Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv, killing at least three people, including a five-year-old, said the Ukrainian interior ministry.
The drone hit apartment buildings and sparked several fires throughout Ukraine’s capital despite agreeing to a limited ceasefire, officials said.
Emergency services were dispatched to Kyiv’s historic Podil district after drones hit two high-rise apartment buildings, said Timur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s military administration.
A woman died after drone debris sparked a fire in a high-rise residential building in Dniprovskyi district, the emergency service said on Telegram. Another person died in the Holosiivskyi district.
Kyiv, its surrounding region and the eastern half of Ukraine were under air raid alerts on Saturday night.
It came a day after Vladimir Putin’s forces launched a drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing three members of the same family and wounding 14 others, according to officials, who said residential buildings, cars and communal buildings were set on fire.
Kyiv and Moscow agreed in principle on Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after US president Donald Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders.
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Key Points
- Five-year-old among killed in Russia drone attack on Kyiv as roll rises to three
- Russia hits apartments and sparks fires with overnight drone attack on Kyiv, officials say
- Three members of same family killed in Russian drone attack on Zaporizhzhia
- 'Coalition of the willing' to meet in Paris next week, says Volodymyr Zelensky
- China weighs joining European-led peacekeeping coalition for Ukraine ceasefire
- Trump: Negotiators ‘dividing lands’ with full ceasefire will to come ‘pretty soon’
Russia launched 147 drones on Ukraine overnight, Ukraine's air force says
07:23
,
Namita Singh
Russia launched 147 drones overnight targeting several Ukrainian regions, Ukraine's air force said this morning.
Ukrainian air defence units destroyed 97 of the drones, while 25 did not reach their targets, the air force said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Pictures: Russian drone strike on Kyiv kills 3
07:19
,
Namita Singh
Russia downs 59 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russian defence ministry says
07:08
,
Namita Singh
Russian air defence units destroyed 59 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia's defence ministry said this morning.
Twenty-nine of the drones were destroyed over the southern region of Rostov, 20 over the Astrakhan region and the rest over the Voronezh, Volgograd, Kursk and Saratov regions, as well as over Crimea, the ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
The attack comes as three Ukrainians are killed in Russian drone strike on Kyiv.
Ukraine and US to hold talks in Saudi Arabia ahead of US-Russia meeting
06:53
,
Namita Singh
Ukrainian officials will meet a US technical team in Riyadh on 23 March, a day before the US is set to hold separate discussions with Ukrainian and Russian delegations.
President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the meeting, clarifying an earlier announcement in which he had stated that US-Ukraine talks would take place on 24 March.
The Ukrainian delegation will be led by defence minister Rustem Umerov and Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of the President's Office, according to an undisclosed Ukrainian source cited by Sky News. Both officials were also present at US-Ukraine discussions in Jeddah earlier this month.
Mr Zelensky said Ukraine is dispatching "technical teams" to outline the specifics of a possible partial ceasefire with Russia. However, Kyiv has stressed that there will be no direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Riyadh
Five-year-old among killed in Russia drone attack on Kyiv as roll rises to three
06:25
,
Namita Singh
Death toll in Russian drone attack on Kyiv has risen to three, with a five-year-old among those killed, Ukraine’s internal ministry said.
"A massive enemy drone attack on Kyiv," Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on the Telegram messaging app.
The scale of the overnight attack was not immediately clear. Reuters witnesses heard several blasts in what sounded like air defence systems in operation.
The state emergency service posted photos showing firefighters fighting blazes at night, including high in an apartment building.
A woman died after drone debris sparked a fire in a high-rise residential building in Dniprovskyi district, the emergency service said on Telegram, while at least 27 people were evacuated from the building.
Another person died in the Holosiivskyi district, the service said.
China weighs joining European-led peacekeeping coalition for Ukraine ceasefire
05:58
,
Namita Singh
China is considering joining a European-led peacekeeping coalition aimed at securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, according to German media outlet Die Welt, which cited unnamed diplomatic sources.
