Vladimir Putin has told graduates of military academies that Russia’s new generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles will soon be deployed for combat duty. Listen to Moscow correspondent Diana Magnay talk about a decade of reporting inside Russia while you scroll.
Friday 23 June 2023 09:37, UK
The Russian Navy is training whales and dolphins to counter enemy divers, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
In its latest update on the war in Ukraine the MoD reported that the Black Sea Fleet had installed enhancements to their base in Sevastopol that likely included an “increased number of trained marine mammals.”
The update added: “Imagery shows a near doubling of floating mammal pens in the harbour which highly likely contain bottle-nosed dolphins.
“In Arctic waters, the navy also uses Beluga whales and seals. Russia has trained animals for a range of missions, but the ones housed in Sevastopol harbour are highly likely intended to counter enemy divers.”
A suspected lone Russian diplomat is apparently squatting on the site of Moscow’s proposed embassy in Canberra after the Australian government vetoed the plan on security grounds.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dismissed the Russian act of defiance in occupying the site in the capital, saying a “bloke standing in the cold on a bit of grass in Canberra is not a threat to our national security”.
Mr Albanese said he was confident that the eviction would stand up to any Russian legal challenge.
Parliament passed emergency legislation last week blocking on Russia’s lease on the largely empty block on security grounds because the new embassy would have been too close to Parliament House.
A man has been living in a portable building on the site since Sunday, when passers-by first saw Australian Federal Police outside the fenced block in the Yarralumla diplomatic precinct.
The Russian Embassy refused to comment on media reports that the man seen smoking cigarettes outside his accommodation was a Russian diplomat.
The embassy also declined to explain why the man was on the site, saying in an email: “The Embassy does not comment (on) this.”
Mr Albanese said the issue would be “resolved” but did not say how.
Russia will be “in a war with NATO” if it uses a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, a US senator has vowed.
Republican Lindsey Graham issued the warning alongside Democrat senator Richard Blumenthal at a joint press conference.
They are introducing a resolution to congress, Graham said, that says if Russia, Belarus or a Russian proxy explodes a nuclear device inside Ukraine to stop the counteroffensive or to try to break the will of the Ukrainian people “such an attack should be considered an attack on NATO itself”.
Such a detonation would irradiate much of Europe, including America’s NATO allies, he said.
Graham accused Russia of “committing war crimes on steroids”.
“Senator Blumenthal and I want to put everybody in this congress on notice that the threat of a use of a nuclear device by Russia is real and the best way to deter it is to give them clarity as to what happens if they do that – they will be in a war with NATO.”
He also added that blowing up a nuclear power plant to create chaos “could be considered an attack on NATO” – a clear reference to enduring fears of an incident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility.
A drone was downed by anti-aircraft fire over the Russian city of Kursk, a Russian official said.
It was shot down late on Thursday near the border with Ukraine, according to regional governor Roman Starovoit.
He said anti-aircraft systems had been in action twice.
Starovoit made no mention of damage or casualties and asked residents to avoid any fallen debris.
The incident, which could not be independently verified, appears to be the latest in a series of attacks from the air launched across the Ukrainian border into southern Russia.
There have also been armed incursions for which groups saying they oppose the Kremlin have claimed responsibility.
Ukraine routinely declines to comment on such attacks or incursions.
It’s been more than two weeks since an explosion at the critical Nova Kakhovka dam sent water flooding across southern Ukraine, covering huge swathes of the landscape.
This footage shows the dramatic difference in water levels before and after an blast.
The UN says drinking water supplies could be affected for more than 700,000 people.
Russia’s security council has accused the West of trying to drive a wedge between Russia and Kazakhstan by interfering in the affairs of sovereign nations.
“The United States and its allies are trying to fuel nationalist sentiments, spread slander, manipulate public opinion, including through the Internet and social networks,” Alexei Shevtsov, deputy secretary of the council said.
“This is direct and unceremonious interference in the internal affairs of independent states.”
His comments, reported by the state-owned TASS news agency, came as the council’s secretary visited Kazakhstan to meet his counterparts from across the former Soviet Central Asian region.
For context: Kazakhstan is a former Soviet republic, the last to declare its independence from the USSR as the bloc dissolved at the beginning of the 1990s.
It has consistently distanced itself from Russia’s aggression and diversified its relationships with various countries, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations thinktank’s Marie Dumoulin.
We’ll be bringing you all the latest from the war in Ukraine throughout today as Kyiv continues its counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Before we give you today’s news, here’s a recap of what happened in the last 24 hours…
A Ukrainian official has reported that a large explosion rocked the occupied city of Berdiansk in the early hours of this morning.
The blast happened at about 1.40am just outside the city, said Petro Andriushchenko, advisor to the mayor of Mariupol.
Local reports also said a Russian barracks at the Troyanda resort facility in the village of Azovske was targeted.
A fire reportedly broke out at the scene.
A few days ago, Mr Andriushchenko said Russian forces were transporting ammunition in boxes from Mariupol to Berdiansk.
The United Nations has added Russia’s armed forces to a global list of offenders.
Russian forces and affiliated groups were verified to have killed 136 children in Ukraine last year, a report to the UN Security Council found.
The UN also verified that the forces maimed 518 children and carried out 480 attacks on schools and hospitals.
Ninety-one children were used as human shields, according to the report.
Ukrainian armed forces killed 80 children, maimed 175 children and carried out 212 attacks on schools and hospitals, the report verified.
The Ukrainian armed forces are not on the global offenders list.
Thick smoke and flames engulfed a high-rise building in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, this morning.
Three people have been killed in the incident, thought to have been caused by a gas leak.
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