Putin maintains he was ‘hoodwinked’ by the West (Image: Getty)
A delusional Vladimir Putin has claimed he was ‘hoodwinked’ into the invasion of Ukraine by the West. In a broadcast on Russian state TV, Putin claimed that a secret plan by his enemies to destroy Russia‘s economy and ‘technological sovreignty’ meant he had no choice but to invade.
In the broadcast, the shameless leader even admitted that Russia’s forecasts of what would happen ‘came true’, once again giving Putin his own justification for the invasion.
Brazenly laughing, he said: “Our forecasts have been confirmed… Everything happened as they said it would.”
He continued: “They also provoked us into this conflict in Ukraine, and used it – I think it was done deliberately – to create additional conditions to constrain our economic growrth, and hinder Russia‘s development.”
Throughout the conflict in Ukraine, which he refers to as the Special Military Operation, Putin has consistently blamed everyone but himself for the war.
READ MORE: Putin ‘so desperate for weapons’ Russia ‘could help North Korea with nukes’
The latest news from inside Russia comes as a military analyst has suggested that Russia is ‘no longer a threat’ and Ukraine is not aligned with the West anymore.
Since the invasion in February 2022, Kyiv has received unprecedented military support to help fight back against the Russian forces. Earlier this summer, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden stressed ‘unwavering support’ for Ukraine.
However, questions are now being asked about whether or not this stance is in the best interests of Britain, the United States and other Nato members. Especially given the huge financial cost of the support.
Sean Bell, a former RAF Air Vice-Marshal and Ministry of Defence (MoD) staffer, suggests that the war has weakened Russia to such an extent that it “no longer poses a credible threat to Europe”. He added: “The harsh reality is that Ukraine‘s objectives are no longer aligned with their backers.”
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Igor Borisov, a member of Russia’s Central Election Commission, has told reporters about 30,000 cyber attacks on an online voting system used in today’s poll had been repelled by Sunday evening, many of them originating in “unfriendly” states – a term used by Moscow to describe Ukraine and its Western allies.
Russian Telegram channels reported on Sunday that two state news agencies, RIA Novosti and Tass, earlier today announced preliminary results of a gubernatorial election in northeastern Siberia more than 20 minutes before polls were due to close.
The original RIA and Tass reports could not be retrieved, but Russia’s Central Elections Commission later acknowledged the incident, which took place in the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia. It blamed an IT error.
A Russian interior ministry official, Mikhail Davydov, told Tass that authorities observed no irregularities which could sway the election results.
More than three million Russians across 25 regions have voted online, according to election officials.
Ukraine is fighting a brutal World War One style conflict in part due to bad US decision-making, former National Security Advisor John Bolton exclusively told Daily Express US.
Mr. Bolton – who was US National Security Advisor under Donald Trump – said part of the problem was the Biden Administration’s failure to “systematically and strategically” provide assistance to Ukraine.
He said: “We’ve had one argument after another, do we give them this weapons system? Do we give them the other weapons system? Do we give them HIMARS?”
Read the full story
Ukrainian officials have reported that Russia launched “dozens” of drones at Kyiv and the surrounding region early this morning, wounding at least five civilians.
Ukraine‘s air force later said it had brought down 26 out of a total of 33 drones.
The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhii Popko, reported debris from Iranian-made Shahed drones fell in several parts of the city and wounded at least one civilian.
Mr Popko said there was no risk to the person’s life, and added most of the wreckage fell in open ground, although one high-rise apartment was damaged.
Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, later confirmed one civilian was wounded in the city’s historic centre and received help on the spot.
The governor of the Kyiv region, which surrounds but doesn’t include the capital, also reported that the drone strike wounded four people across the province, one of whom had to be hospitalized.
In a Facebook post, Gov. Ruslan Kravchenko said the drones damaged an infrastructure facility as well as civilian buildings, including homes and shops, a hospital, a rehabilitation centre, a school and a kindergarten.
Russia‘s Defence Ministry said in the early hours of Sunday that Moscow’s forces earlier destroyed three US-supplied speedboats carrying Ukrainian soldiers who had been traveling toward Russian-occupied Crimea.
The claim couldn’t be independently verified.
Earlier on Sunday, the ministry said in a separate statement that Russian air defences shot down eight Ukrainian drones targeting Crimea, as well as another which flew over the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine.