While Beijing has maintained an official stance of neutrality in Russia’s war against Ukraine, it has remained a key ally of Moscow throughout the full-scale invasion.
European officials believe that China’s involvement could increase Russia’s willingness to accept a peacekeeping presence in Ukraine.
"The inclusion of China in a 'coalition of the willing' could potentially increase Russia's acceptance of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine," an unnamed EU diplomat told Die Welt, calling the situation "delicate".
Chinese diplomats are reportedly assessing how receptive European leaders would be to Beijing’s participation.
The "coalition of the willing," led by UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron, is a group of allied nations working to establish security guarantees for Ukraine.
The initiative could involve deploying troops to bolster Ukraine’s military if a ceasefire is reached. However, Moscow has repeatedly rejected the presence of European or Nato forces in Ukraine.
European leaders, including Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, are scheduled to meet in Paris on 27 March to further discuss security arrangements and a potential peace plan.
No official details have been released regarding China’s possible role in the process.
Earlier this month, Chinese officials indicated Beijing’s interest in participating in Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction efforts.
Russia and Ukraine trade accusations over attack on gas station near border
05:54
,
Namita Singh
Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for an attack on a gas metering station in Russia’s Kursk region, just metres from the border between the two countries.
The strike on the facility in Sudzha occurred days after the United States proposed a pause in attacks on energy infrastructure. Moscow has accused Kyiv of deliberately targeting the site, which has been under Ukrainian control since its forces launched an incursion into Kursk in August 2024.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed Ukrainian troops blew up the station while “retreating from the Kursk region” in an alleged attempt to “discredit the US president’s peace initiatives”.
On Saturday, Russia’s foreign ministry warned that it “reserves the right to respond, including with a symmetrical response” to what it described as Ukrainian strikes on its energy facilities.
Kyiv dismissed the allegations as “groundless", insisting that Moscow was trying to mislead the international community.
Ukraine’s General Staff countered the claims, stating in a Telegram post that “the station has been repeatedly shelled by the Russians themselves".
Trump’s envoy echoes Russian talking points in ceasefire talks
05:27
,
Namita Singh
Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has cast doubt on Ukraine’s ability to secure a ceasefire on its terms while reiterating key Kremlin narratives about the war.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson on 21 March, Mr Witkoff described the territorial dispute in Ukraine as the "largest issue" in the conflict, referring to Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea—regions either partially or fully occupied by Russia.
He claimed these areas were "Russian-speaking" and that "referendums" had shown an overwhelming desire to be under Russian rule, failing to acknowledge that these votes were held under coercion.
He suggested that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky faced a political dilemma over international recognition of Russian-occupied territories.
"Can Zelensky survive politically if he acknowledges this? This is the central issue in the conflict," he said.
Mr Witkoff also asserted that Ukraine had "largely conceded that they are not going to be a member of Nato" but indicated discussions were ongoing about possible security guarantees from the United States and European nations.
Downplaying Moscow’s broader ambitions, he insisted Russia had no desire to expand the war or "absorb Ukraine" beyond its current occupied territories. "(Russia's) reclaimed these five regions.
They have Crimea, and they've gotten what they want. So why do they need more?" he said, omitting Russia’s past denials before launching its full-scale invasion.
He further defended Mr Trump’s approach to peace talks, saying the former US president was focused on restoring relations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
"Who doesn't want to have a world where Russia and the United States are doing collaboratively good things together?" he asked, citing potential cooperation in energy and artificial intelligence.
Mr Witkoff framed the war as a complex issue, arguing, "It's never just one person," while sidestepping Russia’s responsibility for the invasion.
Three killed in Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia despite truce talks
05:06
,
Namita Singh
Russia launched a drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing three people and wounded 14, Ukrainian officials said yesterday, despite agreeing to a limited ceasefire.
