Vladimir Putin: Latest News

Ukraine rages on and Western allies pledge additional support for the next phase of the fight, one man has drawn attention as an outsized influence on the Russian side of the invasion.Yevgeny Prigozhin is the defacto leader of the Wagner Group, a private militia that has helped shape the war in Ukraine like few private entities have in the past. The Wagner Group has been at the helm of the battle for Bakhmut, the bloodiest and longest of the war.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is reassuring allies that the alliance will defend “every inch of NATO territory” as Eastern European member countries are raising concerns about the presence of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group in Belarus.

Russia’s most serious political crisis in decades, uncertainty swirled Monday about the fate of the former Putin ally who led a brief armed rebellion, his Wagner mercenary group, and the two military chiefs with whom he has clashed over the conduct of the war in Ukraine.Also unclear were the impact on the 16-month-old invasion – and the future of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who faced the most serious challenge to his authority in more than 20 years of rule.A feud between Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russia’s top military brass amid the fighting in Ukraine erupted into a mutiny that saw fighters from the mercenary group leave the front in Ukraine to seize a south Russian city and march seemingly unopposed on the capital, before turning around after less than 24 hours on Saturday.The Kremlin said it had made a deal that the mercenary chief will move to Belarus and receive an amnesty, along with his soldiers. Yet on Monday, Russian media reported that a criminal probe against Prigozhin continued, and his whereabouts were unknown.Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made his first public appearance since the rebellion that demanded his ouster, inspecting troops in Ukraine Monday in a video aimed at projecting a sense of order, as Russian media speculated that he and other top military leaders have lost Putin’s confidence and could be replaced.Shoigu was shown in video released by the Defense Ministry flying in a helicopter and then attending a meeting with military officers at a military headquarters in Ukraine.

mercenary uprising demanded his ouster, inspecting troops in Ukraine in a video released Monday aimed at projecting a sense of order after the country’s most serious political crisis in decades.But uncertainty still swirled about his fate, that of rebellion leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his private army, the impact on the war in Ukraine and even the political future of President Vladimir Putin.A feud between Wagner Group leader Prigozhin and Russia's military brass that has festered throughout the war erupted into a mutiny that saw the mercenaries leave Ukraine to seize a military headquarters in a southern Russian city and march seemingly unopposed on Moscow, before turning around after less than 24 hours on Saturday.The Kremlin said it had made a deal that Prigozhin will move to Belarus and receive an amnesty, along with his soldiers. Yet on Monday, Russian media reported that a criminal probe against him continued, and his whereabouts were unknown.The video of Shoigu — the first of him shown since the uprising that demanded his ouster — came as Russian media speculated that he and other top military leaders have lost Putin’s confidence and could be replaced.Shoigu was shown in the Defense Ministry video in a helicopter and then meeting with officers at a military headquarters in Ukraine.

Russian troops deployed to protect the capital withdrew Sunday after mercenary forces beat a retreat. But the short-lived revolt could have long-term consequences for President Vladimir Putin’s two-decade hold on power and his war in Ukraine.

Russia’s military leaders with expletive-ridden insults in a rift that has weakened the country’s forces amid the war in Ukraine.Yevgeny Prigozhin accused them of not providing him with munitions in the key battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut.A video in May showed him standing in front of the bloodied bodies of his slain troops yelling obscenities at Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, calling them weak and incompetent, blaming them for the carnage."They came here as volunteers and they died to let you lounge in your mahogany offices," Prigozhin declared.

FILE - (L to R) European Council President Charles Michel, Italys Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Frances President Emmanuel Macron, Japans Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, US President Joe Biden, Germanys Chancello HIROSHIMA, Japan - Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies vowed Friday to tighten punishments on Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine, days before President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joins the Group of Seven summit in person on Sunday."Our support for Ukraine will not waver," the G7 leaders said in a statement released after closed-door meetings, vowing "to stand together against Russia’s illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.""Russia started this war and can end this war," they said.Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, confirmed on national television that Zelenskyy would attend the summit."We were sure that our president would be where Ukraine needed him, in any part of the world, to solve the issue of stability of our country," Danilov said Friday. "There will be very important matters decided there, so physical presence is a crucial thing to defend our interests."Zelenskyy on Friday opened a visit to Saudi Arabia, where Arab leaders were holding a separate summit, he announced.Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats against Ukraine, along with North Korea's months-long barrage of missile tests and China’s rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal, have resonated with Japan’s push to make nuclear disarmament a major part of the summit.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told her supporters on Monday to be ready to grab any chance to turn her country into a democracy as speculation about the health of veteran President Alexander Lukashenko swirled.Shortly after her message to supporters via Twitter, a Belarusian state news channel released a photo of Lukashenko, 68, at what it said was a military command center in what would be his first public appearance in almost a week.State TV later broadcast a clip of Lukashenko at what it said was a central air force command base. It showed him sitting in a chair talking to officers.