Putin has won a rare victory after G20 nations refused to condemn Russia for the war in Ukraine.
Russia heaped praise on the G20 declaration within the closing statement of the summit, boasting that the surprise wording was “a step in the right direction”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was sent in place of Vladimir Putin, was taken off-guard by the unexpected triumph over Western countries at the global summit.
The controversial closing statement denounced using force for territorial gain but made no mention of Russian aggression, prompting severe criticism from Ukraine.
The declaration watered down the condemnation from last year’s statement, where most members had deplored “in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine“.
Ukraine has about 30 to 45 days before the weather will start to spoil its counter-offensive against Russia, the highest ranking US military chief has said.
General Mark Milley told the BBC colder and wetter weather conditions will make it harder for Ukrainian forces to manouevre.
Read the full story
Two foreign aid workers have reportedly been killed in eastern Ukraine as Russian shelling hit a van carrying a team of four working with a Ukrainian NGO.
The four volunteers from the Road to Relief group, which helps evacuate wounded people from front-line areas, were trapped inside the van as it flipped over and caught fire after being struck by shells near the town of Chasiv Yar, the organisation said on its Instagram page.
Road to Relief said Anthony Ihnat of Canada died in the attack, while German medical volunteer Ruben Mawick and Swedish volunteer Johan Mathias Thyr were seriously wounded.
The NGO added it couldn’t trace the whereabouts of the van’s fourth passenger, Emma Igual, 32, a Spanish national who was the organisation’s director.
Hours later, Spain’s acting Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares told Spanish media authorities in Madrid had received “verbal confirmation” of Igual’s death.
The volunteers were on their way to assess the needs of civilians on the outskirts of Bakhmut, Road to Relief said.
Russian authorities have reported multiple bids to sabotage voting in local elections being held in occupied parts of Ukraine.
Votes are taking place this weekend in 79 regions of Russia, with ballots for governors, regional legislatures, city and municipal councils, as well as in the four Ukrainian regions Moscow annexed illegally last year — the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia provinces — and on the Crimean peninsula, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014.
Balloting in the occupied areas of Ukraine has been denounced by Kyiv and the West as a sham and a violation of international law.
A drone strike in the early hours of Sunday destroyed one polling station in the Zaporizhzhia province, deputy chairman of Russia’s Central Election Commission Nikolai Bulaev told reporters. He said no staff were at the station at the time of the attack.
A Russian-appointed official in the neighboring Kherson region said that a live grenade was discovered on Saturday near a polling station there.
Marina Zakharova said the grenade was hidden in bushes outside the station and that voting had to be halted while emergency services disposed of it.
Local residents and Ukrainian activists have alleged Russian election officials make house calls accompanied by armed soldiers in both partially occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, detaining those who refuse to vote and pressuring them into writing “explanatory statements” which could be used as grounds for a criminal case.
Ukraine‘s President Volodymyr Zelensky argued the counteroffensive would advance faster if his soldiers were provided by the West with powerful weapons in a quicker fashion and more sanctions were issued against Russia.
Read the full story here.
Russia‘s Federal Security Service (FSB) is everywhere: its agents filter throughout the country and abroad and monitor anything and everything.
With the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the FSB set its sights on the invasion and soon became almost consumed with its neighbour.
Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed this earlier this year when he called on the security forces to step up its counterintelligence efforts.
There has been no shortage of agitators and pro-Ukrainian groups operating in Russia, the biggest and most recent seeing a band of soldiers crossing the border and capturing Russian soldiers in the Russian city of Belgorod.
How did the apparently watertight FSB allow such an invasion? And what exactly does the group do? Express.co.uk takes a look at the secretive agency that one expert claimed is the true holder of power in Russia.
Read the full story here.
Ukrainians trapped in the occupied regions are “hiding in their homes” as Russian soldiers armed with “machine guns” go door-to-door forcing them to vote for Kremlin-backed war criminals, desperate civilians in the area have reported.
Sham elections in the four occupied regions of Ukraine, as well as Crimea, culminate today (September 10) after more than a week of staggered voting. They are taking place alongside regional elections across Russia.
Read the full story here.
Wagner Group mercenaries have launched an “informational war” in Africa, fighting against democracy by stoking anti-Western sentiment sweeping across some of the poorest nations in the world, experts have warned.
