Russia could strike Nato with nuclear weapons, a key Putin ally warned, as he hit out at Sweden and Finland joining the bloc.
Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian prime minister and security council deputy, said the two Scandinavian countries have “automatically become targets for our armed forces.”
Mr Medvedev is an anti-Western hawk and has made repeated nuclear threats since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“They are part of a bloc hostile to us which means they automatically became a target for our armed forces, including retaliatory strikes and even the nuclear component or preventive measures,” he said.
It comes after a major Russian drone attack on Ukraine killed a 12-year-old child this morning and wounded three others just hours after Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a fresh 72-hour ceasefire next weekend.
The girl was killed after one of 100 drones fired by Russia overnight hit a residential building in Samarivskyi district in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine’s emergency service said.
Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna’s body returned with missing organsThe body of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna returned by Russia shows signs of brutal torture and has some missing internal organs, a new investigation by the Forbidden Stories journalism network said yesterday.
Numerous signs of torture and ill-treatment were found on the journalist’s body, said Yurii Belousov, head of the war crimes department at the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The experts who were a part of the investigation also saw evidence of torture including electric shocks.
The independent examination of Roshchyna’s body in Ukraine showed her brain, eyes, and part of the trachea had been removed, the investigation said.
Investigators have said the body showed evidence of an autopsy conducted in Russia before it was returned to Ukraine.
More than 40 journalists from 13 international media outlets participated in the investigation, conducting more than 50 interviews with former prisoners, ex-prison guards, and human rights activists.
Her remains, tagged with number 757, were handed over by Russia in late February with Russian documents falsely labelling her as an “unidentified male”.
However, a forensic examination showed the body was female. DNA testing on the remains finally identified them as Roshchyna’s with 99 per cent certainty.
The organs may have been deliberately removed from Roshchyna’s body to hide signs of suffocation or strangulation, according to an international forensic pathologist.
Arpan Rai30 April 2025 04:21
Trump says he thinks Putin wants peace in Ukraine despite recent attacksPresident Donald Trump has said he thinks Russian president Vladimir Putin wants to stop Russia’s war in Ukraine, despite recent attacks against the beleaguered nation.
Mr Trump responded “I think he does” when asked whether he thinks Mr Putin wants to make peace during an interview with ABC News’ Terry Moran.
“If it weren’t for me, I think he’d want to take over the whole country,” Mr Trump said. “I will tell you, I was not happy when I saw Putin shooting missiles into a few towns and cities.”
Arpan Rai30 April 2025 03:55
Russia attacked Ukraine with 100 drones overnightRussia launched 100 drones in overnight attacks targeting Ukraine, Ukraine’s air force said this morning.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 37 drones, while 47 others disappeared from radars without reaching their targets – usually a result of being jammed by electronic warfare systems
The attacks caused damage in the Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv regions, it said in a Telegram post.
Alexander Butler30 April 2025 02:00
Kremlin says Russia is waiting for Ukraine to start direct talksThe Kremlin has falsely claimed that Ukraine had not responded to many offers by Russia president Vladimir Putin to start direct peace negotiations, Russian news agencies reported this morning.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia could not respond to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire without settling all “nuances”, the agencies reported.
The deflecting statements from the Kremlin come just hours after Mr Putin announced a three-day temporary ceasefire in the Ukraine war to mark the 80th anniversary of victory in the Second World War.
Mr Zelensky responded within hours and said Ukraine has never wanted a single day of this war.
“We made our own proposal to Russia – bilaterally – to halt strikes at least on civilian targets. We also proposed making the Easter ceasefire full and extending it for 30 days,” he said.
Mr Peskov’s statements did not acknowledge the Ukrainian president’s repeated offers of a truce.
The Russian news agencies claimed that starting this process of direct peace negotiations was Moscow’s primary focus.
Alexander Butler30 April 2025 01:00
Russia claims its forces capture village in Ukraine’s Kharkiv regionRussia’s troops have captured the village of Doroshivka in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, the Russian defence ministry announced today.
In a daily update shared on its Telegram channel, the Russian defence ministry said: “As a result of active actions, units of the ‘West’ military group liberated the village of Doroshovka in the Kharkiv region.”
Ukraine has not issued a comment on the Russian claim over its territory.
According to the latest battlefield update shared by The Institute for the Study of War, a Ukrainian commander had reported more activity in the Kharkiv region from Russian forces in the past 24 hours.
“The commander reported that Russian forces are more actively conducting artillery strikes and assaults, including with mopeds, and that Russian forces have rotated troops in this direction, increasing the number of Russian forces and reserves,” the ISW said in its latest assessment.
Alexander Butler30 April 2025 00:01
Ukraine won’t win the war against Russia, says JD VanceUS vice president JD Vance has said Ukraine will not win the war against Russia as he claimed that a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv is not “necessarily guaranteed”.
“Sometimes you’re incredibly frustrated with the Ukrainians, sometimes you’re incredibly frustrated with the Russians,” Mr Vance said on the Charlie Kirk Show podcast.
“I can’t say with 100 per cent certainty, Charlie, that we’re going to be able to do it,” he said, referring to a peace deal.
Mr Vance said that the US is “making progress” in the negotiations but a peace deal is not necessarily guaranteed.
“If this doesn’t stop, the Ukrainians aren’t winning the war,” the US vice president said.
“I think there’s this weird idea among the mainstream media that if this thing goes on for just another few years, the Russians will collapse, the Ukrainians will take their territory back, and everything will go back to the way that it was before the war. That is not the reality that we live in,” he said.
Alexander Butler29 April 2025 23:00
What the killing of a Russian general in Moscow means for Trump’s plan for peace in UkraineAlexander Butler29 April 2025 22:00
If Trump’s hatred of Zelensky feels personal, that’s because it is
If Trump’s hatred of Zelensky feels personal, that’s because it isAs the US president lashes out at the Ukrainian leader once again, it can sometimes feel as though personal hostility is clouding his judgement. Sam Kiley examines a long-held grudge against Zelensky – and how it may be getting in the way of defending democracy against tyranny
Alexander Butler29 April 2025 20:30
It has taken 100 days for Trump to undo 100 years of progressAlexander Butler29 April 2025 19:30
‘Kim Jong Un style’ 5,000-tonne warship unveiled by North KoreaAlexander Butler29 April 2025 18:30
