Ukraine-Russia war latest LIVE: Putin's health 'been failing for 5 years' & he's rumoured to have undergone new surgery
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin appeared dazed as he spluttered and retched in meeting amid chemotherapy rumours.
Putin's health rumours have further intensified as now it is claimed that the tyrant is currently undergoing chemo treatment.
The 69-year-old looked dazed and bloated as he sat across from defence giant Sergey Chemezov.
The clip, broadcast on Russian state TV, shows the leader with his chin resting on his chest and his hands gripping the table during the talks with his former KGB pal.
At several points in the video, Putin is seen retching and seems unable to speak properly, the Mirror UK reports.
Despite this, the Kremlin has publicly stated that Putin is fit and well, and has denied any claims of ill health.
Follow our Russia-Ukraine live blog below for up-to-the-minute updates…
- Joseph Gamp
Russia's Gazprom confirms it will halt Russian gas supplies
Russian energy giant Gazprom said Saturday it had stopped all natural gas supplies to Finland as it had not received payment in rubles.
After Russia moved troops into Ukraine on February 24, Moscow has asked clients from "unfriendly countries" — including EU member states — pay for gas in rubles, a way to sidestep Western financial sanctions.
Gazprom said in a statement it had "completely stopped gas deliveries" as it had not received ruble payments from Finland's state-owned energy company Gasum "by the end of the working day on May 20".
"Starting April 1, payments for gas need to be made in rubles using new bank details, about which the counterparts were informed in a timely manner," Gazprom said.
Gazprom said it had supplied 1.49 billion cubic metres of natural gas to Finland in 2021, equal to about two thirds of the country's gas consumption.
However, natural gas accounts for around eight percent of Finland's energy.
Finland has said it would make up for the shortfall from other sources through the Balticconnector pipeline, which connects Finland to Estonia, and assured that filling stations would run normally.
- Joseph Gamp
Moscow says 2,439 Ukrainians have surrendered at Mariupol plant since last week
According to Moscow 2,439 Ukrainians have surrendered at the plant since May 16, the final 500 on Friday.
On Tuesday, Kyiv's lead negotiator Mykhaylo Podolyak said talks with Russia were "on hold" after taking place regularly in the earlier stages of the conflict but without substantial results.
The following day Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Kyiv authorities of not wanting to continue talks to end hostilities.
"Talks are indeed not moving forward and we note the complete lack of will of Ukrainian negotiators to continue this process," he said.
- Joseph Gamp
Russia halts gas supplies to Finland
Russia on Saturday stopped providing natural gas to neighbouring Finland, which has angered Moscow by applying for NATO membership, after the Nordic country refused to pay supplier Gazprom in rubles.
Following Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has asked clients from "unfriendly countries" — including EU member states — to pay for gas in rubles, a way to sidestep Western financial sanctions against its central bank.
Gazprom said in a statement Saturday that it had "completely stopped gas deliveries" as it had not received ruble payments from Finland's state-owned energy company Gasum "by the end of the working day on May 20".
Gazprom said it had supplied 1.49 billion cubic metres of natural gas to Finland in 2021, equal to about two thirds of the country's gas consumption.
However, natural gas accounts for around eight percent of Finland's energy.
- Joseph Gamp
Russia says Mariupol battle at end as Ukrainian defenders surrender
Russia has declared victory in its months-long operation to capture the strategic port of Mariupol after Ukraine ordered the last of its troops holed up in the city's Azovstal steelworks to lay down their arms.
Moscow's flattening of Mariupol has drawn multiple accusations of war crimes, including over a deadly attack on a maternity ward, and Ukraine has begun a legal reckoning for captured Russian troops.
The first post-invasion trial of a Russian soldier for war crimes neared its climax in Kyiv on Friday, after 21-year-old sergeant Vadim Shishimarin admitted to killing an unarmed civilian early in the offensive. The verdict is due Monday.
Shishimarin told the court he was "truly sorry". But his lawyer said in closing arguments that the young soldier was "not guilty" of premeditated murder and war crimes.
Since Ukrainian forces fended off the Russian offensive around Kyiv both eastern Ukraine and Mariupol in the south have borne the brunt of a remorseless ground and artillery attack.
The fighting is fiercest in the eastern region of Donbas, a Russian-speaking area that has been partially controlled by pro-Kremlin separatists since 2014.