Zaporizhzhia was hit by 12 drones, police said. Regional head Ivan Fedorov said that residential buildings, cars and communal buildings were set on fire in the Friday night attack. Photos showed emergency services scouring the rubble for survivors.
Ukraine and Russia agreed in principle on Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after US president Donald Trump spoke with the countries' leaders, though it remains to be seen what possible targets would be off-limits to attack.
The three sides appeared to hold starkly different views about what the deal covered. While the White House said "energy and infrastructure" would be part of the agreement, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to "energy infrastructure".
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would also like railways and ports to be protected.
The dead in Zaporizhzhia were three members of one family. The bodies of the daughter and father were pulled out from under the rubble while doctors unsuccessfully fought for the mother's life for more than 10 hours, Mr Fedorov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Trump envoy unable to name occupied Ukrainian territories
05:00
,
Andy Gregory
Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been a leading figure in negotiations with Russia, was unable to name the Ukrainian regions currently occupied to varying degrees by Moscow – despite calling them “the largest issue in the conflict”.
Speaking to far-right commentator Tucker Carlson, Witkoff said: “I think the largest issue in that conflict are these so-called four regions, Donbas, Crimea ... and there’s two others”, in an apparent reference to the partly occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Echoing Russian propaganda relating to referenda – widely viewed as a sham – held by Vladimir Putin following his full-scale invasion in 2022, Mr Witkoff claimed: “They are Russian-speaking, and there have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule.”
Questioning whether Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky could “survive politically if he acknowledges” that the occupied Ukrainian territories are Russian, Mr Witkoff claimed: “This is the central issue in the conflict.”
Russian authorities bring in trains to fight oil depot fire
04:50
,
Namita Singh
Authorities in southern Russia's Krasnodar region brought in firefighting trains loaded with water yesterday to help battle a blaze still raging at an oil depot following a Ukrainian drone attack.
Regional officials, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said four trains were drafted into the site at Kavkazskaya, where the fire first broke out last Tuesday.
Firefighters were tackling a fire still burning at one of the tanks at the site covering 1,250 square metres (13,500 square feet) while also trying to cool other equipment at the site.
The statement said 473 firefighters and 189 pieces of equipment were engaged in the operation. On Friday, depressurisation of the burning tank triggered an explosion and the release of burning oil.
Reports on Friday said the fire covered some 10,000 square metres.
Russia's foreign ministry said this week the attack amounted to a violation of a proposed ceasefire on energy sites in the more than three-year-old war, agreed between Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and US president Donald Trump.
The accord fell short of a wider agreement that the US had sought, and which was accepted by Ukraine, for a blanket 30-day truce.
Putin decree impacting civilians in occupied Ukraine part of ‘Russification policy’, warns Britain
04:45
,
Andy Gregory
A decree signed by Vladimir Putin this week which orders Ukrainians living in territory illegally occupied by Russia to “settle their legal status” by 10 September represents a new wave of the Kremlin’s “Russification policy”, British officials have warned.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said: “Putin’s decree is almost certainly intended to force the departure from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Ukrainian nationals who refuse to accept Russian passport and citizenship,.
“Putin and the Russian senior leadership continue to prosecute a Russification policy in illegally occupied Ukrainian territory, as part of longstanding efforts to extirpate Ukrainian culture, identity and statehood.
“Russia erroneously and illegally defines both occupied and unoccupied Ukrainian territory in the Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, as well as Crimea, as being part of the Russian Federation. This is in direct contradiction with Russia’s own stated recognition of Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty following the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as broader international recognition of Ukraine.”
Zelensky meets military commanders to discuss upcoming talks with US in Saudi Arabia
04:39
,
Namita Singh
President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that he had met top military commanders in the country's northeast to discuss the frontline in Ukraine's war with Russia, as well as meetings with US officials set to take place in Saudi Arabia today.
Mr Zelensky was shown on the media platform X with commanders in Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, a frequent target of Russian attacks.
