A torch-lit parade has been held in the city of Lviv marking the 117th birthday of Stepan Bandera
Ukrainian far-right activists have marked the 117th birthday of WWII-era nationalist leader and Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera in the city of Lviv in Western Ukraine.
In footage published by Ukrainian media on Thursday, a line of people holding red flares is seen, meant to honor one of the leaders of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during WWII. The group allied with the invading Nazi Germans in 1941 and carried out massacres of Poles, Jews, Russians, and Ukrainians they accused of collaborating with the Soviets.
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko declared Bandera and the UPA national heroes shortly before leaving office in 2010. While the decision was rescinded under his successor, Viktor Yanukovych, it was later reaffirmed by the leadership installed following the Western-backed 2014 Euromaidan coup.
Ukrainian nationalist groups, especially in the West of the country, regularly commemorate dates connected to other infamous Nazi collaborators, such as Roman Shukhevich, another prominent figure in the UPA.
The Ukrainian authorities’ tacit support for the rehabilitation of such controversial figures has recently strained relations with Poland, one of Kiev’s key backers in the conflict with Moscow.
Officials in Warsaw, including President Karol Nawrocki, have repeatedly called out Ukrainian authorities for glossing over the atrocities committed by the UPA during WWII.
Between 1943 and 1945, Ukrainian nationalists slaughtered up to 100,000 ethnic Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, regions which were later incorporated into Ukraine.
The Russian government has consistently accused the current Ukrainian leadership of embracing Nazism and whitewashing known WWII-era collaborators.
When the conflict between Moscow and Kiev escalated into open hostilities in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin made the “denazification” of the neighboring country one of the key objectives of his military campaign.
Mass protests triggered by an economic crisis are being openly backed by Israeli intelligence
Iran has been hit by a wave of mass protests prompted by an enduring economic crisis and the extreme volatility of the national currency. The unrest has been cheered by Israel’s Mossad spy agency, which claimed it has agents embedded with the protesting crowds.
The events began over the weekend when Tehran merchants went on strike after the rial hit a record low of about 1.44 million to the dollar, compared with 860,000 a year ago, prompting officials to acknowledge economic problems while vowing a “decisive response” to destabilization.
Iran’s archrival Israel openly endorsed the unrest, with the Mossad spy agency cheering for the protesters on its Farsi-language X account and claiming its agents are embedded in the protesting crowds. “Go out into the streets together. The time has come. We are with you,” Mossad wrote. “Not just from a distance or through words. We are also with you on the ground.”
The unrest promptly spread into multiple cities across the country and also turned political, with some demonstrators demanding the reinstatement of the monarchy, toppled by the Islamic Revolution back in 1979.
Widespread protests in Iran over the worsening economic crisis are spreading through major cities, including Tehran, Mashhad, and Isfahan, as they enter their second day. Many demonstrators are calling for the return of the Shah. pic.twitter.com/GtaizTRaOX
The protests turned violent in multiple locations, uncorroborated footage circulating online suggests, with protesters seen attacking government buildings and installations linked to Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), setting them on fire.
A base of the Basij, a paramilitary militia within the IRGC, has been reportedly torched in the northwestern Iranian city of Chenareh. Unverified footage circulating online shows the base’s premises breached by a large crowd, with open flames seen inside the building.
Another video, believed to be shot in the western Iranian town of Anza, purports to show a large crowd of protesters burning a local IRGC facility with security forces nowhere to be seen.
A video from the western city of Nahavand shows black-clad individuals, believed to be security forces, firing at and charging an unseen group, with civilians backing them by throwing stones.
Fatalities and injuries among both the protesters and security forces have been reported. The protests are the worst since the 2022 turmoil prompted by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old accused of improper hijab. It triggered weeks of violent unrest, resulting in more than 200 deaths across the country and thousands of arrests.