The result could be catastrophic, both domestically and abroad, with a seismic uptick in violence causing the death of thousands and a potential mass migration to Europe, including, eventually, the United Kingdom.
It is in the theatre of the Sahel and West Africa, where the majority of former French colonies are situated, that this is playing out. Its frustrated populations, struggling against a lack of opportunity and heightened insecurity, are looking for someone to blame for these issues.
The United Nations atomic watchdog warned of a potential threat to nuclear safety as fighting is believed to be spiking in the area surrounding the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia power plant.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its experts deployed at the plant have reported hearing numerous explosions over the past week.
Read the full story here.
Crimea could become untenable for Russia as the US prepares to send a shipment of new weapons to Kyiv.
The new weapons – deployment of Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) – could be a gamechanger for Kyiv, according to former commanding officer of United States Army Europe Ben Hodges.
Read the full story here.
With Russia stepping up its drone strikes on Ukraine significantly in recent weeks, defence industry insiders and Kyiv officials have demanded to know why the designer of the deadly loitering munitions is not currently subject to sanctions by the UK Government.
Aleksandr Zakharov is a Russian scientist and creator of the Lancet drones currently bringing death and destruction to Ukraine on an industrial scale.
Read the full story here.
Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un have realised they have “nothing to fear” from the West and that they are free to deepen the relations between their countries, a geopolitical analyst believes.
President of Scarab Rising, Inc. Irina Tsukerman said the West has so far provided a lukewarm response to Russia and North Korea cosying up, which has emboldened these countries’ leaders to reportedly prepare for a new show of strength.
Read the full story here.
Putin is so desperate for soldiers to fight in his ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, he has turned to finding recruits from more unusual sources.
In his latest recruitment drive, he has turned to Afghan veterans who were snubbed by Britain. He seems to be aiming to exploit their knowledge of NATO and use it against Ukraine.
Read the full story here.
Putin has been dealt yet another blow to his war effort – and ego – after a Russian military base in Crimea exploded following a suspected attack by Ukraine.
Thick black smoke poured from the facility in Simferopol after the suspected sabotage or drone attack.
Read the full story here.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, believes Vladimir Putin is preparing to use blackouts and “nuclear blackmail” as weapons to spark fear in his enemies.
In a tweet, Mr Zelensky said: “Met with Rafael Grossi to discuss security of our energy industry and nuclear plants. Primarily, the ZNPP still used by Russia for radiation blackmail of the world.
Read the full story here.
Russia‘s desperate need for weapons in Ukraine could lead Moscow to reluctantly help North Korea modernise its nuclear capabilities.
Putin is looking to strengthen ties with the hermit country, as a meeting between the two leaders has been arranged.
This terrifying alliance could lead to Russia helping North Korea strengthen its nuclear arsenal.
Read the full story here.
Britain has been left “dangerously exposed” because of cuts to the RAF, a damning report has warned.
There are now “serious questions” about whether the country’s combat aircraft fleet could defend the UK in an all-out war.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has brought the cuts into “sharp focus”, according to Westminster’s Defence Committee.
The cross-party group of MPs warns the fleet is “just too small” to withstand the “levels of attrition” that would take place in major war.
Read the full story here.
A military analyst has suggested that Russia has been weakened to such an extent by the war in Ukraine, that it no longer poses a real risk to the West.
Sean Bell, a former RAF Air Vice-Marshal and Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that as a result, Ukraine‘s objectives ‘are no longer aligned with their backers’.
Western allies have provided the country with unprecendented resources and weapons since the Russian invasion last year, costing a monumental amount of money – while countries struggle with cost of living crises.
Read the full story here.
One of Russia‘s leading medical officers has been arrested after he ‘tried to flee’.
Viktor Trukhin, 59, has been arrested by Russia‘s top intelligence agency, the FSB, under mysterious circumstances.
Mr Trukhin served as the director of the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Vaccines and Serums for the past eleven years and reportedly knew all of Vladimir Putin‘s “health secrets”.
Read the full story here.
Good morning from London, I’m Maia Snow.
I’ll be bringing you all the latest updates on the war in Ukraine throughout the day.
Any tips, comments or questions welcome. Drop me an email on maia.snow@reachplc.com or on Twitter/X @maiaksnow.
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