He said he had discussed frontline sectors in eastern Ukraine, as well as in Russia's western Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops remain seven months after a cross-border incursion.
"We also prepared for the meeting between the Ukrainian and American delegations, that will take place tomorrow in Saudi Arabia," the president wrote.
In Washington, a source familiar with the planning of the meetings in Saudi Arabia with Ukrainian and Russian officials said the US delegation would be led by Andrew Peek from the National Security Council and Michael Anton from the State Department.
The group will meet the Ukrainians on Sunday night and the Russians on Monday.
France restores gunpowder production due to Ukraine war
04:30
,
Alex Croft
France has restored its gunpowder production, which it scrapped in 2007.
Explosives manufacturer Eurenco is set to produce some 1,200 tonnes of gunpowder pellets a year, rising to 1,800 tonnes, which would feed into about 100,000 artillery shells,
Most of these French-made artillery shells will head to Ukraine.
Backed by the government and with an investment of 100 million euros of which half came from an EU programme to support the bloc's defence industry, the firm put together new infrastructure in less than a year.
France has a tradition of producing gunpowder dating back to the 14th Century, and a long history of pride in being self sufficient in arms production.
Eurenco produced gunpowder as far back as the First World War. But after the end of the Cold War, weapons production and supply chains were no longer a priority and governments scaled back.
Trump’s envoy dismisses Starmer’s Ukraine plan as ‘a posture and a pose’
04:17
,
Namita Singh
Donald Trump’s special envoy has dismissed Sir Keir Starmer’s proposal for an international force to support a ceasefire in Ukraine, calling it “a posture and a pose".
Steve Witkoff criticised the idea, arguing it stemmed from a “simplistic” belief among the UK prime minister and other European leaders that “we have all got to be like Winston Churchill".
In an interview with journalist Tucker Carlson, Mr Witkoff praised Russian president Vladimir Putin, saying he "liked" him and did not consider him a “bad guy".
He described Mr Putin as “super smart” and recounted a meeting with him ten days ago, during which he found the Russian leader to be “gracious” and “straight up".
According to Mr Witkoff, Mr Putin claimed he had prayed for Mr Trump following an assassination attempt against the former US president last year.
He also revealed that the Russian leader had commissioned a portrait of Mr Trump as a gift, which, he said, had “clearly touched” him.
Russian drone attack on Kyiv kills two, Ukraine’s emergency service says
04:02
,
Namita Singh
A Russian drone attack on Kyiv killed two people, sparked fires in apartment buildings and forced the evacuation of tens of people, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said early on Sunday.
A woman died after falling debris from a destroyed drone sparked a fire in a high-rise residential building the capital's Dniprosvkyi district, the emergency service posted on the Telegram messaging channel.
At least 27 were evacuated from the building. Another person died in the overnight attack on Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district, the service said.
ICYMI: Full ceasefire will come 'pretty soon', says Trump
04:01
,
Andy Gregory
Donald Trump has said he expects a “full ceasefire” in Ukraine to be agreed “pretty soon”.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, the US president said the full ceasefire will be followed up by a “contract” to divide Ukrainian land between Moscow and Kyiv.
“The contract is being negotiated, the contract in terms of dividing up the lands, it’s being negotiated as we speak,” added Mr Trump, who has spoken with both Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in the last week.
Drone attack on Russia’s Rostov region kills one person in car, regional governor says
03:42
,
Namita Singh
A drone attack killed one person in a car in Russia's Rostov region, the acting governor of the southern Russian region said this morning.
"A car caught fire due to a drone attack," acting governor Yuri Slyusar said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
"A person in the car was killed."
Watch: Putin ally clashes with LBC host as he claims Ukrainians are 'thankful' for Russian invasion
03:00
,
Andy Gregory
£25bn Russian assets frozen by UK since start of Ukraine war, Treasury says
02:01
,
Andy Gregory
Some £25bn worth of Russian assets have been frozen by the UK government since the start of the Ukraine war, newly-released figures have revealed.
