incorporating AI into them. So we are no longer discussing a toy, a novelty, or a passing panic – we’re discussing the future of Russian education.

At first glance, ordinary citizens may think this only concerns teachers and administrators. But the consequences won’t remain inside the classroom. They will shape the way children read, write, argue, remember, and think.

The statistics already tell the story. By 2025, the share of student work written with the help of AI had risen from 17.8% to 24%. Nearly a quarter of presentations, essays, coursework, and even dissertations are now being produced with AI assistance. Among school pupils, the scale is greater still; 29% of Russian pupils admit they use AI tools to do homework, while 23% use them out of boredom, as a substitute for real conversation.

Teachers don’t need surveys, because we see the problem every day. I once had a pupil who wrote excellent essays at home but consistently failed creative assignments in class. His homework passed anti-plagiarism checks perfectly, and I couldn’t accuse him without proof. The Russian language Unified State Exam settled the matter, as when he was deprived of his digital ghostwriter, he suffered a complete fiasco. His supposed literary ability belonged to a neural network.

If we don’t stop and think seriously about this uncontrolled integration of AI into education, the future looks bleak.

The risks identified by teachers and experts are real. In surveys, 36% of respondents say they fear reduced mental effort will damage children’s development while another 31% worry about the decline of face-to-face interaction. A further 27% fear a collapse in motivation and the rise of catastrophic laziness.

This is the central danger because AI doesn’t merely help a child avoid effort, it can imitate effort. It can produce the appearance of thought and even personality. A bad essay written by a child is still a human document as it contains errors, awkwardness, effort, fear, ambition, and sometimes buried inside, a living voice. A polished AI essay might contain none of this.

IT pioneer Natalya Kaspersky has said we risk raising “a generation of complete idiots.” You might not like the harshness of her words, but there’s a grain of truth in them. If a child today cannot even thoughtfully rewrite an answer produced by a machine, what will happen in two or three years? Will our children still write and formulate thoughts of their own, or will they outsource these basic human acts to an algorithm?

Still, pretending we can simply ban AI from the classroom would be childish, and burying your head in the sand never works. Nor does fanatically opposing innovation. Those who try to keep technology out of school entirely will lose, and the only serious answer is to teach children how to use AI intelligently, without surrendering their own minds to it.

The problem is that neither teachers nor pupils have yet been properly taught how to use this tool.

I remember how my parents, who were programmers, feared that calculators would destroy mathematical thinking. In the end, calculators destroyed nothing in those who had first learned to count, and they freed the brain instead for more complex work – but only after the basic skill was formed.

This is the principle we must apply to AI. Children must first learn to think, read, write, argue, doubt, calculate, and express themselves, and only then should the neural network become an additional layer of intellect. 

What can a teacher or parent give a child that no neural network can provide? The answer is simple and old-fashioned: Living human contact and real conversation. The spark of shared thought and the discipline of disagreement. Emotion that hasn’t been simulated.

Even the most advanced AI can’t feel anything. But it can imitate feelings, and a lonely child might accept this imitation if nothing better is available.

Are teachers to blame? Only partly, but as long as Russia remains desperately short of teachers, neural networks will remain the most accessible ‘tutor’ for many families. For parents, they are convenient; for pupils, they are obedient. For administrators, they create the illusion of improved results.

That’s why the issue can’t be resolved by scolding children or laughing at them for copying chatbot replies. If we don’t restore the authority of the teacher, reduce bureaucracy, fill staff shortages, and teach both adults and children how to work with AI honestly, then the machine will take the place of thought.

And our children will continue typing ‘essay on the topic’ into a search bar, while the neural network politely finishes their education with the same fatal question: 

‘Would you like me to help with anything else?’

This article was first published by the online newspaper Gazeta.ru and was translated and edited by the RT team

Russia is set to take Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia to the UN’s top court over the systematic crackdown on Russian-speakers, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has announced, adding that the pre-trial phase of the dispute is coming to an end.

Moscow has for years sounded the alarm over the three former Soviet republics, which it accuses of restricting the rights of the Russian-speaking minority populations. It has accused the Baltic states of flagrantly violating the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Speaking to RIA Novosti on Sunday, Zakharova blasted Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia over their “refusal to negotiate and unconstructive reaction to Russia’s grievances,” stressing that this will lead to litigation in the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ).

It accused the Latvian authorities of carrying out a purge of dissents from the country’s information space “under the trumped-up pretext of combating ‘Russian propaganda.’” In Estonia, the Foreign Ministry said the rights of the “non-titular” population are openly restricted.

All three Baltic governments have dismissed the potential ICJ lawsuit. Lithuania called the allegations “entirely unfounded” and part of a Russian “campaign of lies and disinformation aimed at discrediting the Baltic states.” 

The Hague-based ICJ specializes in settling disputes exclusively between nations under international law. The court was deliberately designed without a mechanism to compel, with the function falling under the purview of the UN Security Council – where any of the five permanent members can use their veto power to block rulings.

Since breaking away from the Soviet Union in 1991, the three Baltic states have worked to phase out Russian from most walks of life. The effort picked up pace in 2022 after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict.

In recent years, Latvia has moved to conduct all general education exclusively in Latvian, while Russian as a second language will be removed from schools and replaced with EU languages. All three nations have also moved to curb access to Russian-language media.

On top of this, around 60,000 people in Estonia have ‘undetermined citizenship’, while 175,000 in Latvia – around 9% of the population – are classified as non-citizens. These individuals cannot vote in national elections, run for office, and work in certain sectors. In 2025, the Estonian parliament voted to amend the constitution, stripping Russian and Belarusian citizens of the right to vote in local elections.

Swiss artist Micha Hani (Vierwind) has created a massive mural of Jesus Christ using a decommissioned passenger jet in Armenia as a canvas. The installation can only be viewed in its entirety from above as all the elements merge into a single image.

Jesus’ outstretched arms are painted onto the wings, with the entire structure resembling a crucifix.

The scenic views of Lake Sevan, on whose shore the old Soviet Yak-40 has stood idle for years, add to the artistic experience, as seen in Ruptly drone footage.

It took Hani six days in mid-May to paint the aircraft’s fuselage, but he had spent several months preparing for the project beforehand, he told the Russian video agency.

“Getting the proportions exactly right so that the image looks ideal from every angle was the most difficult part,” the artist said, citing the plane’s complex shape.

Hani explained that he had opted for such an unusual canvas because he felt that “there is something both powerful and at the same time fragile in the plane.”

His choice of Armenia as the location for his installation was no coincidence either, Vierwind told Ruptly, noting that the South Caucasus nation “has an incredible wealth of history and spirituality.”

With a background in 3D poly design, the Bern-born artist currently specializes in painting, graffiti, and illustrations, and views his art as inclusive in the sense that people “who would never set foot in a gallery” can still encounter his works in public spaces.

King Tiridates III proclaimed Christianity the state religion of ancient Armenia in 301 AD. The faith has persisted through the highs and lows of the nation’s turbulent history ever since.

Three civilians were killed and four others injured after Ukrainian drones targeted civilian vehicles in Belgorod Region, Russia, the local authorities have said.

A man lost his life “as a result of drone detonation” after the Ukrainian military attacked the village of Oktyabrsky in the early hours of Saturday, officials reported. Around the same time, Ukrainian forces “deliberately” struck a civilian car with an FPV drone in the same area, killing two occupants and injuring the two others.

Several hours later, another vehicle came under a Ukrainian drone attack in Oktyabrsky, leaving one person injured.

A separate Ukrainian drone attack also targeting a civilian vehicle in the village of Orlovka in Belgorod Region later on Saturday left a man with shrapnel injuries, according to the authorities.

In Rostov Region, Russia, Ukrainian UAVs attacked the sea port in the city of Taganrog overnight, setting a tanker and a fuel tank ashore ablaze, Governor Yury Slyusar stated, adding that the fire has since been extinguished, with no leaks reported.

The Russian Defense Ministry estimated that a total of 127 Ukrainian UAVs were intercepted Friday evening to Saturday morning over several Russian regions.

In recent months, Ukraine has intensified its drone raids deep into Russian territory, targeting civilian infrastructure, industrial sites, and residential buildings. These attacks have increasingly targeted Russia’s oil infrastructure.

In April, Ukrainian UAVs hit an oil refinery and an adjacent marine terminal in Tuapse, Russia, a key port in Krasnodar Region. The ensuing fire led to high-risk air pollution, with miles of the beach in the resort town destroyed by an oil spill.

Moscow has accused Kiev of resorting to terrorist attacks to compensate for the setbacks the Ukrainian military has been suffering on the battlefield.

Russia has responded with long-range strikes of its own, saying it only targets Ukrainian dual-use critical infrastructure and military installations, and never civilian sites.

The Ukrainian military attacked Russia’s Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), puncturing a hole in the machine hall of one of the facility’s units, Aleksey Likhachev, CEO of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has said.

The ZNPP – which has repeatedly been attacked by Kiev forces over the past years – came under a new attack on Saturday, with a fiber-optics-guided drone making it to the machine hall of the sixth power unit of the plant. Given that such munitions are guided by their operators until the impact, the strike was carried out deliberately, and any “theories of an accidental hit” can be ruled out, Likhachev stated.

“One could, if I may put it this way, ‘congratulate’ the entire international community – this is the first-ever deliberate attack on the nuclear power plant’s main equipment, with a penetrative explosion and damage to the machine hall,” he said.

The Ukrainian armed forces repeatedly cross not just red lines, but the very boundaries of common sense. What to expect next? Strikes directly on the turbine? The reactor hall? The reactor and its safety systems?

Russia has repeatedly drawn the attention of the international community to the “extremely dangerous behavior” on Kiev’s part, the nuclear chief added. Many appear not to take the continuing attacks on the ZNPP “seriously,” while a potential nuclear incident at the plant could spread well beyond Russia and Ukraine, affecting those believing themselves to be “completely safe,” Likhachev warned.

The Ukrainian military has denied any involvement, claiming it does not possess fiber-optics-guided drones of sufficient range or packed with powerful enough charges capable of penetrating a wall. The power station, however, is located on the bank of the Dnieper River, with the Ukrainian-held part of the region lying immediately across the waterway.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi has expressed “serious concern” over the “reported incident” at the plant, the organization said. Grossi warned against attacks on nuclear sites, describing them as “playing with fire.” The agency added that it had requested access “to examine the affected turbine building first-hand.”

A team of IAEA experts visited the plant on Sunday to assess the damage, Russia’s envoy to the agency and other international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, has said. He shared footage from the scene, showing the hole in the wall of the machine hall punctured by the Ukrainian drone, as well as fragments of the UAV and the fiber optic cord it left behind. 

The consequences of a Ukrainian drone entering the mashing block of Power Unit number 6 at the Zaporozhskaya NPP on May 30. As the #IAEA Director General said yesterday, they are playing with fire. pic.twitter.com/eyTLGmYkrW

— Mikhail Ulyanov (@Amb_Ulyanov) May 31, 2026

The IAEA said its team had observed damage “consistent with the impact of a drone,” with “a few pieces of debris and burned optical fiber remains” found on the ground. During the visit to the plant, the experts were “told to shelter after hearing the sound of drones nearby and gunfire to repel them,” the agency noted.

In recent weeks, the Ukrainian military has ramped up attacks on the plant, repeatedly striking structures within its perimeter and targeting the facility’s employees. The ZNPP came under Moscow’s control early in the conflict and has been operated by Rosatom after the Zaporozhye Region voted to join Russia in a referendum in the fall of 2022.

Ex-Russian President and Deputy Chief of the Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, warned that the potential destruction of a power unit at the ZNPP would result in a “new Chernobyl.” An incident of such magnitude is “not any better than the use of tactical nuclear weaponry,” he said, adding that it could ultimately prompt “symmetrical” retaliatory strikes on nuclear power plants in Ukraine and “NATO nations involved in the conflict.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin took questions from reporters during his trip to Kazakhstan on Friday, providing an update on the Ukraine conflict and tensions with NATO in Europe.

He also commented on the recent drone incident in Romania, which NATO blamed on Russia, and touched on foreign policy debates in Armenia, a former Soviet state and longtime Russian ally.

Russia has the upper hand on the battlefield

The Ukraine conflict is nearing the end as the Russian military continues its offensive on all fronts, Putin said, adding that it would be “unwise” to provide a specific timeline.

“The situation on the battlefield gives reason to believe that (the conflict) is drawing to a close.”

He went on to say that although Moscow maintains “certain contacts,” no peace talks are being held at the moment.

While the US has been preoccupied with the Iran conflict, some EU officials have begun floating the idea of resuming talks with Russia, which were suspended in 2022.

The president reiterated that Russia has no intention of attacking NATO or EU members, dismissing claims to the contrary as “brazen lies.” He reiterated Russia’s position that it was forced to intervene in Ukraine after Kiev failed to implement the 2014-15 Minsk accords with the breakaway Donbass republics, which later voted to become part of Russia.

Western leaders are using the conflict to justify “unreasonable” military spending hikes, Putin argued. “They should not mislead their own people.”

Aggressors will be razed to the ground

Putin warned, however, Russia has the capability to “raze to the ground” any country that attempts to attack it.

He was responding to Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys, who said this month that, in the event of a conflict, NATO must demonstrate that it “can break into” Kaliningrad Region, a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania.

He warned that Russia would treat all Ukrainian drone launch sites as legitimate targets, even if they operate from the Baltic states.

Putin called for an objective investigation into a drone strike on a residential building in the Romanian city of Galati near the Ukrainian border on Friday, which injured two people. Romania, along with its NATO allies, blamed Russia for the intrusion.

The president said Romania should provide objective data about the incident, just as Russia handed over decoded flight data from a Ukrainian drone shot down last year en route to one of Putin’s residences. He noted that suspected Ukrainian drones have veered into the Baltic states and Finland in recent months.

