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15 minutes ago

Ukraine-Russia war live: Moscow plotted terror attacks on airlines around world, Poland PM Tusk claims

The Kremlin has dismissed previous Western claims that Russia sponsored acts of sabotage and attacks in Europe

Arpan Rai,Jabed Ahmed
Wednesday 15 January 2025 22:00 GMT
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Two North Korean Soldiers Captured in Russia’s Kursk: Zelensky Reveals Shocking Images | Watch

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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has accused Russia of planning acts of sabotage worldwide that included “acts of air terror” against airlines.

Speaking at a news conference in Warsaw alongside Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Tusk said: “I will not go into details, I can only confirm the validity of fears that Russia was planning acts of air terror, not only against Poland, but against airlines around the world.”

The Kremlin has dismissed previous Western claims that Russia sponsored acts of sabotage and attacks in Europe.

Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put explosives in packages on cargo planes headed to the US, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England last year.

Azerbaijan accused Russia of unintentionally shooting down an Azerbaijani airliner that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas day, killing 38 people. Mr Putin apologised but stopped short of accepting responsibility.

It comes as Russia launched a new barrage of missiles and drones at Ukraine on Wednesday, targeting gas infrastructure and other energy facilities in western regions in the latest strike on the country’s hobbled power system as it approaches mid-winter. 

15 minutes ago

Watch | North Korean soldiers claim they didn't know they we being sent to Ukraine in interrogation

North Korean soldiers claim they didn't know they we being sent to Ukraine in interrogation
Jabed Ahmed15 January 2025 22:00
1 hour ago

Mapped: Where has Russia made advances on the frontline in Ukraine?

Ukraine-Russia war map: Where Putin’s forces are making gains in eastern Ukraine

Ukrainian military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi says the fight to hold the eastern region of Dontesk has become ‘extremely tough’

Jabed Ahmed15 January 2025 21:00
2 hours ago

War in Ukraine: A snapshot of 2024 military warfare

Russian forces in 2024 advanced in Ukraine at the fastest rate since 2022, the war’s first year, and control about a fifth of the country. But the gains have come at the cost of heavy, though undisclosed, losses in men and equipment.

In 2024, Russia was invaded for the first time since the Second World War as Ukraine grabbed a slice of its western Kursk region in a surprise counter-attack on 6 August.

Russia has yet to eject Ukrainian forces from Kursk despite bringing in more than 10,000 troops from its ally North Korea, according to Ukrainian, South Korean and US assessments. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.

“To sustain even the very slow advance in Ukraine, Russia has been forced to ignore the months-long occupation of part of its own territory by Ukrainian forces,” British security expert Ruth Deyermond said.

“Taking a ‘nothing to see here’ attitude to the loss of its own land is not what great powers do, particularly one so preoccupied with the idea of state sovereignty.”

Deyermond, in a long thread posted on X, suggested Putin’s efforts to portray Russia as a leading world power were also undermined by the toppling of its chief Middle East ally, former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and its increasing dependence on China.

Mr Putin, the longest-serving ruler of Russia since Josef Stalin, said on 19 December that under his leadership the country had moved back from “the edge of the abyss” and rebuffed threats to its sovereignty.

With hindsight, he said, he should not have waited until February 2022 before launching his “special military operation” in Ukraine, the term he still uses for the full-scale invasion of Russia’s neighbour.

Jabed Ahmed15 January 2025 20:00
3 hours ago

Explained | Why does Russia want to capture strategic Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk?

Russian forces are closing in on the strategically important eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk after capturing a string of villages to its south, and Ukraine has halted production at its only coking coal mine nearby due to the advance.

Pokrovsk is a road and rail hub in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which had a pre-war population of some 60,000 people. While most people have fled, Ukraine estimated last month that up to 11,000 still remain in the city.

