Putin allows sex offenders to join military as health rumours return

Jump to contentSign up to our newslettersSubscribeNewsSportsVoicesCultureLifestyleTravelPremiumNewsWorldEuropeMaroosha MuzaffarSaturday 05 November 2022 17:15CommentsCloseRelated: Russia summons UK ambassador over Black Sea Fleet drone strikeIran has confirmed for the first time that it has supplied Russia with drones. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian admitted on Saturday the country had provided Putin with the equipment, despite previous denials. ‘We gave a limited number of drones to Russia months before the Ukraine war,’ Amirabdollahian told reporters after a meeting in Tehran. He added that Iran ‘remained committed to stopping the conflict’. It comes as the US Department of Defense announced it is sending Ukraine $400m more in military aid as the war with Russia continues to rage.’With Russia’s unrelenting and brutal air attacks on Ukrainian civilian critical infrastructure, additional air defence capabilities are critical,’ the Pentagon said in a statement.And Russia has claimed it will publish ‘proof’ that British specialist troops were involved in a drone attack last weekend on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. The UK government previously dismissed as ‘false claims of an epic scale’. A UK government spokesperson said the Russian allegations were an attempt to ‘distract attention’ from Moscow’s illegal invasion.1667668522Pakistan has denounced statements from a Russian senator that accused Islamabad of helping Ukraine develop nuclear bombs, calling them illogical.Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs said on Tuesday that the statements were baseless and sought an explanation from its Russian counterpart.’We are surprised by such an unfounded and baseless statement. It is without any rationale, and is entirely inconsistent with the spirit of Pakistan-Russia relations,’ foreign office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said in a statement.’We are seeking clarification on this from Moscow,’ the statement added.Ukrainian specialists travelled to Pakistan to discuss nuke technologies, claimed a Russian senator Maryam Zakir-Hussain5 November 2022 17:151667666722Several explosions were heard in Kherson at around 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. today, according to Ukraine’s Suspilne television.Maryam Zakir-Hussain5 November 2022 16:451667664922German chancellor Olaf Scholz defended his much-scrutinised China visit, saying it was ‘good and right’ for him to be in Beijing.Mr Scholz’s one-day trip to China on Friday has sparked both domestic and international controversy given Beijing’s support for Russia in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, which has affected Germany’s power supply, Alisha Rahaman Sarkar writes. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, it is good and right that I am here today,’ Mr Scholz told reporters, sending a strong message in response to the criticism.’We can now talk concretely and directly with each other to respond to the challenges the world is facing and the bilateral relations between Europe and China,’ he said in a statement.’I told president [Xi] that it is important for China to use its influence on Russia’ Maryam Zakir-Hussain5 November 2022 16:151667663122’The international community should … jointly oppose the use or threats to use nuclear weapons, advocate that nuclear weapons must not be used and nuclear wars must not be fought, in order to prevent a nuclear crisis in Eurasia,’ Mr Xi said during a meeting with German chancellor Olaf Scholz in Beijing.President Xi told Chancellor Scholz that he opposed the use of nuclear force in Europe without naming Russia, in his most direct remarks so far on the escalating crisis.Marooza Muzaffar has more:Xi Jinping calls on international community to ‘reject the threat of nuclear weapons’Maryam Zakir-Hussain5 November 2022 15:451667661322Sweden’s new government will distance itself from the Kurdish YPG militia as it tries to win Turkey’s approval to join NATO, Sweden’s foreign minister told Swedish Radio on Saturday.The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and its political branch PYD are considered by Turkey extensions of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which launched an insurgency against Turkey in 1980 and is regarded as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.Sweden, along with the United States and several other NATO countries, has supported the YPG in the fight against Islamic State.However, Turkey has vowed to block Sweden’s application to join NATO if it doesn’t stop supporting the militia group.’There is too close a connection between these organizations and the PKK … for it to be good for the relationship between us and Turkey,’ Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told public service broadcaster Swedish Radio.’The primary objective is Sweden’s membership in NATO,’ he said.The move comes just days before Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is due to travel to Ankara to try to convince Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan to let Sweden join the military alliance.Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO earlier this year as a direct consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The application has been approved by 28 of NATO’s 30 countries. The Nordic countries said this week they were optimistic Hungary would also drop its objections.Maryam Zakir-Hussain5 November 2022 15:151667659522Ukraine’s state electricity operator on Saturday announced blackouts in Kyiv and seven other regions of the country in the aftermath of Russia’s devastating strikes on energy infrastructure. The move comes as Russian forces continue to pound Ukrainian cities and villages with missiles and drones, inflicting damage on power plants, water supplies and other civilian targets, in a grinding war that is nearing its nine-month mark. Russia has denied that the drones it has used in Ukraine came from Iran, but the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister on Saturday for the first time acknowledged supplying Moscow with ‘a limited number’ of drones before the invasion. Hossein Amirabdollahian claimed, however, that Tehran didn’t know if its drones were used against Ukraine and stated Iran’s commitment to stopping the conflict. Ukrenergo, the sole operator of Ukraine’s high-voltage transmission lines, initially said in a an online statement Saturday that scheduled blackouts will take place in the capital and the greater Kyiv region, as well as several regions around it – Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv. Later in the day, however, the company released an update saying that scheduled outages for a specific number of hours aren’t enough and instead there will be emergency outages, which could last an indefinite amount of time. Ukraine has been grappling with power outages and disruption of water supplies since Russia started unleashing massive barrages of missile and drone strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure last month. Moscow has said those came in response to what it alleged were Ukrainian attacks on Crimea, the region that Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Ukraine has denied those allegations.Maryam Zakir-Hussain5 November 2022 14:451667657964Iran acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that it had supplied Moscow with drones but said they were sent before the war in Ukraine, where Russia has used drones to target power stations and civilian infrastructure.Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said a ‘small number’ of drones had been supplied to Russia a few months before Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.In Iran’s most detailed response to date on the drones, Amirabdollahian denied Tehran was continuing to supply drones to Moscow.’This fuss made by some Western countries that Iran has provided missiles and drones to Russia to help the war in Ukraine – the missile part is completely wrong,’ the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.’The drone part is true and we provided Russia a small number of drones months before the Ukraine war,’ he said.Maryam Zakir-Hussain5 November 2022 14:191667655396Chinese president Xi Jinping on Friday warned against using nuclear weapons over Ukraine.’The international community should … jointly oppose the use or threats to use nuclear weapons, advocate that nuclear weapons must not be used and nuclear wars must not be fought, in order to prevent a nuclear crisis in Eurasia,’ Mr Xi said during a meeting with German chancellor Olaf Scholz in Beijing.President Xi told Chancellor Scholz that he opposed the use of nuclear force in Europe without naming Russia, in his most direct remarks so far on the escalating crisis.Click here for the full story. Xi Jinping with Olaf Scholz Sam Rkaina5 November 2022 13:361667651416In the eastern Donetsk region, also annexed and partially occupied by Russia, eight cities and villages have been shelled, including Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Porkovsk.According to Ukraine’s presidential office, at least three civilians were killed and eight others were wounded over the past 24 hours by Russian shelling of nine Ukrainian regions, where drones, missiles and heavy artillery were used.In the Russian-occupied Kherson region, where a Ukrainian counteroffensive is underway, the Russian military continue to abduct local residents, the presidential office said, with the most recent cases taking place over the past 24 hours.Sam Rkaina5 November 2022 12:301667649616About 40 shells were fired overnight at the city of Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said on Telegram. The Russian forces targeted the city and the areas around it from heavy artillery. Two fires broke out, and more than a dozen of residential and utility buildings, as well as a gas pipeline, were damaged, the official said.Elsewhere in the region, the Ukrainian forces shot down a drone and another projectile, according to Reznichenko.In the southern Mykolaiv region, the overnight shelling of rural areas damaged several houses, but didn’t cause any casualties, Mykolaiv Gov. Vitali Kim said on Telegram.The Russian forces also fired missiles at the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, which has been illegally annexed by Moscow and large parts of which remain occupied. According to regional Gov. Oleksandr Starukh, the attack took place shortly after midnight and damaged buildings of three businesses, as well as a number of cars.Sam Rkaina5 November 2022 12:00Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalismBy registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalistsAlready have an account? sign inRegistration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalismBy registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalistsAlready have an account? sign inUkraineRussiaUSUS Department of Defenseworld leadersPlease refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in