Western media outlets ‘making fools of’ their own audiences

Putin said the Western media is “a tool for making fools of people” that is used to channel more money into Ukraine. He blasted foreign news outlets for their failure to cover the Ukrainian drone strikes on a college in Starobelsk last week, which killed 21 students and injured more than 40 others.

Moscow has criticized outlets including CNN and the BBC for declining an invitation to travel to Starobelsk.

Armenia’s economy will suffer if it cuts ties with Russia

Commenting on the upcoming parliamentary elections in Armenia, Putin said the country’s drive for closer integration with the EU could eventually become incompatible with its membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Leaving the EAEU would cost Armenia at least 14% of its GDP, he said.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who was recently endorsed by US President Donald Trump, said Armenia is not planning to terminate its membership in the EAEU at this stage, but that voters would ultimately decide between the two economic blocs.

Russia is Armenia’s largest trading partner and provides the country with discounted natural gas.

Advantages in AI technology

Russia is one of the few countries with the human capital and energy resources to develop its own sovereign artificial intelligence, Putin said.

“We have enormous capabilities in nuclear and hydroelectric power, particularly in Siberia,” he said, adding that Russia has “clear advantages” in the global AI race.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has urged his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to take the lead in promoting dialogue between the EU and Russia, saying the Ukraine conflict should be resolved through direct talks rather than further escalation.

Speaking to journalists on Friday, Lukashenko revealed details of a phone call with Macron on May 24, saying he proposed a meeting in Minsk involving himself, the French president, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to Lukashenko, Macron did not rule out such a meeting but said he would first need to consult with his European allies. The Belarusian leader said he responded by urging Macron to take the initiative, describing him as one of Europe's most experienced statesmen.

“You’re the veteran among Europe’s leaders. Today, you are the key player and the driving force in Europe,” Lukashenko recalled telling Macron. “You should call Putin, come, sit down, and talk man to man.”

EU officials have for months complained that US-Russian negotiations on the Ukraine conflict have left the Europeans sidelined. However, the 27-member bloc has still failed to agree on who could speak for its interests in possible direct negotiations with Moscow, which Brussels cut off after the escalation of the conflict in 2022.

According to Lukashenko, Macron had also expressed concerns about Belarus potentially being drawn deeper into the Ukraine conflict.

The Belarusian leader dismissed such speculation, stating: “I am not planning to enter any war. Why would I?”

Lukashenko also rejected claims that recent joint nuclear drills conducted by Moscow and Minsk signaled preparations for a wider escalation.

Russia stationed nuclear weapons in Belarus in 2023, following repeated requests from Minsk. It also deployed its nuclear-capable Oreshnik hypersonic missile system there last year. The Belarusian leadership cited aggressive Western policies as the reason for the deployment.

According to Lukashenko, Minsk would consider using nuclear weapons only in the event of an attack on the country.

Romania has provided no evidence that a drone which struck a residential building in the city of Galati came from Russia, Moscow’s ambassador to Bucharest, Vladimir Lipaev, has told RT.

A drone carrying explosives hit the 10th floor of an apartment block in eastern Romania near the Ukrainian border on Friday, injuring two people. Romania’s Defense Ministry has claimed the UAV had come from Russia.

Lipaev said he was summoned to the Romanian Foreign Ministry over the incident, but noted that officials did not provide any evidence to support their accusations.

“Unfortunately, they never provided any evidence, as usual,” the ambassador said, noting that Russia regularly faces “baseless claims” that it has violated Romania’s airspace and has never received any detailed information regarding such incidents.

He added that Bucharest appeared to have already made up its mind before hearing Russia’s position and ignored Moscow’s arguments or requests for basic information about the alleged airspace violation, including the drone’s route, speed, location, and time spent inside Romanian territory.

Following the incident, Romania announced the closure of Russia’s consulate general in Constanta and declared the Russian consul general persona non grata.

“It seems that the decision to stop the Russian General Consulate in Constanta was made before we could even provide our position,” Lipaev said, stressing that there was “no connection” between the drone crash and the consulate’s work. The measure appeared to have been prepared in advance, he suggested.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for an “objective investigation” into a drone incident in Romania in which two people were injured. Moscow is ready to share its assessment if it is provided with either the debris of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or the data about it, he told journalists on Friday.

A drone crashed into an apartment block in the eastern Romanian city of Galati near the Ukrainian border early on Friday. The Romanian Defense Ministry claimed the UAV had originated from Russia.

Putin noted that drones have previously crashed in various EU nations, including Finland, Poland, and the Baltic States.

“A short time later, it would emerge that these incidents had nothing to do with Russian aircraft at all. Rather, they involved drones of Ukrainian origin that had gone off course due to electronic warfare… or technical shortcomings,” the president said during his visit to Kazakhstan.

Putin called on the Romanian authorities to share “objective evidence” with Russia, adding that Moscow did the same when the Ukrainian military targeted a Russian presidential residence in a drone strike. “Let them [Romanians] do the same and provide the evidence to us,” he added.

“Some of them were shot down over Ukrainian territory, and one of them was probably hit above the city of Reni. Its trajectory changed and it came toward Galati,” he said, adding that the Romanian authorities have data on the drone’s movement. According to Dan, the incident was not considered a deliberate attack by Russia but rather the consequence of military operations not far from the Romanian border.

Russia has previously been blamed for drone and missile incidents in EU nations. One of the most high-profile incidents involved an S-300 air defense missile killing two people in Poland not far from the Ukrainian border in 2022.

Kiev was quick to frame the incident as a Russian attack “on the collective security” of NATO while Warsaw eventually determined that the projectile had been fired by Ukraine in a bid to repel a Russian strike on targets inside Ukraine.

A Ukrainian drone raid last week devastated a college dormitory in Starobelsk, in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic, killing 21 students – most of them young women – and injuring dozens others.

The attack was a deliberate “double-tap” that included two more waves of drones targeting civilians and first responders who raced to the scene, according to Russian officials. Russia branded the raid a “terrorist attack” and a blatant war crime. Horrific footage from the scene backed up the accusations.

However, speaking at an emergency UN Security Council session, Ukrainian envoy to the UN Andrey Melnik dismissed Moscow’s account, denigrating a “so-called incident” in Starobelsk as “a fake story” and accusing Russia of spreading “yet another propaganda narrative.”

Here is what Ukraine and the West do not want you to know about the Starobelsk tragedy.

What really happened in Starobelsk?

RT senior correspondent Murad Gazdiev was among the first journalists to reach the site, reporting from the scene throughout the two-day search-and-rescue operation. The most horrific thing when he arrived was “children still screaming under the rubble.” According to Gazdiev, blood-stained blankets were visible in the hallway where first responders pulled out the dead, and the ground was littered with students’ belongings and books.

Who was killed by Ukraine in Starobelsk?

Among those trapped was 19-year-old Dasha Serdyuk. In her final moments of life, she filmed herself and sent a short video to her friend Nastya in St. Petersburg, pleading for help. Dasha had reportedly dreamed of becoming a kindergarten teacher and had only one year of studies left.

An eyewitness described watching a girl sprint from the building mid-attack, telling local media that she managed to leave the dorm but was killed by the blast wave outside.

Another victim, identified by the Mash outlet only as Anya, also tried to flee during the strike but was killed by the second drone barrage. An unnamed relative interviewed by the channel said that her body was so severely burned that family members could identify her only by her necklace and earrings. Anya is said to have been due to be married in the summer and is survived by her mother, grandmother, and 10-year-old sister.

Olga Vasilenko, a mother of Anastasia, an 18-year-old student at the college also killed in the strike, recalled, as cited by several Russian media: “She called me in the evening, saying: ‘Mom, we’re being bombed’. And then she stopped answering my calls”.

Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, published photos of all 21 victims – some just 18 years old – offering condolences. “It’s impossible to imagine the pain of a parent who has lost the dearest thing in life – their child,” she said.

Do Ukraine’s claims stand up?

There have been no videos from the scene suggesting even the slightest sign of military-related activity. “There wasn’t even a hint of military personnel here. It was a targeted attack on children,” Roman Antonov, a local firefighter, told RT in the aftermath of the strike.

A video shared by Mash made before the strike shows students doing what students do – dancing, laughing, and having fun, with some seen washing floors in the dormitory.

What has taken place at the site since Kiev’s strikes?

In the days that have followed, residents, relatives of the dead, survivors, and college staff brought flowers and stuffed animals to the ruins. Churches in Starobelsk have held numerous services for the dead and prayers for the wounded.

A harrowing video has surfaced on social media, reportedly of parents identifying the bodies of their children, with audible, desperate screams.

In preparation for the funeral, relatives brought numerous wedding dresses to the local morgue: the young women killed in the strike were to be buried in them.

The death of 21 young people prompted a desire for revenge within the Russian military, with one drone operator filmed inscribing ‘Starobelsk’ on an attack UAV before launching it towards Ukrainian armed forces positions. Russia has maintained it targets only military-related sites.

Meanwhile, within days of the attack, Mirotvorets, a Ukrainian state-linked website that functions as a de facto ‘kill list,’ added ten staff members of the college – including deputy directors and teachers – accusing them of undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty and spreading propaganda among minors.

Russia launched a large-scale strike on Ukrainian military-related targets, including in Kiev. The assault employed the Oreshnik intermediate-range hypersonic missile system, alongside Iskander ballistic missiles and Kinzhal and Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles.

How has the West responded?

No Western country has spoken about holding Ukraine accountable, while any comments attempted to cast doubt on the facts – a classic hybrid war tactic Western media organizations themselves spend so much time warning of.

Some of Kiev’s backers have demanded “an independent investigation”, while claiming that the tragedy occurred on what they called “occupied Ukrainian territory.” Meaning that Ukraine brutally bombed students in land Kiev actually still claims.

While being conspicuously silent about the dead students, Western leaders have rushed to condemn Moscow’s response. Russia’s UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia subsequently accused Western countries of “hypocrisy and cynicism.”

She later noted that CNN had aired a segment on Ukrainian drone operations, wondering whether the American network filmed the preparations for a Starobelsk strike.

Is Ukraine lying about the mass murder of students?

The facts from the ground, the harrowing scenes and identification of all 21 young victims, along with multiple testimonies, suggest clearly that the atrocity took place, and that Kiev’s denials are obvious attempts to deflect its responsibility.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Kazakhstan carries significance well beyond the immediate agenda of bilateral talks. As his second state visit to the country in just two years – an unusual frequency for the highest level of diplomatic engagement – it reflects the depth of relations between Moscow and Astana and the durability of a strategic partnership that has remained a defining feature of the regional landscape.

The visit comes at a moment when Central Asia is attracting growing attention from external powers and Kazakhstan continues to expand its diplomatic engagement with China, Türkiye, the European Union, and the United States. Within this increasingly competitive environment, the meeting serves as a reminder that Russia retains a central place in Kazakhstan’s foreign policy calculations and that political dialogue between the two capitals remains steady, direct, and highly institutionalized.

The symbolism surrounding the visit has reinforced that message. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev personally welcomed Putin upon arrival, Kazakh Air Force jets escorted the Russian leader’s aircraft, and the two presidents later met again outside the Palace of Independence. Taken together, these gestures conveyed a level of political attention rarely reserved for routine diplomatic exchanges and publicly underscored the special status Russia continues to enjoy in Kazakhstan’s external relations.

If relations between Moscow and Astana are increasingly being anchored in infrastructure, energy, technology, and long-term investment, what does this tell us about the emerging architecture of Eurasia?

Turning political trust into institutions

Kazakhstan occupies a pivotal position in Central Asia, combining vast territory, abundant natural resources, significant transit potential, and a strategic location at the intersection of major Eurasian transport routes. Relations between Russia and Kazakhstan rest on a unique foundation shaped by shared history, deep economic linkages, extensive humanitarian contacts, and the world’s longest continuous land border, stretching 7,599 km. Geography continues to exert a powerful influence on the relationship, embedding cooperation between the two countries within broader questions of national security, economic resilience, energy connectivity, and regional stability. Cross-border trade, transport corridors, industrial supply chains, migration flows, and critical infrastructure create a dense network of interdependence that gives the partnership a long-term structural character.

The visit has produced a substantial political agenda. Following their talks, Putin and Tokayev signed the Joint Statement on the Seven Pillars of Friendship and Good-Neighborliness, alongside a broader package of bilateral agreements. The statement carries particular significance because it codifies the core principles underpinning the long-term Russia-Kazakhstan partnership, including political trust, security cooperation, economic collaboration, humanitarian ties, and a shared historical legacy.

The economics behind the partnership

The economic dimension of Russia-Kazakhstan relations provides one of the clearest indicators of the partnership’s depth and durability. Russian investment in Kazakhstan has approached $30 billion, reflecting a long-term commitment that extends across multiple sectors of the economy. The scale of this engagement is also evident in the corporate sphere, where companies established with Russian participation account for more than 40% of all Kazakh legal entities involving foreign capital.

Investment activity spans well beyond natural resources. Around 70 major projects involving Russian investors are currently being implemented in sectors such as automotive manufacturing, heavy engineering, and chemicals, generating more than 60,000 jobs and contributing to Kazakhstan’s broader industrial development. These projects have fostered production networks, technological cooperation, and supply chains that reinforce economic connectivity between the two countries.

Trade remains another central pillar of the relationship. Bilateral trade reached approximately $27.4 billion in 2025 and continued to expand in early 2026, demonstrating the resilience of commercial ties despite a rapidly changing international economic environment. An equally important trend is the growing use of national currencies in mutual settlements, which has strengthened the autonomy of bilateral trade and aligned with broader efforts to develop alternative financial mechanisms across Eurasia.

