New hazards of war enclose Belarusian town with turbulent past
Osipovichi, Belarus Reuters A Belarusian town with a turbulent past may hold some haunting new secrets: an empty camp that mutinous Russian mercenaries have yet to use and perhaps even a storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons Russia says it has deployed in Belarus. In a former military camp surrounded by fir and birch forest […]
Belarus leader says nuclear arms will not be used
Reuters Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the Kremlin’s staunchest ally in its war in Ukraine, said on Friday he was certain Russian tactical nuclear weapons deployed in his country would never be used. Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin have acknowledged that some tactical weapons have arrived in Belarus and the remainder would be put in […]
Renegade Russian mercenary Prigozhin is in Belarus – Lukashenko
Moscow, Russia Reuters Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin flew to Belarus from Russia on Tuesday after a mutiny that dealt the biggest blow to President Vladimir Putin’s authority since he came to power more than 23 years ago. Putin initially vowed to crush the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the […]
Essay: Wagner’s mutiny punctured Putin’s ‘strongman’ image and exposed cracks in his rule
In an article first published on The Conversation, PETER RUTLAND, professor of government at Wesleyan University, looks at events in Russia on the weekend – and what the longer-term impacts may be…
Russian mercenaries return to bases after challenge to Putin’s authority
Rostov-on-Don/Voronezh, Russia Reuters Heavily armed Russian mercenaries withdrew from the southern Russian city of Rostov under a deal that halted their rapid advance on Moscow but raised questions on Sunday about President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power. Ending their short-lived mutiny, fighters of the Wagner group began heading back to their bases late on Saturday […]
Rebel Russian mercenaries turn back short of Moscow “to avoid bloodshed”
Rostov-on-Don/Voronezh, Russia Reuters Heavily armed Russian mercenaries who advanced most of the way to Moscow began turning back on Saturday, de-escalating a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power, in a move their leader said would avoid bloodshed. Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former Putin ally and founder of the Wagner army, said his men […]
Russia moves ahead with deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus
Moscow, Russia Reuters Russia moved ahead on Thursday with a plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, whose leader said the warheads were already on the move, in the Kremlin’s first deployment of such bombs outside Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. The US State Department denounced the deployment plan, but […]
Belarus PM replaces Lukashenko at ceremony, sparks speculation
Reuters Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has not been seen in public since Tuesday, did not appear on Sunday at a ceremony in the capital, Minsk, triggering speculation that the veteran leader is seriously ill. The BelTA state news agency reported that Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko read a message from Lukashenko during an annual ceremony […]
Russian ‘kamikaze’ drones hit Kyiv, Putin has talks in ally Belarus
Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters Russian “kamikaze” drones hit key energy infrastructure in and around Kyiv on Monday and President Vladimir Putin visited Belarus for the first time since 2019, fuelling Ukrainian fears he will pressure his ally to open a new invasion front. But Ukraine was hardly mentioned by Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko […]
Ukraine’s Zelenskiy defiant as Russian forces, despite setbacks, regroup near Kyiv
Lviv, Ukraine Reuters President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday Ukraine had reached a “strategic turning point” in the conflict with Russia, but Russian forces bombarded cities across the country and appeared to be regrouping for a possible assault on the capital Kyiv. The governor of the Kharkiv region, on the Russian border, said a psychiatric […]