“Ukraine – Russia”

A well-experienced researcher believes the recent assassination of the daughter of a prominent Vladimir Putin ally could lead to a power struggle within Russia.

Alexander Dugin’s daughter Darya, 29, was killed when the car she was travelling in near a Moscow village exploded on Saturday night, law enforcement officials said.

Investigators had earlier believed her 60-year-old father was the intended target before later backing down to suggest the woman was likely marked.

#Ukraine: A Russian BMD-2 was hit by Ukrainian fire somewhere in the East- and apparently became rocket powered. pic.twitter.com/6du88U0niO

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 22, 2022

Britain starts to turn out the lights: Restaurants, pubs, butchers, cafes and shops are among small businesses forced to close as soaring energy bills begin to bite

Small firms are pleading for the Government to step in over sky-high energy bills, which have soared by as much as 400 per cent in some cases, leaving many fearing they could be put out of business by the end of the year.

More than half of small companies — 54 per cent — fear their running costs could force them to close, according to a report by SME Insights and insurer Simply Business.

Businesses are not protected by energy watchdog Ofgem’s price cap and they face paying 20 per cent VAT on their energy bills, whereas most ordinary households pay five per cent.

Canada will return remaining gas turbines covered under sanction exemption, Joly says

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada still plans to return five turbines used in a Russian natural gas pipeline — despite the fact that the company operating the pipeline refused to accept one turbine that has been returned to Germany already.

In July, the government granted an exemption to ship six turbines undergoing maintenance in Montreal back to Germany to be subsequently handed over to the Russian state-owned firm Gazprom, which operates the Nord Stream 1 pipeline that provides Germany and other European countries with natural gas.

At least 15 people have been killed and 50 wounded in a Russian rocket strike on a Ukrainian railway station, as the country marked six months since Moscow’s invasion on a sombre independence day overshadowed by warnings of further “brutal” attacks.

Addressing the UN late on Wednesday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the rockets struck a train in a station in the town of Chaplyne, about 145km (90 miles) west of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

#Ukraine: A Russian BMD-2 was hit by Ukrainian fire somewhere in the East- and apparently became rocket powered. pic.twitter.com/6du88U0niO

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 22, 2022

As Moscow’s war on Ukraine reaches the six-month mark, a top leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in Canada has echoed the Kremlin’s talking points on the conflict, insisting in a recent interview the unprovoked invasion was justified and decrying as “ridiculous” Canada’s sanctions on the church’s war-boosting patriarch.

It is a name plucked from obscurity and plastered on front pages around the world: Natalia Vovk, the woman Russia says blew up the daughter of ‘Putin’s Rasputin’.

The FSB claims she is a veteran of Mariupol’s Azov battalion turned spy, who spent weeks tracking Darya Dugina before planting 800g of explosives under the driver’s seat of her car on August 20 and rigging it to blow as she left a festival near Moscow.

But Kyiv has denied any link to the slaying, the Azov Battalion says it has no record of Vovk having served with them, and evidence that has emerged from social media accounts paints a picture that is at odds with Moscow’s account.

A new Department of Defense inspector general report released last week estimated that the Afghan government possessed $7.12 billion worth of equipment paid for by U.S. taxpayer dollars when it fell roughly a year ago, “much of which has since been seized by the Taliban.”

“This included military aircraft, ground vehicles, weapons, and other military equipment,” the release noted. “The condition of these items was unknown, and the long-term operability of the vehicles was likely to deteriorate without U.S. contractor maintenance.”

Russian resistance fighters were behind the car bombing that killed the daughter of an ultra-nationalist philosopher who had backed the invasion of Ukraine, a former Russian opposition MP has said.

Ilya Ponomarev, who fled to Ukraine after opposing the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, said a group of Russian partisan fighters known as the National Republican Army (NRA) had claimed responsibility for the bombing.

“Love from Toronto.”

“Putin … with loathing from Canada.”

“Liam from Canada says F—k you Putin.”

The rockets Ukrainian forces have been firing at the Russian army in recent weeks have carried taunting messages from Canadians.

The town of Volosovo, near St Petersburg, is booming. Not the economy – it’s the loudspeakers.

Like many towns in Russia, Volosovo has them installed on tall poles that line the main street. Traditionally they are used for playing patriotic music during national holidays. Now, though, they have a different purpose.

“Two volunteer artillery battalions are being formed. We invite men from 18 to 60 years old to join,” the speakers blare out.

#Ukraine: Somewhere in the East, a Russian tank turret joined Roscosmos. pic.twitter.com/yabRD9u82e

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 20, 2022

Car bomb attack in Moscow most likely to be a false flag attack to whip up public support and escalate war against Ukraine

Investigators had barely started picking through the crime scene when Kremlin-linked officials began blaming Ukraine for the audacious car bomb attack that killed Daria Dugina.

But Kyiv, which denied any link to the murder, may have more pressing military concerns than conducting a complex hit on the daughter of a Vladimir Putin whisperer.

Although pro-Ukraine partisan attacks have increased in occupied Kherson and Crimea in recent weeks, Moscow appears to be a big stretch for its military and intelligence capabilities.

#Ukraine: The Ukrainian 30th Mechanized Brigade took out a Russian BMP IFV in the East- with the expected results. pic.twitter.com/LJ0jSbedkT

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 21, 2022

“Vesti Nedeli,” the flagship weekly roundup of Kremlin-controlled television news, recently portrayed a long history of predatory Western powers coming to grief when they invaded Russia: Sweden in the 18th century, France in the 19th, Germany in the 20th.

Enemies now seek to reverse those losses, said Dmitry Kiselyov, the show’s host, blaming the West for the war that Russia instigated in Ukraine. The goal to finish off Russia is “centuries old and unchanging,” he said. “Here we are on the defensive.”

Careless Russian soldiers are dumping powerful weaponry at makeshift sites on the peninsula – and Kyiv is taking advantage

The pig farm across the railway tracks from Svetlana’s home had been abandoned for years.

Nobody paid much attention to the decrepit, dusty building until Russian lorries began rolling through her Crimean village in June.

The window blinds on their cabins were drawn, so none of the locals in Azovske could peer too closely inside.

But Svetlana was not the only person to notice that soldiers had begun dumping crates of ammunition on the grounds of the farm.

#Ukraine: A Russian BTR-82A armored personnel carrier was destroyed by the Security Service of Ukraine using commercial drones armed with improvised munitions based on M430A1 40x53mm HEDP grenades.
This time it took a dozen munitions to finish the APC. pic.twitter.com/QY8httPQRi

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 20, 2022