"Attempts to attack Donbas continue. They completely ruined Rubizhne, Vonokvakha, just as Mariupol," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address late Friday, adding the Russians were "trying to do the same with Severodonetsk and many other cities".
- Joseph Gamp
Liz Truss says UK 'could arm Moldova'
Western allies are exploring long-term military backing for Ukraine that could encompass support for non-NATO member Moldova as well, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in an interview published Saturday.
Moscow "absolutely" poses a threat to Moldova as President Vladimir Putin seeks to restore a "greater Russia", she told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
"How do we ensure that there is deterrence by denial, that Ukraine is permanently able to defend itself and how do we guarantee that happens? That's what we are working on at the moment," Truss said.
"And that also applies to other vulnerable states such as Moldova.
"Because again, the threat is broader from Russia, we also need to make sure that they are equipped to NATO standards."
- Joseph Gamp
Putin has destroyed everything' says Odessa Mayor
Once derided as a Kremlin sympathiser, Odessa's Mayor Gennady Trukhanov likes to collect his thoughts before delving into his feelings about Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
"The Russians are on our soil today and they are bombing our cities, killing our people and our soldiers. Our people are dying," the mayor of the southern Ukrainian port city told AFP.
"It is hard for me to speak of any kind of future friendship or relationship. I can't imagine that," the mayor added, his steel-blue eyes flashing as he rails against Russian air strikes, the Black Sea blockade and the millions of tonnes of grain trapped in his ports.
"Putin destroyed everything," he fumed.
Before the war, the 57-year-old Odessa native carved out a polarising career in Ukraine's raucous political scene as a one-time member of former president Viktor Yanukovych's Kremlin-backed party that was overthrown by a popular uprising in 2014.
But even as unrest rattled Ukraine and anti-Russian sentiment surged, Trukhanov continued to rise through the ranks and was elected mayor of Odessa only months after Yanukovych was ousted and violent clashes over the fallout rattled the port city.
- Joseph Gamp
Zelensky: 'Only diplomacy' will resolve Ukraine war
The Ukraine war can only be resolved through "diplomacy", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday amid a deadlock in negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.
"The end will be through diplomacy," he told a Ukrainian television channel. The war "will be bloody, there will be fighting but will only definitively end through diplomacy".
"There are things that can only be reached at the negotiating table," he said." We want everything to return (to as it was before)" but "Russia does not want that", he said, without elaborating.
On Tuesday, Kyiv's lead negotiator Mykhaylo Podolyak said talks with Moscow were "on hold" after taking place regularly in the earlier stages of the conflict but without substantial results.
The following day Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Kyiv authorities of not wanting to continue talks to end hostilities.
"Talks are indeed not moving forward and we note the complete lack of will of Ukrainian negotiators to continue this process," he said.
The last talks took place on April 22, according to Russian news agencies.
After failing to take Kyiv following the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops are now concentrating on the east of the country, where fierce clashes are ongoing.
- Joseph Gamp
Russia says destroyed 'large' shipment of Western weapons to Ukraine
Moscow's forces destroyed a large shipment of Western-supplied weapons in northwestern Ukraine with long-range missiles, the Russian defence ministry said Saturday.
"High-precision long-range sea-based Kalibr missiles destroyed a large batch of weapons and military equipment near the Malin railway station in Zhytomyr region delivered from the United States and European countries," it said.
- Joseph Gamp
Help those fleeing conflict with The Sun’s Ukraine Fund
PICTURES of women and children fleeing the horror of Ukraine’s devastated towns and cities have moved Sun readers to tears.
Many of you want to help the five million caught in the chaos — and now you can, by donating to The Sun’s Ukraine Fund.
Give as little as £3 or as much as you can afford and every penny will be donated to the Red Cross on the ground helping women, children, the old, the infirm and the wounded.
Donate here to help The Sun’s fund
Or text to 70141 from UK mobiles
£3 — text SUN£3
£5 — text SUN£5
£10 — text SUN£10Texts cost your chosen donation amount (e.g. £5) +1 standard message (we receive 100%). For full T&Cs visit redcross.org.uk/mobile
- Joseph Gamp
Russia to create new military bases in the west of country to respond to NATO expansion
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday that Moscow would create new military bases in western Russia in response to the expansion of NATO.
“By the end of the year, 12 military units and divisions will be established in the Western Military District,” Shoigu said at a meeting in televised remarks.
The army expects to receive more than two thousand units of military equipment and weapons, Shoigu added.