Energy continues to occupy a central place in Russia-Kazakhstan relations, reflecting the broader infrastructure links that connect the two economies. More than 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports reach international markets through Russian territory via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, making transport infrastructure a critical component of Kazakhstan’s export strategy and a key element of bilateral economic connectivity.

Cooperation extends into the gas sector, where plans to modernize and expand Kazakhstan’s gas transportation network with Gazprom’s participation underscore the long-term nature of the partnership. These initiatives carry significance for regional development, energy security, and the expansion of domestic gas infrastructure across Kazakhstan.

Taken together, these projects illustrate the extent to which energy cooperation has become embedded within the broader economic relationship. Oil transit, gas infrastructure, and cross-border energy networks have created enduring linkages that continue to shape the strategic calculations of both countries.

Kazakhstan’s nuclear choice

Among the most consequential outcomes associated with Putin’s visit is the advancement of plans for Kazakhstan’s first nuclear power plant, a project that carries significance extending well beyond the energy sector. After considering proposals from several international contenders, including France and South Korea, Astana selected Rosatom for the leading role in the project, placing Russia at the center of one of the country’s most important infrastructure initiatives.

Nuclear energy projects create long-term technological, financial, and institutional linkages between supplier and recipient states. The construction and operation of a nuclear power plant require sustained cooperation in areas ranging from fuel supply and maintenance to personnel training, regulatory oversight, and technological support. Kazakhstan’s decision therefore reflects a high degree of confidence in Russia’s capabilities and reliability as a strategic partner.

The Eurasian dimension

Putin’s participation in the Eurasian Economic Forum and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) summit have highlighted a broader dimension of the visit extending beyond bilateral relations. Kazakhstan occupies a central position within the Eurasian integration project, while its economic weight, geographic location, and transit potential make it one of the Union’s most influential members. The decision to combine a state visit with key EAEU events underscored the importance both Moscow and Astana continue to attach to regional integration as a framework for economic cooperation and connectivity.

The significance of the EAEU has grown alongside the transformation of the international economic environment. Shifting supply chains, expanding sanctions regimes, and rising protectionism have increased the importance of regional mechanisms capable of facilitating trade, investment, industrial cooperation, and transport connectivity. For both Russia and Kazakhstan, the EAEU provides an institutional platform through which these objectives can be pursued while supporting broader efforts to strengthen economic resilience across Eurasia.

Against this backdrop, the Eurasian agenda formed an integral part of Putin’s visit to Astana. The discussions reinforced the view that Russia-Kazakhstan cooperation continues to develop simultaneously through bilateral channels and multilateral institutions, linking the future of their partnership to the wider trajectory of Eurasian integration.

Cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan increasingly extends into high-technology sectors. The planned launch of the Soyuz-5/Sunkar rocket from the Bayterek launch complex reflects continued collaboration in space exploration and advanced industrial projects. The Baikonur Cosmodrome remains an important platform for technological cooperation, providing both countries with opportunities to maintain and expand joint capabilities in strategically significant fields.

The persistence of such projects highlights the breadth of the bilateral relationship, which encompasses not only trade, investment, energy, and transport connectivity, but also areas requiring long-term technological coordination and specialized expertise.

A strategic axis in Eurasia

Taken together, these political, economic, energy, technological, and institutional ties illustrate the exceptional depth of the Russia-Kazakhstan partnership. All the connections mentioned above have produced a dense framework of interdependence linking capital, infrastructure, logistics, manufacturing, and technological development across Eurasia.

Putin’s visit has demonstrated that Moscow’s influence in Central Asia continues to rest on a broad foundation encompassing investment, industrial cooperation, transport corridors, energy infrastructure, technological projects, and multilateral institutions. For Kazakhstan, engagement with Russia remains closely tied to national economic priorities, infrastructure development, regional connectivity, and participation in Eurasian integration processes.

At a time when the geopolitical landscape of Eurasia is undergoing profound transformation, the visit has reaffirmed the enduring significance of the Russia-Kazakhstan relationship. Rooted in geography, reinforced by economic interdependence, and sustained through institutional cooperation, the partnership occupies a central place in the evolving regional order. The broader question is whether this increasingly interconnected relationship will emerge as one of the key pillars shaping Eurasia’s future political and economic architecture.

Ukrainian rhythmic gymnasts were caught on video covering their ears and eyes during the Russian and Belarusian national anthems at the European Championship in Varna, Bulgaria.

The tournament marks the first time athletes from the two countries have been allowed to compete under their national flags in nearly five years, after World Gymnastics and European Gymnastics lifted their restrictions earlier this month.

One of the incidents took place during the medal ceremony for the junior ribbon event in Varna on Thursday, in which Russia’s Yana Zaikina won gold, Ukraine’s Sofia Krainska took silver, and Germany’s Melissa Diete took bronze.

Krainska was seen standing on the podium wearing headphones and covering her eyes and face as the Russian national anthem played. Zaikina’s victory was Russia’s first gold at the tournament.

A similar episode occurred when Ukrainian gymnast Varvara Chubarova covered her ears and eyes as the Belarusian national anthem played following Kira Babkevich’s victory in the junior ball event.

Russian and Belarusian athletes were barred from most international competitions after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The two countries condemned the bans, calling them politically motivated. Some restrictions were later eased, allowing selected athletes to compete under neutral status.

Recently, major international sports organizations have started to lift their bans entirely.

Despite the lifting of the restrictions, the Russian team nearly missed the Varna championship after the Bulgarian authorities refused to approve its charter flight. The delegation eventually arrived via Istanbul one day before the competition began.

President Vladimir Putin has denounced what he described as selective sanctions against Russian competitors, accusing international sports bodies of political bias and corruption. Athletes should have access to competitions based solely on merit, as “politics has no place in sports,” the president said earlier this year.

The “barbaric” Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian college dormitory in Starobelsk cannot be justified, Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia told the UN Security Council on Thursday, comparing Kiev’s actions to the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany.

A total of 21 students, most of them young women, were killed in the attack on May 22, while 44 others were injured. 

Speaking at a Security Council meeting in New York, Ukrainian representative Andrey Melnik dismissed the “so-called incident” in Starobelsk as “a fake story,” accusing Russia of spreading “yet another propaganda narrative.” US deputy envoy Tammy Bruce condemned what Russia described as retaliatory strikes on Kiev as “obscene and unacceptable.”

Nebenzia accused the West of turning a blind eye to the “cynical act of terrorism” in Starobelsk.

The Russian diplomat said 51 civilians have been killed by Ukrainian forces over the past week, and 199 others were injured, including 20 children. He added that, over the same period, Ukraine launched more than 4,300 drones at civilian targets, including residential neighborhoods, schools, and hospitals.

Nebenzia stressed that the Russian strikes on Kiev on May 24 targeted “military-industrial sites,” including facilities involved in drone production.

“Let us reiterate what we have said many times before: Our armed forces do not target civilians or civilian infrastructure,” he said.

In response to the attack on Starobelsk, Russia announced that it would carry out “systematic” strikes on military sites and command centers in Ukraine.

NATO requires confrontation to justify its existence, which is why it designated Russia as its principal enemy in Europe, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko has said.

The remarks come as an increasing number of Ukrainian drone raids are sent deep inside Russia, while the debris of several drones have recently fallen in NATO member states bordering Russia. Moscow has accused the Baltic states of allowing Ukraine to use their territory for attacks, claims that Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania deny.

Speaking in an exclusive interview to RT on Thursday, Grushko argued that NATO and the EU radically shifted their approach toward Russia around 2010–2012, as the US-led military bloc wound down its costly Afghanistan mission and refocused on its original Cold War-era purpose of collective defense against an adversary in Europe.

“They needed a big enemy. And since there was none, Russia was appointed to this ‘honorable’ role,” Grushko said, adding that “NATO cannot exist in peaceful conditions – it is like a fish out of water.”

European leaders and intelligence officials have increasingly claimed that Russia could attack NATO or EU member states in the coming years, something Moscow has repeatedly dismissed as “nonsense.”

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte claimed in December that “we are Russia’s next target.”

Since 2022, NATO has expanded battlegroups across Eastern Europe, intensified air and maritime patrols in the Baltics, and increased military exercises near Russia’s borders. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have also accelerated border fortification projects, including anti-tank defenses and bunker networks.

Grushko, however, argued the Baltics had historically been one of Europe’s calmest regions before NATO expansion transformed it into “an arena of confrontation.”

Watch the full interview with the Russian deputy foreign minister below.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has blasted EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas' latest attempts to force maximalist demands, regarded by all parties to the Ukraine talks as unworkable, onto the agenda.

Kallas has repeatedly insisted that Russia should scale back its armed forces as a precondition for EU involvement in negotiations, despite the bloc being seen in Moscow as an active participant in the conflict and never having been formally invited to talks.

The bloc’s fear of missing out has reportedly fueled discussions in Brussels over who could eventually represent the union in possible talks with Moscow.

The EU’s conditions for any such move included Russia “mirroring” any troop limits imposed on Ukraine, as well as withdrawing forces from Transnistria, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, where Russian troops have long served as peacekeepers.

“Look, I’m not discussing idiotic statements,” Lavrov responded on Thursday when asked about Kallas’ remarks.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also mocked the EU diplomat, saying Kallas sounded as though she was “talking to herself.”

It is not the first time the EU foreign policy chief has issued such demands. Back in February, Kallas called for limits on the Russian military and argued that “everyone” should understand that Ukraine peace talks were not going to go anywhere without EU approval.

Those remarks showed that “Eurobureaucrats are hellbent on disrupting the conflict settlement at any cost,” Zakharova said at the time.

Moscow has repeatedly accused the EU of engaging in “megaphone diplomacy” – issuing public ultimatums instead of pursuing substantive negotiations.

In November 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen demanded on X that the EU be given a “central” role in resolving the conflict, at a time when Moscow and Washington were discussing a US-drafted peace plan. She also outlined a list of conditions the Kremlin dismissed as “unconstructive” and unacceptable.

Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, on his first spacewalk of 2026 on the International Space Station (ISS), sent a message to his mother.

Current ISS commander Kud-Sverchkov and his fellow cosmonaut Sergey Mikayev were performing scheduled installation and removal of scientific experiment hardware on the outer hull of the space station on Wednesday.

A stream of the spacewalk, broadcast by Russian space corporation Roscosmos, shows Kud-Sverchkov holding up a laminated piece of paper with the words “Mom, I’m wearing my hat” printed in Russian.

Over the course of more than six hours, the cosmonauts installed new hardware to observe the Sun in the previously unexplored terahertz range of the electromagnetic spectrum, and retrieved a slide from an experiment attempting to grow ultra-pure semiconductors in space.

Kud-Sverchkov and Mikayev were launched to the ISS alongside NASA astronaut Chris Williams aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-28 in last November. Kud-Sverchkov then took over command of the ISS Expedition 74 from NASA astronaut Mike Fincke.

The Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament, has approved legislation authorizing the central bank and major financial institutions to deploy armed personnel to counter Ukrainian drone attacks against civilians and infrastructure.

Ukrainian drone raids against Russia have intensified over the past year, with hundreds of UAVs targeting residential areas, critical infrastructure, and industrial facilities. Russian officials have called the strikes terrorist attacks.

Last week, Ukrainian kamikaze drones struck Starobelsk Professional College in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic in three waves, hitting the main building and student dormitories. Twenty-one people were killed, most of them teenage girls training to become teachers; another 65 were injured in what officials described as a double-tap strike on first responders.

The week prior, Russian air defenses repelled a massive Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow and the surrounding region. More than 12 people were reported injured in the capital; three people were killed and another six wounded in Moscow Region.

Under the new law, armored transport and cash collection crews from the Bank of Russia and Sberbank would be granted authority to neutralize unmanned aerial, naval, and ground vehicles, as well as other automated drone systems.

The measures can be used to repel attacks and prevent threats against protected facilities, employees, and civilians on site. The law would authorize personnel to jam or alter drone control signals, disrupt operator communications, and disable or destroy unmanned vehicles if necessary.

The bill still requires approval from the Federation Council and President Vladimir Putin.

The choice between war and peace is often presented as stark and simple, but in today’s circumstances it’s a false dilemma.

If by war we mean only armed conflict, then the current fighting with Ukraine will probably end in the foreseeable future because an indefinite war of attrition isn’t in Russia’s interests. What is needed is victory, and such a victory is possible, provided the necessary decisions are taken both at home and on the battlefield.

But full peace will not follow and even after the guns fall silent, confrontation with the West will continue in many fields and in many forms. This struggle will be long and it will require something Russia has lacked for too long: long-term goal-setting and a serious strategy for achieving national objectives.

The central task is the construction of Russia as a state-civilization. This idea has been proclaimed but not yet properly defined, and it must involve the creation of a society based on solidarity among citizens and on values broadly shared by them, such as faith, freedom, family, and justice. Such a project inevitably raises the question of deep renewal in the country’s economic and political systems.

This can’t be a project of the elite alone. Of course, the elite themselves require renewal, and not merely in generational terms; they also need new mechanisms of self-renewal and a different relationship with the wider society. Meritocracy is necessary, but it’s not sufficient and while competence and professionalism matter, so do values and a sense of service.

Then it may be possible to say that the Great Patriotic War (World War Two), with all its trials, sacrifices, and losses, wasn’t only a turning point in national history, but also the prologue to Russia and its people acquiring a new quality.

The internal character of the state and society will shape Russia’s place in the world and a renewed Russia will be able to act as a stronger pole, in the literal magnetic sense of the word. But the most important task is to avoid being forced into alignment with either of the major geo-economic and geopolitical blocs: the Euro-Atlantic bloc or China.

The stakes in the confrontation with the West are exceptionally high. Despite all the talk about a possible resumption of dialogue between the European Union and Russia, no one in Western Europe is genuinely ready to negotiate with Moscow. The goal of our adversary, the globalist elites of the West, as President Vladimir Putin has defined them, isn’t compromise but rather the crushing of Russia.

