Latest news with #DonetskPeople'sRepublic
Russia Today
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Russian forces discover cache of Ukrainian chemical drone munitions
Russian troops have discovered a makeshift chemical lab and vials containing banned toxins at a former Ukrainian hideout in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Tuesday. The cache, found near the village of Ilyinka during an advance by Russian forces, marks the second such discovery this year, the agency said. In footage released by the FSB, personnel in chemical protection gear are seen handling the vials, which reportedly contain chloropicrin – a choking agent prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention. According to the agency, the substances were packaged with plastic explosives and rigged into improvised munitions designed to be dropped from drones. 'This year we have discovered two caches with munitions intended for drone strikes on Russian positions. These munitions were a mix of chloropicrin and plastic explosives, to maximize the area of effect,' an FSB officer stated. The FSB official further claimed that the use of prohibited warfare methods by Ukrainian forces has become 'commonplace,' recalling prior discoveries of a lab for producing hydrogen cyanide in May 2024 and a chloropicrin stockpile uncovered last October. 'Each case of preparation and use of chemical weapons by Ukraine is documented by the relevant authorities to ensure that none of the perpetrators escape responsibility,' the official added. The Russian security service has opened a criminal investigation into the development and trafficking of weapons of mass destruction. Moscow's Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Kirill Lysogorsky, also condemned the findings, accusing Kiev of deliberately targeting both military personnel and civilians in violation of international law. 'The Ukrainian regime systematically prepares and deploys chemical agents – not only against Russian forces and officials but also against peaceful residents in affected territories,' Lysogorsky said, accusing Kiev of resorting to 'terrorism disguised as warfare.' Lysogorsky stated that evidence gathered from the site would be submitted to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and presented during the upcoming 109th session of its Executive Council on July 8. 'To date, Russia has filed around 40 diplomatic notes regarding Ukraine's use of toxic chemicals,' he said, noting the lack of significant international response. Moscow has repeatedly accused Kiev's forces of using illegal munitions on the battlefield, with the head of Russia's Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, providing regular press briefings on the issue. The general has also repeatedly spoken about the Pentagon's alleged funding of biological laboratories in Ukraine. The UK sanctioned Kirillov after he accused Kiev of preparing a false-flag chemical weapons attack aimed at framing Russia and undermining its position at the OPCW. In December, Kirillov was murdered outside his apartment in Moscow in a bomb blast that Russian authorities linked to Kiev's special services.
Russia Today
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Civilian killed in Ukrainian attack on Donetsk – governor (VIDEOS)
Ukrainian forces launched a series of missile and drone attacks on the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) on Monday evening, resulting in the death of one civilian and injuries to at least three others, including a teenager, according to DPR head Denis Pushilin. In a Telegram post, Pushilin reported that long-range air-launched missiles struck the Voroshilovsky district of Donetsk, killing a woman and injuring a male teenager and an adult man. The attack caused fires and significant damage to civilian infrastructure, including the Sokol market, the central department store, and a bank. 'Air defenses here in the Republic have been working nonstop for the last hour. I've seen several rockets intercepted in the air, but apparently some of them have made it here to this center,' RT correspondent Roman Kosarev reported from the scene of the strike in Donetsk. 'A small shopping center is destroyed. I saw one body of a woman while I was on my way over here.' The Russian Defense Ministry has yet to confirm the exact type of missiles used in the attack, but early reports suggest Kiev might have fired British-supplied Storm Shadows. 'Specialists will try to determine what exactly these fragments are a little bit later on,' Kosarev added, showing suspected fragments of the missile discovered on the scene. In a separate incident, a kamikaze drone attack targeted Gorlovka, injuring a 19-year-old male in one of the biggest cities in the DPR. Gorlovka, located 50 kilometers north of Donetsk, was home to some 250,000 people before the conflict and has been frequently targeted by Kiev's forces since 2014. The latest strike destroyed one residential building and damaged 12 others, along with seven civilian infrastructure facilities, including a clinic, a dormitory, three boiler houses, a pharmacy, and a bank branch, according to Pushilin. Emergency services were engaged in extinguishing the fires and assessing the full extent of the damage. Pushilin stated that all injured individuals were receiving qualified medical assistance. Last week, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Kiev of deliberately committing atrocities against civilians in Donbass, including mass killings of the elderly and drone strikes on residential homes. 'This is not an accident, but an inherent flaw – the hallmark of the Kiev authorities. It is a deliberate policy that has already been elevated to the level of state doctrine,' the ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said while speaking at a conference on the 'atrocities and war crimes by the Kiev regime in Dzerzhynsk,' another DPR city some 30 km north of Donetsk that was liberated by Russian troops in February. Donetsk and its sister republic, the Lugansk People's Republic, declared independence following the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014. After years of Ukraine's refusal to implement the Minsk Agreements and Kiev's continued shelling of civilian areas in the breakaway regions, Russia launched its special military operation on February 24, 2022. In late September 2022, the two republics, colloquially known as the Donbass, along with the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, conducted referendums on joining Russia. On Monday, Governor Leonid Pasechnik announced that the Russian military had taken control of the entirety of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR). Meanwhile, Russian forces continue operations to liberate the parts of the DPR that remain under Kiev's control.
