Putin burns through best missiles in ‘desperate’ Ukraine fightback | Russia-Ukraine latest war news

I'm Dom Nicholls, and this is Ukraine the Latest.Today, as Russia plays the victim, claiming its latest mass attack that killed and injured civilians over the weekend was a retaliation for a Ukrainian attack, we ask who the audiences are for such cynical mischaracterisation.We report on Ukraine's continued mid -range strike campaign that has forced Russia to limit traffic on the land corridor to Crimea, and look at the upcoming NATO summit, as the Secretary General says Britain, France and others have scuppered a proposal for Allied to spend a quarter of 1 % of GDP on military aid for Ukraine.And later we hear from our regular Russia expert about how there is speculation Putin is losing his power of speech.It's Tuesday the 26th of May, four years and 91 days since the full -scale invasion began.And today I'm joined by my colleague Francis Dernley and Russia expert James Killner.

Now, the big story over the weekend was the latest mass aerial strike by Russia, with hits mostly centred on the city of Kiev.This was overnight, Saturday to Sunday.Earlier on Saturday, President Zelensky had warned a very large attack was expected, which perhaps accounted for the small number of casualties, four dead and around 100 injured.The US and UK embassies had also both issued security alerts ahead of the strikes.The strike included the third use by Russia of its Oreshnik intermediate range ballistic missile, a missile which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads.But it's thought the weapon missed its intended target and hit a local market instead in the town of Biela Srebrka in the Kiev region, about 50 miles south of the capital.

Around 90 crews and ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones damaged every district of the city, according to Mayor Vitaly Klitschko.And our colleague in Kiev, Antonia Langford, said shelters across the city came under fire.One strike hit a school, burying the entrance to its bomb shelter, where residents had fled for safety, trapping them inside.The foyer of a metro station, where residents typically flock during mass attacks, was also hit.Footage on social media showsammunition had also hit the entrance to an underground car park, another popular refuge.

Cultural and architectural landmarks were also singled out, including the National Chernobyl Museum, which was almost destroyed, according to authorities, and the National Art Museum and Ukrainsky Dym and International Exhibition Center, which both suffered minor damage.Footage also showed fires in residential buildings, offices, warehouses, a dormitory, service station, garages and shops.Antonia says plumes of smoke could be seen rising from various locations, and as the sun rose on Sunday, a thick gradient of purplish smoke blanketed the skyline as a strong smell of acrid fumes hung in the air.Then, yesterday, Monday, the Kremlin's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Russia intended to launch a systematic strike series against Ukrainian defence industrial facilities, including drone production and design, decision -making centres and headquarters in Kyiv City.The Kremlin called for foreign citizens, diplomats and international organisations to evacuate the capital.No timeframe was given and last night didn't herald anything to match the rhetoric, although six people were killed and over 100 injured in strikes across eight Ukrainian oblasts, following the launch by Russia of two Iskander -M ballistic missiles, 122 drones and glide bombs, the latter injuring 12 in Kramatorsk.

There's unverified footage of a reported Kh -101 cruise missile being shot down.The higher relative casualty rate compared to Saturday night's attack probably shows the more concentrated air defence capability around Kiev.Now, Moscow also told foreign diplomatic missions to leave the capital, promising more attacks.So far, no -one has bothered, and Katarina Matanova, the European Union's ambassador to Ukraine, said she wasn't going anywhere.Russia wants fear, panic, isolation of Ukraine, she said.It will not work.

We stay in Kiev.We stay with Ukraine.Also, yesterday, Andriy Sibiya, Ukraine's foreign minister,took over 70 heads and representatives of foreign diplomatic missions to the sites of Saturday night's Russian attacks in Kiev. HeHe said, Now, all these events come in the wake of a Ukrainian strike into occupied Luhansk in the town of Starobilsk overnight Thursday to Friday last week.The Russia claims hit a student dormitory, and Ukraine's military says hit the headquarters of Russia's Rubicon drone unit.

