Ukraine-Russia War Latest: Russians told not to travel to the West as Putin could use new missiles within days

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Russia has urged its citizens not to travel to the West, especially the United States, over the Christmas holidays.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the warning comes at a time when relations between Russia and the United States are intensifying as the relationship approaches the brink of rupture.

The Russian Foreign Ministry statement, referring to the United States and allied satellite states, came after the Defense Ministry said President Vladimir Putin could strike Ukraine again with new intermediate-range ballistic missiles within days.

Vladimir Putin claimed that Oreshnik, a hazel tree, is impossible to intercept and that even if it is equipped with a conventional warhead, it has a destructive power comparable to that of a nuclear weapon.

On the battlefield, fighting was unusually fierce near the eastern city of Pokrovsk, as Russian forces destroyed or captured several Ukrainian positions near the important strategic hub, Kiev's military said last night.

Russia is deploying all available forces to try to break through our military's defenses, Ukraine's Supreme Commander Oleksandr Sirsky said.

Kremlin: Russia will respond to Ukrainian ATACMS attack

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Russia would respond to Ukraine's attack on Russian territory using U.S.-made ATACMS missiles.

Russia said Wednesday that Ukraine had struck a military airfield in the Sea of ​​Azov with six U.S.-made ATACMS ballistic missiles, a move that could lead Russia to launch another intermediate-range hypersonic missile at Ukraine.

Tom WatlingDecember 12, 2024 10:58

Oscar winner Mstyslav Chernov returns to Sundance with a new document about the war in Ukraine.

Tom WatlingDecember 12, 2024 10:31

Finland blocks further acquisition of Russian real estate

Finland's Defense Ministry said it had blocked seven real estate transactions involving two Russian buyers because they could threaten national security.

Helsinki has sought to restrict Russian citizens from buying property near strategic locations under existing rules, blocking three transactions in October 2023 and three in January this year.

Defense Minister Antti Harkanen said in a statement that the background of all property buyers from outside the EU and EEA is carefully checked, referring to the European Union and the European Economic Area, which includes Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

He added that protecting national security is especially important in the current security situation.

The latest decisions concern one property in Pargas, on Finland's southern coast, and five properties in Kokemaki, southwestern Finland, the health ministry said in a statement.

The two people involved in the transaction were both individuals with Russian citizenship, he added.

Last September, the Finnish government proposed banning most Russian citizens from buying property in Finland.

Finland's relations with neighboring Russia have soured since Moscow's sweeping invasion of Ukraine in 2022, forcing Helsinki to join the NATO military alliance after decades of non-alignment.

Tom WatlingDecember 12, 2024 10:06

AP photo of Ukraine in 2024 conveys the horrors and hopes of war.

Tom WatlingDecember 12, 2024 09:41

Ukrainian military chief of staff visits Pokrovsk region as Russia closes in

Ukrainian military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi visited the Pokrovsk region in eastern Ukraine amid concerns that Russian troops were advancing into the outskirts.

The city of Pokrovsk is key to the defense of the wider Donetsk region and Russian troops have been pushing there for months, taking up nearly 400 square miles since the fall of the key southeastern city of Avdivka in February. These attacks accelerated during the summer but resulted in heavy manpower losses for the Russians.

DeepState, Ukraine's war tracker, now places Russian forces within just two miles of the city.

Mr. Syrskry described the fighting in Pokrovsk as extremely difficult, adding that the Russians were victorious.

The Russian occupation forces are trying to break through the defenses of our troops by throwing in all possible forces, he wrote in the Telegram messenger.

Ukrainian military commander Oleksandr Sirsky (left) talks with members of the 38th Independent Brigade in Pokrovsk. (Telegram/ Oleksandr Syrskyi )

Tom WatlingDecember 12, 2024 09:14

Two women rescued from rubble 7 hours after Russian missile attack

Tom WatlingDecember 12, 2024 08:54

Photo: Life on the front line in Ukraine A Ukrainian soldier of the 110th Brigade keeps a pet dog on the front line in the direction of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine. (AP) A Ukrainian tank passes by a burning vehicle near the Sumy region on the Russian-Ukrainian border. , Ukraine, Wednesday, August 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) (AP) A Ukrainian soldier in protective clothing demonstrates a grenade launcher. Women during a training session for national resistance for local residents in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine (AP)

Tom WatlingDecember 12, 2024 08:31

Ukraine lost ground near Pokrovsk to Russian forces within 3km of the strategic hub.

Kiev forces said they destroyed or captured several Ukrainian positions near the eastern city of Pokrovsk, as Moscow pressed on a strategic logistics hub home to a unique Ukrainian coke mine.

After months of accelerating their advance toward Pokrovsk, Moscow's forces are now as close as 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) to the city's southern outskirts, according to Ukraine's DeepState, which uses open sources to map the front line.

The prolonged conflict resulted in the destruction of two of our positions and the loss of one. Ukraine's Eastern Front spokesman Nazar Voloshin said in televised comments that steps were being taken to restore current positions.

Pokrovsk, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the border between Ukraine's Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, has been the site of some of the fiercest fighting in Russia's 33-month all-out invasion of Ukraine over the past few months.

In October and November, Russian troops advanced toward the city at the fastest pace since the early days of the war, analysts said. Ukraine, which has been on the back foot since a failed counteroffensive in 2023, says Russia has continued some military operations. It suffered the heaviest losses of the war so far.

Javed Ahmed12 December 2024 08:00

Putin: Russia will cooperate with BRICS to create AI alliance

President Vladimir Putin said Russia would develop artificial intelligence with its BRICS partners and other countries to challenge America's dominance in one of the most disruptive technologies of the 21st century.

Speaking at the AI ​​conference in Moscow, President Putin said he was confident that an international alliance of national associations and development institutions in the field of AI from BRICS countries and other interested countries would greatly facilitate this cooperation.

“We will start this alliance today,” he said.

Sberbank, Russia's largest lender, said the new AI Alliance network will include as a partnership the national AI association of China, one of the world's top two AI powers along with Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa.

Javed Ahmed12 December 2024 07:00

Russia tells its citizens to avoid traveling to the West

Russia has asked its citizens not to visit the United States, Canada and some EU countries in the coming weeks due to increasingly confrontational relations.

Russians abroad risk being tracked by US authorities, Moscow officials claimed yesterday.

With the deepening confrontation in Russian-American relations, which are on the verge of collapse due to Washington's fault, visiting the United States for personal or official needs carries serious risks, Maria Zakharova said. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said at a news briefing:

She said she urges people to continue to avoid travel to the United States and its allied satellite countries, including priority Canada and European Union countries, this holiday season.

Both Moscow and Washington are defending the convictions under their own judicial systems, but as relations have deteriorated, they say citizens have been unjustly imprisoned and diplomats are increasingly being harassed.

Russian and U.S. diplomats say relations between the two countries are worse than at any time since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the closest the two Cold War superpowers came to nuclear war.

Arpan RaiDecember 12, 2024 06:41 PM

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