This must be understood clearly because the aim is not simply regime change, but rather the destruction of Russia as a major independent power in world affairs.

For three generations after the Great Patriotic War, Russians were raised in conditions of external security. At first, this security rested on strategic stability and mutual nuclear deterrence with the United States and later, it was sustained by partnership and cooperation in a world where major war came to be seen as an anachronism.

That world is gone. The old security paradigm has become obsolete and we now face a new and uncomfortable reality: war in peacetime, or peace in wartime.

Russia must accept this reality, endure a long and difficult struggle, and emerge from it transformed and victorious. That is the path ahead and there’s no road back. The only alternative is decline.

The refusal by British state broadcaster the BBC to report from the site where a Ukrainian drone attack killed 21 students is an act of “hypocrisy,” Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, has said. He accused British media outlets of “diligently pursuing a political agenda” to discredit Moscow.

Last week, Ukrainian kamikaze drones struck the Starobelsk Professional College in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) in three waves, hitting both the main building and student dormitories.

Most of the 21 people killed in the attack were teenage girls training to become teachers. Another 65 were injured in what Russian officials described as a ‘double-tap’ strike on first responders.

Some 50 foreign journalists from 19 countries reported from the scene on Sunday after accepting an invitation from the Russian authorities. The BBC, as well as US network CNN, refused to visit the site of the atrocity.

“The overwhelming majority of the British media are diligently pursuing a political agenda aimed at discrediting our country,” Kelin stated. He added that the actions of the Russian military are often portrayed as targeted attacks on civilians, while “the bloody crimes committed by the Kiev regime against civilians are completely ignored.”

According to Kelin, while the BBC refused to visit Starobelsk, reporters from Reuters were “less cynical” and participated in the trip. However, he described their coverage as “ostentatiously detached, if not biased,” noting that the agency labeled the strike “alleged” and claimed an inability to verify the attack independently.

She noted that after the network declined the invitation to visit Starobelsk, four days later it aired a segment praising the effectiveness of Ukrainian drones, filmed by correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, who is wanted in Russia over his alleged involvement in the Kursk incursion of 2024.

Zakharova pointed to a detail in the CNN report about a drone strike on Stavropol, suggesting Walsh could have been embedded with a Ukrainian unit “at the very moment they were coordinating a planned attack on the college in Starobelsk.”

US President Donald Trump has given Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan his “complete and total” endorsement ahead of parliamentary elections early next month. The US and Armenia recently announced a major partnership agreement, with Russia warning that Yerevan could lose major economic benefits if it distances itself from Moscow.

In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump praised Pashinyan as “a great friend and Leader” who is “making his Country strong, wealthy, and very secure.” 

He added that the Armenian leader “completely shares my vision of PEACE and PROSPERITY for Armenia and the entire South Caucasus region,” concluding the post with: “Make (Armenia) Great Again – MAGA!” Pashinyan thanked Trump, calling the message a mark of “high appreciation and friendly words.”

The project would carve a 43-km road-and-rail corridor through southern Armenia, linking Azerbaijan to the exclave of Nakhchivan, while opening a transit gateway for American energy companies reaching into Central Asia. Under the framework, the US holds a 74% stake in the TRIPP Development Company for an initial 49-year term, with Armenia retaining full sovereignty over all project areas.

Officials in Moscow maintain that Armenia – which hosts a Russian military base – remains “a fraternal country,” but have expressed concerns over Pashinyan’s push to forge closer ties with the EU.
Earlier this month, Armenia hosted a summit of the European Political Community. The event was attended by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who urged European leaders to increase military and financial pressure on Russia.

“That is abnormal and does not fit with the spirit of our relations with Yerevan,” Peskov said, adding that Moscow does not understand “why anti-Russian statements are coming from [Armenia].”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also warned Pashinyan that simultaneous membership in the Eurasian Economic Union – which comprises Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan – and the EU is impossible. Russia has also said that Armenia’s EEAU membership “is yielding concrete dividends,” but that its current political course could lead to a decline in living standards.

Pashinyan heads into the election amid declining poll numbers. His approval rating – which soared to 82% when he swept to power on a wave of protests in 2018 – has since cratered, with a survey in May by the CAEAC Focus sociological center showing approval at around 11%.

His numbers have been reeling due to Armenia’s defeat in a proxy war with neighboring Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the crackdown on the Armenian Apostolic Church, which has backed the opposition.

Pashinyan has also sparred with Samvel Karapetyan, a Russian-Armenian billionaire and leader of the opposition Strong Armenia bloc. Karapetyan was arrested last year on charges of inciting a coup – which the billionaire has denied – after he condemned Pashinyan over the crackdown on the clergy.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has renamed an elite commando unit, adding a dedication to World War II-era nationalist paramilitaries responsible for the massacres of Poles and Jews.

According to a decree signed on Tuesday, the Special Operations Center North will bear the honorary title ‘Heroes of the UPA’, referring to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the military wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The change reflects “the revival of the historic traditions of the national army,” the document said.

The OUN sought to establish an ethnically and religiously homogeneous Ukrainian state and collaborated with Nazi Germany during the early stages of the invasion of the Soviet Union. The UPA was formed in 1942 following a split between much of the OUN leadership and the Germans. Its leaders included Roman Shukhevich, a former deputy commander of the Nazi-led Nachtigall Battalion.

Nationalists and UPA veterans, including Shukhevich and OUN leader Stepan Bandera, are officially celebrated in Ukraine as freedom fighters. Streets have been named after them, and commemorative events are held in their honor, including torchlit marches on January 1, Bandera’s birthday.

In February 2026, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, Aleksandr Alferov, who previously served as a spokesman for the neo-Nazi Azov unit, dismissed the massacres of Poles as a “myth,” prompting outrage in Warsaw.

Earlier this week, the Ukrainian authorities reburied the remains of one of the OUN leaders, Andrey Melnik, after repatriating them from Luxembourg. Zelensky attended the ceremony.

Russia has long accused Ukraine of glorifying Nazi collaborators. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the practice “very dangerous for Europe.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Kazakhstan on Wednesday for a three-day state visit, with his plane escorted into Astana by the republic’s fighter jets.

Putin was personally welcomed at the airport by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Military and youth orchestras took part in the arrival ceremony, while an honor guard representing all branches of Kazakhstan’s armed forces lined the tarmac.

Tokayev’s press service later confirmed that Russia’s presidential aircraft had been escorted from the moment it crossed the country’s border until its landing in Astana.

The visit at Tokayev’s invitation, which runs from May 27 to 29, coincides with a summit of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Putin is also expected to take part in meetings of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council.

Talks in Astana are expected to focus on trade, energy, regional integration, and broader bilateral cooperation. The Kremlin has described relations between Moscow and Astana as being at an “exceptionally high level.”

The trip is Putin’s second state visit to Kazakhstan during his current presidential term – a relatively rare diplomatic format that Moscow says reflects the close ties between the two countries.

The main events are scheduled for Thursday, when the two leaders are expected to hold talks before overseeing the signing of a package of bilateral agreements.

Putin last visited Kazakhstan in November of 2024, while Tokayev traveled to Moscow on a state visit last year.

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is seeing steady growth and shifting its economic ties toward greater integration among member states and closer cooperation with the Global South, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Pankin said in an interview with RT.

The deputy foreign minister said intra-EAEU trade reached $95 billion last year, nearly double what it was in 2014, before the union was established. He also pointed to strong growth in trade with external partners, saying turnover in 2025 had grown about 90% with Vietnam, 170% with Iran, and more than doubled with China.

“The union plays a defining role in its member states’ economic growth as part of its international dimension,” he said stressing that its real GDP grew 1.7% last year, “which is not bad at all given the circumstances.”

Pankin said Western sanctions had served as a “stress test” for the EAEU, pushing the bloc to diversify trade, develop new logistics routes and boost technological and economic self-sufficiency. He said the measures had made the union more resilient and less dependent on external partners.

Pankin said the EAEU was becoming “an important economic center in a multipolar world,” with ties extending beyond trade to cooperation with organizations including the United Nations, SCO and ASEAN. He added that the bloc has signed more than 80 memorandums with international partners, mainly from the Global South.

See the full interview below

Muslims across Russia have held mass prayers to mark Kurban Bayram, also known as Eid al-Adha, one of the religion’s biggest holidays. Islam is the second-most widely practiced religion in the country after Orthodox Christianity.

According to Islamic tradition, Kurban Bayram commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to God. The holiday, which coincides with the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, emphasizes charity, mercy, and communal solidarity.

Muslims traditionally mark the occasion with special prayers and the ritual sacrifice of livestock, with meat distributed among relatives, neighbors, and those in need.

An estimated 20 million Muslims live in Russia, in addition to migrants from former Soviet republics in Central Asia who reside in the country and are harder to count.

Some 350,000 people took part in celebrations in Moscow at the Cathedral Mosque and other designated prayer sites on Wednesday.

Mass prayers were also held in Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg, where some 300,000 believers were in attendance, as well as in predominantly Muslim Republics of Tatarstan and Chechnya.

Some 25,000 Russian pilgrims are currently in Mecca performing the Hajj pilgrimage, according to Rushan Abbyasov, mufti of the Moscow Region.

President Vladimir Putin offered Russia’s Muslim community his best wishes on the occasion, praising its organizations for their role in strengthening family values, charitable work, and supporting Russian servicemen and their families.

Russia-Kazakhstan ties are built on “unbreakable principles of mutual trust” and are crucial to stability across Eurasia, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said ahead of a three-day visit to Astana starting on Wednesday.

The trip coincides with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) summit and marks Putin’s second state visit to Kazakhstan during his current presidential term. Talks in Astana are expected to focus on trade, energy, and regional integration, according to the Kremlin.

Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov described relations between Moscow and Astana as being at an “exceptionally high level.” “As a rule, one state visit takes place during one presidential term,” he noted, stressing the unusual frequency of top-level contact between the two countries.

Ahead of the visit, Putin published an article in Kazakh state newspaper Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, titled “Russia and Kazakhstan Alliance in the Heart of Eurasia.” He described the two countries as key strategic and economic partners and said Moscow is committed to deepening “multifaceted allied relations” with Astana.

Putin said Russian investment in Kazakhstan has reached nearly $30 billion, with around 70 major joint projects currently underway in sectors ranging from heavy industry to chemicals and car manufacturing. According to the Russian president, the projects have already created more than 60,000 jobs.

Putin also mentioned work on the North-South and Europe-Western China transport corridors as well as preparations for the Soyuz-5 launch project at the Baiterek space complex – a joint Russian-Kazakh launch facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Putin last visited Kazakhstan in November 2024, while Tokayev traveled to Moscow on a state visit in 2025. During that trip the two countries signed a declaration elevating ties to the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership and alliance – a status Russia has officially granted only to China, Iran, and North Korea.

The International University Sports Federation (FISU) has allowed Russian athletes to compete in its events in all disciplines via a neutral status. In sports where a relevant federation has already lifted restrictions on Russia, they will be able to participate with their national flag and anthem, it added.

Athletes from Russia and Belarus were banned from international competitions, including the Olympics, following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Some curbs were later eased, with several sporting federations allowing certain representatives from the two countries to return as neutral competitors.

Moscow has decried the restrictions as illegal, with Russian President Vladimir Putin insisting that athletes should be granted equal access to competition based solely on merit and stressing that “politics has no place in sport.”

The student sports governing body said in a statement on Tuesday that the “outright exclusion of Russian student athletes on grounds of nationality alone is considered disproportionate and inconsistent with FISU’s educational mission.”

“The IOC has not lifted its senior restrictions for Russian athletes, but recommends that youth athletes should not be held accountable for the actions of their governments,” it explained.

In the same statement, FISU announced that Belarusian athletes have been fully reinstated effective immediately after the Olympic officials suggested that all restrictions on the country should be removed.

Russia’s Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev said that Moscow welcomes “the gradual softening of conditions for Russian students by FISU.” He also congratulated Belarusian student athletes on their ability to compete under their flag again.

The deputy head of the Russian parliament’s Committee for Sport and Tourism, Dmitry Svischev, told Tass that “FISU has followed the path adequately as the goal of sport is to unite people.” Its decision “sends the right signal” to other international sports organizations, he said.

Only 41 Russian representatives participated using a neutral status in the FISU World University Games in Germany last summer, winning six gold, six silver and four bronze medals.

A distinguished Russian psychiatrist has classified transgender identity as a mental illness during a major medical congress in Russia.

Speaking at the 18th Congress of Psychiatrists of Russia last week, Olga Bukhanovskaya, chief physician of the Phoenix Medical and Rehabilitation Scientific Center in Rostov-on-Don, introduced the concept of a “transgender spectrum disorder.”

“If people now use the nice-sounding phrase ‘autism spectrum disorder’ then we can say ‘transgender spectrum disorder’ and all of these mental illnesses fall under it,” Bukhanovskaya said.

The proposed category includes five distinct conditions: “homosexuality,” “fetishistic transvestism,” a term describing cross-dressing linked to sexual arousal, “personality disorders,” “schizotypal disorder,” and “schizophrenia with periodic effeminacy,” which refers to intermittent feminine behavior or traits in men.

She accused what she called a “fifth column of medicine” of promoting transgender rights, saying “trans-LGBT-friendly doctors,” psychologists and lecturers were indoctrinating patients and the wider medical community.

The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1990. Under the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), the global diagnostic manual used by doctors and health systems worldwide, transsexualism was also removed from the category of mental illnesses when updated standards took effect in 2022.

Moscow suspended its planned transition to ICD-11 in 2024, saying some provisions conflicted with the country’s traditional values.

