From Italy and the World

It’s Victory Day in Russia, but several regions — especially near the Ukraine border — are scaling back celebrations due to security concerns and a lack of military equipment to display. Follow here for live updates. Source link

CNN  —  Thousands of people will line the streets of Moscow’s Red Square on Tuesday as part of Russia’s annual Victory Day parade, when the Kremlin will display a front of military might and grandeur contrasting with its faltering military campaign on the frontlines in Ukraine. But several regions in…

Mala Tokmachka, Ukraine CNN  —  In this vacant and damaged village, news of Russia’s evacuation of occupied towns along the southern front cannot come soon enough. Ukrainian-held Mala Tokmachka, just over a mile (2 kilometers) from Russian-held territory in the Zaporizhzhia region, has been left ghostly and battered by shelling,…

CNN  —  The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has raised concerns as to the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, describing it as “increasingly unpredictable,” after Moscow ordered the evacuation of residents from Russian-occupied areas close to the facility. More than 1,600 people, including 660 children, have been evacuated from…

CNN  —  A cargo train loaded with tanks chugs along under the crisp, spring sun. “Wow,” a woman says, pointing her camera phone at the convoy. “This is the second train, there was one like it just before.” The video, seemingly filmed in late March, shows old Soviet tanks being…

The US has high confidence in the accuracy of Ukraine’s claim that it used an American-made Patriot air defense system to intercept a Russian hypersonic missile, according to a source familiar with the matter.   While the Patriot system has been successful in countering ballistic missiles, its ability to stop air-launched hypersonic missiles was…

CNN  —  Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, has apparently backtracked on a threat to withdraw his forces from the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, after Russia’s Ministry of Defense promised to provide more ammunition to his troops. In an explosive, expletive-laden rant this week, Prigozhin appeared in…

CNN  —  Ukraine’s assertion that a US Patriot defense battery took out one of Russia’s most modern ballistic missiles is a notable moment in the conflict, now in its 15th month, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian military have touted the Kinzhal, or Kh-47, as an example of Russia’s…

A car explosion wounded a Russian military blogger and left his driver dead Saturday, according to state media. It marked the second recent blast involving one of the country’s nationalist writers, drawing further attention to the role they play in Moscow’s propaganda machine. The blogger wounded Saturday is Zakhar Prilepin,…

Paris CNN  —  France’s finance minister is in the spotlight. But it’s not the country’s downgraded credit rating, nor the government’s hated retirement age hike that’s got people talking. His work “Fugue Americaine” – which includes a scene with an unforgettable phrase about an anus – has brought mockery, even…

CNN  —  Russian-appointed authorities in Crimea reported on Sunday that their air defense forces and electronic warfare units had fended off at least three Ukranian drone attacks in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol. The Russian-back governor of the city, Mikhail Razvozhaev said that “more than ten drones” were sent…

CNN  —  Russia has blamed the “Kyiv regime” and several Western nations for the bombing of military blogger Zakhar Prilepin’s car on Saturday. The claim was made by a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, but she provided no proof for the allegation. In reaction, the Security Service of Ukraine…

Rome, Italy CNN  —  A group of climate activists in Italy have poured what they described as “a charcoal-based black liquid” into the water of Rome’s famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) – to “sound the alarm about the black future that awaits humanity.” “Our future…

CNN  —  Dutch police arrested 154 football supporters in Amsterdam on Saturday due to the singing of antisemitic chants, a police statement said. According to the statement, the football fans were warned several times to stop singing as they made their way to the Johan Cruijff Arena on the subway.…

CNN  —  The head of the Wagner private military company says his men will begin withdrawing from Bakhmut this week, because dwindling ammunition supplies and mounting losses mean there is “nothing left to grind the meat with.” On his official Telegram channel on Saturday, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin blamed the…

CNN  —  An acclaimed theater director and playwright have been arrested in Russia and accused of “justifying terrorism” for their play about Russian women being recruited online to marry Islamic State fighters in Syria. Yevgenia Berkovich was arrested on Friday alongside the play’s author, Svetlana Petriychuk, after investigators alleged that…

CNN  —  A Russian military blogger has been injured and his driver killed after their car was blown up, Russian state media reported, the latest attack on a pro-war figure. Zakhar Prilepin was hospitalized with a leg injury in the blast in the Nizhny Novgorod region, about 250 miles east…

A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) of the Ukrainian army fires close to the frontline in the northern Kherson region on November 5, 2022. Hannibal Hanschke/EPA/Shutterstock/FILE Russia has been thwarting US-made mobile rocket systems in Ukraine more frequently in recent months, using electronic jammers to throw off its GPS…

CNN  —  Ukraine says it has for the first time used a US-made Patriot air defense system to intercept a Russian hypersonic missile. Mykola Oleshchuk, Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, said on Telegram Saturday: “Yes, we have intercepted the ‘unmatched’ Kinzhal,’” adding the word “Patriot” and an emoji of…