Free Malaysia Today
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Russia pushing offensive into Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk
Tens of thousands have been killed in Russia's three-year war in Ukraine. (AP pic) MOSCOW : Russia said today it was pushing into Ukraine's eastern industrial Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time in its three-year offensive – a significant territorial escalation amid stalled peace talks. Moscow, which has the initiative on the battlefield, has repeatedly refused calls by Ukraine, Europe and US President Donald Trump for a full and unconditional ceasefire. At talks in Istanbul last week it demanded Kyiv pull troops back from the frontline, agree to end all western arms support and give up on its ambitions to join the Nato military alliance. Dnipropetrovsk is not among the five Ukrainian regions over which Russia has asserted a formal territorial claim. It is an important mining and industrial hub for Ukraine and deeper Russian advances into the region could have a serious knock-on effect for Kyiv's struggling military and economy. Dnipropetrovosk was estimated to have a population of around 3 million people before Russia launched its offensive. Around 1 million people lived in the regional capital, Dnipro. Russia's defence ministry said forces from a tank unit had 'reached the western border of the Donetsk People's Republic and are continuing to develop an offensive in the Dnipropetrovsk region'. The advance of Russian forces into yet another region of Ukraine is both a symbolic and strategic blow to Kyiv's forces after months of setbacks on the battlefield. There was no immediate response from Ukraine to Russia's statement. Moscow in 2022 said it was annexing the frontline Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, which it did not have full control over. In 2014, it seized the Crimean peninsula following a pro-EU revolution in Kyiv. In a set of peace demands issued to Ukraine at the latest talks, it demanded formal recognition that these regions were part of Russia – something Kyiv has repeatedly ruled out. Tens of thousands have been killed in Russia's three-year offensive, millions forced to flee their homes and cities and villages across eastern Ukraine devastated by relentless air attacks and ground combat. In more than a decade of conflict with Kremlin-backed separatists and the Russian army, Ukraine has never had to fight on the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk region until now. Ukrainian military personnel previously told AFP that Russia could advance relatively quickly in the largely flat region, given there are fewer natural obstacles or villages that could be used as defensive positions by Kyiv's forces. The region – and in particular the city of Dnipro – have been under persistent Russian strikes for the last three years. Russia used Dnipro as a testing ground for its 'experimental' Oreshnik missile in late 2024, claiming to have struck an aeronautics production facility. Earlier today, local Ukrainian officials said one person was killed in the region in an attack on a village close to the frontline.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
Trial of three suspects in preparation of sabotage acts ordered by Russia begins in Bavaria
A trial in the case of three people who are believed to have been recruited by Russian agents to prepare sabotage in Germany begins in Bavaria, Germany. Source: Tagesschau, a German TV news service, as reported by European Pravda Details: The trial of three suspects, whom the prosecutor's office considers to be "grassroots" agents recruited by the Russian Federation to prepare sabotage in Germany, is beginning in the Higher Land Court of Munich. The main defendant is a man named Dieter, who is being tried in another case in parallel for joining one of the units of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" from 2014 to 2016. In that case, he is accused of membership in a terrorist organisation. The investigation believes that since then, Dieter has been in contact with a person connected to Russian intelligence. Since October 2023, he has been receiving instructions on how to organise sabotage in Germany. Dieter is believed to have engaged two other perpetrators, Alexander and Alex. The prosecutor's office accuses Dieter of agreeing to arrange explosions and arson attacks on military infrastructure and industrial facilities in Germany and that he had already begun taking photos and videos of the targets and sending this information to the customer. In particular, the target was to be a railway line, which is often used by echelons of military aid for Ukraine. They also planned to target a defence industry enterprise near Bayreuth in eastern Germany. Dieter and Alexander were detained in April 2024. Dieter has been in custody since then, and Alexander was later released with a number of restrictions. Alex has not been taken into custody. Background: Earlier in May, German media outlets reported on the arrests in Germany and Switzerland of individuals who were allegedly supposed to send parcels with explosive devices on behalf of Russian special services. The suspects are Ukrainians. The Latvian secret service recently published advice on how to identify possible spies and saboteurs. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