The Ukrainian general staff dismissed the Russian claim, saying it was misleading information.Now, two things.First, it's practically impossible for us to verify what the nature of the building in Starobilsk was and who the victims were.But second, and possibly more importantly, it is wrong to frame, as Russia is trying to do, Saturday night's attack and any future attacks as retaliation for the Starobilsk incident, suggesting dear old peace -loving Russia was forced into firing nearly 700 munitions into Kiev because of the actions of the murderous regime in Kiev.It's not like repeatedly hitting civilian areas with drones and ballistic missiles is something Russia would normally do, as we all know.Of course, if you're listening to this and are taking an interest in the war, you are not the target for their cynicism.

Their words are aimed at the casual observer, the disinterested global bystanders who they hope will be influenced by these endless drops of disinformation.Elsewhere over the weekend, Novorossiysk port was hit again on Friday night.Then on Saturday morning, in a daylight attack, Ukrainian drones hit a military industrial enterprise in the Perm Krai region.That's about 1700 kilometres inside Russia.The Metafax chemicals plant is an important part of Russia's chemical industry, officials said, with the company's products supplying dozens of other Russian military production facilities, including aircraft and drones, missile engines and explosives.President Zelensky said The production process at the facility has now been completed.

This is an important long -range sanction of ours.Thank you.Now, Ukraine's mid -range attacks continued, mid -range being a fairly loose, somewhat new doctrinal term that has come to mean that distance between around 50 to 200 kilometres from the front line.Again, depending how we define the front line.The point is that located in this zone are the ammo dumps, the fuel facilities, the headquarters and logistic nodes that directly support the effort at the front.and a layer of air defence assets that protect depth facilities, oil and gas infrastructure, most obviously, but also airfields in Crimea, for example.

It's one of the reasons I say most days, as I will again today, that there's been no significant moves on the ground, although I am seeing a few unverified reports of Ukrainian successes on the Zaporizhia front this morning.I'll keep an eye on that over the next few days.So in the last few months, especially, Ukraine has been prioritising getting safely into that zone to hit targets.81 Russian air defence systems have been destroyed, since March 1st this year, and Ukrainian forces destroyed almost twice as many Russian air defence and radar systems in April 2026 compared to October 2025.These stats come from the Institute for the Study of War, citing Ukrainian General Staff comments yesterday.Now, drones have had to be specifically designed for this, to cover the distance and carry the payload, to really have an effect.

It has taken time.We are now seeing Russian fuel trucks hit tens of kilometres behind the line.Ukraine's Azov Corps said yesterday it had been hitting Russian logistics along the M -14 Mariupol to Taganrog and the H -20 Mariupol to Volnokhava highways.There are now reports Russia has restricted road traffic on that southern supply route connecting Rostov to Crimea.Over the weekend, the Ukrainian General Staff said they had hit the Belets oil depot in Unechka, that's in Bryansk Oblast, about 60 kilometres inside Russia, in an overnight strike Sunday to Monday.And Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces Commander Major Robert Magyar -Brovdy said that drones

from his force had struck the rear base and logistics hub of the Russian 6th Air Force and Air Defence Army in Rovenki, that's in occupied Luhansk Oblast, about 125km from the front line.also said there were strikes in Donetsk oblast where they hit an s -300 air defense system another radar system and various fuel ammo and other logistic sites all 50 to 80 kilometers inside russian -held territory so it carries on Francis so the big story as I was as I was saying was the the strike on Saturday night and the response to what?You've been looking at that.And what else have you been keeping your arm?