In recent years, Russia has taken steps to promote traditional values and banned “LGBT propaganda,” designating the international movement as “extremist.” Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, have argued that Western-promoted LGBTQ agendas seek to “erode, erase, and subjugate” the values and identities of other countries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that non-traditional relationships between adults remain a private matter, though he has stressed that their promotion, especially among minors, is prohibited.

A Moscow arbitration court has granted the Bank of Russia’s request for the immediate enforcement of a ruling ordering Euroclear to pay around €200 billion ($233 billion), RBK reported on Tuesday, citing lawyers for the Belgian clearing house.

Ukraine’s Western backers froze about $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets after the escalation of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in 2022, most of it held at the Brussels-based depository.

While the EU has so far stopped short of seizing the assets outright, Brussels has transferred some €6.6 billion in profits generated from frozen Russian central bank assets to a fund for Ukraine since 2024.

Moscow has said any use of its frozen assets would amount to theft, also warning it could retaliate by seizing about €200 billion in Western assets held in Russia, though it has so far stopped short of doing so.

The Bank of Russia described the ruling as fair, noting that it takes into account not only the ongoing nature of the violation, but also the risk that any delay in enforcement would prolong the restoration of the violated rights.

The initial ruling ordering Euroclear to pay €200 billion was issued by the arbitration court last week. Commenting at the time, Euroclear called it unfounded, adding that such claims are not recognized under EU law. It also pledged to appeal the verdict.

Shortly after filing a lawsuit against Euroclear in December, the Bank of Russia said it could expand its legal action over frozen assets beyond the Belgian-based depository to include other European banks that also hold its funds.

Ukrainian draft officers have been caught adding dead people and convicts to the mobilization database amid military manpower shortages and growing public anger over forced conscription, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko has said.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Kiev lost around 500,000 troops in 2025 alone. Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov previously acknowledged that around 200,000 troops had deserted, while also saying that at least 2 million men had been placed on a wanted list for avoiding mobilization.

Three high-ranking officers at recruitment centers have been detained after engaging in “paper mobilization,” Kravchenko said in a statement on Tuesday.

They entered false information into the official database in order to report the successful implementation of enlistment targets, he explained.

“To improve statistics, the list of those ‘mobilized’ included deceased and convicted persons, those with deferral... citizens who are already serving or studying at military universities, as well as those who are no longer subject to mobilization due to age,” the statement read.

A similar episode occurred in the town of Zolochev in Lviv Region last year, with the interim head of the local enlistment office adding six people who were already serving in the military to the database, he added.

According to the prosecutor general, recruitment centers in other parts of the country are currently being checked for similar schemes.

The police said in a separate statement that those detained are suspected of forgery and making unauthorized changes to an official registry.

“As a result of their actions, the high military command could have received inaccurate information on the actual state of manning of military units,” it stressed.

Earlier this month, an officer in charge of recruitment in Zhitomir Region was arrested for demanding a bribe from a local businessman in exchange for exempting his employees from mobilization.

There have also been reports of draft officers accepting payments for smuggling military-aged men across the border.

Ukraine’s deadly drone strike on a college dormitory in Starobelsk was Vladimir Zelensky’s “revenge” against residents of the Lugansk People’s Republic who chose to join Russia, Moscow’s UN envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, has said.

The diplomat made the remarks during a press conference on Tuesday, which was dedicated to Kiev’s strike on the college last week that killed 21 people – mostly young women – with another 63 wounded. Moscow has denounced the attack, which it said was deliberate and involved three drone waves, as a war crime and “terrorist act.” Despite ample evidence, Kiev has dismissed the accusations as “pure propaganda.”

Nebenzia lashed out at Ukraine, saying there is only one explanation for such “brutality.” “It is Kiev’s revenge against the people of the Lugansk People’s Republic who chose Russia [in a referendum in 2022]. Zelensky is actually killing his own former compatriots… he is exterminating his former fellow citizens for refusing to live under his neo-Nazi rule,” the diplomat said.

“This is not merely double standards. It is a moral failure and complete disgrace,” the envoy told the briefing.

Following the Starobelsk strike, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov notified US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of upcoming “systematic strikes” on Kiev’s military-industrial facilities and command centers, while urging foreign nationals to leave the Ukrainian capital.

On Sunday, Russia conducted a powerful strike on Kiev’s defense industry using the hypersonic Oreshnik system, Iskander ballistic missiles, and Kinzhal and Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles. Moscow maintains that it never targets civilians.

The prosecution of Evgenia Gutsul, the governor of Moldova’s autonomous Gagauzia Region, is a prime example of politically motivated “lawfare,” her lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, has told RT. Gutsul is currently appealing her seven-year sentence for campaign finance violations.

In 2025, the politician was convicted of channeling funds from Russia to candidates linked to the banned opposition Sor party, which the government of pro-EU President Maia Sandu has described as a Russian-backed criminal organization. The party’s leader, businessman Ilan Sor, received lengthy prison sentences in 2017 and 2023 for money laundering and defrauding several banks. Sor fled the country and has since lived in Israel and Russia.

In 2024, Moldova held a referendum on joining the EU, with the proposal passing by a very narrow margin. More than 90% of voters in Gagauzia, however, rejected the government’s plan to enshrine the country’s EU aspirations in the constitution.

“I think the expectation can only be bad,” he said, adding that the trial had not been “proper.” Boye argued that one of the judges was improperly replaced during the proceedings, while he himself faced threats and was unfairly found in contempt of court.

Boye also said Gutsul had been denied the right to consult privately with her lawyers. “I think this is a crystal clear case of lawfare… in a country that is a candidate to join the European Union,” he said.

Both Gutsul and Sor have denied wrongdoing. The self-exiled businessman described Gutsul’s arrest last year as “political terrorism.”

Russia has denied accusations that it was trying to interfere in Moldova’s politics. The Russian Foreign Ministry nevertheless condemned the prosecution of Gutsul as “shameful.”

Watch the full interview here:

The Russian military will begin targeting bunkers used by Ukrainian military commanders and leadership in response to Kiev’s continued terrorist attacks on civilians, senior MP Andrey Kartapolov says. Ukraine’s parliament – the Verkhovnaya Rada – and Vladimir Zelensky’s office are not on the target list, he told Parliamentskaya Gazeta on Tuesday.

In the wake of the deadly Ukrainian drone attack on a college in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Moscow announced a new strategy, pledging to systematically hit assorted targets across the Ukrainian capital in retaliation. The strike killed at least 21 people, mostly teenage girls sleeping in a dormitory, in what the Russian Foreign Ministry characterized as the manifestation of “the Nazi and terrorist nature of the Kiev regime.”

Russia’s “patience has run out,” Kartapolov said, commenting on the tragedy. Kiev’s tactics have spiraled into “blatant terrorism against our civilians,” the head of the State Duma Defense Committee stated, adding that Moscow would now abandon its self-imposed commitment not to target Ukraine’s capital.

When asked about potential targets, the lawmaker stated that neither the Verkhovnaya Rada building nor Zelensky’s office counts as a “decision-making center.” Ukrainian MPs do not control the troops, and Zelensky himself does not even visit his office any longer, the MP stated.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry urged foreigners to leave the Ukrainian capital and warned locals to stay away from military, industrial, and government sites. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well.

The EU has openly dismissed the warnings, accusing Moscow of “unacceptable escalation.” The bloc’s foreign policy spokeswoman, Anitta Hipper, said on X on Tuesday that Brussels summoned the Russian Charge d’Affairs over the ministry’s call and stated that “the EU delegation stays in Kiev.”

The Russian military maintains that it never targets purely civilian sites in Ukraine and focuses on military or dual-use installations.

On May 25, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a strong statement regarding Ukraine. Condemning the recent strike by Ukrainian forces on a college building and dormitory in Starobelsk which resulted in the deaths of 21 students and many injuries, the ministry warned that the incident was the last straw for Russia and that its “cup of patience has overflowed.”

According to the Foreign Ministry, the Russian military will now systematically target defense industry facilities in Kiev. Moscow urged foreigners, including diplomats and representatives of international organizations, to leave the Ukrainian capital “as soon as possible” and advised civilians to stay away from defense industry facilities.

Following the statement, the newspaper Kommersant asked Russian experts to assess the Foreign Ministry’s message.

Andrey Ilnitsky, military expert, member of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (CFDP):

The Foreign Ministry’s statement regarding the targeted strike on an educational institution in Starobelsk, which resulted in the death of students, highlighted that the ‘cup of patience’ had overflowed. This means that the amount of suffering and anger that society and the state can put up with has reached a certain breaking point. In such a situation, transitioning to a strategy of ‘managed escalation’ seems like a rational necessity. 

It is essential to understand that the spiritual essence of ‘managed escalation’ lies not in revenge but in a moral cause-and-effect relationship: justice acts as an objective spiritual law, a form of retribution that cannot be avoided. In military terms, this strategy involves gradually increasing the costs for the Ukrainian nationalists and their Western partners. 

The adversary must realize that every step we take up the escalation ladder sends a clear message about our serious intentions, the inevitable expansion of strikes and the means of attack, demonstrating that the previous limits of restraint have been exhausted, and the next blow will be even more painful and will cause greater damage.

Vasiliy Kashin, director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, CFDP member

I believe that the intensification of the strikes on Kiev is an inevitable response to the recent escalation of Ukrainian attacks deep into Russian territory. If Russia increases its strikes on Ukraine’s largest city without worrying about collateral damage, it will have more opportunities to destroy Ukrainian drone production facilities and stockpiles. At the same time, this will ramp up pressure on the Ukrainian authorities to initiate negotiations. Additionally, within Russia, there are those who advocate for decisive retaliatory strikes.

Sergey Poletaev, analyst, CFDP member, co-founder and editor of the Vatfor Project:  

There’s a difference between statements and military feasibility. Kiev is the most fortified city in Ukraine (and possibly in Europe, with the exception of Russia) in terms of air defense. 

The winter attacks on Kiev’s energy infrastructure and the ongoing bombings of military facilities and command centers have repeatedly highlighted the complexity and costliness of breaching Kiev’s air defense system. However, yesterday’s events have revealed that the air defense capabilities around Kiev have been sufficiently depleted for a mass attack to be effective. 

I believe this has been the main reason behind the shift in our airstrike paradigm. We’ll see how the Foreign Ministry’s statements translate into action.

Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, CFDP member:

The transition to systematic strikes on defense industry facilities and decision-making centers in Kiev was long overdue. Given the intensification of terrorist activities by the Kiev regime, this has become absolutely necessary. Moreover, in light of the depletion of missiles for Western air defense systems supplied to Kiev, this is now technically achievable.

The barbaric strike by the Ukrainian armed forces on Starobelsk marked a peak in their escalating terrorist activities against Russia, which have been intensifying for months. These actions included increasingly widespread long-range attacks targeting civilian infrastructure deep within Russian territory.

Europe plays a direct role in these assaults, as the production of drones for Ukraine is based on its territory. European countries also allow these drones to pass through their territory and provide Kiev with crucial intelligence information used for the strikes. The goal of these attacks, including the inhumane strike on the college in Starobelsk, is to derail negotiations that were set to resume in the coming weeks under US mediation. These talks were based on the so-called Anchorage agreements (which stipulated that Ukrainian forces must withdraw from the territories they occupy in the Donetsk People’s Republic as a primary condition for a ceasefire). European elites are eager to prolong the conflict, believing it will ultimately lead to Russia’s critical exhaustion and give them time to bolster their own military resources. At the same time, Europe and Kiev aim to force Russia into making concessions that would render any notion of its victory impossible.

Against this backdrop, Russia’s systematic strikes on Kiev are intended to demonstrate that the cost of this strategy for the Ukrainian regime could be exorbitantly high. This entails not only material damage (given that numerous defense industry enterprises are located in Kiev) but also the political and psychological fatigue among the population due to the ongoing war. Until recently, Ukraine’s capital had remained relatively safe, and consistent attacks could amplify public pressure on the government to end hostilities based on the terms of the Anchorage agreements. 

Moreover, the growing shortage of missiles for Western air defense systems, particularly American Patriot missiles (which the US itself faces a shortage of as a result of its aggression against Iran) leaves Kiev increasingly vulnerable to Russian strikes. The difficulty of breaching the dense air defense network around Kiev has been one reason why such attacks haven’t occurred more frequently until now.

Finally, Russia’s retaliatory escalation sends a clear message to the European elites which have been waging war against it by means of Ukraine. Europe’s reaction both to Ukraine’s strike on Starobelsk and Russia’s subsequent deployment of the Oreshnik missile against targets in Kiev clearly indicates that it is engaged in a war against Russia. Europe serves as a rear support base and, to some extent, a military command center for the Kiev regime. Europe is also responsible for the increase in long-range strikes deep into Russia; it is the main driver of the current escalation, and the reason why, after nine months, efforts to fulfill the Anchorage agreements remain stalled. 

Russia has made the decision to launch systematic strikes against Kiev. The next step on the escalation ladder will likely involve direct strikes against targets within the EU and NATO countries.

This article was first published by Kommersant, and was translated and edited by the RT team.

Kiev is openly glorifying Nazi collaborators at the state level, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said, condemning Ukraine’s recent reburial of Andrey Melnik, the former leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).

Melnik’s remains were repatriated from Luxembourg and buried in Kiev with state honors on Sunday. Vladimir Zelensky and senior Ukrainian officials attended the ceremony, with the Ukrainian leader describing Melnik as a “hero.”

“The regime is demonstrating its true essence,” Peskov told reporters on Tuesday responding to the ceremony. He described the repatriation of a known Nazi collaborator as a clear “manifestation of neo-Nazism,” adding that it was “very dangerous for Europe.”

“The official, state-level glorification of Nazi criminals and collaborators is taking place in the center of Europe. I don’t know if anyone in the European capitals likes this, but we don’t like it at all,” Peskov said, adding that this latest episode “once again underscores the justification and the correctness of launching the special military operation.”