It lies on a key road used by the Ukrainian military to supply other embattled eastern outposts including the towns of Chasiv Yar and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine’s only mine that produces coking coal - used in its once vast steel industry and vital for the country’s pre-war economy - is just a 20-minute drive to the west of Pokrovsk, and open source data shows Russian forces are less than 2 km (1.24 miles) from one of the mine shafts.

Moscow says it has annexed Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and sees taking control of Pokrovsk as an important stepping stone to incorporating the entire region into Russia. Kyiv and the West reject Russia’s territorial claims as illegal and accuse Moscow of prosecuting a war of colonial conquest.

Control of the city, which the Russian media call “the gateway to Donetsk”, would allow Moscow to severely disrupt Ukrainian supply lines along the eastern front and boost its campaign to capture Chasiv Yar, which sits on higher ground offering potential control of a wider area.

Squeezing the Ukrainian military’s access to the road network in the vicinity would make it harder for Kyiv’s troops to hold pockets of territory either side of Pokrovsk, which could allow Russia to advance the front line.

Jabed Ahmed15 January 2025 19:01
4 hours ago

Zelensky: foreign troops in Ukraine could only be part of security guarantees

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine could only be a part of security guarantees and would not be enough alone.

Zelenskiy told a news conference in Warsaw that he plans to discuss the issue with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

He added Ukraine has sharply raised its local arms production and is now producing about 33-34 per cent of all weapons domestically. The European Union supplied another 30 per cent, while 40 per cent was provided by the United States. 

Jabed Ahmed15 January 2025 18:01
5 hours ago

Zelensky says Kyiv brought home 25 people in prisoner swap with Russia

Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Kyiv had brought home 25 people in a prisoner exchange with Russia.

Russia's defence ministry earlier said that a 25-for-25 prisoner of war exchange had been conducted with mediation from the United Arab Emirates.

"We extend our gratitude to the United Arab Emirates for their assistance in making today's event possible," Zelensky wrote on X.

(Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman Via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS)
Jabed Ahmed15 January 2025 17:14
5 hours ago

Russia and Ukraine need to make concessions to end war - Trump top diplomat pick Rubio says

Senator Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be US secretary of state, has said both Russia and Ukraine will need to make concessions to end the war in Ukraine.

“It’s going to be hard work,” Rubio said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said he hoped a ceasefire could be achieved in the conflict but both sides need to have leverage for that to occur.

Jabed Ahmed15 January 2025 16:55
5 hours ago

Zelensky expects US will continue strengthening Ukraine after Trump inauguration

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he expected the United States would continue to strengthen Ukraine in the war against Russia after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration next week.

Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine was seeking "strong" security guarantees and urged support to the Ukrainian armed forces as the war with Russia approaches its three-year mark.

Jabed Ahmed15 January 2025 16:31
5 hours ago

Pictured | Residents check their damaged property following the shelling, which local Russian-installed authorities called a Ukrainian military strike

(REUTERS)
(REUTERS)
Jabed Ahmed15 January 2025 16:20
6 hours ago

Russia planned 'acts of terrorism' in the air, Polish PM says

Russia planned ‘acts of terrorism’ in the air against Poland and other countries, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Warsaw.

Security officials have said that parcels that exploded at logistics depots in Europe were part of a test run for a Russian plot to trigger explosions on cargo flights to the United States. The explosions occurred in depots in Britain, Germany and Poland in July. Russia has denied involvement in the incidents and Tusk did not mention them specifically.

“The latest information can confirm the validity of fears that Russia was planning acts of terrorism in the air not only against Poland,” Tusk told a news conference. He did not say what acts he was referring to or elaborate on the contents of the information.

Moscow has regularly denied any involvement in the courier depot explosions, as well as break-ins, arson and attacks on individuals which Western officials say were carried out by operatives paid by Russia. The Russian embassy in Warsaw has not immediately replied to an emailed request for comment on Tusk’s statement.

Jabed Ahmed15 January 2025 15:44

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