Well, thanks Tommy a horrific footage speaking to people in Keith this morning saying some of the worst attacks they've experienced over the entire course of the war and so I think we should just take a moment to appreciate that yes, this is a Regular occurrence as we've been reporting for months.There's not been a reduction in the nature and scale of these strikes but nonetheless when there are ones like this that are as dramatic as the footage that we've seen it is worth just recording that this is still going on day in day out and I I think we should also frame it really in terms of what is Moscow trying to achieve in the messaging that they've put out, as you've been reflecting upon.Evidently, they want to underscore that they have the initiative in the air, and they would argue in the war, highly debatable.Also, they are trying, as you say, to diplomatically isolate Kiev by encouraging European countries, the Americans, to withdraw their diplomats from there because of the the escalation risk, but quite how that's going to wash when at the same time they are violating consistently NATO and European airspace in their approach to jamming drones.I just don't know.I mean, it could be that we're just reading too much broad strategy into what Russia is doing here, when instead what it is, is commanders with different objectives, just

different things in different places, and there not being a political coherence to it.But as I say, I think it is worth us just reflecting for a moment on what we have seen in the past few weeks in terms of the drone jamming technology that has been deployed that led to the resignation of the Latvian Prime Minister as a response to all this.It's a serious, serious issue on NATO's eastern flank.And The Telegraph's Verity Bowman has done a deep dive into this very issue, looking at just how this unfolded, the incident that took place last week in Lithuania, which led to the Prime Minister and President having to go into an air raid shelter.Just imagine that in your country, if you're not on Europe's Eastern flank, as a response to these Ukrainian drones that are effectively being jammed by Russian technology, then crossing over into Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia.And this is obviously, as I say, like a deliberate approach that has been adopted by Moscow to try and steer those drones.

And as Verity writes, It'sbreach or reach, one could argue.Now, there are also increased concerns, as we were talking about before, with Belarus.So, interestingly, on Sunday, President Macron of France warned the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko over a very rare phone call not to escalate his country's involvement in the war in Ukraine.At the same time, President Zelensky welcomed the Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya in Kiev in an official capacity yesterday.Now, according to Zelensky, Russia is planning, as we've talked about before, to deploy additional signal repeaters in the country to guide its combat drones.

Of course, we also spoke about last week belarus taking part in those nuclear drills with russia and further fueling the concerns relating to that So this is the context in which we approach the major annual native summit in ankara in turkey in july So we know now president celensky will be attending that hopefully so will we in some capacity invited by the secretary general mark rutter But that's celensky not us not us.Yeah.Yeah, unfortunately, we're trying we're trying mark if you want to you know, we'll come But he's not going to get the news he hoped for, President Zelensky.So Joe Barnes reports for us that Britain and France have scuppered a proposal for NATO allies to spend 0 .25 % of GDP on military aid for Ukraine.So Joe revealed that the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Canada blocked the idea that was being floated in discussions last week to hopefully boost support for Kiev via that initiative.An Alliance insider said that at least seven member states who all spend over 0 .25 % by NATO.

Madrid.coming.And as a result, no such talks are occurring at this time.He said over the last few months, we just sort of sensed that there wasn't a lot of progress being made, saying that dynamics could change.So effectively an omission right there in black and white, nothing is going on really relating to these talks.After all of that in -depth discussion and contemplation about this for months by media the world over, The fundamental prediction that we made that this would come to nothing seems to have borne fruit.

Yeah, and I think that's good news.The peace process, such as it was, and it really wasn't, was in no way in Ukraine's favor.Russia was using it as a smoke screen for trying another channel to get whatever they want because they can't get it on the battlefield.The US were, let's put it politely, disinterested.So we're not pushing back against some of the more egregious claims and behavior by Russia.And as we say, Ukraine needed to kind of tough it out, hunker down, play for time.

kick the can down the road in the long grass, whatever metaphor you want, and they've got through it.So, you know, if the US walk away now saying, oh, it's Europe's problem, fine.

But we come back.

Europe hasn't been brilliant.

Well, that's what I was going to say.So we come back to the perennial, Dom.What is Europe's strategy?Fundamentally, I'm still not convinced they have one beyond supporting Kiev for as long as it takes without defining what the it is, which presumably would be what would shape your entire strategic outlook if you had an answer to that question.As we keep saying, you're not going toget Russia to agree to a ceasefire until they are compelled to agree to one.

And there is no clarity about how much further Europe is willing to go than what they already are in terms of trying to force the issue.And the longer this goes on, there have been more and more incursions from drones.At some point, something is going to happen that is going to compel an answer to the question that Moscow is posing.And yet, we have still not crossed that Rubicon, it seems.