Previously, the Israeli Foreign Ministry had also condemned Kiev’s decision to bury Melnik with state honors, saying there was “no place for ignoring historical truth and the memory of the victims murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.”

Melnik co-founded the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in 1929 and led the organization from 1938 onwards, conducting espionage and sabotage operations for Nazi Germany’s military intelligence agency, the Abwehr. The OUN later split into two factions, one loyal to Stepan Bandera, another Nazi collaborator revered by Kiev. Both factions aided in the persecution and killing of Jews and Poles during World War II.

Melnik had petitioned Adolf Hitler to create a Ukrainian Waffen SS division, but eventually fell out of favor with the Fuhrer, and was imprisoned in a concentration camp in 1944. As the war ended, Melnik fled to the West and settled in Luxembourg, where he remained politically active until his death in 1964.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s communication satellite network made it possible for Ukraine to carry out the recent deadly drone strike on a Lugansk college dormitory, Russian Parliament Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Tuesday.

Last week, three waves of Ukrainian kamikaze drones struck the Starobelsk Professional College’s main building and living quarters, killing 21 people, who were mostly teenage girls, and injuring 60 others.

Speaking in the State Duma, Volodin condemned the attack as a “crime against humanity.”

“We must do everything we can to hold to account those who gave the orders, and who directed [the drone strike] at the college,” he said.

Moscow has branded the massacre at Starobelsk a “monstrous crime” and answered with a massive strike on Ukrainian military and command targets, including a number in Kiev. The retaliatory attack included the use of Russia’s intermediate-range hypersonic Oreshnik system, Kinzhal and Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, and other munitions.

Over the past week, Ukrainian strikes have killed 51 civilians and injured nearly 200 across Russia, the highest weekly toll recorded this year, according to Rodion Miroshnik, who leads the Russian Foreign Ministry mission responsible for tracking Ukrainian war crimes.

Supporters of Moldovan politician Evgenia Gutsul have published an electronic book collecting letters she has written from a prison in Chisinau. Gutsul was handed a seven-year sentence by a court in the EU candidate state, whose government has been hailed by Brussels as a champion of democracy.

Gutsul was elected governor of Gagauzia in 2023. The small autonomous region in southern Moldova is home to the Gagauz, a Turkic-speaking Orthodox Christian minority. In a 2024 referendum, local voters overwhelmingly opposed the central government’s drive to bring Moldova into the EU.

In 2025, Gutsul was convicted on money laundering charges linked to an opposition party that pro-EU President Maia Sandu’s government has described as a Russian-backed criminal network. Chisinau has moved aggressively against the group, claiming it was defending Moldova from foreign influence. Moscow denied any financial involvement, condemned the case as politically motivated, and accused the Moldovan authorities of suppressing the opposition.

According to the Gagauz leader, the letters are meant to show readers a side of Moldovan politics she says is ignored by Western media. She said they would detail her region’s efforts to preserve its identity, the personal toll her political choices have taken on her family, and whether EU expansion is justified if it comes at the expense of political dissent.

The actions of Bulgaria’s aviation authorities have nearly cost the Russian gymnastics team their place at the European Championship. Sofia's civil aviation administration refused to approve a charter flight for the athletes to the country's Black Sea coastal city of Varna.

The team nevrtheless arrived in Varna on an alternative flight on Tuesday, just a day before the start of the competition, which is being held between May 27 and May 31.

The Russian Gymnastics Federation had to promptly approach another carrier – Turkish Airlines – and ask it to provide a bigger aircraft for a regular Istanbul-Varna flight to facilitate the team’s trip.

The federation extended its “sincere gratitude” to Turkish Airlines for its cooperation.

The championship will be the first major international competition for Russian gymnasts since they were cleared to return to the international events under their national flag. Its results will determine quota places for the World Championship.

Last week, the World Gymnastics Executive Committee announced it was lifting its ban on Russian and Belarusian gymnasts. The restrictions placed in the wake of the Ukraine conflict’s escalation in 2022 have been condemned by Moscow and Minsk as politically motivated.

Earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced what he described as selective sanctions against Russian competitors, arguing that the differing treatment compared with other conflicts exposed political bias and corruption within international sports bodies. Athletes should get access to competitions solely on merit as “politics has no place in sport,” the president said at the time.

Ten employees from the Starobelsk Professional College in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic have been added to the ‘kill list’ run by Ukraine’s state-linked Mirotvorets website, just days after a dormitory at the facility was targeted by Kiev in a drone strike that killed 21 students.

According to data from the website, the recent entries include seven women and three men, among them deputy directors and teachers at the college. The database accuses them of publicly supporting Russia, attempting to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and spreading propaganda among minors.

The Mirotvorets database, which has been linked to the Ukrainian security services, is notorious for publishing the addresses and personal details of anyone critical of the Kiev regime, including journalists, athletes, artists, and politicians, some of whom have subsequently been assassinated.

The inclusion comes after the Starobelsk college was hit on Friday by several waves of Ukrainian drones. According to the Russian authorities, UAVs struck the college’s academic building and dormitory while 86 children, aged 14 to 18, were inside. The attack killed 21 students, mostly teenage girls, and 60 more sustained injuries.

The Russian military responded to the attack on Sunday by conducting a “massive strike” against military targets in Ukraine, including in Kiev, which featured the intermediate-range hypersonic Oreshnik system, Iskander ballistic missiles, and Kinzhal and Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles.

Western officials have since condemned Russia’s retaliatory strikes while failing to address Ukraine’s initial attack on the Starobelsk dormitory. Western media outlets such as the BBC and CNN have also refused invitations to send journalists to the scene of the attack.

Moscow has called out Kiev’s backers for remaining “brutally silent” on Ukraine’s war crimes. Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, accused the West of once again “turning a blind eye” to the crimes of the “neo-Nazi Kiev regime” and engaging in “blatant mockery of child victims.”

A senior Estonian border official has blamed Google Maps after a series of incidents involving locals traversing the country’s border with Russia.

Four accidental border crossings have been recorded in recent months, Regina Kukk, head of the Narva border station, told local media. Violations can lead to fines of up to €600 ($700) and detention lasting several days, she said

“If you do not want trouble, choose another body of water,” Kukk said. “Of course, we cannot ban people [from taking risks]. For our part, we are doing everything we can to reduce the number of violations.”

To avoid such problems, Estonia’s Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) recommends not suing Google Maps and other popular navigation services, but to rely on the official Nutimeri navigation app or a dedicated GPS device.

Estonia and Russia have long-running disagreements over their border, rooted in the collapse of the Russian Empire and sharpened by the Ukraine conflict.

Estonia came under Russian rule in the early 18th century, after Sweden ceded large areas to members of the Russian-led coalition that defeated it in the 1700–1721 Northern War. When the Russian Empire collapsed amid World War I and the ensuing revolutionary upheaval, Estonia declared its independence. The Bolshevik government recognized the separation in the 1920 Treaty of Tartu.

Estonia joined the USSR in 1940; according to Moscow, the Soviets had deemed it necessary amid the threat posed by Nazi Germany. Russia maintains that the move invalidated the 1920 treaty, while some Estonian politicians continue to dispute that position.

Under the old treaty, parts of what is now Russian territory were assigned to Estonia. An effort to finalize the modern border in 2005 collapsed after Tallinn added a reference to the Treaty of Tartu to the agreement, which Moscow said could create grounds for future territorial claims.

Ukraine conflict fuels buoy dispute

Tensions along the roughly 300 km border, a significant part of which runs through the Narva River, intensified in May 2024. The PPA accused Russian border guards of unilaterally removing around half of the 50 buoy markers Estonia had unilaterally placed in the river.

The markers are normally adjusted jointly every spring because the riverbed shifts over time. However, the deterioration of bilateral relations following the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict has prevented the usual cooperation.

Then-Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, now the EU’s foreign policy chief, accused Russia of targeting the buoys in order “to create fear and anxiety” in Estonia.

Border tensions on the rise

Travel restrictions, combined with other policies targeting Russian-language and cross-border ties, have made life more difficult for many ethnic Russians living in Estonia. People with relatives, property, or business interests in Russia have been among those most affected.

Border tensions have escalated further this year after repeated incidents involving Ukrainian kamikaze drones crashing in countries bordering Russia. Just south of Estonia in Latvia, such incidents triggered a political crisis, culminating in the collapse of the ruling coalition in mid-May.

Western governments have placed ultimate responsibility for Ukrainian incursions on Moscow. Russia, in turn, has accused the affected states of giving Kiev tacit permission to use their airspace for strikes on its ports in the Baltic.

The Russian Investigative Committee released a video on Monday showing the wreckage of a liquefied natural gas tanker that it said was struck by Ukrainian drones in the Mediterranean Sea.

According to investigators, the Russian-flagged vessel Arctic Metagaz was targeted by aerial and seaborne drones on March 3 between the coasts of Malta and Libya. The ship suffered “significant damage” and caught fire, while its control systems and two LNG storage tanks were destroyed. Two crew members were injured.

The Investigative Committee is treating the incident as an act of terrorism, spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko has said.

Although Kiev has not commented on the alleged attack on the Arctic Metagaz, Ukrainian security officials have previously claimed responsibility for similar strikes on Russia-linked tankers in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Last year, the Security Service of Ukraine told the Kyiv Post that its naval drones had struck two oil tankers off the Turkish coast.

Russia has denied operating a so-called “shadow fleet” to evade Western sanctions and condemned the attacks on ships as a further escalation of the conflict.

Ukraine’s justification for its deadly strike on a college dormitory in Starobelsk, Russia is not backed by evidence, RT’s Rick Sanchez said while reporting from the scene.

Ukrainian drones attacked a small, regional campus of Lugansk State Pedagogical University in the early hours of Friday while students were asleep in their beds. A total of 21 people – 18 women and three men – were killed, and more than 40 others were injured.

The Ukrainian General Staff claimed that its forces had targeted one of the command posts of an elite Russian Rubicon drone unit. However, there were no signs of any military presence in or around the dormitory, Sanchez said.

“There wasn’t even a hint of military personnel here. It was a targeted attack on children,” said Roman Antonov, commander of a firefighting squad. Antonov said dozens of people were trapped under the rubble, but his team could not immediately reach them because the initial attack was followed by a second strike.

Rescuers continue to clear the rubble, while residents have been bringing flowers to makeshift memorials. Teachers held a memorial event outside the destroyed building, holding photographs of the victims.

“There were no military personnel” in the dormitory, university president Zhanna Marfina told Sanchez. She dismissed Ukraine’s account of the strike as a “pure lie.”

The Lugansk People’s Republic, a largely Russian-speaking region, voted to secede from Ukraine shortly after the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014. It later voted to join Russia in September 2022.

Kiev has refused to recognize the referendums and continues to consider the territory, including Starobelsk, to be occupied Ukrainian land.

“We’ve spoken Russian our whole lives,” one woman said, adding that the dormitory strike had left her “speechless.”

“They were deliberately targeting (the campus). It couldn’t have been a mistake,” another woman told Sanchez. “This is our Donbass. This is Russian land,” she added.

The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced the attack as a war crime and accused NATO members of helping Ukraine select targets for strikes.

Russia’s newly appointed human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, has honored the 21 students killed in a recent Ukrainian drone strike on a college dormitory, sharing photos of the victims – some just 18 years old – on Telegram.

According to Russian authorities, another 60 people were injured when three waves of Ukrainian kamikaze drones struck the main academic building and dormitory of the Starobelsk Professional College in the Lugansk People’s Republic overnight between Thursday and Friday.

The Russian military responded to what President Vladimir Putin called a deliberate “terrorist act” with a “massive strike” on Ukrainian military targets early on Sunday, using the intermediate-range hypersonic Oreshnik system, Iskander ballistic missiles, Kinzhal and Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, along with other weapons.

In a Telegram post on Sunday, Lantratova, who traveled to Starobelsk following the attack, accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out a “targeted strike that killed 21 children.”

“No words can ease this pain. It is impossible to imagine the grief of parents who have lost the most precious thing – their child,” she wrote.

Lantratova said Ukrainian forces launched follow-up strikes targeting first responders after the initial attack. She described the incident as a “war crime” and said she had appealed to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

The commissioner also visited survivors receiving treatment in a hospital and pledged that her office would provide all necessary assistance.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has spoken with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, warning him that long-range strikes against Kiev are imminent, while reiterating the “recommendation” that foreigners evacuate the Ukrainian capital immediately.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced a shift in Moscow’s strategy in the Ukraine conflict, citing the recent deadly attack on a college dorm in the Russian town of Starobelsk, which killed at least 21 people, mainly teenage girls. The incident was the “last straw” for Moscow, which will now embark on a campaign of “systematic strikes” against the Ukrainian capital, targeting military-industrial facilities, command centers, and other sites dotting Kiev.

Russia’s top diplomat conveyed the information to Rubio by direct order of President Vladimir Putin, the ministry said in a statement. Lavrov also drew his counterpart’s attention to the “recommendation” issued by the Foreign Ministry in anticipation of the impending campaign, urging that all foreign nations, including the US, “ensure the evacuation of their diplomatic personnel and other citizens from the Ukrainian capital,” it added.

Moscow has long complained about the Ukrainian military launching indiscriminate strikes on civilian targets in Russia, branding them “terrorist attacks.” Kiev has intensified its long-range drone and missile attacks in recent months. Six civilians were killed in Russia’s Donetsk and Belgorod regions on Monday alone, according to local officials. The Russian military maintains that it never targets purely civilian sites in Ukraine and focuses on military or dual-use installations.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has condemned Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s decision to rebury Nazi collaborator Andrey Melnik with full state honors, declaring that “there is no place for ignoring historical truth.”

