• Vietnam affirms strategic partnership with U.S., casting doubt on Putin's recent diplomatic gains

    Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son has described the United States as a strategic partner for his country. The key diplomat made this declaration during the visit of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink to Hanoi. This visit came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin's trip to Vietnam.

    According to the newspaper VietnamPlus, Bui Thanh Son emphasized that Vietnam continues to regard the United States as a strategically important …

  • Quiet dismissal: FSB's 5th Service Head ousted over Ukraine offensive failures

    General Sergey Beseda has been dismissed from his post as the head of the FSB's 5th Service, widely considered to be chiefly responsible for the failure of Russia's blitzkrieg in Ukraine. The dismissal took place quietly, with General Beseda being replaced by Alexey Komkov, who previously held a senior position in counterintelligence, reports the news outlet Important Stories, citing two sources close to Russian intelligence services.

    Rumors about Beseda facing significant problems began …

  • Ukrainian missile strikes hit Crimea

    Mikhail Razvozhaev, head of the annexed Sevastopol administration, reported a missile strike by the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) on the city on Sunday, 23 June. According to him, all five "airborne targets" were successfully intercepted by air defenses, but their debris fell in the coastal area. "The number of fatalities has risen to three: we lost two children and one adult," he wrote in his latest update on Telegram at 14:38 Moscow time. Later, the Russian Ministry of Health reported that the …

  • Russian forces escalate air attacks amid battlefield stalemate in Kharkiv region

    Russian forces are continuing to actively use aircraft to drop bombs and launch missile strikes on residential areas in the Kharkiv region. Near Borova, the Ukrainian Forces have thwarted their plans, according to a representative of the Ukrainian operational-strategic group Khortytsia.

    The Russian Armed Forces have paused active combat operations in the Kharkiv region. Nazar Voloshin, the spokesperson for Khortytsia, stated that the Russians are attempting to withdraw units from several …

  • US shuts down Russian visa centres in major cities and revokes diplomatic tax exemptions

    The United States is closing two Russian visa centres in Washington and New York, in addition to stripping Russian diplomats of their tax exemption privileges, reported the head of the Russian diplomatic mission, Anatoly Antonov, as cited by TASS news agency.

    "The Americans have sent us notification of the closure of the visa centre. Now, additional responsibilities will fall on the shoulders of Russian diplomats and consuls," he said. Despite this, the Russian ambassador pledged to "put all …