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Tag: Ukraine

  • Putin wants all of Ukraine; he is crazy – Trump

    Putin wants all of Ukraine; he is crazy – Trump

    U.S. President Donald Trump has fired at his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, accusing him of wanting all of Ukraine and saying he has gone absolutely crazy.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Trump to have said Putin is “needlessly killing a lot of people” and that “missiles and drones are being shot into cities in Ukraine for no reason whatsoever”.

    “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely crazy!

    “He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever,” Trump stated via Truth Social.

    Recall the U.S. President had said his personal intervention was needed to push peace efforts forward between Russian and Ukraine.

    Last Monday he held separate talks over the phone with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

    The phone calls with leaders of Russia and Ukraine deepened expectations that progress might soon be made on ending the more than three-year war.

    Following the phone calls, Trump said Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” begin ceasefire negotiations.

    Although, there was no detail on exactly when or where such talks might take place and who might attend them.

    However, it seems there is no headway yet.

    “I’ve always said that he wants all of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia,” Trump stated.

    In his post on Sunday, Trump went on to blame Zelenskyy for contributing to the endless war in Ukraine, saying “everything out of his mouth causes problems”.

    The U.S. President advised the Ukrainian President to stop making comments capable of inflaming the war further.

    “Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.

    “This is a war that would never have started if I were President. This is Zelenskyy’s, Putin’s, and Biden’s war, not “Trump’s”.

    “I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through gross incompetence and hatred,” Trump stated.

    Meanwhile, a recent Russia’s attack in Kyiv with an hour-long barrage of missiles and drones, killed nine people and injured more than 70.

    This was said to be the deadliest assault on the Ukrainian capital since July 2024, and just as peace efforts were coming to a head.

    Zelenskyy said after the attack in April, that he was cutting short his official trip to South Africa and returning home as the city reeled from the bombardment that kept residents on edge for about 11 hours.

    Zelenskyy said this appeared to be Russia’s biggest attack on Kyiv in nine months and called it one of Russia’s “most outrageous.’’

    The attack drew a rare rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin from President Trump, who said he was “not happy” with it.

    “Not necessary, and terrible timing. Vladimir, STOP!” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

    However, senior U.S. officials have warned that the Trump administration could soon give up its efforts to stop the war if the two sides don’t compromise.

    Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko announced an official day of mourning in the capital, following the strike.

    The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 66 ballistic and cruise missiles, four plane-launched air-to-surface missiles, and 145 Shahed and decoy drones at Kyiv and four other regions of Ukraine.

    Rescue workers with flashlights scoured the charred rubble of partly collapsed homes as the blue lights of emergency vehicles lit up the dark city streets.

  • Trump, Putin finally settle issues on Russia-Ukraine ceasefire

    Trump, Putin finally settle issues on Russia-Ukraine ceasefire

    President Donald Trump on Tuesday shared details of his phone conversation with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

    The President described the discussion, which focused on the Russia-Ukraine war, as “a very good and productive one.”

    In a post on Truth Social, Trump confirmed that they had agreed to “an immediate ceasefire on all energy and infrastructure.

    The leaders also reached an understanding to work quickly towards a complete ceasefire to end “this very horrible war.”

    “This war would never have started if I were President!” Trump added.

    “Many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed, including the fact that thousands of soldiers are being killed, and both President Putin and President Zelenskyy would like to see it end.

    “That process is now in full force and effect, and we will, hopefully, for the sake of humanity, get the job done!” the President wrote.

  • Despite court restriction, US deports hundreds of Venezuelans

    Despite court restriction, US deports hundreds of Venezuelans

    More than 200 Venezuelans alleged to be gang members have been deported from the United States to a supermax prison in El Salvador, despite a federal judge’s order temporarily blocking the removals.

    El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced on social media that 238 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, along with 23 members of the international MS-13 gang, arrived in the country on Sunday morning.

    Neither the US government nor El Salvador has identified the individuals or provided evidence supporting claims of criminality or gang affiliations.