Melnik’s remains were repatriated from Luxembourg and buried in Kiev’s main military cemetery on Monday, with Zelensky and his top officials attending the ceremony. Describing Melnik as a “hero,” Zelensky said that he “worked to ensure that Ukraine was what it is, that Ukraine was itself, that Ukraine was free.”

In a statement on Monday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that it regrets “the decision to hold an official state reburial ceremony for OUN leader Andrey Melnik, who collaborated with the Nazis,” adding “there is no place for ignoring historical truth and the memory of the victims murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.”

Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial center said that Melnik’s reburial “raises serious concerns.”

We regret the decision to hold an official state reburial ceremony for OUN leader Andriy Melnyk, who collaborated with the Nazis. There is no place for ignoring historical truth and the memory of the victims murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. https://t.co/wwBWPlqneI

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) May 25, 2026

“Honoring the leader of a movement that supported and collaborated with Nazi Germany during the persecution and murder of millions of Jews undermines the moral integrity essential to Holocaust remembrance,” the center said in a statement.

Melnik co-founded the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in 1929 and led the organization from 1938 onwards, after Soviet agents killed its previous leader, Evgeny Konovalets. Melnik immediately began conducting espionage and sabotage operations for Nazi Germany’s military intelligence agency, the Abwehr.

Melnik petitioned Adolf Hitler to create a Ukrainian Waffen SS division, but eventually fell out of favor with the Third Reich, and was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1944. He avoided trial at Nuremberg and settled in Luxembourg after the war, where he remained politically active until his death in 1964.

Responding to Kiev’s plans to rebury Melnik, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Zelensky last week of glorifying “Nazi collaborationists and human-hating scum” from around the world.

Kiev’s deadly attack on a college dorm in the Russian town of Starobelsk last week was the “last straw” for Russia, and it will be conducting “systematic strikes” on assorted targets across the Ukrainian capital from now on, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow has announced.

The ministry made the statement on Monday, a day after a large-scale retaliatory strike on Kiev, prompted by the drone attack on the college in the Lugansk People’s Republic. The Ukrainian strike killed at least 21 people in their dormitory, mainly teenage girls.

The Starobelsk attack has become yet another testament to “the Nazi and terrorist nature of the Kiev regime, which deliberately targets civilians and does not hesitate to murder children in cold blood,” the ministry said, warning that Moscow is shifting its approach to the Ukraine conflict.

“This was the last straw. Under these circumstances, the Russian Armed Forces will be launching systematic strikes against the Ukrainian military-industrial complex in Kiev, including locations where UAVs are designed, manufactured, programmed, and prepared for use,” the ministry said, adding that the campaign will also affect “decision-making centers and command posts.”

The Foreign Ministry issued a similar warning earlier this month, when Russia threatened a large-scale strike on Kiev in response to its threats to attack the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow. An evacuation notice was formally sent to all foreign missions and international organizations accredited in Russia, urging them to leave the Ukrainian capital. 

The demand was openly snubbed by some Western nations, with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul stating that Berlin would not be “intimidated” by it. A similar stance was communicated by the EU Commission, which said it “will not change our posture or presence” in Kiev. The potential exchange in such strikes, however, never occurred, as the warring sides ultimately managed to enter an uneasy truce amid the celebrations.

Last year can be seen as the year in which the united anti-Russian coalition fell apart. In essence, there are now three players acting against Russia (Ukraine, Europe, and the US), and each has its own interests. Sergey Poletaev has prepared a series of articles in which we analyze the position of each player and its goals and interests in the conflict, and suggest how Russia might respond.

In this piece, we focus on the European Union. Read the first part about Ukraine here and the second one about the US.

Let’s just go to war

Throughout last year, the liberal Western European coalition took over from the US and assumed the role of both instigator and orchestrator of a proxy conflict with Russia. Initially, they hoped that Donald Trump would force Vladimir Putin to agree to ceasefire terms acceptable to them, after which it would be possible to rearm the Ukrainian military, deploy their own troops and, generally speaking, draw Ukraine into their military-political and economic sphere without undue military risks. In other words, to continue doing what had originally been the goal of the EU and US and which, in fact, had been the cause of what Russia calls the “Special Military Operation.”

These plans were buried in Anchorage. In essence, it was there that Trump abandoned attempts to impose Western Europe’s terms on Putin. At the same time, Kiev was able to convince its new masters that it was capable of fighting for at least another two or three years. Thus, the current plan was born: Western Europe gives Kiev money for the war, buys weapons from the US, sets up its own production of long-range strike drones, tightens the sanctions regime, and continues the conflict as it is, trading Ukrainians for time.

So, the goals have been set, the tasks defined. The question of funding has been resolved, doubts within their own ranks have been quelled, and work is in full swing. Until this wave of enthusiasm subsides, no meaningful negotiations with Western European countries are possible.

The EU’s strengths lie in its economy, which is vast compared to Russia’s, and a higher-than-expected degree of political consolidation. Consequently, they can finance Ukraine with ease, slotting tens of billions in unplanned expenditure into budget tables, so seamlessly that it is difficult to trace the path of the money.

Their weakness lies in the fact that they are prepared to wage war against Russia only through the exhausted Ukrainian army, which is on the brink of collapse, and only from Ukrainian territory. It is commonly believed among Russian experts that Western Europe is actively preparing for a direct military confrontation with Moscow, but this is hardly the case. All the current hysterical, aggressive rhetoric is, rather, a defensive reaction, a consequence of fear and uncertainty. They still refuse to believe that the US would not defend them if push came to shove. And they are very reluctant to find themselves face to face with Russia.

Hence the gap between rhetoric and actual actions. In practice, Western European states are avoiding major provocations and constantly backing down: the Belgian government flatly refused to confiscate frozen Russian assets, and no one has been able to persuade them otherwise. Poland and Romania are turning a blind eye to Russian drones allegedly flying into their airspace, according to their own statements. Despite their menacing rhetoric, the Baltic states are actually the quietest of all; for the sake of their own peace of mind, they had to make a fuss with Kiev about the drones that had flown into their territory. The UK is forced to let hundreds of tankers from a supposed Russian ‘Shadow Fleet’ pass by its shores. There are plenty more examples.

Russia, for its part, is attempting to establish rules of engagement with the EU based on the same principles as those it established with the US under Joe Biden, and subsequently under Trump. First and foremost, this means isolating the conflict within Ukraine. Since the entire strategy of the Western European coalition is based on the assumption that the Ukrainian military will be able to hold the front line for an indefinite period, Moscow’s logic dictates that this is precisely where the blow must be struck, and it is the front line that must be broken. Western Europe has no other such instrument at its disposal, nor is one in sight.

The second objective is to force Ukraine’s European rear to take full account of Russian nuclear weapons and to take the corresponding threats seriously. Moscow will likely continue to stage targeted military alerts directed at specific countries with the aim of steering their policies in the desired direction and instilling in the EU ruling class reflexes they have never possessed. The incident involving the Baltic states can be seen as a trial run.

Moscow’s aim is to bring relations with Western Europe into a relatively stable state of Cold War. This cannot be achieved easily; it will require navigating a series of crises of varying intensity, including, in all likelihood, nuclear ones.

Russia’s advantage lies in its ability to threaten specific countries in response to specific actions, in accordance with the ‘divide and rule’ principle. Suppose the German navy attempts to blockade Kaliningrad. In response, Russia threatens to strike naval bases on German territory. It makes this threat in such a way that there is no doubt: if the blockade is not lifted within 24 hours, the strike will be carried out. What would French President Emmanuel Macron do in such a case? Would he throw himself into the fray, risking becoming a target himself?

If we extend this line of thinking into the future, a distinct Russian principle of non-interference emerges, a sort of Russian-style Monroe Doctrine: the territories of Ukraine and Belarus (and, in a second phase, the Baltic states, Moldova, and the South Caucasus) are declared off-limits to hostile actions by third countries. This does not mean that every little provocation will be followed by a nuclear strike on London or Berlin, but it does mean that specific actions by specific European governments will have consequences for them, including military ones, and they will have to take this into account when making any decisions.

***

Despite the fact that Western Europe is not seeking direct conflict with Russia, it is prepared to participate in the proxy war in Ukraine with complete dedication. A major deal, a new security architecture with the countries of Europe, is impossible as long as the current political class remains in power there, a class that places supranational interests above national ones. And for the time being, they are wide-eyed with fear of the Russian bear.

We should expect Russia to continue playing on EU fears, orchestrating military alarms, and seeking to instill in them the reflexes Moscow requires. Since neither Russia nor the other major European countries wish to attack one another, there is a chance of reducing the confrontation to a Cold War with more or less predictable rules.

A tanker ship that arrived in Russia’s Leningrad Region from the Belgian port of Antwerp had NATO-made magnetic mines attached to its hull, the Russian Investigative Committee has said.

A criminal case has been opened over an attempted terrorist attack on the gas tanker, the Arrhenius, the agency said in a statement on Monday.

Divers discovered “factory-produced naval magnetic mines manufactured in one of the NATO countries” on the hull when they inspected the vessel upon its arrival in the port of Ust-Luga, the statement read.

The explosive devices were neutralized by Federal Security Service officers, working together with servicemen from the Defense Ministry and the National Guard, it added.

According to the Investigative Committee, the tanker came to Ust-Luga on May 20 for refueling, with the Turkish port of Samsun listed as its final destination.

The ship’s agent said during questioning that the Arrhenius had arrived in Russia after a delay of several days from its original schedule, it said.

The FSB said in a separate statement that the mass of plastic material in each of the explosive devices was approximately 7 kg. It didn’t say how many mines there were altogether.

The captain told the operatives that, before unloading in Antwerp, the tanker was sent to anchorage for about a day and a half due to an alleged strike by port workers, the agency added.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions between Russia and NATO over Ukrainian drones crossing the airspace of the Baltic states and Finland as they target northwestern Russia, including oil export terminals in Leningrad Region.

Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu warned last month that if European nations “deliberately provide their airspace” to Ukrainian UAVs, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter.

Ukrainian attacks on Russian border regions have killed six civilians, including two children, local officials have said.

Attacks on the city of Gorlovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic have claimed four lives, including of two minors in their early teens, Mayor Ivan Prikhodko said. Three ambulance workers were reportedly injured in the same attacks.

In Belgorod Region, a local resident was killed when a drone struck a car in the border municipality of Graivoron, the administration reported on Monday morning. The area has been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian short-range attacks.

A separate strike in Bryansk Region hit two villages in the border municipality of Trubachevsk, acting Governor Yegor Kovalchuk said. Ukrainian forces used rocket artillery in the attack, killing one resident and injuring a firefighter, according to the official. Several apartment buildings, more than ten private homes, and other properties were damaged, he added.

Kamikaze drones were also intercepted near Yaroslavl, a city roughly 250 km northeast of Moscow, Governor Mikhail Yevraev reported. One woman suffered minor shrapnel wounds, he said. The raid forced authorities to temporarily close a highway linking Yaroslavl with the Russian capital.

Moscow has accused Kiev of deliberately targeting civilians. In a major incident last Friday, three waves of kamikaze drones struck a college in the town of Starobelsk, killing 21 people, most of them teenagers, and injuring 42 others.

Some Western countries backing Ukraine’s war effort claimed that Moscow fabricated the attack in the Lugansk People’s Republic, which Kiev considers part of Ukraine.

The Russian military later retaliated with strikes on targets in and around Kiev, including the launch of an Oreshnik medium-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile that reportedly hit a Ukrainian Air Force facility.

Russian mountaineer Rustam Nabiev has pulled off a historic Everest ascent using only his hands, dedicating the climb to “everyone” fighting through hardship.

The 34-year-old double amputee reached the top of the world’s highest mountain, which stands 8,848.86 meters above sea level, on May 20 at 8:16 AM local time. Nabiev described the climb as “the first in the history of mountaineering, the first in human history.”

“I, Rustam Nabiev, reached the summit of Everest using only my hands,” he wrote in a social media post announcing the achievement.

“I dedicate this ascent to everyone watching me now. With this act, I simply want to say one thing: as long as there’s life left in you, fight! Please fight to the end! It’s worth it,” he added.

Nabiev shared a photo of himself on the summit holding a poster that read: “To those who thought that life ended after the fall. Rustam Nabiev, Everest 2026.”

A powerful glimpse of Russian double-amputee climber Rustam Nabiev crossing the ladders of the Khumbu Icefall by hand during his Mt Everest (8,848.86 m) expedition this spring season, 2026. Nabiev said it took him nearly 15 hours to pass through the icefall up to Camp I (~6065… pic.twitter.com/YqxfPlDjTb

— Everest Today (@EverestToday) May 16, 2026

He lost his legs in 2015, when a military barracks collapsed in the Siberian city of Omsk. However, Nabiev refused to let the tragedy define him.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Рустам Набиев (@rustam_nabiev92)

He has since become known across Russia for brutal endurance challenges and high-altitude expeditions, relying on adaptive climbing equipment and sheer upper-body power.

Nepalese officials confirmed the ascent, with the coordinator of the Everest Base Camp field office telling Anadolu that Nabiev had successfully climbed Everest and was descending to base camp.

Nabiev admitted in a phone interview with TASS on Sunday that he had to overcome his fear of heights to complete the Everest climb. At the summit, he planted the Russian flag, later calling it a symbol of the strength and resilience of the Russian people.

“I did my utmost to bring our country up, to show that in our country, people are strong,” he said, adding that his achievement proved Russians “are always ready to be first.”

Russia’s newly appointed human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, has visited the destroyed college dorm in the town of Starobelsk. The Ukrainian attack killed at least 21 people, mainly teenage girls.

The commissioner visited the college on Sunday, meeting foreign journalists invited by Russia to report from the scene. While more than 50 reporters from 19 nations accepted the invitation, major Western mainstream outlets ignored it.

