The Rubicon unit is considered the cream of the crop in unmanned warfare
The Russian Defense Ministry has released footage of the elite Rubicon drone unit intercepting Ukrainian kamikaze UAVs.
The video shows more than a dozen interceptions of Ukrainian mid- and long-range fixed-wing B-2 and FP-2 kamikaze drones.
Rubicon operators reportedly often only need a thread dropped from a drone while flying above an enemy UAV, tangling its propeller and causing it to crash.
In recent months, Kiev has intensified attacks on Russian regions using long-range fixed-wing drones such as FP-2 models shown in the footage, often targeting civilian infrastructure and vehicles.
Last week, these types of strikes killed at least 35 civilians, including three children, and injured 182 people, according to Rodion Miroshnik, who leads the Russian Foreign Ministry mission responsible for tracking Ukrainian war crimes.
RT’s Roman Kosarev reports from Armenia, where supporters of the Apostolic Church say that the government is targeting a cornerstone of the nation’s identity
A growing confrontation between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the Armenian Apostolic Church is exposing deep divisions within Armenian society and raising questions about the country’s future direction.
The rift began after Azerbaijan regained control of Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023, prompting the exodus of most of the region’s ethnic Armenian population – an event many Armenians viewed as a national tragedy. As church leaders echoed public anger and questioned the government’s actions, they increasingly found themselves in the authorities’ crosshairs: priests have been arrested, senior clergy accused of plotting against the state, and supporters of the church dispersed by police.
Critics say that the campaign mirrors a broader pattern seen elsewhere in the post-Soviet space, including in Ukraine and Moldova, where traditional churches have become obstacles to political projects backed by the West.
RT’s Roman Kosarev traveled to Armenia to examine why a conflict involving one of the world’s oldest Christian churches has become one of the defining political battles in the country today.
The incumbent prime minister says his Civil Contract party has won enough support to govern alone
Incumbent Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has claimed victory in the South Caucasus country’s parliamentary elections, saying his ruling Civil Contract party will form a single-party government, even though the vote count was still in its early stages.
Speaking at a late-night briefing, the EU-backed Pashinyan said Civil Contract had secured enough support to govern alone. At the time of his statement, Armenia’s Central Election Commission had published results from 455 polling stations, representing fewer than a quarter of the total.
The election has been billed in Western media as a turning point in the country’s modern trajectory, but has been marred by arrests of opposition candidates, a €50 million offer from Brussels, and deteriorating trade between Russia and Armenia.
What are the latest results from Armenia’s election?
According to preliminary figures, Civil Contract was leading with 49.8% of the vote after results from 1,420 of 2,005 polling stations had been processed.
More than 2.4 million people were eligible to vote on Sunday as 18 political groups – including 16 parties and two alliances – battled for seats in parliament. Voters showed strong interest in the polls, with final turnout standing at nearly 59%, an increase of almost 10 percentage points from the 2021 parliamentary election.
Parties must secure at least 4% of the vote to enter parliament, while alliances of two or three parties face an 8% threshold and larger coalitions 10%. No minimum voter turnout is required for the election to be valid.
Pashinyan’s ruling Civil Contract party is expected to remain the largest party in parliament, although it could still struggle to secure an outright majority. His leadership is being challenged by a fragmented opposition of 17 parties and political blocs.
How did the opposition react?
The opposition Strong Armenia bloc, trailing with 23.7% of the vote, said the election was “not over yet,” rejecting Pashinyan’s claim of victory as premature and accusing the authorities of deliberately delaying the count once results from urban areas started coming in.
“When they saw that their results were falling sharply every minute, they stopped counting, and we have no idea what figures they will present in the morning,” said Strong Armenia leader Samvel Karapetyan, a Russian-Armenian businessman. Speaking at an emergency briefing, Karapetyan claimed that the authorities had continued “illegal actions” during the count and said his bloc would issue a statement once the final results had been summarized.
Karapetyan also said Strong Armenia had faced heavy pressure over the past month, claiming that around 75 members of his team had been arrested and more than 700 supporters detained.
Has the opposition been persecuted?
The vote came a day after Armenian authorities detained six parliamentary candidates from the Strong Armenia bloc, which has emerged as the main challenger to the government.