Well, I think we might.we might be approaching that you say the big question is what's your strategy i don't know if that's such a big question actually i don't know if ukraine really care too much about that there's underneath the strategy there are plans there are plans like pearl the prioritized ukraine requirements list the money big pot of cash to go and buy uh go and buy weapons so yeah i mean you would you would like some detail on for as long as it takes but then you could counter that by saying europe sorry uk and ukraine have signed a 100 year defense pact which is you know, worthless if Ukraine's not there.So, you know, there's a lot of fudge and flummery around, but the individual plans seem to be there, as in mechanisms for making weapons.So the overall strategy of Europe is not, I don't know, I'm not too fast right now.I think this is really interesting what's happening down south.If Crimea is the crown jewel as far as Putin's concerned, so if you threaten that, threaten its feeling of security or the feeling in the minds of people in Russia of the security of Crimea, that is a, That's a major, a major worry for Putin.

So these mid -range attacks all along the South Coast, the Sea of Azov coast there and the Black Sea that Ukraine is affecting now, that will and it is impacting the security of Crimea.And so I just wonder if this is starting to play in

threatening Ukraine feels that perhaps it is getting enough support from Europe obviously it will ask for more and will feel that there's always more that could come Then it would seem that we have an answer perhaps to the question that we were posing maybe a year or so ago Which is what strategy has Europe adopted?What strategy is Ukraine adopted and it is the answer porcupine Ukraine?Basically, you arm Ukraine to the teeth you put it into a position where it has all of its defense capabilities in -house It doesn't require any more support beyond the certain munitions, but a certain point they'd hope to be faced out as well that mean that in essence Ukraine is a buttress on Europe's eastern flank and it can defend itself.We've just got to get to the point where there is a ceasefire and then there's never going to be a risk in theory, I emphasize that in theory, because it has the weapons, it has the men, it has the army size that it would be foolhardy for Putin to evade again.

Well, it's foolhardy to invade in the first place, and never is a 100 % word, as I always get criticised for at Staff College, you know, you've got to be careful of those words.But yeah, I mean, if the strategy now, if Europe's strategy is help Ukraine become porcupine Ukraine.and then ask the porcupine, how did you get to be such a really good porcupine?Because we need some of that.Then that's not a bad strategy, because Ukraine is now in the position of exporting, being a net exporter of military advice, not just an importer, because Europe needs to learn from this and learn fast.

My one caveat to all of this, Dom, though, is that As I already mentioned, there are inherent risks of a strategy that is allowing Russia to continue waging this war.The world arguably becomes more and more dangerous the longer this war goes on and is probing at Article 5 and at a time when America is distracted elsewhere.Can Europe really afford for this to be allowed to continue?And that is before you even get into the moral arguments of the staggering loss of life and potential and everything that we've talked about on a day in, day out basis.Is that really morally justified?I think it's a question that should be more on people's minds than it is in Europe.

I agree.I agree.I agree.We could go on.We could go on, and I'm sure we will.I think it's going to be particularly interesting to see what happens at the midterms with the US.

And also, I know people are saying, well, you know, what comes after Trump might be the same.No guarantee there'll be a change of direction from the US administration post -Trump, which is only, what, three years away?Only three years.Only.And that's a very fair point.But nobody knows.

and possibly most importantly, Putin doesn't know.So he doesn't know if he's gonna have an administration in the United States that is as distracted as this current one.So Putin doesn't know, he doesn't know how much time he's got.

Yeah, and there's risk in that too, Dom.I mean, again, just to underscore that, there is risk in the fact that dictators like Xi, like Putin, will be thinking, this might be as good as I ever have it.What might they try in that, knowing they've only got a year or two?to destroy Article 5's credibility, to make a move on Taiwan, who knows?But it's important to ask that question.

Right.Thank you, Francis.Do hang around for Final Thoughts if you're able to.Delighted now to turn to James Kilner, our resident Russia expert.Lots to chat through, James.Are you in some sort of sauna there?

