Putin visits Kursk Region for first time since liberation from Ukrainian forces
Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited Kursk Region for the first time since its full liberation from Ukrainian forces, the Kremlin has said.
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Russia Today
an hour ago
- Russia Today
Jar of pickles saves Ukrainian man from forced mobilization (VIDEO)
A Ukrainian man reportedly managed to escape forced conscription in the city of Lutsk after neighbors hurled a jar of pickled vegetables from a nearby building at military recruiters, according to a new video highlighting Kiev's increasingly harsh mobilization efforts. It is unclear when the video was filmed, but it is the latest in a wave of viral clips showing public resistance to military draft efforts across Ukraine. The footage circulated on Ukrainian and Russian Telegram channels on Sunday, showing a barefoot man resisting four local draft officers from Ukraine's Territorial Centers of Recruitment and Social Support (TCR) as they attempted to push him into a minivan. 'Please take a picture of me. My name is Denis Tkachuk, born in 1997,' the man can be heard shouting while clinging to the open door. Moments later, a glass jar – apparently filled with pickled tomatoes – flies from above and shatters beside him, prompting the person filming to yell at the officers: 'Let him go already.' 'They want to kill me – that's why they feel embarrassed,' the struggling man screams. He eventually manages to break free and run off, while the draft officers appear to abandon the effort and drive away. The incident comes amid rising frustration over Kiev's mobilization campaign, which intensified after Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky signed a new draft law lowering the enlistment age and tightening enforcement. According to lawmaker Roman Kostenko, fewer than one in four recruits enlist voluntarily, with most entering service through what he described as 'brutal compulsory conscription.' Another Ukrainian MP, Yury Kamelchuk, said conscription officers are under orders to bring in 12 new recruits per day and are using aggressive tactics to meet quotas, including luring food couriers with fake delivery requests. Videos have repeatedly surfaced online showing Ukrainian officials using force to detain men in public areas, in what has become known locally as 'busification' – a term referring to forcibly loading recruits into unmarked vans. Moscow has accused Kiev of waging a war 'to the last Ukrainian' against Russia on behalf of Western nations, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying that Ukrainian recruitment officers are grabbing people 'like dogs on the street.'
Russia Today
9 hours ago
- Russia Today
Zelensky makes new threats against Russia
Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky has suggested that Kiev's forces will conduct more long-range strikes targeting facilities deep inside Russian territory. Ukraine has significantly escalated drone attacks deep into Russia in recent weeks, despite ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has described the actions as an attempt to derail the peace process. In a post on his Telegram channel on Sunday, Zelensky wrote that he had held a meeting with the head of Ukraine's military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, claiming that Kiev was keeping tabs on Russia's 'main pain points.' He pledged to 'strike appropriate blows' with a view to 'significantly reducing' Moscow's military potential. Zelensky also stated that Kiev was sharing its intelligence on Russia with its Western backers, with which it is 'preparing joint defense solutions.' Speaking to reporters also on Sunday, Ukraine's commander-in-chief, Aleksandr Syrsky, similarly said that Kiev 'will increase the scale and depth' of its strikes on Russian military facilities deep inside the country. On June 1, Ukrainian intelligence conducted a coordinated attack on several Russian airbases across five regions, from Murmansk in the Arctic, to Irkutsk in Siberia. Ukrainian media later reported that the operation codenamed 'Spiderweb' involved dozens of first-person view (PFV) kamikaze drones. At least some of them were reportedly launched in close proximity to the targets, from commercial trucks that had been covertly brought into Russia. The strikes were said to have been prepared for more than a year and a half and focused on Russia's 'strategic aviation.' The Defense Ministry in Moscow said that a number of aircraft in Murmansk and Irkutsk regions had caught fire as a result of the attack. Kiev claimed that the strikes had damaged or destroyed approximately 40 Russian military aircraft, including Tu-95 and Tu-22 long-range bombers. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov later dismissed these estimates as incorrect. 'The equipment in question… was not destroyed, but damaged. It will be restored,' the diplomat told TASS in early June. Around the same time, Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump's special envoy, cautioned that 'when you attack an opponent's part of their national survival system, which is their nuclear triad… that means your risk level goes up because you don't know what the other side's going to do.'
Russia Today
11 hours ago
- Russia Today
NATO summit to ditch Ukraine meeting
An upcoming NATO leaders summit in the Netherlands will have a shortened schedule, with the focus on Ukraine drastically reduced, Politico reported on Saturday, citing five people familiar with the matter. The summit, set to be held in the World Forum in The Hague from June 24 to 25, will only feature two main events – a welcome dinner at the Dutch royal family's castle and a single meeting of the North Atlantic Council instead of the usual two or three, according to Politico. There also will not be a meeting of NATO's Ukraine Council. Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky has been only invited to attend the welcome dinner, and it still remains unclear whether he will come, the outlet noted. The sources suggested the abbreviated schedule was a concession to the US and President Donald Trump in particular, who has repeatedly shown impatience with and shunned multilateral gatherings of a ceremonial nature. NATO officials reportedly pared down the agenda after the G7 debacle, when Trump abruptly left the summit in Canada halfway through the two-day program. He also reportedly opposed a draft joint statement on the Ukraine conflict, and the summit ultimately ended without one. The upcoming gathering is expected to yield no lengthy joint communique, with the bloc likely to produce only short statements on new commitments. Cuts to the agenda have also been attributed to a need to minimize the risk of derailing the main event of the summit, where members are expected to pledge to hike defense spending to 5% GDP. Trump has long demanded that NATO countries spend more on defense, and the new commitment will be regarded as a big 'win' by the US president, the sources suggested. 'He has to get credit for the 5% – that's why we're having the summit,' a European defense official told Politico. 'Everything else is being streamlined to minimize risk.'