- Milica Cosic
Mariupol steel factory ‘totally liberated’
The Russian army on Friday said it had “totally liberated” the Azovstal steelworks in the strategic port city of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine after the last Ukrainian soldiers inside surrendered.
“Since May 16, 2,439 Nazis from the Azov (regiment) and Ukrainian troops blocked in the factory have surrendered,” defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
“Today, May 20, the last group of 531 fighters gave themselves up.”
He added that Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had informed president Vladimir Putin of “the end of the operation and the complete liberation of the (Azovstal) industrial complex and the city of Mariupol”.
- Milica Cosic
Wimbledon's Russia ban prompts tours to cut ranking points
The women's and mens professional tennis tours will not award ranking points for Wimbledon this year because of the All England Clubs ban on players from Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine, an unprecedented move that stands as a significant rebuke of the sport's oldest Grand Slam tournament.
The WTA and ATP announced their decisions last night, two days before the start of the French Open and a little more than a month before play begins at Wimbledon on June 27.
In a statement, the ATP, in charge of the men's game, said: "The ability for players of any nationality to enter tournaments based on merit, and without discrimination, is fundamental to our Tour.
"The decision by Wimbledon to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing in the UK this summer undermines this principle and the integrity of the ATP ranking system. It is also inconsistent with our rankings agreement.
"Absent a change in circumstances, it is with great regret and reluctance that we see no option but to remove ATP ranking points from Wimbledon for 2022."
- Milica Cosic
'We'll do everything not to let our people down'
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to "do everything not to let our people down".
In a message on Twitter, Mykhailo Podolyak wrote: "Every day I receive dozens of messages from people who've lost their loved ones, their home.
"From those whose relatives have been captured or deported to Russia. Ukraine will defeat the darkness, but pays a terrible price. We'll do everything not to let our people down."
- Milica Cosic
Shocking photos show how Putin has descended
VLADIMIR Putin has descended from a macho strongman to a bloated butcher who struggles to walk in the space of just three years, pictures reveal.
Since first becoming Russia's president in 2000, Vlad has prided himself on his strongman image, having himself photographed riding horses shirtless, taking part in judo demonstrations, tracking tigers, and working out.
But in the past three years, he has become unrecognisable, with his previously gaunt face turning bloated, and his swagger giving way to a feeble, slumped-over stance.
Many pictures have been taken over the years for propaganda purposes, including a 2008 photo of him checking a satellite tracker on a Siberian tiger.
Putin's seemingly ageless looks have sparked years of rumours that the Russian leader has had regular cosmetic surgery.
In just three years, Putin's appearance has drastically altered, and where once the Russian leader seemed to be ageing in reverse, his face now appears puffy while his demeanour has also changed.
Pictures released by the Kremlin in 2020 of his end-of-year address show a drastically different Putin from just a year earlier, with his face appearing far puffier.
Gone is the confident, swaggering world statesman, and in its place is a slouching and feeble tyrant.
- Milica Cosic
Help those fleeing conflict with The Sun’s Ukraine Fund
PICTURES of women and children fleeing the horror of Ukraine’s devastated towns and cities have moved Sun readers to tears.
Many of you want to help the five million caught in the chaos — and now you can, by donating to The Sun's Ukraine Fund.
Give as little as £3 or as much as you can afford and every penny will be donated to the Red Cross on the ground helping women, children, the old, the infirm and the wounded.
Donate here to help The Sun's fund
Or text to 70141 from UK mobiles
£3 — text SUN£3
£5 — text SUN£5
£10 — text SUN£10
- Milica Cosic
Russia’s 'unstoppable' Satan-2 nuke
Just days ago, Russian state TV said Britain could be bombed "back to the stone age" in ten minutes using Putin's "unstoppable" 7,000mph hypersonic nuke missiles.
A Kremlin mouthpiece threatened to use Moscow's new Zirzon weapon system to plunge the country into permanent darkness by wiping out 50 or 60 power stations.
Politician Aleksey Zhuravlyov and another TV propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov have previously suggested striking Britain with Satan-2.
Zhuravlyov threatened to nuke Britain with its Satan-2 hypersonic missile in 200 seconds and obliterate Finland in just ten.
Rogozin has also warned that NATO countries can be destroyed within half an hour in a nuclear attack.
Meanwhile, Russian state TV also threatened to wipe "boorish Britain" off the map for supporting Ukraine.