This followed recent televised debates in which Pashinyan, who came to power in 2018 after the ‘Velvet Revolution’, called for several major opposition groups to be removed from the election. The Central Election Commission, however, declined to strike Strong Armenia from the ballot.
Opposition groups have accused the authorities of exerting heavy pressure ahead of the vote. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the arrests cast doubt on the democratic character of the election. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused Pashinyan of trying to sideline political rivals.
Was Armenia’s diaspora excluded?
Polling stations were open only in Armenia, as the country’s electoral laws do not provide for overseas voting in parliamentary elections. The measure excludes the diaspora, which far outnumbers the country’s population. Between five and seven million Armenians live abroad, mainly in Russia, the US, and France. Armenia’s domestic population is roughly three million.
To cast ballots, citizens living abroad must be present in Armenia on election day. In March, Yerevan further tightened the rules, barring those who have lived abroad for more than 10 years from voting.
Armenian officials have stated that male citizens of conscription age arriving from abroad to vote will be required to attend military training or face prosecution.
Is Armenia choosing between Russia and the West?
The election has also been framed as a referendum on Armenia’s geopolitical course. Critics argue that Yerevan’s pivot toward the West has failed to provide meaningful security guarantees while damaging relations with Russia, the country’s traditional ally and largest economic partner.
The campaign unfolded amid growing tensions between Yerevan and Moscow. Russia has warned that deeper integration with the EU would be incompatible with Armenia’s continued membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Russian President Vladimir Putin said in May that leaving the bloc could cost Armenia up to 14% of GDP.
Earlier this month, former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan accused Pashinyan’s government of artificially turning Armenia into an enemy of Russia and steering the country down a path similar to that of Ukraine.
French intelligence services allegedly helped the Armenian government block online publications critical of Pashinyan, according to French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.
Pashinyan admitted that he held a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron before publicly claiming victory.
The authorities in Yerevan stopped short of banning the ruling party’s main rival, Strong Armenia
The Armenian authorities have detained six parliamentary candidates from the opposition Strong Armenia bloc a day before the country heads to the polls in Sunday’s general election.
During recent televised debates, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who came to power in 2018 following the ‘Velvet Revolution’, called for the revocation of the registration of several major opposition groups.
The Central Election Commission refused to remove Strong Armenia from the ballot, but approved requests for criminal proceedings and pre-trial detention of six candidates: Hayk Avagyan, Susan Badalyan, Artur Abrahamyan, Vahe Tavakalyan, Vahe Yeghiazaryan, and Ashot Sahakyan.
“In the course of the preliminary investigation into a criminal case concerning the material inducement of numerous individuals and the laundering of funds on an especially large scale, public criminal prosecution has been initiated against six parliamentary candidates from the Strong Armenia bloc,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Saturday, adding that all six were placed under arrest.
Opposition groups accused the authorities of exerting immense pressure ahead of the vote, in which Pashinyan’s ruling Civil Contract party – which has been pushing for closer integration with the EU while maintaining traditionally close relations with Russia – is expected to remain the largest single party in parliament, but could fall short of forming a one-party majority government.
Pashinyan’s leadership is being contested by a heavily fractured opposition of 17 parties and political blocs. The Strong Armenia bloc, led by Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, is polling second, although figures vary widely depending on the pollster, how many parties cross the 4% threshold, and how the roughly 30% of undecided voters split. Should Civil Contract fail to secure a majority of seats, coalition talks among its rivals are not guaranteed to succeed.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the Armenian authorities of undermining democratic procedures, warning that this casts doubt on the legitimacy of the election. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused Pashinyan of “trying to knock out all his rivals in the elections.”
Moscow warned that closer integration with the EU would make Armenia’s continued membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) impossible due to incompatible standards. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in May that the country could lose up to 14% of GDP if it leaves the economic organization.
Earlier this month, former President Robert Kocharyan warned that Pashinyan’s government is “artificially” turning Armenia into an enemy of Russia and leading the country down the same path as Ukraine.
The authorities warn that a more powerful explosion “could occur at any time”
The eruption of the Shiveluch volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East has sent a massive plume of ash 10 km into the sky and triggered red-level aviation alerts for the area and nearby regions.