On a Sunday morning in Taipei, a few dozen Taiwanese civilians carrying travel coffee mugs and notebooks settled into their seats in a classroom for a day-long crash course on surviving a Chinese military invasion.

Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko and his wife Aleksandra want to be taken off Canada’s sanctions list, claiming in Federal Court they’ve been wrongfully labelled as “elites and close associates” of the Russian regime.

WASHINGTON - It’s been less than a week since news of highly classified military documents on the Ukraine war surfaced, sending the Pentagon into full-speed damage control to assure allies and assess the scope of the leak.The information on scores of slides has publicized potential vulnerabilities in Ukraine's air defense capabilities and exposed private assessments by allies on an array of intelligence matters, raising questions about whether the leak will erode allies' trust in sharing information with the U.S. or impact Ukraine's plans to intensify the fight against Russia this spring.Overall, the leaked documents present a "very serious risk to national security," a top Pentagon spokesman told reporters Monday.This is a look at what the documents are, what is known about how they surfaced, and their potential impact.The Pentagon is seen from a flight taking off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on November 29, 2022 in Arlington, Virginia.

Russian President Putin suffered 'severe pain' in his head recently. He also experienced a partial loss of sensation in his right arm and leg'. Subsequently, a 'council of doctors' performed first aid, and ordered Putin to take medication and rest for several days.

Pope Francis delivers his Easter Urbi et Orbi blessing from the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square on April 09, 2023 in Vatican City, Vatican.

The head of a Ukrainian rescue organization said Saturday that the organization has brought back 31 children from Russia, where they had been taken during the war.

A gas turbine generator at the Khurais Processing Department in the Khurais oil field in Khurais, Saudi Arabia, on Monday, June 28, 2021. Photographer: Maya Siddiqui/Bloomberg via Getty Images DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers on Sunday announced surprise cuts totaling 1.15 million barrels per day from May until the end of the year, a move that could raise prices worldwide.Higher oil prices would help fill Russian President Vladimir Putin's coffers as his country wages war on Ukraine and force Americans and others to pay even more at the pump amid worlwide inflation.It was also likely to further strain ties with the United States, which has called on Saudi Arabia and other allies to increase production as it tries to bring prices down and squeeze Russia's finances.RELATED: Plants can make noises when under stress, study saysThe Saudi Energy Ministry said its own reduction of 500,000 barrels per day would be made in coordination with some OPEC and non-OPEC members, without naming them.

Russia has struck a deal with neighboring Belarus to station tactical nuclear weapons on its territory but will not violate non-proliferation agreements, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday.

FILE - The Twitter Inc. logo is seen on a phone screen.

FILE IMAGE - Chinas President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) leaders summit in Samarkand on Sept. 15, 2022.

Vladimir Putin visited the occupied port city of Mariupol, his first trip to the Ukrainian territory that Moscow illegally annexed in September in a show of defiance after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges.Putin arrived in Mariupol late Saturday after visiting Crimea, southwest of Mariupol, to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday. He was shown chatting with Mariupol residents and visiting an art school and a children’s center in Sevastopol, Crimea.Mariupol became a worldwide symbol of resistance after outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian forces held out in a steel mill there for nearly three months before Moscow finally took control of it in May.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine on Saturday, the day after the International Criminal Court’ issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader accusing him of war crimes.Putin visited an art school and a children’s center, locations that appeared to have been chosen in response to the court's action on Friday.The court specifically accused him Friday of bearing personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine during Russia's full-scale invasion of the neighboring country that started almost 13 months ago.Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world denounced as illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has demanded that Russia withdraw from the peninsula as well as the areas it has occupied since last year.Putin has shown no intention of relinquishing the Kremlin’s gains.

International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.The ICC said in a statement on Friday that Putin is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of children, and that of unlawful transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia since Feb. 24, 2022 – the day Putin ordered a wide-scale invasion in the neighbouring country.The ICC cited the charges under articles in the Rome Statute of the ICC.