And Putin has warned he will use nuclear weapons against the West if anyone interferes in Ukraine.
- Milica Cosic
Putin warns of "cyber-aggression" against Russia
President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that the number of cyber attacks on Russia by foreign "state structures" had increased and that Moscow would need to bolster its cyber defences by cutting the risk of using foreign software and hardware.
"Purposeful attempts are being made to disable the Internet resources of Russia's critical information infrastructure", Putin said.
- Milica Cosic
All you need to know about Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Everything you need to know about Russia's invasion of Ukraine…
- Why is Russia invading Ukraine?
- Will the UK go to war?
- How can I join the Ukraine foreign legion?
- What can I do to help Ukraine?
- Who is Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky?
- How much gas does the UK get from Russia?
- Is Russia a part of Nato?
- Does Russia have nuclear weapons?
- Why is Ukraine not in Nato?
- How big is the Russian army?
- What is Article 5 of the Nato treaty?
- What is the Minsk agreement?
- Which countries were in the Soviet Union?
- What does the Z mean on Russian tanks? Meaning behind symbols explained
- When will the Russia-Ukraine war end?
Police officers welcome Ukrainian children by handing out teddy bears
Police officers in Kent have welcomed Ukrainian children by handing out hand- knitted teddy bears.
The soft toys were made by volunteers.
The bears are usually given to children who visit police stations having been traumatised as victims of crime, or as a result of witnessing an upsetting incident.
Acting Chief Inspector Lizzie Jones, District Commander for Tonbridge, said: "The war in Ukraine has torn families apart and been traumatic for millions of people who have witnessed horrendous acts of aggression and suffered unimaginable loss."
She added: "We hope they were of some small comfort to the Ukrainian children we met, and that they can now start to rebuild their lives away from the horrors of war".
Russia to create new military bases in the west of country to respond to NATO expansion
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday that Moscow would create new military bases in western Russia in response to the expansion of NATO.
"By the end of the year, 12 military units and divisions will be established in the Western Military District," Shoigu said at a meeting in televised remarks.
The army expects to receive more than two thousand units of military equipment and weapons, Shoigu added.
Thank you for reading my coverage this evening. The blog will be running again tomorrow morning.
- Milica Cosic
Summary of the news tonight
Here's the top news from this evening:
- Russias defense chief says the country's forces have taken full control of the massive steel plant in Mariupol that was the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the city
- That would mark the end of a nearly three-month siege that reduced much of Ukraine's vital Black Sea port of Mariupol to ruins and left over 20,000 people there feared dead
- There was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine that Mariupol has fallen completely to the Russians
Mariupol steel factory 'totally liberated'
The Russian army on Friday said it had "totally liberated" the Azovstal steelworks in the strategic port city of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine after the last Ukrainian soldiers inside surrendered.
"Since May 16, 2,439 Nazis from the Azov (regiment) and Ukrainian troops blocked in the factory have surrendered," defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
"Today, May 20, the last group of 531 fighters gave themselves up."
He added that Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had informed president Vladimir Putin of "the end of the operation and the complete liberation of the (Azovstal) industrial complex and the city of Mariupol".
Wimbledon's Russia ban prompts tours to cut ranking points
The women's and mens professional tennis tours will not award ranking points for Wimbledon this year because of the All England Clubs ban on players from Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine, an unprecedented move that stands as a significant rebuke of the sport's oldest Grand Slam tournament.
The WTA and ATP announced their decisions tonight, two days before the start of the French Open and a little more than a month before play begins at Wimbledon on June 27.
In a statement, the ATP, in charge of the men's game, said: "The ability for players of any nationality to enter tournaments based on merit, and without discrimination, is fundamental to our Tour.
"The decision by Wimbledon to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing in the UK this summer undermines this principle and the integrity of the ATP ranking system. It is also inconsistent with our rankings agreement.
"Absent a change in circumstances, it is with great regret and reluctance that we see no option but to remove ATP ranking points from Wimbledon for 2022."
'We'll do everything not to let our people down'
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to "do everything not to let our people down".
In a message on Twitter, Mykhailo Podolyak wrote: "Every day I receive dozens of messages from people who've lost their loved ones, their home.
"From those whose relatives have been captured or deported to Russia. Ukraine will defeat the darkness, but pays a terrible price. We'll do everything not to let our people down."
Source: Read Full Article
- Russias defense chief says the country's forces have taken full control of the massive steel plant in Mariupol that was the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the city