RT’s Murad Gadziev, who was among the first reporters to reach the scene shortly after the attack and worked at the site during the nearly two-day search and rescue effort, walked Lantratova through the heavily damaged building.

“We arrived here hours after the attack occurred. Nobody knew what was happening yet, everyone was in panic,” Gadziev told the human rights chief.

“As a mother, as a human rights activist, I can’t even imagine what a mother feels at this moment. We just mourn with them,” Lantratova said.

Nothing at the site indicates any military personnel were present at the dorm, Lantratova noted, referring to claims produced by Kiev. The Ukrainian military alleged the building housed a Russian drone unit, yet no evidence supports that claim.

“They say there are military personnel here. There are only children’s toys; there are only children’s belongings. There’s nothing military here,” Lantratova noted.

Watch the full video below:

Scores of delegations representing the Global Majority will take part in the first international security forum, which will be held outside of Moscow over May 26-29, the Russian Security Council has announced. 

The Russian Security Council is tasked with drafting policy proposals for the Russian president on countering internal or external threats, as well as defending the country’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

In a press release on Sunday, the Security Council stated that delegations from more than 120 countries are expected to attend the event.

Of the 54 African nations, 50 will send representatives, while most Middle Eastern and Latin American countries will also participate. Furthermore, all member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), BRICS, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including such heavyweights as China, India, Iran, Indonesia, and Pakistan, will take part.

This accounts for around 70% of the world’s population, the press release notes.

Moreover, “unofficial representatives” of 12 unspecified Western nations, who “actively advocate forging constructive relations with Russia,” will also be in attendance. A number of journalists from the US, the UK, Germany, and Japan, have also expressed interest in covering the forum.

The opening event will be a conference devoted to countering neocolonialism in the context of “ensuring the security of countries of the Global Majority,” held under the auspices of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Other topics on the forum’s agenda include disinformation and manipulation campaigns waged by the West as part “of a hybrid war against the Global Majority, with the aim of preserving its hegemony.”

Western mainstream media are “afraid to see the truth” about the Ukrainian attack on the Starobelsk college dorm, Russia’s newly appointed human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, has said, slamming the incident as a “deliberate murder of children.”

The attack on the dorm, staged overnight from Thursday to Friday, left at least 21 people dead, mainly teenage girls. The massacre has been largely ignored by the Western media and politicians, and Moscow has urged foreign reporters to come to the site.

The Russian Foreign Ministry arranged the media trip to Starobelsk on Sunday, with more than 50 reporters from 19 nations accepting the invitation. Speaking to the journalists at the location of the attack, Lantratova slammed those Western outlets that ignored the opportunity to report first-hand from the site.

“It was a deliberate murder of children. That’s what it’s called. And what are we seeing now? What’s happening on foreign platforms? Representatives from various countries are saying it is staged, that it’s a lie from the Russian media, and that ‘independent’ media could not confirm it because they could not come here,” she said, adding that some outlets did not even offer a “plausible explanation” for skipping the opportunity.

Where’s the BBC? Where’s CNN? Where are the Tokyo representatives? Where are their journalists? … They’re simply afraid to see the truth. They don’t want to see it and they don’t want to hear it.

The attack on Starobelsk prompted a large-scale retaliatory strike on the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev, which was conducted overnight. The strike featured the intermediate-range hypersonic Oreshnik system, as well as other ballistic and cruise missiles. The command centers of the Ukrainian ground forces and military intelligence were targeted, as well as air bases and defense industry sites, according to the Russian military.

Footage by RT shows foreign journalists touring the site of the deadly Ukrainian drone attack on a college dorm in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic.

Ukraine targeted a teacher training college dormitory in the town of Starobelsk with several waves of UAVs on Friday, killing 21 people, mostly teenage girls, and injuring 60 others.

The Russian Foreign Ministry arranged a trip to Starobelsk on Sunday for more than 50 foreign journalists from 19 countries: Austria, Brazil, UK, Hungary, Venezuela, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Qatar, China, Cuba, Lebanon, UAE, Pakistan, the US, Turkey, Finland, and France, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

The BBC and CNN rejected an invitation to visit the site of the attack, while Japan’s government explicitly banned Japanese reporters from making the trip, she added.

Russia’s newly appointed human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, who also arrived in Starobelsk, said that Western mainstream media outlets “are simply afraid to see the truth. They just don’t want to see or hear it.” 

Those of their colleagues who accepted the offer to visit the site of the terrorist attack will see for themselves that there are no military facilities nearby, she said.

The foreign journalists will also realize that claims of the drones hitting the dorm after being shot down by Russian air defenses are false, the commissioner insisted. It’s “absolutely impossible” for 16 UAVs to hit the same building after being intercepted, she explained.

What happened in Starobelsk was a “deliberate killing of children” by Ukraine, Lantratova stressed.

A correspondent for China’s Phoenix Television, Lu Yuguang, told RT that he hasn’t seen even a hint of any military facilities in the vicinity of the dorm.

Giovanni Pigni, from Italian newspaper La Stampa, told TASS that what he saw in Starobelsk is “horrible.” 

“The destruction is so immense… I just see that there was a college here and that people have died,” he said.

On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported carrying out a large-scale strike against military targets in Ukraine in response to the terrorist attacks by Kiev.

Russian forces launched a “massive strike” overnight against military targets in Ukraine, using intermediate-range hypersonic Oreshnik system and Iskander ballistic missiles, Kinzhal and Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, air-, sea- and ground-launched cruise missiles, as well as attack drones.

The strike came after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Defense Ministry to “submit proposals” for a response to a Ukrainian drone attack on a teacher training college dormitory in the Lugansk People’s Republic, which left 21 people dead and 42 injured, mostly teenage girls.

The bombardment targeted the Ukrainian military’s command and control facilities, air bases, and the country’s defense industry enterprises, the ministry said. No strikes had been planned or carried out against civilian infrastructure, it added.

“The objectives of the strike have been achieved. All designated targets were hit,” it stressed.

The dormitory of Starobelsk College, a facility of Lugansk Pedagogical University located in the town of Starobelsk, was struck by multiple waves of Ukrainian drones on Friday while students were asleep inside, in what Putin described as a deliberate “terrorist act.”

Governor Leonid Pasechnik declared May 24-25 days of mourning, describing the attack as “pure evil” and saying those responsible would face “deserved and inevitable punishment.”

Earlier, the US Embassy in Kiev warned American citizens of a “potentially significant air attack” that could take place within 24 hours and urged them to be ready to seek shelter immediately if an air alert was issued.

Russia’s reported retaliatory strikes on military targets in Ukraine are morally and legally justified following the “heinous terrorist attack” on a school dormitory in the Lugansk People’s Republic, American journalist John Varoli has told RT.

Varoli described the Ukrainian drone strike on the Starobelsk teacher training college dormitory, which killed 21 people, mostly teenage girls, and injured dozens more, as “one of the worst committed by the NATO puppet regime in Kiev.”

Commenting on videos circulating online that purportedly show a Russian Oreshnik missile strike near Kiev early Sunday morning, Varoli said the footage appeared similar to previous uses of the system.

“The video that I saw seems very similar to the two previous Oreshnik strikes that we’ve seen before,” he said. “So most likely, yes, it seems like it was an Oreshnik system.”

He claimed that NATO officers are present at “sensitive military installations” in and around the Ukrainian capital.

The journalist argued that the dormitory strike should be seen in the broader context of what he described as near-daily Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilians, including strikes on homes, cars, buses, and infrastructure in Lugansk, Donetsk, and Crimea, as well as increasingly deep inside Russia.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has dismissed as “unfair” anything short of full EU membership in response to a proposal by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to grant Kiev ‘associate membership,’ Reuters has reported.

Soon after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Kiev was granted EU candidate status and has since persistently pushed for fast-tracked admission into the bloc. Despite reservations voiced by multiple member states, including Germany and France, Zelensky has demanded full membership by as early as 2027.

On Saturday, Reuters reported that the Ukrainian leader had sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Antonio Costa, and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, ​who holds the rotating chair of the EU Council.

“It would be unfair for Ukraine to be present in the European Union, but remain voiceless,” Zelensky reportedly wrote in the letter seen by Reuters, insisting that the “time is right to move forward with Ukraine’s membership in a full and meaningful way.”

According to the publication, Zelensky specifically cited the removal from power of former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose party lost the general election last month. While in office, Orban staunchly opposed the prospect of Ukraine’s membership in the EU.

In his letter, the Ukrainian leader reportedly claimed that his country “deserves a fair approach and equal rights within Europe” as it is supposedly “defending” the bloc.

Earlier this week, several media outlets reported that Merz had sent a letter to the EU leadership, proposing ‘associate membership’ for Ukraine. The interim status, which is not currently enshrined in the bloc’s rules, would allow Kiev access to certain EU-funded programs as well as the right to solicit aid from member states in the event of an attack.

Under the scheme, Ukraine would also be represented at the European Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament in a non-voting capacity, according to multiple media outlets, citing Merz’s letter.

An unidentified drone has crashed into Lake Dridzis in Latvia, exploding on impact, local authorities have said.

The blast has become the latest in a string of drone-related incidents, which have been plaguing the Baltic states, in recent weeks. Multiple Ukrainian long-range kamikaze drones have repeatedly violated the airspace of those NATO and EU member states, with some of the UAVs crashing in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland. 

For Latvia, the drone troubles resulted in the collapse of Prime Minister Evika Silina’s government after two Ukrainian kamikaze UAVs hit an oil depot near the Russian border.

The latest incident was reported on Saturday, when a drone crashed into Lake Dridzis, located some 17 km away from Latvia’s border with Belarus. The UAV exploded on impact, killing fish in the lake with no further damage and injuries reported. Latvian police said it managed to recover some debris from the lake, sharing a picture of a mangled fiberglass object believed to be a piece of the UAV.

Ieraksts papildināts (2026. gada 23. maijs pulksten 12.45) ar bildi - atrasto drona atlūzu. pic.twitter.com/4cuklBtn60

— Valsts policija (@Valsts_policija) May 23, 2026

The outgoing PM acknowledged the incident, urging the public to follow only “official information” on the drone explosion. “I expect from the emergency services as detailed information as possible on the circumstances of the incident and further actions,” Silina stated on X.

The agency specifically singled out Latvia, alleging that Riga had already agreed to the operation, believing Kiev’s false claims that it would be impossible to identify the exact launch sites for the drones. Latvia’s NATO membership will not protect the accomplices of terrorists from just retribution,” the SVR warned.

Russia has “something to offer” other countries through partnership, having achieved significant results in multiple areas despite external pressure, Economic Development Minister Maksim Reshetnikov has told RT.

Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, the West sought to isolate Russia internationally. However, those efforts have largely failed, something acknowledged by multiple Western officials.

Despite sweeping economic sanctions, Moscow has managed to redirect trade toward new markets and largely cushion the impact, with the Russian economy proving far more resilient than many in the West had predicted.

Speaking to RT on Friday, at a reception marking the 95th anniversary of the All-Russian Academy of Foreign Trade, Reshetnikov stressed that the Russian economy remains open and deeply integrated with global markets.

Russia is willing to offer its experience and know-how to countries interested in cooperation, according to the official.

Reshetnikov singled out the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) as one of the key “elements underpinning the stability of our economy and one of the channels of our integration into the global economy.”

One of the key features of the economic union – which also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan – is its integrated single market.

At least ten people have been killed and 38 others injured in an overnight Ukrainian drone attack on a school in Starobelsk, about 90 km north of Lugansk, according to Russian officials. Fourteen children were among the injured and eight people were hospitalized, including three in serious condition.

On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the attack as a “monstrous crime,” while Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned Kiev’s Western backers for being “brutally silent” on the tragedy.

Ukraine has routinely launched attacks on civilians and critical infrastructure, including using a double-tap method, hitting the same area again in a bid to increase casualties after first responders arrive, according to Russian officials. Moscow has described the strikes as acts of terrorism.

Big picture: How many Russian civilians have died in Ukrainian attacks?

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Ukrainian attacks had killed more than 8,000 civilians as of April 2026 and injured almost 20,000 more, according to Rodion Miroshnik, who leads the Russian Foreign Ministry mission that tracks alleged Ukrainian war crimes.

In May, he said at least 100 civilians were killed and 667 injured in April alone.

Three civilians were killed and more than a dozen injured in a massive Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow and the surrounding region, with several buildings significantly damaged, according to the local authorities.

On April 29, three women were killed and eight people injured when a Ukrainian drone struck a passenger bus not far from the border village of Shebekino – which has become one of the most targeted settlements in the country over the past months.

Two days before, four civilians were killed and six others injured in attacks across Belgorod Region, according to the local authorities.

On April 25, three people were killed and two others injured in Solontsy, a village in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), local officials said, adding that at least four homes had been destroyed.

One day later, three young people were killed in Bulgakovka, a small LPR village north of Severodonetsk, after a Ukrainian drone struck them near a house, regional head Leonid Pasechnik said. He identified the victims as two 18-year-old men and a 28-year-old woman.

Eight medical workers were killed and ten people injured when Ukrainian forces struck a medical facility in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), officials in Moscow said, adding that the attack was aimed at a premises housing more than 130 patients and about 50 medical personnel.

Four people, including a child, were killed in Ukrainian attacks on the DPR settlement of Gornyak, around 20 km from Donetsk, regional head Denis Pushilin said, adding that the strike had wiped out an entire family. Twelve civilians, including a teenager, were injured across the region that day, he added.

At least 24 people were killed and more than 50 injured when Ukrainian drones struck a cafe and hotel during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Khorly, a Black Sea village in Kherson Region. The local authorities said the venue was scouted by a reconnaissance UAV and later hit by three drones, with one apparently carrying an incendiary mixture.