Russian agents who assassinated Ukrainian colonel shot dead
A video released by the agency showed two bodies lying on the ground.
The agency said earlier that a man and a woman were suspected to be involved in Thursday's assassination of Ivan Voronych, an SBU colonel, in a bold daylight attack that was caught on surveillance cameras.
Media reports claimed that Colonel Voronych was involved in covert operations in Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine and reportedly helped organise Ukraine's surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region last year.
After a series of massive attacks across Ukraine involving hundreds of exploding drones, Russia launched 60 drones overnight, Ukraine's air force said.
It said 20 of them were shot down and 20 others were jammed.
The Ukrainian authorities reported that four civilians had been killed and 13 others injured in Russian attacks on the Donetsk and Kherson regions since Saturday.
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
EU envoys near agreement on lower Russian oil price cap
BRUSSELS, July 13 (Reuters) - European Union envoys are on the verge of agreeing an 18th package of sanctions against Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine that would include a lower price cap on Russian oil, four EU sources said after a Sunday meeting. The sources said all the elements of the package had been agreed, although one member state still has a technical reservation on the new cap. The sources - speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential talks - said they expect to reach a full agreement on Monday, ahead of a foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels the following day that could formally approve the package. The sources said they had also agreed to a dynamic price mechanism for the price cap. On Friday, the European Commission proposed a floating price cap on Russian oil of 15% below the average market price of crude in the previous three months. One of the sources said the initial price would be around $47 a barrel based on the average price of Russian crude for the last 22 weeks minus 15%. Further, the price would be revised based on the average oil price every six months instead of the proposed three months. Slovakia - which has held up the proposed package - is still seeking reassurances from the European Commission on its concerns about plans to phase out Russian gas supply but it has agreed to the new measures, the sources said. Sanctions require unanimity among the EU's member countries to be adopted. The Group of Seven (G7) price cap, aimed at curbing Russia's ability to finance the war in Ukraine, was originally agreed in December 2022. The European Union and Britain have been pushing the G7 to lower the cap for the last two months after a fall in oil futures made the current $60 a barrel level largely irrelevant. The cap bans trade in Russian crude oil transported by tankers if the price paid was above $60 per barrel and prohibits shipping, insurance and re-insurance companies from handling cargoes of Russian crude around the globe, unless it is sold for less than the price cap. The Commission proposed the package in early June, aimed at further cutting Moscow's energy revenues, including a ban on transactions with Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines, and financial network that helps it circumvent sanctions. Another one of the sources said the new package will list a Russian-owned refinery in India, two Chinese banks, and a flag registry. Russia has used flags of convenience for its shadow fleet of ships and oil tankers.
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Why is Putin pushing Tehran towards Trump's nuclear deal?
As an old ally of Iran, the Kremlin's position has long been that the regime has the right to develop nuclear energy, while acknowledging that Tehran's race for a bomb should be curtailed. So reports this weekend that Russia is leaning on Iran to accept a deal that denies it the right to enrich uranium for any purpose have provoked a typically caustic response from Moscow. Any suggestion that President Putin hoped to pressure Tehran into such a nuclear deal with the United States, said Russia's foreign ministry on Sunday, was part of a 'dirty, politicised campaign, which is being hatched with the aim of escalating tension around the Iranian nuclear programme'. Moscow's protests, however, may hide a more subtle approach than it wants to admit. Sources familiar with the discussions told Axios that Putin had informed President Trump and Iranian officials that he supported the idea of a nuclear deal in which Iran is unable to enrich uranium. Moscow had encouraged the Iranians to agree to this 'zero enrichment' condition, according to four officials — three European and one Israeli — with knowledge of the matter. • Trump says Putin 'just wants to kill people' — is their bromance over? Two sources told Axios that the Russians had also briefed the Israeli government about Putin's position on Iran's uranium enrichment. 'We know that this is what Putin told the Iranians,' a senior Israeli official said. A European official told Axios: 'Putin would support zero enrichment. He encouraged the Iranians to work towards that in order to make negotiations with the Americans more favourable.' Putin was also said to have expressed that position in calls last week with Trump and President Macron of France. So far, the Iranians appear to have rejected Putin's overture, but the claims suggest that the Kremlin's strategy on any nuclear deal is more nuanced than it is prepared to let on. Russia and Iran have a long-standing bond, and their forces cooperated for years in Syria in support of President Assad, before his regime collapsed in December. Ties strengthened after Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when Russia joined Iran as one of the most heavily sanctioned states in the world. Iran exported thousands of Shahed drones to Moscow for use in its attacks on Ukrainian cities, although the reliance has since diminished after Russia increased production of its own attack drones. The Kremlin's challenge over Israeli and American airstrikes on Iran last month and Trump's push for a nuclear deal is intended to balance several competing interests. Conflict in the region holds the promise of rising oil prices — advantageous to Russia as a major producer — and a distraction