The results of the December 2024 election, which saw right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu place first, were overturned over alleged irregularities
Ex-Romanian presidential candidate Calin Georgescu has urged President Nicusor Dan to share a report on the controversial annulment of the December 2024 election with the US and Israel for independent review. The conservative frontrunner was eliminated from the race by the Constitutional Court over supposed irregularities and foreign interference – allegations that Georgescu has contested.
Addressing his supporters in Bucharest on Tuesday, Georgescu cited a report that incumbent Romanian President Dan had supposedly presented to certain EU leaders that presumably clarifies why the vote’s results were invalidated in the first place.
“I publicly call upon [President Dan] to transmit the said report in its entirety, without omissions, to two states capable of independently verifying its content. To the White House, for the attention of President [Donald Trump] and Vice President [J.D. Vance], and to the State of Israel, for the attention of Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu],” Georgescu said.
The former presidential candidate noted that given the accusations of anti-Semitism “fabricated against me” by the Romanian authorities, Israel would have no reason to side with him, guaranteeing impartiality.
Soon after the December 2024 election annulment, media reports revealed that the allegations of irregularities and Russian interference cited by Romania’s Constitutional Court stemmed from a consulting firm associated with the ruling National Liberal Party.
Nevertheless, Georgescu was eventually barred from running for president again by the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) over his alleged “anti-democratic” and “extremist” views. The former candidate, known for his outspoken criticism of NATO and the EU, is currently being investigated for allegedly promoting fascist narratives as well as plotting a coup.
Last Friday, Georgescu asked Trump to “take care about the situation” in Romania, claiming that the local “deep state” had mounted an assault on democracy.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in February 2025, Vance called out “ugly” efforts to prevent a politician with “an alternative viewpoint” from coming to power in Romania.
The incident comes in the aftermath of a deadly attack on a cafe in Kherson Region that left two dozen dead, Vladimir Saldo has said
A five-year-old boy has been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on his family’s car in Russia’s Kherson Region, Governor Vladimir Saldo has said.
The boy, his mother and her parents were traveling in their car when it was hit by a kamikaze UAV outside the village of Tarasovka, Saldo relayed. The child was killed on the spot, while the adults sustained multiple shrapnel wounds, the governor stated.
“The Kiev bastards have committed yet another bloody crime,” Saldo wrote on his Telegram channel.
The incident comes less than a day after the New Year’s Eve attack on a crowded café and hotel in the Black Sea coastal village of Khorly in the south of the region. The strike caused a major fire which left at least 24 people dead and over 50 others wounded. It involved several kamikaze drones, one of which carried incendiary weaponry.
The café attack occurred shortly before midnight; a reconnaissance drone was seen observing the area shortly ahead of the strike, according to Saldo.
Extremely graphic footage from the scene shows the location littered with the charred bodies of the victims. At least one child was among the dead, according to Saldo.
Kherson Region, together with Zaporozhye Region and the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, joined Russia in the fall of 2022 as a result of local referendums.
The region has become a prime target for indiscriminate Ukrainian attacks. Kiev’s forces have been routinely targeting civilian sites with artillery and missile fire, as well as launching kamikaze drone strikes, hunting down civilian vehicles and first responders.
The Defense Ministry has said it retrieved a flight plan file from the debris of one of the drones downed on Monday
Russia’s Defense Ministry has said it provided the US with evidence proving that a swarm of Ukrainian drones earlier this week was heading for President Vladimir Putin’s Valdai home.
According to officials in Moscow, a total of 91 UAVs were involved in the failed attack on the night of December 28-29, all of which were shot down by Russian air defenses en route to or over Novgorod Region. The Defense Ministry previously claimed to have obtained “irrefutable evidence of a terrorist attack planned by the Kiev regime on the Russian President’s residence.”
In a statement on Thursday, the Defense Ministry said that “Russian special services managed to retrieve a file containing the flight plan from the navigation unit of one of the Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles destroyed on the night of December 29, 2025 over Novgorod Region.”