    The deportations came just hours after US District Judge James Boasberg issued a 14-day halt to removals under a presidential proclamation signed by President Donald Trump.

    The Trump administration had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, accusing Tren de Aragua of “perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion of predatory incursion against the territory of the United States.”

    However, the judge’s order was issued after the flights had already taken off. President Bukele appeared to mock the timing of the ruling, posting on social media: “Oopsie… Too late.” A video attached to one of his posts showed shackled individuals being escorted off planes by armed officials.

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected claims that the administration had ignored the court order. “The administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order,” she said. “The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA [Tren de Aragua] aliens had already been removed from US territory.”

    Reports from US media indicated that Judge Boasberg gave a verbal directive for the flights to return, though this instruction was not included in his written ruling. According to Reuters, the written notice appeared in the case docket at 19:25 EDT on Saturday, but it remains unclear exactly when the flights departed.

    According to BBC, in a court filing on Sunday, Department of Justice lawyers argued that the judge’s ruling was moot because the deportees “had already been removed from United States territory.” A senior administration official told CBS News that 261 people were deported on Saturday, with 137 removed under the Alien Enemies Act over alleged gang connections. The Justice Department has since appealed the court’s decision.

    Rights groups have sharply criticised the deportations and Trump’s use of the centuries-old law. Amnesty International USA described the removals as “yet another example of the Trump administration’s racist targeting” of Venezuelans “based on sweeping claims of gang affiliation.”

    Venezuela condemned the move, accusing the US of “unjustly criminalising Venezuelan migration” and invoking comparisons to “the darkest episodes in the history of humanity, from slavery to the horror of the Nazi concentration camps.”

    President Bukele confirmed that the deportees were transferred immediately to the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), a controversial mega-prison in El Salvador with a capacity of 40,000. He stated that they would be held for “a period of one year”, which could be “renewable”.

    The deportation arrangement underscores strengthening ties between the US and El Salvador. The country was the second stop for top US diplomat Marco Rubio during a diplomatic tour in February, during which Bukele first offered to take deportees and help offset the costs of Cecot.

    The move marks a continuation of President Trump’s campaign against illegal immigration. In January, he signed an executive order designating Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as foreign terrorist organisations. While illegal border crossings have dropped to historic lows since he took office, Trump has reportedly grown impatient with the pace of deportations despite promising the largest removal operation in US history.

  • OWEI LAKEMFA; Saudi Talks and the bloody road to peace in Ukraine

    OWEI LAKEMFA; Saudi Talks and the bloody road to peace in Ukraine

    By Owei Lakemfa.

    Peace in Ukraine is fragmented in pieces like a broken Chinese enamel in the sun. Ukraine is where Europeans have been engaged in a senseless slaughter for eleven years now.

    To Western Europe, peace has assumed an urgency as the deliberate moves of the United States, US in pulling the plugs, has exposed that part of the world as being vulnerable like a typical neo-colony.

    As late as February 14, 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was still bragging that there will neither be a ceasefire nor negotiations as long as there are Russian troops on Ukrainian soil and President Vladimir Putin remains President of Russia. Last week he adopted the hare-brained Western European leaders insistence that even if there is to be a ceasefire, it must cover only the air and sea, not the battle fields on the ground.

    However, on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, Zelensky agreed to a ceasefire on all fronts for at least a month if Russia agrees. In a joint statement with the US in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine: “expressed readiness to accept the US proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation.”

    A ceasefire to which from all indications, Russia will accede, is the easiest step to mending peace in Ukraine. The peace in that country was broken on February 22, 2014 when the extreme right overthrew elected President Viktor Yanukovych. This second coup in four years against democratic elections was baptised “Revolution of Dignity” The first was called the “Orange Revolution” Both coups which stopped the same President Yanukovych, were staged when pro-Western elements in Ukraine, realised that they could not win democratic elections against pro-Russian Ukrainians.