from continued attacks on Ukraine, condemned in the West. But the Kremlin shied away from providing explicit security guarantees to Iran when they agreed on a strategic partnership in January. After Israel launched its strikes, Russia disappointed Tehran by providing only verbal support. The dangers posed by the potential for further Israeli strikes were underlined on Sunday when it emerged that Iran's President Pezeshkian was wounded in the leg and forced to escape through an emergency hatch when Israel struck a meeting of Iran's Supreme National Security Council with six missiles during the 12-day war. Experts said that Moscow was probably pushing for a deal because it is wary of Iran disintegrating under renewed assault, which could threaten Russia's economic interests. Russia was Iran's biggest foreign investor last year, and its specialists are deeply involved at Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran, which was built by Russia's atomic energy agency, Rosatom. Iranian nuclear scientists have also been trained in Russia. There are plans to build a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Iran via Azerbaijan, and an albeit faltering project for Moscow to help construct a gas hub for exporting supplies to third countries. 'The main problem faced by Russia in the current circumstances is the threat to all the projects in Iran in which it has been actively investing since 2022,' said Nikita Smagin, an expert on Iranian affairs and Russian policy in the Middle East, in a recent analysis for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 'If Iran becomes permanently unstable as a result of the current attacks, then both the gas hub and other more realistic projects will go up in smoke, along with the investments already made.' Iranian sources claimed on Sunday that Putin had not urged Tehran to accept a 'no enrichment deal'. The Washington Post reported that, amid a power struggle among Iranian elites, those advocating negotiation with the US over the nuclear programme may increasingly have the upper hand over those favouring confrontation. Gregory Brew, a senior analyst on Iran and energy at Eurasia Group, predicted Iran would remain intransigent, but noted its position now looked starker. 'Russia pushing zero enrichment won't be enough to move Tehran, but it does underscore Iran's growing isolation, especially with the E3 threatening snapback,' he said, referring to Britain, France and Germany, the three signatories to the original deal with Iran in 2015, and the fact they could reimpose previously-lifted UN sanctions.
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
French President Macron announces 6.5 billion euros in extra military spending in next two years
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced 6.5 billion euros ($7.6 billion) in extra military spending in the next two years because of new and unprecedented threats, ranging from Russia to nuclear proliferation, terrorists and online attacks. The French leader laid out the spending plans in a sweeping speech calling for intensified efforts to protect Europe, and support Ukraine in its war against Russia's full-scale invasion. He said France will aim to spend 64 billion euros ($74.8 billion) in annual defense spending in 2027, the last year of his second term. That would be double the 32 billion euros in annual spending when he became president in 2017. ″Since 1945, freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously,'' Macron said in the French president's traditional speech to the military on the eve of the Bastille Day national holiday. ''We are experiencing a return to the fact of a nuclear threat, and a proliferation of major conflicts.'' ″To be free in this world, we must be feared. To be feared, we must be powerful,'' he said. He insisted that France can find the money to spend more on the military even as it tries to bring down massive national debts. Conservative and far-right parties have supported greater defense spending, while left-wing parties accuse the government of sacrificing hard-won social welfare benefits for military spending. Europe is in danger because of Russia's war in Ukraine and wars in the Middle East, and because ″the United States has added a form of uncertainty,″ Macron argued. Other dangers he cited included online disinformation campaigns by unnamed foreign governments and propaganda operations targeting children, in ″the screen era.″ Macron also ordered France's top military and defense officials to start a ″strategic dialogue″ with European partners about the role that the French nuclear arsenal could play in protecting Europe. In an exceptional move, France and Britain agreed in recent days to cooperate on nuclear defense issues. Macron's speech came as U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to make an announcement about Russia on Monday, and the head of NATO is traveling to Washington for two days of talks. Trump last week announced plans to sell NATO allies weaponry that they can then pass on to Ukraine, which has been struggling to repel massive and complex Russian air assaults. Macron recently spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in three years, but remains a target of widespread criticism in Russia for his vocal support for Ukraine. The Kremlin argues that the Ukraine conflict is a consequence of Western countries' decision to ignore Russia's security interests. The head of the French military, Gen. Thierry Burkhard, laid out risks emanating from Russia that stretch well beyond Ukraine. Russia is disrupting trajectories of satellites to jam them or spy on them, is involved in undersea infrastructure sabotage, and leads disinformation campaigns in France and Africa, Burkhard said Friday. He said Russian attack submarines penetrate into the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and Russian military planes interact frequently with other aircraft over the Black Sea, Syria, the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic. French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu, in an interview published Sunday in La Tribune Dimanche, urged more French spending on defense technology and better training of engineers and technicians. ″Big powers and certain proliferating countries are working secretly on quantum computers ... that will be capable tomorrow of revolutionizing the battlefield. Do we want to stay in the game?'