A report released by the Treasury on Friday revealed the total, which accounts for all assets that have been sanctioned by the UK since February 2022 when the invasion of Ukraine began.
Some 2,001 individuals and entities have been sanctioned under the regime as of March 2024, according to the Treasury.
Trump story about ‘surrounded’ Ukraine troops contradicted by his own intelligence, report reveals
01:00
,
Andy Gregory
Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have both insisted that Ukraine’s forces in Kursk are surrounded by Russian troops and are in imminent danger, but U.S. intelligence reports have contradicted those claims.
A trio of U.S. and European officials familiar with intelligence details of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine told Reuters that the situation on the ground does not reflect the comments made by Trump and Putin.
One of the U.S. officials also said that the White House was briefed on the actual situation in Ukraine, so it’a unclear why Trump has and continues to claim that Ukrainian troops in Russia's Kursk region are surrounded.
Read the full report:
Steve Witkoff: Who is the real estate mogul Trump picked to broker Ukraine peace with Putin?
Saturday 22 March 2025 23:59
,
Andy Gregory
As Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff has also emerged at the forefront of negotiations with Russia over its war in Ukraine – from a perch that did not require Senate confirmation.
Witkoff, who runs a real estate development and investment firm, is a longtime friend and golf partner of Trump. He played a less visible role during Trump’s first term, serving on the board of trustees for the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Witkoff first met Trump in the 1980s, when he worked for a real estate law firm that handled a deal for Trump, himself a real estate developer, according to testimony Witkoff gave in the president's civil fraud trial in 2023.
Witkoff testified that a few years later, he ran into Trump at a deli. Trump didn’t have money with him and asked Witkoff to order him a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich. Years later when they met again, Trump remembered the sandwich and the two became friends, Witkoff said.
He’s been more than a friend. Witkoff has donated millions to Trump's political causes over the years. He also partnered with Trump on the president’s family cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial.
Michelle L Price and Aamer Madhani have more in this report:
Russia hits apartments and sparks fires with overnight drone attack on Kyiv, officials say
Saturday 22 March 2025 23:49
,
Andy Gregory
Russia has launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv, hitting apartment buildings and sparking several fires throughout Ukraine’s capital, officials have said.
Emergency services were dispatched to Kyiv’s historic Podil district after drones hit two high-rise apartment buildings there and started fires, said Timur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s military administration.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged people to stay in shelters, but said there were no immediate reports of injuries from the attacks that also sparked fires in at least two other districts of the capital. Kyiv, its surrounding region and the eastern half of Ukraine were under air raid alerts on Saturday night.
Reuters staff reported hearing several blasts in what sounded like air defence units in operation.
Watch: Sam Kiley visits Kherson where Ukrainian civilians are being targeted by Russian drones in near-daily attacks
Saturday 22 March 2025 23:00
,
Andy Gregory
Moldova issues wanted notice for missing pro-Russian politician
Saturday 22 March 2025 22:01
,
Andy Gregory
Moldovan authorities have issued an international wanted notice for a missing pro-Russian member of parliament, who disappeared the day he was handed a 12-year jail sentence on corruption charges.
A second pro-Russian parliamentarian, due to be sentenced next week, has also disappeared, officials said.
Both are associates of Ilan Shor, a fugitive business magnate also jailed for his part in a mass fraud scheme who now leads a political party from exile in Moscow. Moldova’s pro-European government accuses him of trying to destabilise Chisinau.
The warrant for politician Alexandr Nesterovschi was issued late on Friday and interior minister Daniela Misail-Nichitin said attempts to locate him had failed. Authorities in neighbouring Ukraine and Romania had found no trace of him. Ms Misail-Nichitin said police had considered whether Nesterovschi, who was granted Russian citizenship as his sentence was being announced, was hiding in the Russian embassy, but that had proved to be untrue.