    After the second coup, the Crimea Peninsula held a referendum in 2014 to opt out of Ukraine and join Russia. The pro-Russia regions of Donetsk and Luhansk which have been winning the democratic elections, decided that either the constitutional order be restored or they would opt out of Ukraine. The Ukrainian armed forces was unleashed on them. Also, to carry out the ethnic cleansing of the pro-Russian Ukrainians, a special neo-Nazi army called the Azov Battalion, was created in May, 2014.

    This is the origin of the Ukrainian Civil War which rages until today. Also, irregular Russian forces had crossed the border to fight on the side of the rebels.

    In September, 2014 both Ukraine and the separatists signed a 12-Point Peace Agreement in Minsk which provided for a ceasefire, prisoners exchange, deliveries of humanitarian aid, withdrawal of heavy weapons and agreement on co-exististence. But the agreement broke down and the civil war continued.

    To stop the conflict, Germany and France brokered a second peace agreement called MINSK II. This 13-point agreement, signed by Ukraine, Russia, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe , OSCE and the leaders of Donetsk and Luhansk provided for immediate, comprehensive ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons, OSCE monitoring and dialogue on interim self-government for Donetsk and Luhansk, in accordance with Ukrainian law, and acknowledgement of special status by parliament.

    The other points in the agreement were pardon and amnesty for fighters, exchange of hostages and prisoners. humanitarian assistance, resumption of socioeconomic ties, including pensions, Ukrainian restoration of control over state border, and withdrawal of foreign armed formations, military equipment, mercenaries. It also provided for constitutional reform including decentralisation, with specific mention of Donetsk and Luhansk, elections in both regions and, the intensification of the Trilateral Contact Group’s work which included representatives of Russia, Ukraine and OSCE.

    However, the Kyiv government refused to implement the agreement, preferring to press with its advantage of a regular military and heavy weapons being supplied by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO.

    Given the massacres in the separatist regions, Russia cried out repeatedly to Western European leaders especially Germany and France that had played pivotal roles in the making of MINSK II. Both countries reacted positively. The then German Chancellor Angela Merkel cried herself hoarse asking the Ukrainian authorities implement the peace agreement, but was ignored.

    Russia kicked over the years against the massacres in Ukraine to which most of the world appeared indifferent. When it threatened to intervene in the civil war, Macron flew to Moscow to talk with Putin and tried to give assurances.

    On February 23, 2022, seven years after MINSK II, Putin announced Russia’s recognition of the rebel regions of Ukraine and its decision to intervene.

    He told the world: “ one cannot look at what is happening there without compassion. It was simply impossible to endure all this. It was necessary to stop this nightmare immediately – the genocide against the millions of people living there, who rely only on Russia, hope only on us. It was these aspirations, feelings, pain of people that were for us the main motive for deciding to recognise the people’s republics of Donbas.”

    Putin also announced ‘a special military operation’ in Ukraine. He said: “Its goal is to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years. And for this we will strive for the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine, as well as bringing to justice those who committed numerous, bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation.”

    The Next day, February 24, 2022, the Russo-Ukrainian War commenced. On February 28, 2025, President Donald Trump met Zelensky in the White House with the former asserting that the Zelensky insistence against a ceasefire and peace agreement with Russia was unacceptable to the US.

    This week’s acceptance of a ceasefire with Russia opens the road to peace in Ukraine. But the more difficult issues are actual negotiations and a possible agreement.

    Since the conflict began, Russia has seized a fifth of Ukraine. So a major challenge is what happens to those areas or, would the Ukrainian borders be redrawn? What happens to the separatist areas of Ukraine? Would their peoples be allowed full or limited autonomy?

    One of the objections of Russia is its virtually being hedged in from various sides by an ever expanding NATO. So, will Ukraine agree not to join it?

    A positive in the expected negotiations, is that they can build on the foundations of the MINSK II Agreements.

    Whatever happens, once a ceasefire is agreed and it holds, the avoidable slaughters in Ukraine will cease and some ten million Ukrainians would be free to return to their homes and start rebuilding their lives. Also, the possibility of a nuclear war, would greatly diminish.