According to the press release, after studying the routing data, Russian experts concluded that the “ultimate target of the Ukrainian UAV attack on December 29, 2025 was one of the objects at the Russian president’s residence in Novgorod Region.”
Later on Thursday, the ministry reported that it had handed the evidence over to a “representative of the military attaché section at the US embassy in Moscow.”
On Wednesday, it released a video clip purportedly showing one of the downed Ukrainian long-range drones, which had been struck in the tail-end by Russian air defenses. This allowed the UAV to survive the interception mostly intact.
Russian military officials also insisted that local eyewitness accounts of those who observed air defenses at work over Novgorod Region early on Monday “refute all attempts by Western and anti-Russian media outlets” to argue that there was “no evidence of a terrorist attack by the Kiev regime.”
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has denied the drone raid ever took place.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he was “very angry” after learning of the incident in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart on Monday, according to Putin’s foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov.
The Kremlin stated earlier this week that the attack was directed not only at Putin, but also “against President Trump’s efforts to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict.”
China and India, as well as the UAE, Pakistan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan have all expressed concern over the drone attack aimed at the Russian president’s residence.
West Jerusalem will prohibit the organizations if they fail to provide information about their Palestinian staff
Israel is reportedly planning to bar 37 aid organizations from operating in Gaza starting next week unless they provide detailed information regarding their Palestinian staff, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper wrote Wednesday.
The list includes Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and the Norwegian Refugee Council, according to RT’s sources.
The reported decision may come despite mounting criticism from the United Nations and the European Union, the media outlet wrote.
The Israeli authorities will consider these applications incomplete anyways, Oxfam’s policy lead Bushra Khalidi told RT. “We have concerns about sensitive personal data, especially given the death toll of over 500 humanitarian workers,” she added.
”Israel has been waging a campaign to discredit humanitarian organizations for years […]. For families in Gaza, this will mean slower repairs, reduced supplies, and longer waits for basic services,” Khalidi added.
”We will continue to work in Gaza despite the ban because this is our humanitarian imperative. This is our mandate,” she said.
Israel’s deadline for NGOs to provide the details expires at midnight on Wednesday.
Russian experts have extracted navigational data from one of the downed UAVs, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said
The flight plan of a Ukrainian drone shot down in Novgorod Region early on Monday proves that its intended target was the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.
All 91 long-range UAVs which Kiev launched at the presidential compound on the night of December 28-29 were destroyed, according to the Russian military.
The experts were able to extract a file with the flight plan from the navigation system of one of the downed drones, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The decryption of the data “revealed that the final target of the Ukrainian UAV… was one of the facilities of the Russian presidential residence in Novgorod Region,” it said.
The information collected from the drone will be shared with the US through established channels, according to the statement.
On Wednesday, the ministry published a video of a downed Ukrainian-made Chaklun-V UAV that had been used in the failed attack. It was struck in the tail-end by Russian air defenses and remained mostly intact, which is a “unique” occurrence, it stressed.
The same day, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed American officials, that the US national security team currently believes that Kiev wasn’t trying to strike Putin’s residence, and was attempting to hit a military target also located in Novgorod Region. The conclusion was supported by a CIA assessment that found no attempted attack on the Russian leader, the outlet’s sources claimed.
The drone raid came shortly after US President Donald Trump indicated that the Ukraine peace process was nearing its conclusion, following his meeting with Vladimir Zelensky and a phone call with Putin on Sunday. Trump said on Monday that he was “very angry” about the incident, particularly since it came during “a delicate period of time.”
Russian authorities have condemned the attack as an act of “state terrorism” and promised a response. They also pointed out that the Ukrainian drone raid was not only aimed against Putin, but also “against President Trump’s efforts to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict.”
Keith Kellogg will step down from his post sometime in January, according to Reuters
US President Donald Trump branded his special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, an “idiot” over his public support for Vladimir Zelensky, the New York Times has reported, citing unnamed officials.