What's going on?I'm in a very hot room, Don, but I'm happy to be here and at your service.The big story over the weekend we've just been chatting about was the huge strikes on Saturday night, but more so than that, I mean,they we've seen strikes on that scale quite a lot but of note and the bit we picked up on was Russia's attempt to frame it as retaliation as if they you know they were forced into it they didn't want to have to do it but they were they were forced into it because of this strike on Thursday night by Ukraine on this site in occupied Luhansk so What have you seen from the Russian press and the media landscape about that incident and the response over the weekend, including Lavrov's comments and the foreign ministry's comments, advice, friendly advice for Western nations to evacuate embassy and diplomatic personnel out of Kiev?

Yeah, right.So this has obviously been flagged heavily in the Russian propaganda scene, being wall -to -wall coverage, of this supposed Ukrainian drone strike on this dormitory.We call this dormitory in a little town called Stadobelts in the Luhansk region of occupied Ukraine.Allegedly killed 21 people.We've seen heavily um reported demonstrations by by by teachers and and who survived the apparent attack and and families who who've been holding portraits of their supposed dead uh relatives sons daughters that sort of thing um it's very very difficult we we know the Kremlin has uh put on uh these sort of media stunts before we know that they they they fake this sort of attack i'm not saying this is a fake it's very very different out of town But we have to break through this big -ticket Kremlin propaganda piece with huge skepticism, Dom.And the way the Kremlins portray this is classic propaganda.

talk.And like you say, we've had officials coming out, warning the West, talking about a last and final straw, and how they'd be forced to escalate the war in Ukraine in a punitive way.I think I think there's a sense that there's two messages that have really come out of the Russian propaganda machine and how they've portrayed it.They've been able to sort of project the sense of the Kremlin and Putin fighting the right war, the justified war against the Nazi warmongers in the West, Ukraine and its Western allies.It's been able to project this message to potential allies around the world, Asia, Africa, are the ones they're trying to impress.Also, and I keep bringing it back to this, they've got this very important election in Armenia in a couple of weeks' time, just like Putin tripped China, sending some messages, very obvious messages to the Armenian electorate about how powerful Putin is, now they're sending more messages about how uh ukraine the west of these creative warmongers and why would you possibly get closer to them as the prime minister of romania is is you know want to do uh so i i think there's that there's that sort of messaging second messaging is to the people occupied ukraine saying from the kremlin we are going to protect we're going to go so far to protect you that we're going to chuck our you know our greatest missiles at ukraine is punishment for this so -called outrage you know um it's been reported rather that Russia fired two of its Oreshnik missiles, the continental ballistic missiles that it unveiled at the end of 2024.

It firedtwo of these things at Ukraine in some sort of angered response.One of them failed and one of them was not to target.So I think it's been a deliberate, deliberately strong Kremlin reaction to this so -called Ukraine strike.

Yeah.I mean, do you think they're going to carry on the scale?I mean, nothing happened on this scale Sunday night.I mean, there were strikes across the whole country and a similar number of dead and injured, but this very concentrated attack on Kiev.Do you think, how long does it take for this to be priced into just Russia attacking civilians as we know they do?

Well, that's right.I think the impact, the propaganda, the PR impact is the initial response.So the initial well -flagged response came at the weekend on Saturday with this huge wave of missile attacks, drone attacks, as well as the Tyrodoshnik missiles.I think it was 90 other missiles fired in 600 range.So obviously a massive attack and a sort of angry lashing out Kremlin there to protect innocent Russians.That message has already been delivered.

I don't think there's any real need for the Kremlin to continue this uh sort of intensified strikes i don't think it can afford him any identified strikes either i think he's delivered his message and uh it's mentioned it's been loud and clear it's it's you know and and for the russian people and for his allies the message was you know it's very clear that the kremlin is still strong etc etc it also comes at a time i think we'll talk about this a bit later in the podcast uh pinching popularity it's dropping off and he has to distract from all his domestic problems with an outrage he can respond to in kind.