    The road to peace in Ukraine, even if it be bloody and paved with broken bones under an asphalt of shattered dreams, is worth taking

  • 20 American mercenaries missing in Ukraine conflict

    20 American mercenaries missing in Ukraine conflict

    No fewer than 20 American mercenaries fighting on the side of Ukraine, have been reported missing in combat, with casualties among foreign fighters rising sharply over the past six months.

    CNN reported this on Thursday after conducting its own investigation.

    It said that foreigners have been dying on the Ukrainian front lines in growing numbers as they rush to fill the gaps in Ukraine’s defences.

    According to the CNN report, bodies of at least five Americans killed in the past six months could not be retrieved from the battlefield.

    The report added that the remains of two U.S. citizens were transferred to Ukraine last Friday.

    Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry, had repeatedly accused Kiev of recruiting foreign mercenaries.

    Many foreign fighters had confessed in different interviews that the Ukrainian military provided little coordination.

    It also said that the intensity of combat far exceeded what they experienced in Afghanistan and the Middle East, making survival extremely difficult.

  • Germany to send 60 IRIS-T guided missiles to Ukraine

    Germany to send 60 IRIS-T guided missiles to Ukraine

    Germany said it was set to deliver an additional 60 IRIS-T guided missiles to Ukraine to bolster its air-defence capabilities against Russian attacks, dpa learnt on Wednesday.

    The 60 million euros (61.8 million dollars) delivery is to be drawn from the stocks of Germany’s Armed Forces, or Bundeswehr.

    The decision followed German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius’s visit to Kiev, where he held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday.

    The defence minister assured Zelensky of Germany’s continued support following the upcoming parliamentary elections on Feb. 23.

    Pistorius also said he hoped that Germany would find a way to provide an additional 3 billion euros to Ukraine.

    Negotiations on the aid are ongoing as Germany is currently without a fixed budget for 2025 after the collapse of the three-way government coalition, which triggered the upcoming election.

    “This is just a fiscal problem of the government we have to solve. And we are working on that,’’ he said.

    He added that he was optimistic that a solution would be found.

  • Ukraine loses 290 soldiers in Kursk within 24hrs

    Ukraine loses 290 soldiers in Kursk within 24hrs

    Russian units said it had eliminated more than 290 Ukrainian military in the border areas of the Kursk region within the past 24 hours.

    Russian Defence ministry said on Wednesday, that, they destroyed one tank, an armored personnel carrier and four armored combat vehicles.

    “During the day, the losses of the Ukrainian armed forces amounted to over 290 servicepeople, and a tank, an armored personnel carrier, four armored combat vehicles.

    “Four vehicles and three artillery pieces were destroyed,’’ the defence ministry said in a statement.

    Ukraine’s total losses in the Kursk direction since the start of hostilities amount to approximately 50,120 fighters, 294 tanks, and 217 infantry fighting vehicles, the ministry added.

  • Couple in search of girl child kills refugees to steal newborn

    Couple in search of girl child kills refugees to steal newborn

    A German couple on Tuesday confessed to killing a Ukrainian refugee and her mother in March 2024 in order to steal her baby.

    On the first day of the trial at Mannheim District Court, the two defendants admitted to killing the 27-year-old Ukrainian and her 51-year-old mother.

    “I regret everything I have done,” the man said in a statement read out by lawyers. His wife added, “I made a big mistake.”

    According to the public prosecutor’s office, the couples have four children, including one son together.

    After suffering a number of miscarriages and failed fertility treatment, they planned to kidnap a newborn girl and pass her off as their daughter.

    “We really wanted to have a daughter together, that was my wife’s most fervent wish,” the man said on Tuesday.

    The couple intentionally targeted refugees from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, joining a group on Telegram to offer help with translation.

    The 27-year-old Ukrainian was living with her mother and baby in refugee accommodation in the south-western German town of Wiesloch when she came into contact with the couple.

    On March 6, 2024, they allegedly sedated the two women in a restaurant before the man killed the two women with a blunt object in two separate locations.

