Russia - Human Crisis News

Russia Tells NATO It Is Ready to Use Nuclear Weapons If Kaliningrad Is Isolated

2Oct

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Russia Tells NATO It Is Ready to Use Nuclear Weapons If Kaliningrad Is Isolated

Russia has issued a formal Kaliningrad nuclear warning to NATO, saying it would be ready to use nuclear weapons if alliance members try to isolate the Kaliningrad region from the rest of Russia, according to a diplomatic note seen by Reuters and reported on Sept. 30. NATO replied in writing that none of its exercises or activities threaten Russian territory, and told Moscow to stop its nuclear rhetoric. Neither document had been published in full when this was written. What the Russian note says The note, which Reuters reported was sent to NATO, says Russia would be ready to use the full range of its forces, including nuclear weapons, to defend its territory should NATO countries attempt to cut off Kaliningrad. It accuses the alliance of a "dangerous and reckless course" that carries...

Russian Barrage on Ukraine’s Energy Grid Triggers Emergency Blackouts in Kyiv

2Oct

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Russian Barrage on Ukraine’s Energy Grid Triggers Emergency Blackouts in Kyiv

Kyiv went into emergency blackouts on Wednesday for the first time since spring, after Russia launched its largest combined missile and drone assault on Ukraine's energy grid in months. Ukrainian officials say seven people died across the country, and a key power plant near the capital was damaged. President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking during a visit to the eastern front, said one of the dead was a child and that critical infrastructure had been hit in five regions, with damage recorded in five more. Ukraine's air force reported intercepting five missiles and 155 drones, and air-raid sirens sounded for more than 12 hours. What went offline in and around Kyiv The state-owned producer Centrenergo said generating equipment at the Trypilska thermal power plant in Kyiv region was dama...

Russia Ukraine Strikes Injure 19, Poland Issues Urgent Warning

19Sep

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Russia Ukraine Strikes Injure 19, Poland Issues Urgent Warning

Russia Ukraine strikes escalated again this week, with a missile and drone barrage on Kyiv and its surrounding region injuring at least 19 people overnight into Thursday, Ukrainian officials said. Children were among those hurt. The same night, separate strikes hit Odesa and Zaporizhzhia, and Ukraine's Air Force reported destroying or suppressing 131 Russian aerial targets before dawn. Kyiv didn't only absorb the hit. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces struck back overnight too, hitting an oil refinery in Yaroslavl - roughly 700 kilometers inside Russian territory - along with a military airfield in the Rostov region. Neither side is behaving like a ceasefire is close. Peace talks have stalled over territorial concessions in eastern Ukraine, and the latest round of Russ...

Pechenihy Declares Days of Mourning After Deadly Missile Strike on Town Center

19Aug

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Pechenihy Declares Days of Mourning After Deadly Missile Strike on Town Center

The Pechenihy missile strike has left a small town in Ukraine's Kharkiv region mourning its dead, after Russian forces hit the settlement's center on Tuesday morning, killing at least 10 people as they went about the ordinary business of starting their week. Pechenihy, a settlement of a few thousand residents roughly 48 kilometers southeast of the city of Kharkiv, was struck at around 8:40 a.m. local time on August 18, when two Banderol-type missiles hit the intersection at the heart of the town. It is the kind of place that rarely appears on a map of the war: no strategic value, no front-line significance, just a post office, a café, a small shop, and the homes clustered around them. On Tuesday, that ordinariness is precisely what made the strike so devastating – the missiles landed as...