Let's go on to that then.Let's talk about the power of speech.Two things here.Firstly there's some disquiet among the Kremlin elite.that they are not able to, well they're complaining about the censorship and the channels of communication being cut down.They're losing their power of speech and also the suggestion that Putin is literally losing his power of speech.

So what's going on there?

Yeah, there's quite a lot to unpack here.I'd say over the last week or so, last five days, has been a strong uptick in stories about how the Russian elite are getting increasingly frustrated.with Putin, especially around his increased censorship, his attempts to ban Telegram, turning on and off the mobile internet, going off the people's websites, blocking VPNs, this sort of thing.The direction of travel in Russia has been very clear this year.There's going to be more censorship.We know that Putin has given control of censorship matters to the FSB and their reaction is to come down hard on it.

This has shot ordinary Russians and the elite, who apparently have been trying to appeal to Putin to stop this trajectory, unsuccessfully appealed to him.We know now that the Kremlin is also blocking gaming websites, computer game websites, not because they're anti -playing computer games, but they're concerned about the messaging systems often built into these games, where people can message rather potentially send anti -PG propaganda and skip around the censorship issues.So there's all that.We know that PG popularity has been dropping.From the end of last year to the end of April, he dropped about 12 percentage points from around 72, 73 to 6 and 5 percentage points in popularity.This is according to the Kremlin's own polling unit, Vistion.

Oddly, Vistion didn't publish any polling data for printing popularity until this week.It skippedits weekly data output and this was considered the assignment.It was too embellished that thinking popularity had been collapsing, like I say, linked to the increased censorship and also to the dire economic condition in Russia and the sort of bogging down of the war in Ukraine.Oddly, it's restarted publishing the polling data with a change of methodology.So they announced that, they changed their methodology.

They said they're improving the methodology.And instead of collecting 100 % of the polling data through randomized telephone polling, they're doing 50 % telephone polling and 50 % doorstep.Obviously, on the doorstep, it's much easier to pressure people into giving them, giving you the answer you want to hear.And coincidentally, speaking of popularity this week, the first day we've had in May has increased.So they're back to take on board.And what that really shows to me is that the Kremlin's very worried about his popularity.

It's yet again, manipulating his image and it's trying to get ahead of the Russian population and how they're thinking.With regards to the censorship, which is driving the elite and ordinary people up the wall and frustrating, we had an interview by Alexander Dugin.He's this sort of philosopher and chief, sometimes and rather erroneously, in my opinion, describes a Putin whisperer.He has had influence.He wrote a very influential paper about 20 years ago, but he doesn't have like a hotline to the Kremlin.But what he is used for, he is sort of, he's wheeled out as some sort of bellwether to test the more implausibly fascist right -wing tendencies.

that the Kremlin might, you know, attitudes and strategy the Kremlin might be considering.He's willed out to promote and sort of weather -test these sort of, these ideas.And he, in this interview with Ksenia Sobchak, the Putin's granddaughter and one of the Russian sort of critterati, social media elite.He said that internet for Russians should be rationed.It should only be given to Russians if they behave well, because they risk losing their identity and they risk missing out on an opportunity to lead an authentic life.These are direct quotes.

So I think the important thing is here, not Dugin making policy for the Kremlin, is to consider Dugin's comments as a rather outlandish right -wing insight into the Kremlin's greatest fantasies, without them actually going all the way there.I think, in fact, he's been allowed to come on air and talk about this stuff.It means that he's sort of watering down It's sort of appeasing where the Kremlin wants to go on this without the Kremlin having to go all that way.So I think that's important to flag up.On the issue of Putin needing his voice, this is at risk of joining in a semi -substantiated conjecture about Putin's health, and I think you can always stray into hyperbolic zones on this one.There was a video which appeared on the Kremlin website on Friday of Putin going to some sort of military academy and toasting a new graduation of military officers.

In this video he calls the officers to stand up andgive three cheers for the combatants down in Ukraine.He really struggles to make, to raise his voice loud enough and give enough clarity to say Ura.Ura is the Russian way of saying hooray.And there's been a lot of conjecture and he sort of immediately comes up to the microphone and makes some sort of half -excused about her voice and then immediately sets off a load of speculation on Telegram, which the Kremlin's obviously trying to ban, and social media about his health.Amazing.

