Putin victory comments hint at next stage of war – Ukraine-Russia latest news

Yulia Navalnaya, Alex Navalny’s widow, has posted a video on X in which she claims the Russian government lacks the desire to change the country for the better.

She also thanked the anti-Putin protestors who showed up in the masses on on the last day of the presidential election to demonstate against the sham vote.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s Secretary-General, said on Tuesday that he welcomed what he called Armenia’s solidarity with Ukraine.

Stoltenberg was speaking at a news conference in Yerevan with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Armenia is a treaty ally of Russia, but its relations with Moscow have soured in recent years.

Around 9,000 children will be evacuated from the Russian city of Belgorod and from several districts in the wider region of the same name due to Ukrainian shelling, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the regional governor, said on Tuesday.

The first group of 1,200 children will be evacuated on March 22, Gladkov said.

Russian soldiers loyal to Ukraine have claimed they destroyed an ammunition depot in the border village of Tetkino, in Kursk.

Legion for Freedom, volunteers fighting for Kyiv, posted on Telegram: “We destroyed the ammunition depot of Putin’s army in Tetkino. To be continued!”

The video shows drone footage of smoke surging from the warehouse before it bursts into flames.

Developing drones is key to providing Ukraine an advantage over “a numerically superior” Russia, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said.

“The development of the use of unmanned systems is my priority,” Mr Syrskyi said on Telegram after meeting his deputy.

“We are looking for asymmetric solutions to gain a qualitative advantage over a numerically superior opponent.”The increased use of drones by both sides has been shifting the conflict away from the battlefield to strikes on each other’s military, energy and transport infrastructure.

As the Ukrainian military is outgunned and outmanned on the battlefield, Moscow’s forces have been increasing pressure along the entire frontline and making gradual gains.

Nato is building its largest European military base southeast of Romania to bolster its capabilities in the Black Sea region.

The new base, stretching to about 3,000 hectares, is expected to accommodate up to 10,000 military personnel and their support.

The $2.7bn (£2.12bn) project would expand the Romanian Air Force 57th Air Base Mihail Kogălniceanu, which is located close to the port city of Constanța.

The facility would be fully operational by 2040, according to base commander Nicolae Cresu. He said there would be “maintenance hangars, fuel stores, ammunition, equipment, aviation technical materials, simulators, feeding facilities, accommodation; everything is needed to support the operation and missions of a base of this size extent.”

The first stage of the expansion work is expected to be over in five years, followed by the construction of another runway, Pravda reported.

Romania, a Nato member since 2004, borders Ukraine and has played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, including hosting a Nato meeting of foreign ministers in November 2022.

The British Embassy in Ukraine has been forced to deny rumours that King Charles III has died after Kremlin-approved state media channels, some with millions of followers on social media, began spreading the fake news.

The first false claims appeared out of nowhere on the Telegram messenger service yesterday followed by a photoshopped image with the Buckingham Palace logo on the top, which read: “The following announcement is made by royal communications. The King passed away unexpectedly yesterday afternoon.”

Yesterday’s date was then posted on the bottom of the fake letter, which appears to have been modelled on the palace’s announcement of the late queen’s death that said: “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon.”

The Kremlin claimed that Vladimir Putin won more than 87 per cent of the vote, by far the biggest landslide in post-Soviet Russian history. That follows years of repression and a crackdown on dissent that has accelerated since Moscow invaded Ukraine two years ago and the whole election process being controlled. In claiming victory, Putin again sought to threaten the West against deploying troops to Ukraine, saying that a possible conflict between Russia and Nato would put the world “a step away” from a third world war.

China, India and North Korea were among the nations to congratulate Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday following his landslide victory in Moscow’s deeply flawed election.

Chinese president Xi Jinping congratulated Mr Putin, saying that Beijing would maintain close communication with Moscow to promote the “no limits” partnership they agreed in 2022.

“I believe that under your leadership, Russia will certainly be able to achieve greater achievements in national development and construction,” Mr Xi told his Russian counterpart in his message, according to Xinhua News.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said he looked forward to strengthening New Delhi’s “time-tested special and privileged strategic partnership” with Moscow.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi, both accused by the West of supplying weapons to Russia, also extended congratulations to Putin, stressing their desire for further expansion of bilateral relations with Moscow.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman offered his congratulations on Mr Putin’s “decisive” victory and the Kremlin said the two men expressed readiness on the telephone to pursue their “effective coordination” in the OPEC+ oil producers group.