Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces blindfolded and detained the head of Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Ukraine’s nuclear power provider said Saturday, reigniting long-simmering fears over the plant's security. The alleged kidnapping on Friday apparently took place shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin escalated his war in Ukraine and pushed it into a new, dangerous phase by annexing four Ukrainian regions that Moscow fully or partially controls and heightening threats of nuclear force. In a possible attempt to secure Moscow’s hold on the newly annexed territory, Russian forces seized the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Ihor Murashov, around 4 p.m. Friday, the Ukrainian state nuclear company Energoatom said. Putin on Friday signed treaties to absorb the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, including the area around the nuclear plant. Energoatom said Russian troops stopped Murashov’s car, blindfolded him and then … [Read more...] about Russia blindfolds, detains Ukraine nuclear plant chief

A series of strikes on a civilian convoy killed more than 20 people in southern Ukraine overnight, including children, in one of the most deadly attacks of Russia's war on its neighbor . The strikes near the city of Zaporizhzhia, which came as Russian missiles, drones and rockets pummeled the country, were swiftly condemned by Ukrainian officials as a Russian war crime. They also came as the Kremlin prepared to formally annex the area and three other parts of the country that are partially controlled by its military. NBC News, which has been unable to verify the details of the attack, has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment, but the Russian government has yet to react to the incident. The head of the region’s pro-Moscow governing council blamed the attack on Ukrainian armed forces. The office of Ukraine's prosecutor general said on the Telegram messaging app Friday that about 50 people were also injured in the attack on what it called a "humanitarian … [Read more...] about More than 20 killed in attack on civilian convoy in Russian-occupied Ukraine

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 24 KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties Friday to illegally annex more occupied Ukrainian territory in a sharp escalation of his war. Ukraine's president countered with a surprise application to join the NATO military alliance. Putin’s land-grab and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s signing of what he said is an “accelerated” NATO membership application sent the two leaders speeding faster on a collision course that is cranking up fears of a full-blown conflict between Russia and the West. Putin vowed to protect newly annexed regions of Ukraine by “all available means," a renewed nuclear-backed threat he made at a Kremlin signing ceremony where he also railed furiously against the West, accusing the United States and its allies of … [Read more...] about Putin illegally annexes Ukraine land; Kyiv seeks NATO entry

Vladimir Putin must go. His demented Kremlin speech Friday, during a ceremony in which he feebly asserted Russia was annexing portions of Ukraine , made the strongest case for the necessity of regime change in Moscow that any world leader has yet to make. But it has been clear the Russian dictator must be removed from office for a long time now. It has been clear because Putin’s actions and rhetoric demonstrate day in and day out that Ukraine can never be secure as long as he remains in office. It has been clear because none of Russia’s neighbors can be secure with a megalomaniacal lunatic next door who speaks of Russian empire and constantly threatens to rewrite the borders of sovereign states. It has been clear because the world can’t be stable as long as the man who controls the planet’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons is one whose power is unchecked at home, who shows such contempt for both international law and human decency, and whose … [Read more...] about Putin Has Left the World No Other Option But Regime Change

A day after Vladimir Putin summoned top officials to bask in the supposed glory of “great” Russia stealing Ukrainian land with sham referendums, his boasts fell apart in spectacular fashion on the battlefield as Russia’s defense ministry was forced to admit a key city deemed part of Russia was now in Ukrainian hands. “In connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement, the allied troops were withdrawn from the settlement of Krasny Lyman to more advantageous lines,” the defense ministry said Saturday in a statement published by RIA Novosti. The retreat came after thousands of Russian troops in the area were urged to surrender. “Military personnel of the Russian Federation! Ukrainian defense forces have captured Lyman. Further resistance is futile, you are surrounded. To surrender, you need to go to the nearest road or settlement, lay down your arms, wait for a representative of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and surrender with your hands up… Remember: your government does … [Read more...] about ‘We’re Fucked’: Vladimir Putin’s ‘Great’ Russia Plan Just Went Up in Smoke in Lyman

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the West of sabotaging Russia-built gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea to Germany, a charge that has been vehemently denied by the United States and its allies. Nordic nations said the undersea blasts that damaged the pipelines this week and have led to huge methane leaks involved several hundred pounds of explosives. The claim by Putin came ahead of an emergency meeting Friday at the U.N. Security Council in New York on the attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines and as Norwegian researchers published a map projecting that a huge plume of methane released by damaged pipelines will travel over large swaths of the Nordic region. Speaking Friday in Moscow at a ceremony to annex four regions of Ukraine into Russia , Putin claimed that the “Anglo-Saxons” in the West have turned from sanctions on Russia to “terror attacks,” sabotaging the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in what he described as an attempt to “destroy … [Read more...] about West rejects Putin’s claim it sabotaged Russian-built gas pipelines