It's also been reaching boiling point, not only in Chateau Kilner, but in the Defence Ministry in Russia.There's a new guy been posted in there, Purge of the Top Brass.I mean, is this something we really need to be tracking or is this just sort of, you know, just normal jogging?And don't do any jogging, James.

I think this is worth tracking.I think this is, so it's always something to hear.Pete and to shift it out, a longstanding deputy defence minister promoted a police colonel, a deputy minister from the Interior Ministry, Vitaly Shulik, instead.Now the point is here, there's two main points about this promotional tool.He is, I think, the third non -military guy to take a relatively high position in the defence ministry in Russia.Andrei Berlusconi, the defence minister, came in two years ago.

He's an economist.At the end of last year, we had a deputy minister from the trade ministry came into the defence ministry as well.This is all driving, moving towards the increased civilian representation in the defence ministry over the last year.We know that Putin has this sort of mistrust of the military.He, you know, he was deeply scarred by the Wagner attempted coup in the summer of 2023.And, you know, he tried to insulate himself against too much military, you know, he's tried to sort of If you take the military guys, we can now hold over the defence ministry.

So that, plus, Shunuk has been involved in some very serious anti -corruption priorities within the interior ministry.There's been a lot of that going on in the defence ministry.I think there's 12 or so.top generals in Russia who have been charged with various points of corruption.So it's just worth tracking the state of the defendants.

And then finally, always worth taking the temperature, sorry, sorry, James, of the Russian economy.No cucumbers, I don't think, this week, but I mean, Novorossiysk port got hit on Friday night and now the Kremlin are asking the public to put their hands in the pocket to fund it.What's your take on that?What's going on there?

You're going to get a discount if you want to buy a 20 % stake in Noble Assist Port.That's what the Kremlin wants to sell.20 % stake in Noble Assist.

We should buy shares, Dom.

Well, yeah.And 23 .8 % in Aeroflot, that's the national airline, which has also been struggling massively.It can't get spare parts for it.probably get spare parts with planes.And obviously, the drone strikes around Rakhine mean that airports are shut half the time, etc.So, I mean, really, this is all about the Kremlin trying to plug its finance gap by selling off these states at a discount.

Other interesting, other important economic news is that Putin has doubledovertime limits for Russian workers.For about 50 years under the Soviet Union, there was a limit of 120 hours a year of overtime allowed for Russian workers to work.That's now been doubled to 140 hours a year.The point is here, again, this is all about the Kremlin trying to fix its acute labour shortage.What do you migrant workers in ports from there.

This is directly linked to the war in Ukraine.About a million people have been recruited into the Russian military in the last four years.300 ,000 were also mobilized in September 2022, and about 300 ,000 to 400 ,000 have left Russia.So there's a gap of nearly two million people in the workforce.So these sort of fairly extreme tactics, strategies and designs on the blog.

very about a lady that thanks James do do stay with us if you're if you're able to for final thoughts turn the final thoughts now I will start by saying that the news today we hear Ayrton Redfern a 23 -year -old British man from Devon has been killed fighting for Ukraine he was serving with a specialist unit in the Donetsk region killed on May the 9th we are told the British Foreign Office here said we are supporting the family of a British national who has died in Ukraine and are in contact with the Ukrainian authorities.His mother, who has been asked by the media to refer to as Natasha, has spoken of her heartbreak at the news that, quote, my beautiful, strong and incredibly brave son was killed.She said, we are trying to have just one percent of the strength, bravery andof Ayrton and if we can do this it will help us to eventually come to terms with our life without him.I'm very grateful for all the tributes, messages and support from those who knew Ayrton and from strangers.So Ayrton Redfern, 23 year old British man died fighting for Ukraine.

Frances, where do you want to leave folks today?