Mr Nesterovschi was accused of accepting money from a criminal group to finance the activities of Shor’s “Victory” bloc. Politician Irina Lozovan, awaiting sentencing on similar charges, has also disappeared.
Shor was sentenced to 15 years in prison two years ago in connection with the disappearance of $1bn from the banking system in Moldova’s “theft of the century” in 2014-15. He fled initially to Israel then to Moscow, now has Russian citizenship and has evaded all attempts to extradite him.
Moldovan courts have banned political parties linked to Shor, who has organised noisy anti-government protests in the capital.
Mapped: The Ukrainian nuclear power plants Trump is seeking control over
Saturday 22 March 2025 21:02
,
Andy Gregory
With Donald Trump floating the idea of taking control of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, my colleague Tom Watling has this report on the location and details of the facilities in the US president’s sights:
Ukraine’s military reports more than 70 clashes along front line on Saturday
Saturday 22 March 2025 20:04
,
Andy Gregory
Ukraine’s military have reported 70 combat clashes along the frontline so far on Saturday as of 4pm local time.
The heaviest fighting was once again reported in the direction of Pokrovsk, the key Donetsk city which has for months been central in Vladimir Putin’s sights – an axis of fighting in which the casualty rate is believed to be particularly high since fighting intensified there last year.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in their update on Saturday afternoon that Russia’s forces had also launched artillery attacks in Sumy, Chernihiv and Karkhiv, with fighting ongoing in the latter region, near the settlement of Vovchansk.
Death of KGB spy who helped avert nuclear crisis during Cold War not suspicious, say Surrey Police
Saturday 22 March 2025 19:08
,
Andy Gregory
Police have said they are not treating the death of Oleg Gordievsky – an 86-year-old Soviet KGB officer who helped change the course of the Cold War by covertly passing secrets to Britain – as suspicious.
Historians consider Gordievsky one of the era’s most important spies. In the 1980s, his intelligence helped avoid a dangerous escalation of nuclear tensions between the USSR and the West.
Born in Moscow in 1938, Gordievsky joined the KGB in the early 1960s, serving in Moscow, Copenhagen and London, where he became KGB station chief. He was one of several Soviet agents who grew disillusioned with the USSR after Moscow’s tanks crushed the Prague Spring freedom movement in 1968, and was recruited by Britain's MI6 in the early 1970s. He has lived in England since defecting in 1985.
Surrey Police said on Saturday that officers were called to an address in Godalming on 4 March, where “an 86-year-old man was found dead at the property”. It said counterterrorism officers are leading the investigation, but “the death is not currently being treated as suspicious” and “there is nothing to suggest any increased risk to members of the public”.
Analysis | The evil genius detail in Putin’s ‘deal’ with Trump reveals Russia’s true plans
Saturday 22 March 2025 18:11
,
Andy Gregory
For Donald Trump, talks with the Kremlin are a path to ending the Ukraine conflict as fast as possible. And if there’s a Nobel Peace Prize in it for him, all well and good. Securing some great deals for US business would be even better. For Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, talks are a path to victory and to the victor, the spoils. To get there, the KGB veteran has read Trump like a book.
Trump is obsessed by his image as the king of the art of the deal. Putin has clocked that and is only too happy to offer Trump the prospect of every kind of deal he can to con the White House into handing over something much more worthwhile. Renewed influence over Ukraine, a lifting of sanctions and a future where Russia is treated as a great power again.
Read the full analysis from Owen Matthews below:
Russia accuses an ‘unfriendly state’ of planning the 2024 Moscow concert hall assault
Saturday 22 March 2025 17:16
,
AP
One year since the Moscow concert hall attack killed 145 people, Russian officials asserted on Saturday that it was planned and organised by “the special services of an unfriendly state”.
The aim, according to a a statement by Svetlana Petrenko, the representative of the Russian Investigative Committee, was to “destabilise the situation in Russia”.