THE HAGUE - The International Criminal Court said on Friday it issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine.The court said in a statement that Putin "is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."It also issued a warrant Friday for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during the congress of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), March,16,2023, in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images) The court’s president, Piotr Hofmanski, said in a video statement that while the ICC’s judges have issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them.

FILE-Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose during their meeting in Beijing, on February 4, 2022. (ALEXEI DRUZHININ/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images) BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to visit Russia from Monday to Wednesday, in an apparent show of support for Russian President Vladimir Putin amid sharpening East-West tensions over the war in Ukraine.Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine is expected to dominate Putin and Xi's discussions.

Two soldiers patrol the area as the first anniversary of the war between Russia and Ukraine nears in Irpin, Ukraine on February 22, 2023. (Ignacio Marin Fernandez/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) TAIPEI, Taiwan - One year into Russia's war against Ukraine, China is offering a 12-point proposal to end the fighting.The proposal follows China's recent announcement that it is trying to act as mediator in the war that has re-energized Western alliances viewed by Beijing and Moscow as rivals.

Kate McKenna starts her days much like the other parents on her street. She drives her kids to school and returns to her bungalow on a cul-de-sac south of Vancouver.

WARSAW - President Joe Biden is wrapping up his whirlwind, four-day visit to Poland and Ukraine by reassuring eastern flank NATO allies that his administration is highly attuned to the looming threats and other impacts spurred by the grinding Russian invasion of Ukraine.Before departing Warsaw on Wednesday, Biden will hold talks with leaders from the Bucharest Nine, a collection of nations on the most eastern parts of the NATO alliance that came together in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.President Joe Biden challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to "end the war" against Ukraine and warned that the U.S. and its allies around the world will continue to support Ukraine and push for new sanctions on the Kremlin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives for his annual meeting with the Federal Assembly on Feb. 21, 2023, in Moscow, Russia.

Russian officials and state media downplayed President Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday, painting Kyiv as a U.S. puppet and maintaining Moscow’s forces will prevail despite Washington’s pledges to send more weapons to Ukraine.

It was 5.30 a.m. on a cold winter’s morning at Antonov Airport, when Vitalii Rudenko, a commander of the Ukrainian airfield’s national guard base, awoke to a phone call.

Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he was introducing martial law in four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine that Moscow claimed last month as its own territory but is struggling to defend from Ukrainian advances.In televised remarks to members of his Security Council, Putin boosted the powers of Russia’s regional governors and ordered the creation of a special coordinating council under Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to step up the faltering war effort.He said the “entire system of state administration,” not only the specialized security agencies, must be geared to supporting what Russia calls its “special military operation.”The package of moves, nearly eight months into the war, marked the latest escalation by Putin to counter a series of major defeats at the hands of Ukrainian forces since the start of September. A Kyiv official said it would change nothing.

MOSCOW - Russian forces launched mass evacuations of civilians Wednesday from one of the first major cities they seized in the invasion of Ukraine — a tacit acknowledgment that yet another stinging battlefield defeat may be unfolding for President Vladimir Putin.Ukraine’s stunning counteroffensive appears to be bearing down on Kherson, a southern city of more than 250,000 people, with industries and a major port on the Dnieper River. The battle for the city is a pivotal moment for both Ukraine and Russia heading into winter, when cold and difficult conditions could largely freeze front lines until the spring thaw.In what could be another sign that his invasion is not going as planned, Putin ordered martial law Wednesday in four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed in recent weeks and where Russian forces have full or partial control.

Russian military firing range near Ukraine, killing 11 and wounding 15 others, before getting killed, the Russian Defense Ministry said.The ministry said in a statement that the shooting took place in the Belgorod region in southwestern Russia that borders Ukraine. It said that the two men from an unnamed ex-Soviet nation fired on soldiers during target practice and were killed by return fire.The ministry called the incident a terrorist attack.

Russia's military assault on Ukraine and Vladimir Putin's threat of using nuclear weapons. "Alex Jones lying and Pfizer lying both trending [on Twitter]," M.I.A. added. "One with penalty other without.