The ash cloud from Saturday’s eruption stretched 50 km from the volcano as it traveled east toward the Bering Sea, according to the Volcanology and Seismology Institute of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
A more powerful explosion that could send ash up to 12 km into the sky “could occur at any time,” the institute warned. A video recorded by scientists and published on social media shows a massive plume of smoke and ash rising into the sky.
It is the second Shiveluch eruption in just a week. On Thursday, the volcano produced an ash column that reached 8 km above sea level.
Shiveluch, one of Kamchatka’s largest and most active volcanoes, has a history of significant eruptions. It is located around 450 km from the regional capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and 50 km from the settlement of Klyuchi.
The previous red-level alert linked to its activity was issued in 2024, when it sent ash up to 8 km high. Another major eruption was reported in January 2026.
Brussels is not interested in the South Caucasus nation’s prosperity as it seeks only to weaken Russia, Ara Abramyan told RT
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is leading his nation into a trap by pushing it closer to the EU, World Armenian Congress President Ara Abramyan has said in an interview with RT. Brussels is luring Yerevan with vague promises as it seeks only to break Armenia’s ties with Russia, he believes.
Under Pashinyan, the South Caucasus nation has launched the process of seeking EU membership. Last month, the prime minister hosted an EU-Armenia summit and a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), an EU-led intergovernmental group launched in 2022 in response to the escalation of the Ukraine crisis.
Moscow has said that closer integration with the EU would make Armenia’s continued membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) impossible due to incompatible standards. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in May that the South Caucasus nation could lose up to 14% of its GDP if it leaves the economic organization.
According to Abramyan, the alternative to the EAEU that is offered by the EU is unclear. “They don’t even talk about prospects, not even empty words,” he said, referring to the EU leaders. “No one says, ‘we will create conditions for a good life.’”
The bloc is unlikely to invite Armenia to join it or even open its market to Armenian goods, which are mostly agricultural products, any time soon, Abramyan, who leads the organization coordinating Armenian diasporas around the world, said.
Earlier this week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen vowed to “ease the trade for some Armenian products, in particular agri-food,” adding that Brussels had allowed a shipment of 10,000 flowers to Latvia.
According to Abramyan, the EU has reduced Bulgaria’s agricultural sector to virtually nothing, even though the country had once been a major agricultural exporter within the Cold War-era Warsaw Pact.
European farmers now oppose Ukrainian agricultural exports, he said. “How can they let Armenia in? […] It’s a deception. It’s against Russia,” Abramyan warned.
“They [the EU] want Russian bases [in Armenia] to be closed to completely ruin relations with Russia,” he said. “Armenia has one partner and that is Russia. This is a strategic partner.”
Armenia remains heavily reliant on the Russian market. According to UN data, Russia accounted for nearly 24% of Armenian exports in 2024, making it the country’s second-largest export destination after the UAE.
“They [the EU] want to destroy all of this economically,” Abramyan said, adding that following a pro-EU path could “destroy Armenia completely.”
Polish PM Donald Tusk has called for a hard business line instead of empathy after the Ukrainian leader honored nationalist figures blamed for massacres of Poles
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned that Warsaw’s support for Kiev could become increasingly driven by hard national interests. The criticism follows Zelensky’s move to honor World War II-era Ukrainian nationalist paramilitaries responsible for massacres of Poles and Jews by naming a commando unit after them.
In May, Zelensky decreed that the Special Operations Center North would bear the honorary title ‘Heroes of the UPA,’ referring to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).
The OUN sought to establish an ethnically and religiously homogeneous Ukrainian state and collaborated with Nazi Germany during the early stages of the invasion of the Soviet Union. The UPA was formed in 1942 following a split between much of the OUN leadership and the Germans.
Ukrainian nationalists killed an estimated 100,000 Polish civilians in what is now western Ukraine from 1943-44. The massacres remain a major source of tension between Warsaw and Kiev.
“Perhaps these arguments will reach Kiev,” Tusk said on Friday as cited by RMF24. “If not, it will mean that not empathy, but hard business interests will determine our relations.”