    They also sank the grandmother’s body in a lake and burnt the mother’s body before driving home with the baby.

    The body of the 27-year-old woman was discovered by a passer-by on the banks of the Rhine the next day, with police arresting the couple and found the baby on March 13.

    The couple has since been in custody, while the baby has returned to Ukraine in the custody of her aunt, who is a plaintiff in the case.

    The aunt’s lawyer has already announced that he will apply for life imprisonment for the couple, who have been charged with murder and kidnapping.

    A total of nine trial days have been scheduled for the proceedings, with a verdict expected to be announced on 21.

  • Raising the red flag for peace with thousand-day Ukrainian ruination – By Owei Lakemfa

    Raising the red flag for peace with thousand-day Ukrainian ruination – By Owei Lakemfa

    THE first one thousand days of the Russo-Ukrainian War was on Tuesday, November 19, marked in Europe like an anniversary rather than a day of reflection. The European Commission draped its building with the Ukrainian flag, while the European Parliament sat to stirring speeches, including a standing ovation for Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky.

    Those hailing Zelensky in Brussels are not doing the dying. Those who have made an early exit to Heaven include more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians with about 27,000 injured. Over six million Ukrainians have become refugees, while the population has fallen by one quarter. Military casualties on both sides are in their hundreds of thousands.

    Three days earlier, Zelensky had seemed sober and was talking about peace. The reasons for this might include the fact that in-coming United States, US, President, Donald Trump is unpredictable and the Russians are making significant gains on the battlefield. Other reasons might include Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday, November 15, 2024 skirted around peace talks and, the Palestinian-Israeli War eclipsing the Ukrainian War.

    So Zelensky, who hitherto had insisted there would be no negotiations with Russia, was on Saturday, November 16, 2024, talking peace. In an interview with Ukrainian radio, he said: “For our part, we must do everything we can to ensure that this war ends next year. We have to end it by diplomatic means.”

    However, three days later, Zelensky was back to his war rhetoric. I think his change of mind is the result of the renewed support he got from various quarters, including the US State Department approving a new $100 million sale of weapons and, Denmark making a new $138 million donation for arms. However, the most decisive factor might be President Joe Biden authorising Ukraine’s use of long- range US ATACMS missiles. To Zelensky, this could be a game changer as the missile has a range of 300 kilometres, which means it has Russia largely fully within coverage. Secondly, his hope is that this might lead to the United Kingdom and France allowing Ukraine to use their long range missiles. Thirdly, the authorisation might be an indication that the US and its allies want an escalation of the war rather than negotiations to end it.

    Zelensky immediately put the US missiles into use. Ukraine fired six of such missiles, with Russia claiming it shot down five of them, while the sixth hit a military facility in the Bryansk region, 110 kilometres inside Russia.

    Russia had warned against such authorisation, claiming these missiles cannot be fired without direct US personnel support. This, to Russia, means that their use is an indication of direct US military intervention in the war.

    The missile’s range of up to 300 kilometres is much shorter than some Russian missiles, including its hypersonic Kinzhal weapon with a range of 2,000 kilometres. So Ukraine’s use of such missiles is unlikely to change the course of the war.

    However, Russia was so angered by the American authorisation that on November 19, it changed its rules of engagement on the use of nuclear weapons.

    The new rules state that any attack against Russia by a non-nuclear country with the “participation or support of a nuclear power” would amount to a “joint attack on the Russian Federation”. This means that if the use of the ATACMS missiles by Ukraine was facilitated by US personnel, it would amount to a joint US-Ukraine attack.

    It also provides that any attack against the country by a member of a military bloc, would amount to “an aggression by the entire bloc”. This means that an attack against Russia by any of the 32 countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO, would be seen as an attack by the entire military alliance.

    The new order also states that Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to a conventional weapons attack that threatens its “sovereignty and territorial integrity”. It means that if Russia reaches the conclusion that Ukraine’s use of the ATACMS missiles threatens it in a fundamental manner, it could resort to the use of nuclear weapons.