PETERBOROUGH, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM - 2022/03/12: A father holding a Lithuanian flag arrives at the prayer ceremony with his children with Lithuanian flags painted on their cheeks. At a time when Ukraine is under attack from Vladimir Putin's VILNIUS, Lithuania - Vilnius, the capital of the eastern European nation of Lithuania, is celebrating its 700th birthday this January by doing what Lithuanians do best — being cheeky. It may sound extremely meta, but the nation’s tourism department knows many people around the world don’t think much about its capital, let alone be able to find it on a map.

Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow was open to talks with the West on the Ukraine war but had yet to receive any serious proposal to negotiate.In an interview on state TV, Lavrov said Russia was willing to engage with the United States or with Turkey on ways to end the war, now in its eight month.His emphasis on Russia’s receptiveness to talks came after a series of stinging defeats since the start of September that have swung the momentum of the conflict in favour of Ukraine. Trudeau ‘appalled’ by Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians, vows accountability Lavrov said officials including White House national security spokesman John Kirby had said the United States was open to talks but that Russia had refused.“This is a lie,” Lavrov said.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez called Monday for freezing all U.S. cooperation with Saudi Arabia, delivering one of the strongest expressions yet of U.S.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday called the attack that damaged the huge bridge connecting Russia to its annexed territory of Crimea "a terrorist act" masterminded by Ukrainian special services.The Kerch Bridge, which holds important strategic and symbolic value to Russia in its faltering war in Ukraine, was hit a day earlier by what Moscow has said was a truck bomb. Road and rail traffic on the bridge were temporarily halted, damaging a vital supply route for the Kremlin’s forces."There’s no doubt it was a terrorist act directed at the destruction of critically important civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation," Putin said during a meeting with the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin.

Ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the possibility of using nuclear weapons to escalate the war in Ukraine, a major question has been how Western allies would respond if that threat was carried out.

Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski speaks after he and the Belarusian human rights organization Vjasna were awarded the 2020 Right Livelihood Award during the 2020 awarding ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 3, 2020.

WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden said Thursday that the risk of nuclear "Armageddon" is at the highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, as Russian officials speak of the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons after suffering massive setbacks in the eight-month invasion of Ukraine.Speaking at a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "a guy I know fairly well" and the Russian leader was "not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons."Biden added, "We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis." He suggested the threat from Putin is real "because his military is — you might say — significantly underperforming."Marine One carrying US President Joe Biden lands at the Wall Street landing zone in New York on Oct. 6, 2022.

Since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February, the war-torn country has continued to fight back, reclaiming areas once taken by Russian troops and further working to push out the offensive. Ukrainian forces recently scored significant gains in the south, raising flags over the villages of Arkhanhelske, Myroliubivka, Khreshchenivka, Mykhalivka and Novovorontsovka. Speaking late Tuesday in his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said dozens of settlements had been retaken "from the Russian pseudo-referendum this week alone" in the four annexed regions. In the Kherson region, he listed eight villages that Ukrainian forces reclaimed, "and this is far from a complete list.

Russia faces a series of setbacks on the battlefield against Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin only knows how to do one thing, according to one of his most prominent critics: “escalate.”That’s because Putin views the prospect of losing power as an “existential threat,” according to Bill Browder, a U.S. investment fund manager who has influenced Western governments into clamping down on corrupt Russian officials.“If Putin were ever to lose power in Russia, he would lose all the money that he’s stolen over the last 22 years.

Ukraine is formally applying for a fast-track membership to the NATO military alliance, but experts say it will likely take years for the country to actually become a member.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis on Sunday appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin for a cease-fire, imploring him to "stop this spiral of violence and death" in Ukraine and denouncing the "absurd" risk of the "uncontrollable" consequences of nuclear attack as tensions sharply escalate over the war.Francis uttered his strongest plea yet about the seven-month-old conflict, which he denounced as an "error and a horror."It was the first time in public that he cited Putin's role in the war. The pontiff also called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to "be open" to serious peace proposals.Francis told the public, gathered in St.

Russia said Saturday it has withdrawn its troops from the once-occupied city of Lyman, as Ukraine’s eastern counteroffensive recaptures more territory.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says the world is “not naïve” about who may be responsible for the apparent bombings that damaged Russia-built natural gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea, calling the acts “sabotage.”

Canada slapped new sanctions on Russian officials and elites Friday after President Vladimir Putin formally annexed four regions of Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday Ukraine was formally applying for fast-track membership of the NATO military alliance and that Kyiv was ready for talks with Moscow, but not with President Vladimir Putin.