RUSSIA has sufficient capabilities to successfully complete the special military operation in Ukraine without resorting to nuclear arms, Russian President Vladimir Putin has told journalist Pavel Zarubin.
The Russian television host published some outtakes from the documentary Russia. Kremlin. Putin. 25 Years on Rossiya-1’s Telegram channel.
‘They wanted to provoke us, wanted us to make mistakes,’ the Russian head of state said. ‘And there was no need to use the (nuclear) weapons that you mentioned. I hope that it won’t be necessary,’ he added.
‘We have enough capabilities and means to finish what we started in 2022 with the result that Russia needs,’ Putin concluded.
Russia has repeatedly confirmed its stance that the use of nuclear weapons will be its last choice. In November, Putin approved Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine.
Meanwhile, fighters from the Akhmat Special Forces have thwarted a Ukrainian incursion into the bordering Russian region of Kursk in a joint operation with Russian assault teams, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said in a Telegram post.
‘The Kashtan group of the Akhmat Special Forces, a unit of the Russian Defence Ministry, in coordination with assault teams from the 2nd Special Forces Brigade and 15th Tank Regiment have prevented Ukrainian gunmen from penetrating into the Kursk Region,’ Kadyrov’s post reads.
The coordinates of enemy troops were obtained using drones, and shared with Russian tank crews, the Chechen leader confirmed. ‘The enemy group was wiped out by high-precision strikes,’ he added.
- The Immortal Regiment procession took place on Saturday May 3rd in the centre of Washington D.C., a TASS correspondent reported from the scene.
Participants walked from the White House to the World War II memorial on the central boulevard of the US capital. They were holding portraits of relatives who are veterans of the Great Patriotic War and red banners.
‘We support the holding of Immortal Regiment events in Washington and other American cities. It is good that the authorities have given permission for both the memorial event in honour of the meeting on the Elbe at Arlington Cemetery with the participation of officials, including representatives of the diplomatic corps and the State Department, and for today’s procession, which is being held at the initiative of compatriots living in the United States,’ said Alexander Kim, minister-counsellor of the Russian Embassy in the United States.
The diplomat noted that although the current political situation ‘has become slightly better’ compared to previous years, the situation remains difficult, and ‘unfortunately the event was not without attempts at provocation and other undesirable actions.’
According to him, the Immortal Regiment procession will also take place on May 8th on the territory of the Russian embassy. It will be attended by the Russian Ambassador to the United States Alexander Darchiyev, employees and family members of the Russian diplomatic mission.
Separately, Ukainian president Vladimir Zelensky’s statements refusing a truce during the days of celebrating to mark the 80th anniversary of the Victory are a direct threat to the leaders of foreign states who will come to Moscow for the parade, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS.
She emphasised that Zelensky had ‘unambiguously threatened world leaders’.
‘After every terrorist attack on Russia’s territory, the Kiev regime, its security services, and Zelensky personally boast that this is their doing, that this will continue.
‘Therefore, the phrase that he ‘does not guarantee security on May 9th in Russia’ as it is not his area of responsibility is, of course, a direct threat,’ the diplomat stated.
She said that Zelensky’s comments further expose the neo-Nazi nature of the Kiev regime, ‘which has become a terrorist cell.’
Meanwhile, the US has reportedly put together new sanctions against Russia meant to step up pressure on Moscow in the course of talks to end the conflict in Ukraine.
The potential targets include state-controlled Russian energy giant Gazprom and major companies involved in the natural resources and banking sectors. However, it is unclear whether US President Donald Trump will sign off on the package.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said that the US is not imposing new sanctions on Russia as it does not want to jeopardise the conflict settlement talks. On April 24, Trump said that he would prefer to give an answer in a week, when asked about the possibility of further punitive actions against Russia.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has expressed concern over reports about torture against Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine.
A press statement following their session said: ‘The Committee expressed concern over reports of torture, ill-treatment, and other violations against Russian prisoners of war by Ukrainian forces.
‘It underscored that the prohibition of torture is absolute and non-derogable, that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever may be invoked as a justification of torture and that the obligations stemming from this prohibition were not subject to reciprocity, and reminded Ukraine of its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.’
The committee called on Ukraine’s authorities ‘to guarantee fundamental legal safeguards for all detainees from the outset of deprivation of liberty, including the right to request and receive a medical examination by an independent doctor, free of charge, or a doctor of their choice, conducted out of hearing and sight of police officers, unless the doctor concerned explicitly requests otherwise.’
The 82nd session of the UN Committee against Torture was held from April 7th through May 2nd
The committee’s experts discussed the situation in Armenia, Monaco, Turkmenistan, France, Mauritius, and Ukraine.
The committee is comprised of ten independent experts who are in charge of monitoring the implementation of member states’ obligations under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
- The United States plans to increase military spending in the 2026 fiscal year up to $1.01 trillion, as follows from President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2026 discretionary funding request released by the White House.
Thus, the president proposes to increase defence spending by 13% to $1.01 trillion for FY 2026.
According to the White House documents, ‘the Budget request for the Department of Defence builds on the President’s promise to achieve peace through strength by providing the resources to rebuild our military, re-establish deterrence.’
Among the priorities are ‘to deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific; and revitalise America’s defence industrial base.’
Separately, the international Euroclear platform plans to seize about 3 billion euros in frozen Russian assets as compensation to Western investors whose funds were allegedly confiscated by Moscow.
The three billion euros in question is part of a larger 10 billion euros sum belonging to Russian companies and individuals who have been under European Union sanctions since 2022. This move became possible last year following amendments to the sanctions framework.
Euroclear notified clients of the forthcoming payments on April 1st. ‘We received authorisation from our competent authority, to unfreeze the compensation amounts and make these available to our participants,’ the document said.
The European Union, Canada, the United States and Japan froze around $300 billion in Russian assets after the launch of the special military operation. Of that total, approximately $5-6 billion is held in the United States, while the lion’s share is located in Europe – including $210 billion at the Euroclear platform in Belgium.
In March, European Council President Antonio Costa admitted that the EU cannot unfreeze Russian assets, as the proceeds from their reinvestment act as collateral for military loans extended to Ukraine by the Group of Seven (G7).
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Moscow would not renounce its rights to the frozen assets in the West and would continue to protect them.
US President Trump takes a ‘diplomatic approach’ towards such issues as introduction of secondary sanctions against Russia, Spokesperson of the US Department of State Tammy Bruce claimed to reporters.
She was asked whether the US leader intends to impose secondary sanctions on Russia. ‘He’s stated his willingness to do that,’ Bruce said. ‘We’re not removing any sanctions that currently exist. The President wants in every action that we’ve taken as a nation to do it diplomatically,’ she noted.
‘Yet he knows also that there’s another part of the world, a whole globe, that needs some attention,’ the US diplomat added.
On April 24, Trump said that he would prefer to answer the question about the possibility of toughening anti-Russian sanctions in a week.