Though she did not specify the “unfriendly state,” she noted that “six Central Asians” currently outside of Russia had been charged in absentia and placed on Russia’s wanted list for allegedly recruiting and organising the training of four of the suspected perpetrators.
The four men, all of whom were identified in the media as citizens of Tajikistan, appeared in a Moscow court at the end of March last year on terrorism charges and showed signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.
According to Petrenko, 19 people are currently in custody in Russia in relation to the attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall.
A faction of the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacre in which gunmen shot people who were waiting for a show by a popular rock band and then set the building on fire. But Russian officials including president Vladimir Putin have persistently claimed – without presenting evidence – that Ukraine had a role in the attack. Kyiv has vehemently denied any involvement.
As Russia retakes Kursk, Ukrainians ask: ‘Was it worth it?’
Saturday 22 March 2025 16:21
,
Andy Gregory
With Ukraine’s troops having retreated from swathes of territory seized during their incursion into Russia’s Kursk region last August, the Reuters news agency has spoken to some Ukrainians who have cast doubt over the operation’s efficacy.
Mariia Pankova, whose friend Pavlo Humeniuk has been missing for nearly four months after being deployed to Kursk, said tearfully: “I’m just not sure it was worth it, adding: “We're not invaders. We just need our territories back, we do not need the Russian one.”
Soldier Oleksii Deshevyi, a 32-year-old former supermarket security guard who lost his hand while fighting in Kursk in September, said he saw no logic in the operation.
“We should not have started this operation at all,” he said, speaking in a rehabilitation centre in Kyiv, where he has spent the past six months adjusting to life after injury.
Yet despite her doubts over the operation in Kursk, with Donald Trump now negotiating with Vladimir Putin in a bid to end Russia’s war, Ms Pankova cast doubt over the possibility of a peace deal which prevents Russia from returning to seize more Ukrainian land – and is herself considering joining Kyiv’s armed forces.
“Every time that someone tries to, let's say, sell some piece of Ukraine, they just have not to forget what we already gave,” she said. “How many lives our people gave for that.”
Senior Putin ally and Serbian deputy PM discuss protests in Serbia, agencies say
Saturday 22 March 2025 15:24
,
Andy Gregory
Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s influential Security Council, has met Serbia's outgoing deputy prime minister Alexandar Vulin in Moscow and discussed anti-government protests in his country, Russian state news agencies have said.
Both referred to the protests as an attempted “colour revolution” – a term used to describe pro-Western protests that toppled governments in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan in recent decades.
“Western intelligence services are behind the colour revolution in Serbia and would like to bring another government to power in Serbia. We will not allow this,” the Tass news agency quoted Mr Vulin as claiming, without providing evidence.
The previous day, Mr Vulin said that Russia’s spy services had assisted Belgrade authorities in responding to the protests – in a move which critics said revealed the extent to which Serbia’s government has become dependent on Moscow.
Mr Shoigu said on Saturday that both countries maintained regular dialogue and exchanged information “including with a view to countering ‘colour revolutions’”, adding: “This helps to prevent destabilisation of the situation in brotherly Serbia in the changing geopolitical environment.”
Students, backed by teachers, farmers and workers, have maintained daily protests across Serbia since last November, when 16 people died in a roof collapse at a train station in the northern city of Novi Sad, which they blame on corruption.
Earlier this week, Serbian parliament formally approved the resignation of prime minister Milos Vucevic, who offered to step down on 28 January, triggering a 30-day deadline for the formation of a new government or the calling of a snap election.
On the ground: Russian drone pilots hunting down Ukrainian civilians on the streets
Saturday 22 March 2025 13:18
,
Tom Barnes
Ukrainians living in bombed-out Kherson tell The Independent’s world affairs editor Sam Kiley how Russian drones target them as they go about their daily lives – and how their brutal injuries are cared for in a hospital forced underground:
Russia warns of 'symmetrical response' to Ukrainian attacks on energy facilities
Saturday 22 March 2025 12:28
,
Tom B
