64 h. ago Kremlin and Trump aides raise nuclear war fears after Ukraine drone strike

Vladimir Putin has warned Russia will respond to Kyiv’s attacks on nuclear-capable aircraft at airfieldsAs Vladimir Putin pledges to retaliate against Ukraine for last weekend’s unprecedented drone attack, Kremlin advisers and figures around Donald Trump have told the US president that the risk of a nuclear confrontation is growing, in an attempt to pressure him to further reduce US support for Ukraine.Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and an important intermediary between the Kremlin and Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, called the Ukrainian drone strike an attack on “Russian nuclear assets”, and echoed remarks from Maga-friendly figures warning of the potential for a third world war. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Ukraine hits bridge linking Crimea to Russia with underwater explosives

Operation ‘severely damaged’ base of Kerch Bridge, opened by Putin in 2018, Kyiv’s SBU security service saysEurope live – latest updatesUkraine has detonated a massive underwater blast targeting the key road and rail bridge connecting the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula to Russia, damaging its underwater supports.The operation, claimed by Kyiv’s SBU security service, is the second high-profile operation by Ukraine in days striking significant Russian assets after a sophisticated drone raid on Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet on Sunday. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago Ukraine must urgently be given the €300bn of frozen Russian assets | Phillip Inman

Confiscating the funds would shock Putin, help Ukraine, and take advantage of disillusionment in the US economyUkraine needs more than long-range missiles and fibre-optic drones in its fight with Russia. What it needs is more money, and lots of it.In particular, the war-torn nation should be handed the €300bn (£250bn) of frozen Russian assets stored mostly in accounts hosted by the Euroclear trading system. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago London to allocate $3 billion from Russian assets to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine

London to allocate $3 billion from Russian assets to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine  Мілітарний

Economics

3 w. ago MPs push for Russian asset seizures as Government targets tech and diamond trade

Sanctions are ‘a powerful tool in our armoury’, Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said.

Politics

3 w. ago Calls for Russia’s frozen assets held in Belgium to be used in rebuilding Ukraine

Brussels-based Euroclear holds most of Russia’s frozen assets, but some say confiscation could be ‘an act of war’The boxy glass and steel tower at a traffic-clogged junction on King Albert II Boulevard hardly stands out among the other buildings in the business district of north Brussels, the Belgian capital’s answer to Manhattan or La Défense in Paris.But unlike its neighbours, the institution housed in this bland postmodern building opposite a branch of Domino’s Pizza is caught up in a geopolitical maelstrom. It is Euroclear, a little-known body that houses most of the Russian state’s frozen assets and now finds itself in the middle of a debate about international justice. Continue reading...

Politics