Thanks, Dom.Well, the opening of an article published by The Telegraph today, and I'll read it now.It was perhaps only his carers, six foot two inches and bald with crooked noses, which could have given away that Kelsen was in fact Oleg Gordievsky, Britain's greatest Cold War double agent.This is an extraordinary story that we've published today, looking into the life of Anton Kelsen, i .e.Oleg Gordievsky, who we've talked about on the podcast many times before, a fantastic account of it published by Ben McIntyre called The Spy and the Traitor, talking about how pivotal he was as a double agent during the pivotal years at the end of the Cold War in terms of reshaping really how Britain's and thereby America, by the intelligence sharing, viewed the potential of the new regime that came in with Gorbachev and also warning the Thatcher government at the time time.

down.So a really pivotal world figure.And so yeah, this article looks at his life after he defected and effectively had to be protected by MI6.A really interesting read looking at that and I highly recommend that people read the account of how he was smuggled out of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.An extraordinary story.

Brilliant.Thanks, Francis.We'll put a link to that in the episode notes.James, finally for today, you've been encouraging us for the last few months to keep our eyes on Armenia ahead of elections in a couple of weeks time.All getting a little bit sweaty over there for Mr Pashinyan.Sorry.

Sorry, James.

Very hot in here.

Was your shirt white when we started this?

Freeze a cucumber, James, and hold it to your head.

Yeah, I need a shirt.Dom, I just want to talk about Armenia and Kyrgyzstan for my final thoughts, two facts, subjects of mine.As you know, we've got this election coming up next month, pitting pro -the Pashinyan...

Hang on, sorry James, can you turn the aircon down a bit?It's bloody freezing in here.Sorry James, yeah, Kyrgyzstan.

Armenia.Russia's been banning more Armenian imports, this time brandy and flowers.Flowers, roses and tulips.This is all designed as a sort of pressure on Armenia ahead of the elections next month pits Nikol Pashinyan, the pro -Armenian prime minister against Russian opposition politicians.On that note as well some more opposition politicians Armenia have been arrested and cut his spine for Russia.So it's really the tensions really ramping up there.

Russia does ban products from its so -called near abroad, these are sort of the ex -colonies in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.It does ban products as a political tool to try and pressurevarious former colonies into doing what it wants to do.And I think in this case it's very clear that these bans on brandy, major Armenian export, flowers, and previously Jermuk, the mineral water, is designed to pressure people ahead of this important election next month.In Kyrgyzstan though, we've seen the opposite.We've seen Kyrgyzstan, and this will go down well in Brussels, EU early this year, a slap secondary sanctions on Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan has been used by the Kremlin basically as a turntable to help it skip around resting sanctions.Kyrgyzstan has been very important in the session in Sevilla.Kyrgyzstan is part of the Eurasian Economic Union, which is a Kremlin -focused economic group, borderless, easy to move goods between.Kyrgyzstan's imports have increased massively of kit, which has been banned from Russia, and its exports to Russia have also increased.So it's increased its imports from Europe and the US, and it's increased exports to Russia, clearly like a turntable there.The EU slapped second sanctions on Kyrgyzstan, and Kyrgyzstan has responded by saying it's going to investigate 50 companies for doing business with Russian companies and helping it skip around sanctions.

What this clearly shows, Dom, and this is an important point here, is that Russia is very much leaving its top dog status in Central Asia.We've been, you know, this story's been running and running through the wall since February 22.And I think this is another indication that Central Asia and Kyrgyzstan, in this case, which has a naturally autocratic president, Sadeg Japardov, took power in a coup in 2020.He's been through the Kremlin a lot, but he'll see him pretty soon.doing what he's been in, which I think is a departure from what he looks so good at.

Well, thanks, James.Thank you for helping us take the temperature there of Central Asia.We'll be back in tomorrow, folks, to see if the heat has been ramped up on Putin any more.Francis, thanks for joining us today.James, we'll leave you to the Droitwich Riviera.I hope to catch up with you soon.

If we still recognise you, you'll be half the man you are today.But anyway, we'll be back again, same time, same place tomorrow, folks.I hope you can join us.Thanks all.Doesn't look well.