Russia-Ukraine War Live: Putin threatens NATO with World War III, citing ‘highest nuclear risk in decades’

It comes just days after it emerged earlier this week that the RAF plane transporting Mr Shapps from Poland to the UK had its GPS signal jammed while flying over the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

Footage released by Mr Shapps showed him in the capital of Kiev on March 8.

At least 249 people have been detained in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine for refusing to take part in Moscow’s sham elections and criticizing Russian authorities, the Eastern Ukraine Human Rights Group said.

“Voting in the occupied territories was literally held at gunpoint, with members of the electoral commission walking from house to house accompanied by armed military personnel,” said the organization’s president, Pavlo Lisianski. said.

“Everything Russia does in the occupied territories of Ukraine is a crime,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, condemning the elections and voting in the illegally annexed territories.

Western governments came together yesterday to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin’s landslide re-election as unfair and undemocratic.

“Mr. Putin has imprisoned his political opponents and prevented others from taking on him,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the election results highlighted the “depth of repression” in Russia.

“Putin eliminates his political opponents, controls the media and presents himself as the winner. This is not democracy,” Lord Cameron said.

France, Britain and others condemned the fact that Russia held elections in occupied territory of Ukraine, which it claims it annexed during the war.

The Kremlin insists that Mr. Putin won 87% of the vote in the three-day election, showing that Russians are rallying around him.

South Korea’s defense minister said Monday that North Korea has shipped about 7,000 containers filled with ammunition and other military equipment to Russia since last year to help support the war in Ukraine.

Shin Won-sik shared this assessment at a press conference hours after North Korea announced it had launched multiple short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern waters and announced a spate of weapons displays amid heightened tensions with its rivals. did.

Since early 2022, North Korea has stepped up its weapons tests, using Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a distraction, and the conflict comes as leader Kim Jong Un seeks to break out of diplomatic isolation and join a united front. We are also keeping pace with Russia. Against the United States.

Three men were killed in an explosion while disassembling a drone in Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast, according to reports.

The men, aged 45, 55, and 67, discovered a first-person view (FPV) suicide attack drone and began disassembling it. “As a result, the ammunition exploded,” said Kherson Blast Military Governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

He said the men died on the way to the hospital and urged people not to pick up suspicious objects.

Russian authorities say he died of natural causes. Navalny’s supporters say he was killed.

The swift and bloodless capture of the diamond-shaped peninsula, home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and a popular holiday destination, sparked a wave of patriotism and sent Putin’s popularity soaring. “Crimea is ours!” became a popular slogan in Russia.

Now anointed for another six years as president, Putin is determined to expand his interests in Ukraine amid Russian battlefield successes and declining Western support for Kiev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country would not relent to invading Ukraine, announcing plans to create a buffer zone along the country’s border to protect against long-range attacks and cross-border attacks.

Senior US officials visited Montenegro on Monday to offer support to the small Balkan country as it seeks to join the European Union.

At a press conference in the capital Podgorica, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gabriel Escobar said Montenegro should be the next to join the 27-nation bloc.

“There is absolutely no doubt in our minds…the strategic goal of this country is to become a full member of the European Union,” Escobar said after a meeting with Prime Minister Milojko Spažić.

Knowing the outcome of the vote in advance may make it tempting to turn a blind eye to the proceedings, writes Mary Dejevsky. However, following the death of Alexei Navalny and the uncertainty surrounding the situation in Ukraine, things may not be as predictable as they seem…