    In interpreting the new Russian rules of engagement, its former President, Dmitry Medvedev, wrote: “Russia’s new nuclear doctrine means NATO missiles fired against our country could be deemed an attack by the bloc on Russia. Russia could retaliate with [weapons of mass destruction] against Kiev and key NATO facilities, wherever they’re located. That means World War III.”

    Indeed, this may be closer to a nuclear war than we think. As it stands, Russia and the US, with over 5,000 nuclear war heads each, have the highest number of nuclear weapons. China comes a distant third with 500, France has 290 and UK, 225. Less than one per cent of the estimated 12,000 nuclear warheads is enough to destroy major parts of the world.

    This war, like most wars, was avoidable, and, having started, could, and can be quickly ended. But the reason why it festers is that it is a proxy war. So, rather than take steps to end the war, what we witness are blame games and a sense of justification.

    Basically, this war, is an expansion of the Ukrainian Civil War in which Russia and its allies support Eastern Ukraine and NATO and its allies threw their weight behind the other part of the country. The Ukrainian Civil War itself was the result of two undemocratic incidents in that country.

    The first was the 2004 presidential election in which the victory of Viktor Yanukovych from Eastern Ukraine, was rejected by crowds in Kiev, the capital. This was dubbed the ‘Orange Revolution’. That election was then annulled and, in the new election, the rival candidate, Viktor Yushenko, was declared winner. The politics of that election was that the former was pro-Russia and the latter pro-West.

    Six years later, Yanukovych again won the presidential election. This time his victory was not disputed. But four years into his tenure, he was overthrown for refusing to sign the Ukrainian–European Union Association Agreement which would have pushed the country into the orbit of the West. This coup split the Ukrainian people and the military and, led to the civil war. The first part of the country to secede and join Russia was the Crimea. In the civil war between Eastern and Western Ukraine, Russian military units openly defended the former. So, technically, Russian troops were in Ukraine nine years before the “Russian Invasion”.

    There were efforts to reconcile the warring factions in Ukraine which led to two signed agreements: Minsk I and II. So, there can be no solution to the war in Ukraine without the resolution of the Ukrainian civil war.

  • UK slams Russia with heavy sanction over war in Ukraine

    UK slams Russia with heavy sanction over war in Ukraine

    The British government said on Thursday it had imposed its biggest sanctions package against Russia for 18 months, targeting people involved in the Ukraine war, African mercenary groups, and a nerve agent attack on British soil.

    The foreign ministry said it had sanctioned 56 bodies and individuals, aiming to hurt Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war effort and Russia’s “malign activity globally”.

    Among them were 10 entities based in China said to be supplying machinery and components for the Russian military.

    “Today’s measures will continue to push back on the Kremlin’s corrosive foreign policy, undermining Russia’s attempts to foster instability across Africa and disrupting the supply of vital equipment for Putin’s war machine,” British foreign minister David Lammy said.

    The Russian embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

    Most of the measures were aimed at companies based in Russia, China, Turkey, and Kazakhstan accused of aiding the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the supply of machine tools, microelectronics, and components for drones.

    They include firms that European intelligence sources believe to be part of a Russian attempt to establish a weapons programme in China, according to a Reuters report in September.

    Britain also said the latest sanctions would address Russian activity in Libya, Mali, and the Central African Republic by targeting three private mercenary groups with links to the Kremlin, including the Kremlin-controlled Africa Corps, and 11 individuals.

    Amongst the individuals sanctioned was Denis Sergeev, whom British police have charged over the murder attempt on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the southern English city of Salisbury in March 2018.

    Sergeev, who Britain said was acting under the alias Sergey Fedotov, was one of three Russians said by Britain to have been GRU military intelligence officers suspected of carrying out the attack.

    Last month, a public inquiry into the death of a woman who was accidentally poisoned by the nerve agent heard that Skripal believed Putin himself had ordered the Novichok attack.

    Moscow has repeatedly rejected British accusations that it was involved.