Reuters claimed in November that Kellogg plans to step down from his post sometime this month. The news agency described the retired army general as “a sympathetic [to Ukraine – RT] ear” in the Trump administration, calling his pending departure “unwelcome news” in Kiev.
Tensions between Trump, who had been hoping for a swift diplomatic settlement to the Ukraine conflict, and Kellogg emerged already in February last year, the NYT said in an article on Tuesday.
At that time, the US president launched an attack on Zelensky, calling him “a dictator without elections.” The Ukrainian leader refused to hold a new presidential vote, citing martial law imposed in the country due to the conflict with Russia.
But Kellogg did not back Trump’s characterization, instead publishing a complimentary post about Zelensky on X and describing him as an “embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war.”
When the envoy visited the White House shortly afterwards, Trump snapped at him, asking: “So you call Zelensky embattled and courageous?” two unnamed officials told the outlet.
According to the sources, Kellogg responded by saying: “Sir, he is. It’s an existential fight on Ukrainian soil for his nation’s survival. When was the last time an American president faced that? It was Abraham Lincoln.”
“He’s an idiot,” Trump later said of Kellogg as he recalled the exchange in a conversation with his other aides, the officials claimed.
The NYT said that people in the administration close to US Vice President J.D. Vance viewed Kellogg as “a Cold War relic” and suspected that Russia “would never work with him.” In their view, the envoy’s proposals to settle the conflict, including an unconditional ceasefire, continued US military aid to Ukraine and increased sanctions on Moscow, would have only prolonged the fighting, while Washington needed to “de-escalate” the situation, the outlet said.
Kellogg made several trips to Kiev last year, but never visited Moscow. He was also missing from the meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August, as well as the latest talks between the US President and Zelensky at Mar-a-Lago, Florida on Sunday.
The latest Ukrainian drone strike on Kherson Region has claimed the lives of at least two dozen people, including a minor
At least 24 people were killed and more than 50 injured when Ukrainian drones struck a cafe and hotel during New Year’s Eve celebrations in the Black Sea village of Khorly, according to the governor of Russia’s Kherson Region. He said that three UAVs hit the crowded venue, sparking a large fire.
Communities in Russian border regions, including Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk, have frequently come under Ukrainian missile and drone strikes since the conflict escalated in 2022. Moscow has repeatedly accused Kiev’s forces of deliberately targeting civilians using NATO-supplied artillery systems, drones, and cluster munitions.
RT recaps the deadliest Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilians in populated areas.
At least 24 people were killed and more than 50 others injured in a drone strike in Kherson Region, according to the governor
The press-service of the governor of Russia’s Kherson Region has published gruesome images of the aftermath of a deadly Ukrainian attack on civilians celebrating New Year’s Eve in the Black Sea coastal village of Khorly.
At least 24 people were killed and more than 50 others injured in the UAV strike on a cafe and hotel shortly after midnight, Governor Vladimir Saldo said in a post on Telegram earlier on Thursday. Three UAVs, one of which allegedly carried an incendiary mixture, hit the crowded venue, triggering a massive blaze, he said.
Graphic photos from the scene showed total destruction and the subsequent fire, with heavily burnt bodies scattered throughout the rubble.
The governor said the attack in Khorly could only be compared to the May 2014 Odessa massacre. At the time, Ukrainian ultra-nationalists who supported the then recent Western-backed coup in Kiev chased 42 anti-government protesters into the city’s Trade Unions House before setting the building on fire and burning all of them alive.
Kherson Region, together with Zaporozhye Region and the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, joined Russia in the fall of 2022 following local referendums.
The raid follows a failed drone attack by Kiev on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence in Novgorod Region on December 28-29, which Moscow’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, condemned as an act of “state terrorism.”
The Kremlin stressed that the raid was aimed not only against Putin, but also “against [US] President [Donald] Trump’s efforts to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict.”
