Russian President Vladimir Putin

President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian military's deterrent forces to be on alert. The announcement comes on the fourth day of Russia's invasion of ...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Vladimir Putin dramatically escalated East-West tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces put on high alert Sunday, ...

The Russians will learn and adapt,” the official said. Normally, gaining what the military calls air superiority is one of the first priorities for an invading force. They also moved to slap restrictions on Russia’s central bank. By late Sunday, Russian forces had taken Berdyansk, a Ukrainian city of 100,000 on the Azov Sea coast, according to Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Zelenskyy’s office. “We are suffering immensely,” she said by phone. The practical meaning of Putin’s order was not immediately clear. Earlier Sunday, Kyiv was eerily quiet after explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one airport. Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight, and training people to make firebombs. Food and medicine were running low, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Moscow has so far failed to win full control of Ukraine’s airspace, despite advances across the country. A main boulevard was practically deserted as a strict curfew kept people off the streets. Russian troops also made advances toward Kherson, another city in the south of Ukraine, while Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov that is considered a prime Russian target, is “hanging on,” Arestovich said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to put Russia's deterrence forces, which includes nuclear ...

This is yet another escalatory and totally unnecessary step," they added. Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova, meanwhile, cast Putin's move as "one more example of the terrorist behavior of Russia," telling CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday on "State of the Union" that Russian forces "attacked our country, they are scaring everyone." Additionally, a senior administration official told CNN on Sunday that Putin's move was "yet another escalatory and totally unnecessary step," a senior administration official said Sunday.

WASHINGTON – During several encounters with Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recalled, a consistent image stuck ...

While Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his country's nuclear weapons on high alert, more support poured in for Ukraine in its ongoing effort to fend off ...

Russia unleashed a wave of attacks on Ukraine targeting airfields and fuel facilities in what appeared to be the next phase of an invasion that has been slowed by fierce resistance. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said Russian forces had blocked the cities of Kherson on the Black Sea and the port of Berdyansk on the Azov Sea. Putin, announcing the move on Russian state television, called it a response to “aggressive statements” and tough financial sections from NATO countries. I think that is what has happened in the case of this invasion in Ukraine.” We can isolate them in the United Nations. We can isolate them in U. N. specialized agencies. It includes nearly $26 million from the Department of State and $28 million from the U. S. Agency for International Development. "We are aware that Aeroflot flight 111 violated the prohibition put in place earlier today on Russian flights using Canadian airspace," Transport Canada said in a series of tweets. "The 20th century was a century of war and bloodshed. The Security Council gave a green light Sunday for the first emergency session of the General Assembly in decades. The Central Bank also ordered a slew of measures to help the banks cope with the crisis by infusing more cash into the system and easing restrictions for banking operations. The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday said a delegation would meet with Russian officials for talks near the Belarus border. The troops in Kharkiv arrived after Russia unleashed a wave of attacks on Ukraine, targeting airfields and fuel facilities.

When the Russian leader ordered his nuclear forces into “special combat readiness,” the U.S. could have gone on high alert. Instead, the administration ...

He recalled that when Mr. Putin was asked how he would react to retaliatory sanctions by the West, he “said he was willing to put his nuclear forces on alert.” Just as Mr. Putin claimed last week that the United States had designs to put such weapons on Ukrainian territory — one of his many justifications for the invasion — American officials fear that Mr. Putin’s next move is to put them in Ukraine, if he succeeds in seizing the country, and in Belarus. But the talks collapsed, and Mr. Kim’s nuclear stockpile is now significantly larger, by most unclassified estimates, than it was before Mr. Trump issued the threat. He also noted that Mr. Trump had leveled similar threats against Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, after his armed forces conducted a series of long-range missile tests. It came only a few days after he warned the United States and other NATO powers to stay out of the conflict, adding that “the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history.” Mr. Putin’s citation of “aggressive comments” as a justification for putting one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals on alert status seemed both disproportionate and puzzling, he said. Matthew Kroenig, a professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University who specializes in atomic strategy, said history bristled with cases in which nuclear powers had threatened to unleash their arsenals on one another. It has put an end, at least for now, to the discussions between Russia and the United States about what they do in four years, when the one remaining nuclear treaty between the two countries, called New START, expires. But what made the latest nuclear outburst notable was that it was staged for television, as Mr. Putin told his generals that he was acting because of the West’s “aggressive comments” about Ukraine. Russia’s most senior military officer, Valery Gerasimov, sat stone-faced as Mr. Putin issued his directive, leaving some wondering what he was thinking, and how he might respond. Similar concerns drove the decision not to have Mr. Biden, in Delaware for the weekend, respond to Mr. Putin’s threats. The former director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., said in public today what some officials have been saying in private since the Russian leader began accusing Ukraine of genocide and claiming it was developing nuclear weapons of its own. Or the president could largely ignore it, sending out aides to portray Mr. Putin as once again manufacturing a menace, threatening Armageddon for a war he started without provocation.