Author: AFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday vowed to bring more “destruction” to Ukraine in retaliation for a drone attack on a high-rise apartment block in the central Russian city of Kazan a day earlier. “Whoever, and however much they try to destroy, they will face many times more destruction themselves and will regret what they are trying to do in our country,” Putin said in comments on the attack on Kazan — which left no casualties — during a televised government meeting.
Iran’s supreme leader denied Sunday that armed groups around the region functioned as Tehran’s proxies, warning that if his country chose to “take action”, it would not need them anyway. The remarks came after a year in which Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza suffered heavy losses in wars with Israel, and two weeks after the fall of Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad, who had been a key link in Tehran’s so-called axis of resistance. Another spoke of that axis, Yemen’s Huthi rebels, have been repeatedly targeted by the United States and Britain over their attacks on Red…
A lightning anti-regime offensive early this month caught Syria’s ruling clan off guard. Baath regime leader Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia on December 8, leaving behind many of his collaborators, some of whom sought refuge in neighbouring countries. According to two sources, the ousted leader, who fled to Moscow via the Russian military airfield in Hmeimim on Syria’s coast, was accompanied by only a handful of confidants. Among them were his closet ally, the secretary-general of presidential affairs Mansour Azzam, as well as his economic adviser Yassar Ibrahim, who oversees the financial empire of Assad and his wife, Asma. “He…
Russia attacked Ukraine with 113 drones overnight, the Ukrainian air force said on Saturday, adding that it downed 57 of them while 56 others failed to reach their targets — usually as a result of being jammed by electronic warfare systems. The air force said Russia also fired one S-400 missile at central Ukraine but that there was no damage from it. Moscow launches near-daily attacks with dozens of drones at Ukraine in an effort to exhaust its air defences.
Russia has sentenced a man to 19 years in jail for allegedly sending information about Russian soldiers to the United States’ FBI, Russia’s FSB security service said Saturday. The unidentified man, who was born in 1993, was found guilty of “high treason” and other charges, the FSB said in a statement. The FSB accused the man, from the city of Orenburg, of “passing information on the identity and other personal data of Russian servicemen to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).” He was first arrested in January 2023. The FSB said Saturday a regional court in Orenburg, in…
Hamas and two other Palestinian resistance groups said on Saturday that a Gaza ceasefire deal with Israel is “closer than ever”, provided Israel does not impose new conditions. Last week, indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States were held in Doha, rekindling hope of an agreement. “The possibility of reaching an agreement (for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal) is closer than ever, provided the enemy stops imposing new conditions,” Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a rare joint statement issued after talks in…
Russia said it targeted arms industry and security service targets in strikes on Kyiv on Friday as a “response” to this week’s Ukrainian strikes using Western missiles on a chemical plant in southern Russia. “In response to the actions of the Kyiv regime, supported by its Western handlers, a combined strike with long-range precision weapons was launched today,” the defence ministry said in a statement. Ukraine’s air force said on Friday it downed five ballistic missiles and 40 drones in a Russian attack, with a further 20 drones failing to reach their targets. It said a total of 65 drones…
France’s President Emmanuel Macron faced accusations of racism Friday over an alleged comment on problems in hospitals, which his office strongly denied he made, adding to controversy over an angry remark during a visit to an Indian Ocean territory ravaged by a cyclone. With Le Monde daily printing a sequence of articles about the behind-the-scenes atmosphere at the Elysee, Macron was also accused of sexist remarks about women opposition leaders and a homophobic quip about a former prime minister he appointed himself. Macron said that the “problem with emergency care in this country is that it’s filled with people called…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday made a rare admission of failings by his powerful security agencies over the Ukraine-orchestrated killing of a senior military general in Moscow. “Our special services are missing these hits. They missed these hits. It means we need to improve this work. We must not allow such very serious blunders to happen,” Putin said at his end-of-year press conference, addressing a string of attacks inside Russia on high-profile Kremlin backers amid the military offensive on Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he was ready for talks “anytime” with US President-elect Donald Trump, who has touted his ability to strike a Ukraine peace deal within hours of coming to office. Trump, who will return to the White House in January, has stoked fears in Kyiv that he could force Ukraine to accept peace on terms favourable to Moscow. Holding his annual end-of-year press conference, the Kremlin leader said his troops held the upper hand across the battlefield, but was forced to admit he does not know when Russia will take back the western Kursk region where…