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A SEETHING Vladimir Putin is looking to get his revenge on Ukraine after their daring drone blitz – here’s how he could do it.
The despot could retaliate with one of h…
VLADIMIR Putin has killed a baby, their mum and grandma in his latest overnight strikes – just hours after labelling Ukraine as “terrorists”.
Five civilians were…
VLADIMIR Putin has warned Donald Trump he “will have to respond” to Ukraine’s daring drone strike on Russian airfields, the US president revealed.
In a dramatic post on Truth Soci…
DRONE after drone can be seen hammering Russia’s nuclear bomber fleet and turning it into flaming wrecks, new footage released by Ukraine shows.
Operation Spiderweb can now…
RUSSIA reportedly plans to deploy 10,000 troops into a breakaway region of another Eastern European nation – igniting fears of Putin’s war spilling further across the continent.
Moldova’s Prime Minister has warned the Kremlin wants to march troops into Transnistria – a Moscow-friendly enclave that’s internationally recognised as part of Moldova.
Cars wait in line at the crossing point between the self-proclaimed republic of Transnistria and Moldova[/caption]
Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean speaks during a press conference[/caption]
Russian troops have been based in Transnistria since 1992[/caption]
Russian servicemen walking along at an area in the Kursk region, Russia[/caption]
The small landlocked region, sandwiched between Ukraine and the rest of Moldova, has been controlled by separatists for 33 years.
Transnistria receives significant economic and military support from Moscow, and the region’s politicians have voiced their intent for it to become part of Russia.
The region’s location between the pro-Europe governments in Moldova and Ukraine make it impossible for Putin to get soldiers in at present.
While Moldova currently has an EU-friendly government, its PM has said Russia is meddling in its upcoming election this September.
Prime Minister Dorin Recean told the FT this is likely in the hope that a more pro-Kremlin government might allow for Russian troops to be sent to Transnistria.
“This is a huge effort to undermine Moldovan democracy,” he told the paper.
“They want to consolidate their military presence in the Transnistrian region.”
Russian troops have been based in Transnistria since 1992, when the Kremlin supported the region in its war of independence from Moldova.
However, the numbers have substantially wound down over the years, with there currently only being about 1,500 soldiers fighting under the Russian banner.
But only a few of these will have actually been sent by Moscow, with most being locals who signed up.
Transnistria isn’t internationally recognised as an independent state, and is not a member of the UN.
Think tank The Institute for the Study of War forecast last October that Russia might use its ties to Transnistria “to establish long-term influence over Moldovan domestic and foreign policies”.
Recean further highlighted the ominous military threats to Ukraine and NATO that could arise from extra Russian troops in the region.
Its location to Ukraine’s southwest could raise fresh headaches for Kyiv if Russia used Transnistria to open up a new front in the war.
“You can imagine with 10,000 troops, what the leverage and pressure would be on the southwestern part of Ukraine,” he said.
But Recean also noted the area’s proximity to Romania, which is a NATO country.
If Russian forces threatened or attacked Romania – or any other NATO member – then the entire alliance would be obliged to come to its aid.
NATO Article 5 sets out that an attack on one member state is an attack on all, meaning Russian attacks against a NATO country could quickly spiral into all-out war.
Transnistria is a tiny slither of land along Moldova’s border with Ukraine
The region has been controlled by Russian backed separatists for decades following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
It declared independence in 1990, which was followed by a war that saw Russia support Transnistria’s independence.
Moscow has maintained a strong military presence in the territory since 1992.
Many of Transnistria’s political leaders have long voiced their intent for the region to become a part of Russia.
But it still remains internationally recognised as part of Moldova – a country that seeks closer co-operation with the EU.
Transnistria has a population of around 465,000.
Fears of a war between the West and Russia over Transnistria have been amplified by the separatist region’s leader Vadim Krasnoselsky.
He told the Russian TASS news agency: “A war in Transnistria would mean a direct conflict between Russia and NATO.
“I don’t have the slightest doubt about it. Everything is closely intertwined here.
“Both Romania, a NATO member, and the Russian Federation have interests here.”
Recean added that the 10,000-troop figure was based on intelligence assessments.
“Currently, their forces there are almost meaningless,” he said.
“But with a higher military presence in Transnistria that a Russia-leaning government can allow for, they can consolidate.”
Moldova was part of the Soviet Union before its collapse in 1991.
In recent years, it has sought to pursue closer ties with the European Union, and became an official candidate to join the EU in 2022.
A referendum held last year committing Moldova on its path to EU membership passed by just 0.7% of the vote amid what was widely believed to be a Russian interference campaign.
Recean told the FT that Russia spent the equivalent of 1% of Moldova’s GDP on influence campaigns in 2024.
A billboard reading “Russia in our hearts” sits on the side of a road in the town of Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria[/caption]
Russian servicemen riding atop a self-propelled gun at an area in the Kursk region, Russia[/caption]
THE FULL extent of Ukraine’s devastating drone blitz on airfields inside Russia has been laid bare by new satellite pictures.
Masterful Operation Spiderweb inflicted $7billi…
AMID the missiles and misery of life on Ukraine’s front line, there is one night-time spot which refuses to be beaten.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, the Flash Dancers strip club is still swinging – offering a…
UKRAINE has blitzed Russia’s iconic Kerch bridge with more than a tonne of underwater mines – and hinted there could be more.
