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A suspect has been detained in Dubai and extradited to Russia
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A man suspected of shooting a top military intelligence officer in Moscow has been detained, according to Russia’s security service.
Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev – an official previously linked to the Salisbury poisonings – was shot several times outside an apartment building in an alleged assassination attempt. He is currently recovering in hospital after undergoing surgery.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said that a Russian citizen named Lyubomir Korba was detained in Dubai and has been extradited to Russia, in a statement on Sunday.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister accused Ukraine of the attack, which it has denied.
It comes as the US is aiming to get a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia over the line in March despite a lack of progress on territorial concessions, according to reports.
President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters that the Americans “want to do everything by June” in comments released on Saturday.
But attacks continued as Russia launched more than 400 drones and about 40 missiles on Saturday in strikes on Ukraine’s energy sector, targeting the power grid, generation facilities, and distribution substations, Zelensky said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said this morning that he was imposing sanctions on some foreign manufacturers of components used in Russian drones and missiles deployed against Ukraine.
“Producing this weaponry would be impossible without critical foreign components, which the Russians continue to obtain by circumventing sanctions,” Zelensky said on X.
“We are introducing new sanctions precisely against such companies — component suppliers, as well as missile and drone manufacturers. I have signed the relevant decisions.”
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Sunday that the man suspected of shooting senior Russian military intelligence officer Vladimir Alexeyev in Moscow has been detained in Dubai and extradited to Russia.
Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, the deputy head of the GRU — Russia’s military intelligence agency — was shot several times in an apartment block in Moscow on Friday, investigators said. He later underwent surgery, according to Russian media reports.
The FSB said a Russian citizen named Lyubomir Korba was arrested in Dubai on suspicion of carrying out the attack.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the attempted assassination, saying it was aimed at undermining peace talks. Ukraine denied any involvement.
Alexeyev’s superior, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, the head of the GRU, has been leading Russia’s delegation in talks with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on security-related aspects of a potential peace deal.
The United States has issued a June deadline for Ukraine and Russia to finalise a peace agreement, aiming to conclude the nearly four-year conflict, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed.
Should this deadline not be met, the Trump administration is expected to intensify pressure on both parties to secure a resolution.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, in comments embargoed until Saturday morning, Mr Zelenskyy stated: “The Americans are proposing the parties end the war by the beginning of this summer and will probably put pressure on the parties precisely according to this schedule.”
The United Kingdom has threatened to seize a Russia-linked oil tanker in an escalation of tensions between the two countries over shadow fleets.
Military options to capture a rogue ship had been identified in discussions involving Nato allies, British defence sources told The Guardian.
The news comes weeks after the UK supported a US operation to seize a Russian-flagged tanker in the North Atlantic.
More here.
Russia’s Federal Security Service said this morning that the man suspected of shooting senior Russian military intelligence officer Vladimir Alexeyev in Moscow has been detained in Dubai and extradited to Russia.
It is pre-dawn in the historic Podil district of the Ukraine capital, Kyiv, and warm light from the Spelta bakery-bistro’s window pierces the darkness outside. On a wooden surface dusted with flour, the baker Oleksandr Kutsenko skilfully divides and shapes soft, damp pieces of dough. As he shoves the first loaves into the oven, a sweet, delicate aroma of fresh bread fills the space.
Seconds later the lights go out, the ovens switch off and darkness envelops the room. Kutsenko, 31, steps outside into the freezing night, switches on a large rectangular generator and the power kicks back in. It’s a pattern that will be repeated many times as the business struggles to keep working through the power outages caused by Russia’s bombing campaign on Ukraine’s energy grid.
“It’s now more than impossible to imagine a Ukrainian business operating without a generator,” said Olha Hrynchuk, the co-founder and head baker of Spelta.
More here.
Ukraine struck Russia’s Bryansk Oblast with Neptune missiles and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, targeting energy infrastructure, governor Alexander Bogomaz said.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked our region using long-range Neptune missiles and HIMARS multiple rocket launcher systems,” Bogomaz said.
“As a result of the attack, power supply was disrupted in seven municipalities. Special and emergency teams are working to restore power supply.”
A treaty that prevented the US and Russia from expanding their nuclear weapons arsenals expired on Thursday, dismantling a major guardrail against a renewed arms race between the rival powers.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, commonly known as New START, required the two countries to restrict their nuclear warheads to 1,550 and missiles and bombers capable of delivering them to 700. These included weapons deployed and ready for use.
The US and Russia together hold nearly 85 per cent of the world’s strategic nuclear weapons and the expiration of the treaty, signed in 2010, threatens to launch the kind of unconstrained arms race that defined the Cold War. It may also prompt other nuclear and nuclear-adjacent nations to expand their arsenals at the very moment the world is engulfed in a series of escalating conflicts and trigger-point tensions.
More here.
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban declared Ukraine an “enemy” of Hungary at an anti-war rally.
Orban said Ukraine was persistently lobbying Brussels to sever Hungary’s access to Russian energy, which he warned would drive up household utility bills across the country.
“Anyone who says such a thing is an enemy of Hungary, so Ukraine is our enemy,” Orban said.
His comments followed the Council of the EU’s decision to approve a ban on Russian gas purchases from 2027 — a move Hungary and Slovakia have challenged at the European Court of Justice.
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