The Russian military says the damaged Moscow cruise missile sank while being towed to a port.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Moscow sank in a storm on Thursday after being gutted by a fire. The ministry said earlier that a fire on the warship had set fire to some of its weapons and forced the crew to evacuate.
However, Ukrainian authorities said Moscow, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, was hit by Ukrainian missiles late Wednesday near Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odessa.
The United States has failed to confirm Ukraine’s allegations of a strike on the warship, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday. However, he called it a “big blow to Russia”.
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KEY DEVELOPMENT OF THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
– Damaged leading sinks on the Black Sea of the Russian military
– Pressure on the United States to give Ukraine more intelligence about Russia
– The UN says that the war in Ukraine threatens to devastate many poor nations
– The detention in Ukraine of an oligarch close to Putin angered Moscow
– Polish and Baltic presidents visit Ukraine in support
– Go for more coverage
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
NEW YORK – A Russian lawmaker and two aides have been charged with conspiracy to violate US sanctions while running a covert Russian propaganda campaign in the United States to gain support for action against Ukraine and other countries, the indictment said Thursday.
Three conspiracy charges were filed in an indictment in the federal court in Manhattan against the legislator Alexander Babakov, 59, and two of his employees – Alexander Nikolaevich Vorobev, 52, and Mikhail Alekseevich Plisyuk, 58.
All three named are based in Russia and remain at large, authorities said. Babakov is currently deputy chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s legislature, federal officials said in a statement.
U.S. Attorney Damien Williams said Babakov’s actions show that “Russia’s illegal actions against Ukraine extend beyond the battlefield, as Russian-controlled political figures allegedly planned to steer geopolitical change to Russia through secret and illegal means in the United States and elsewhere in the West. “
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Russian authorities have accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out air strikes on Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, the latest in a series of allegations of cross-border attacks by Kyiv on Russian territory.
Russia’s Investigative Committee claims that two Ukrainian military helicopters entered Russian airspace on Thursday and, “moving at low altitudes, acting deliberately, inflicted at least six air strikes on apartment buildings in the village of Klimovo”, about 11 kilometers from the Russian border.
It says at least six houses in the village were damaged and seven people, including a small child, were injured. The commission of inquiry has launched an investigation into the attack.
Earlier on Thursday, Russia’s State Security Service or the FSB also accused Ukrainian forces of shelling a border checkpoint near Bryansk on Wednesday.
Reports cannot be verified independently. Earlier this month, senior Ukrainian security officials denied that Kyiv was behind an air strike against an oil depot in the Russian city of Belgorod, 35 miles from the border.
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PARIS – France moved its embassy in Ukraine back to Kyiv from the western city of Lviv after Russian troops withdrew from the regions around the capital and focused on warring eastern Ukraine.
The French Foreign Ministry announced the move on Thursday after Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitry Kuleba, about French military and humanitarian support for Ukraine. No relocation date was announced.
France retained its embassy in Kyiv at the start of the war, but moved its operations to Lviv in March. France sent a new convoy of fire engines, ambulances and emergency equipment to Ukraine on Thursday, and a team of French investigators arrived this week to gather evidence of war crimes.
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According to Russian news, a criminal case has been opened against a Siberian journalist whose news site published content critical of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
Mikhail Afanasiev, editor-in-chief of Novi Focus in Russia’s Khakassia region, was arrested by security forces on Wednesday for reporting on the website of 11 riot police officers allegedly refusing to be stationed in Ukraine as part of Russia there.
Afanasiev was charged Thursday with disseminating “deliberately false information” about Russia’s armed forces, a crime punishable by a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, according to a law passed in early March.
Another Siberian-based journalist was also arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of violating Russia’s new laws on media coverage of the situation in Ukraine. Sergei Mikhailov, founder of the Altai-based weekly LIStok, was reportedly detained for alleged “calls for sanctions against Russia.”
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LONDON – The British Foreign Office said it was freezing assets worth up to 10 billion pounds ($ 13.1 billion) belonging to two Russian oligarchs described as longtime business partners of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
Officials said on Thursday that Eugene Tenenbaum took control of Evrington Investments Ltd., an Abramovich-linked investment company, immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24th. Tenenbaum, who is also the director of Chelsea Football Club, has been frozen.
The other sanctioned Russian is David Davidovich, who was subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban.
The move came after the Norman island of Jersey said this week it was freezing $ 7 billion in assets allegedly linked to Abramovich, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The British government said the measures “cut key sources of revenue for Putin’s military machine” amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron has refused to use the term “genocide” to describe Russia’s war in Ukraine, arguing against the “escalation of words”.
Asked about the use of the term by US President Joe Biden, Macron said “the word genocide should be written by lawyers, not politicians.”
Speaking on French radio France Bleu, Macron said he had spoken to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Thursday and would speak to him again later that day. He said he would do “everything to end this war and stay on the side of the Ukrainians.”
Macron has previously denounced “war crimes” in Ukraine and France has sent magistrates and police to help the International Criminal Court, which has launched an investigation.
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GENEVA – The International Committee of the Red Cross says it is launching its largest financial aid program to help more than 2 million people in Ukraine or fleeing abroad cope with the effects of the Russian invasion.
Nicole Robische, a spokeswoman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said Thursday that the organization plans to distribute “well over 100 million” Swiss francs – about $ 106 million – to people affected by Russia’s seven-week war in Ukraine. .
Humanitarian groups such as the IFRC have recently promoted the effectiveness of cash assistance programs for people affected by events such as natural disasters, drought, famine and conflict as a way to “allow people to decide what they need” and to return money to the local economy, “Robisho said by telephone.
The program aims to help about 360,000 people in Ukraine and many others in asylum countries.
The IFRC says national Red Cross organizations have already helped more than 1 million people with items such as blankets, food, mats and kitchen equipment.
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MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that attempts by Western countries to stop importing Russian gas will have a negative impact on their economies.
Speaking on Thursday, Putin said European attempts to find alternatives to Russian gas supplies would be “quite painful for the initiators of such policies”.
He claims that “there is simply no reasonable replacement for him in Europe now”.
Putin noted that “supplies from other countries that can be sent to Europe, mainly from the United States, would cost consumers many times more.” He added that this “will affect people’s living standards and the competitiveness of the European economy”.
The European Union depends on Russia for 40% of its natural gas and 25% of its oil.
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PARIS – The French government has said it has frozen 33 properties on the French Riviera, Paris and other places belonging to Russian oligarchs seeking sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
The finance ministry this week released an updated list of Russian-owned properties that have been frozen in France, including a luxury castle overlooking the Mediterranean Sea of Cap d’Antibes, which allegedly belongs to sanctioned Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
Together, the 33 properties are valued at more than half a billion euros. Unlike property that has been confiscated or confiscated, frozen property still belongs to its owners and they can continue to live in it. But they cannot be sold or rented.
The total value of Russian assets frozen or seized in France is now approaching 24 billion euros, most of which is close to 23 billion euros in frozen financial assets for the Russian central bank. In addition to financial assets and property, French authorities also froze or detained three yachts and four transport ships and froze six helicopters and three works of art.
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LVIV, Ukraine – Russia’s Defense Ministry says the fire on the cruiser Moscow, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, has been contained. It is stated that the ship remains on the surface and will be towed to the port.
The ministry said in a statement Thursday that there is no …
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