The pre-dawn blast sent a plume of water erupting int…
VLADIMIR Putin has brazenly listed his “surrender demands” for Ukraine – despite being humiliated by Russia’s “Pearl Harbour”.
The deranged tyrant’s negotiators said an end to the war would only be agreed if Kyiv surrenders huge chunks of territory and accepts limits on the size of its army.
Moscow’s negotiating team proposed Putin’s wish list of deranged demands after talks in Istanbul[/caption]
Vladimir Putin seen on Monday – after he was humiliated by the attack[/caption]
Russian Tu-95 bombers burning ‘en masse’ after Ukraine’s sophisticated drone blitz on Sunday[/caption]
Putin’s payback strike in Odesa on June 3, days after the humiliating operation Spiderweb[/caption]
Moscow’s audacious demands came just a day after Ukraine orchestrated Operation Spiderweb – which wiped out a third of Putin’s nuclear bombers.
The sophisticated attack saw 117 drones smuggled into Russia before unleashing hell on Putin’s airfields.
Spiderweb – dubbed Russia’s “Pearl Harbour” – took 18 months to plan and is understood to have cost Putin billions in damages.
Despite being left red-faced by the mammoth assault, Putin’s mouthpieces shamelessly gave his terms for a ceasefire during a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday.
Its first section contained Moscow’s “basic parameters of a final settlement”.
The sham proposal demands Ukraine withdraw its troops from four eastern regions that Russia only partly occupies at the moment.
It also ordered that the international community recognise Crimea as Russia’s sovereign territory – after they annexed the peninsula in 2014.
Putin’s shopping list of demands went on to detail that Kyiv must commit to limiting the size of its military.
The tyrant also wants Ukraine to permanently declare neutrality and host no foreign troops whatsoever on its territory.
Other terms of the settlement included a bizarre ban on the “glorification or promotion of Nazism and neo-Nazism” in Ukraine – an accusation that Putin’s propaganda teams have consistently peddled.
Moscow also asked for diplomatic and economic ties between the neighbouring countries to be reinstated.
This would include the resumption of Russian natural gas flowing through Ukraine in order to be sold to other countries.
The unrealistic demands have been seen as yet another ploy to stall peace talks while Putin continues to carry out his bloody invasion.
The second section in the settlement listed the Kremlin’s conditions for agreeing to a temporary 30-day ceasefire.
It gave Kyiv two choices -either withdraw troops from four regions claimed by Russia, or agree to cancelling martial law and holding elections.
Additional requirements packaged up with the two options included a total cessation of all foreign military aid, and for Ukraine to start demobilising.
The negotiations were brokered by the US and Turkey at the Ciragan palace – but appeared to bring neither side closer to a truce.
But they did manage to agree to an exchange of 6,000 dead bodies, and an “all-for-all” swap of seriously wounded prisoners of war, and captured servicemen under the age of 25.
Putin unleashed devastating retribution strikes on Tuesday[/caption]
Putin’s negotiating team after a second round of direct peace talks[/caption]
Russian locals filmed the drones taking off and attacking the air bases in awe[/caption]
Russia offered local truces to collect the bodies – but Ukraine appeared to decline.
A senior military figure told The Telegraph that these pauses have been used before to prepare for fresh attacks.
Neither side could bridge their differences on a 30-day ceasefire plan tabled by Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky.
But the US leader said on Monday that he was open to holding talks between himself, Zelensky and Putin.
The aggressive demands made by Russia on Monday appeared to be almost identical to the set of proposals suggested in the early months of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
These were interpreted as a full capitulation of Ukraine, and were rejected by Zelensky.
Kyiv’s proposals on Monday included security guarantees to prevent another Russian invasion, no international recognition of Moscow’s occupation of Ukrainian territories and no restriction on Kyiv’s military.
A Ukrainian official familiar with the talks called them “unproductive”, and branded Moscow’s settlement terms unacceptable.
Kyiv’s team were also accused of “putting on a show” after they provided a list of hundreds of Ukrainian children they wanted returned from Russia.
A Russian mouthpiece said: “Do not put on a show for European tender-hearted aunties who do not have children themselves.”
They then offered to return just 10 of the 300 or so Ukrainian children kidnapped Putin’s forces, according to The Telegraph.
The Russian tyrant’s demands came just one day after the most embarrassing security lapse of his war, which let allowed some 40 Russian strategic bombers to be destroyed.
Dramatic footage captured the moment 117 expertly smuggled drones being stored inside trucks in Russia were launched by Ukraine – in an operation which Zelensky hailed as one of the “history books“.
The SAS-style strike against four airfields deep inside Russia was reminiscent of the most daring raids of WW2 that turned the tide against the Nazis.
A triumphant Zelensky said: “It’s genuinely satisfying when something I authorised a year and six months ago comes to fruition and deprives Russians of over forty units of strategic aviation.
“We will continue this work.”
Putin’s doomsday bomber fleet is now crippled with 41, or a third, of his most prized aircraft lying in smouldering wrecks on tarmac.
Ukraine hit bombers at the Russian Belaya Air Base in Irkutsk[/caption]
Smoke could be seen from miles away as the planes burned[/caption]
Ukraine released photos of the drones in the crates taken from inside Russia[/caption]
VLADIMIR Putin’s goons have accused a Ukrainian ex-DJ as being the spy behind the incredible Operation Spiderweb.
The SAS-style strike on Sunday against four airfields deep …