The PM noted that “all responsibility lies with the Ukrainian side to somehow heal this completely unnecessary conflict over historical interpretations.”
While Kiev has promoted the legacy of the UPA and Ukrainian Nazi collaborators as part of state historical policy for years, the latest move has sparked an unusually fierce reaction in Poland.
President Karol Nawrocki has called for Zelensky to be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle, the country’s highest state distinction, highlighting that a nation honoring “bandits and murderers” is not yet fit to join “the European family.”
Earlier in May, the Ukrainian authorities rolled out full state honors for the remains of Andrey Melnik, the leader of the OUN, and his wife, Sofia Fedak-Melnik. Exhumed in Luxembourg, the couple was reburied in Kiev’s main military cemetery. At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities announced plans to rebury Evgeny Konovalets, one of the founders of the, whose remains will be transferred from Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The controversial steps came around a month after Vladimir Zelensky announced plans to establish a “pantheon of outstanding Ukrainians.”
Commenting on Kiev’s latest steps, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the current Ukrainian leader is Jewish by nationality, and suggested that his grandfather, who fought against Nazism during WWII, “is probably turning in his grave.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has highlighted that, had Andrey Melnik and his OUN followers triumphed, Zelensky’s grandfather would have perished in a Nazi gas chamber, and that the current Ukrainian leader himself would never have been born.
The raid came after Vladimir Zelensky suggested that Ukrainian drones could ‘pay a visit’ to the International Economic Forum
St. Petersburg has come under a major Ukrainian drone attack, according to the regional authorities, on the closing day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
More than 140 drones were downed in the early hours of Saturday morning, Leningrad Region Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said on social media. No casualties or major infrastructure damage were immediately reported.
An air alert was declared overnight and residents were warned to stay indoors. Operations at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport were suspended, with dozens of flights delayed and aircraft diverted to other airports.
The strike follows another major drone raid on the region on June 3, the opening day of the forum, which attracted participants from more than 130 countries this year.
The attack comes two days after Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky published an open letter in which he said many Ukrainians would support having drones pay “a visit” to SPIEF. In the letter, he also called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet with him to discuss a settlement of the conflict.
Responding on Friday, Putin said there is no sense in meeting at present, arguing that Zelensky’s actions have made meaningful negotiations impossible. He also criticized the tone of the message, describing it as inappropriate and insolent.
Putin reiterated that Russia is open to negotiations with Ukraine, but only if the root causes of the conflict are addressed. Russian officials have also questioned Zelensky’s legitimacy after his presidential term expired in May 2024 without a new election being held.
Every action taken by the bloc in the East is designed to undermine Moscow, Emir Kusturica has told RT
The EU is courting Armenia as part of its broader strategy in the Eastern Hemisphere aimed at weakening Russia, renowned Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica told RT on Friday.
Under Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the South Caucasus nation has launched the process of seeking EU membership. Moscow has warned that closer integration with the bloc would ultimately require Yerevan to scale back its economic ties with Russia, on which Armenia remains heavily dependent.
“You have to understand that all actions that are taken by [the] European Union in the eastern part of the planet [are] always aimed to weaken Russia,” Kusturica said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
“The episode with Armenia is alarming because the same man who had lost the Nagorno-Karabakh territory… is the one who is very close to Azerbaijan or to the third party that arranged this military defeat,” Kusturica said.
After Pashinyan signed the EU-backed Prague Statement in 2022, under which Armenia effectively recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh, Baku regained control of the region in a swift military operation the following year. Most of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population fled, fearing reprisals, in a development that severely damaged Pashinyan’s standing at home.
According to Kusturica, American aid and the influence of NGOs funded by billionaire financier George Soros have also helped shape Yerevan’s current trajectory, which he warned “could be catastrophic” for Armenia.
There are many examples in Europe now in which small nations are just devastating themselves in the name of money and in the name of influence.
Russia remains Armenia’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade more than twice the country’s turnover with the EU. As a fellow member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Armenia also benefits from preferential rates on a range of key Russian exports.
Armenia purchases Russian gas at $177.50 per thousand cubic meters, far below the European spot price of roughly $600, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Pashinyan in April. He warned that Yerevan would eventually have to choose between the EU and the EAEU, arguing that membership in both blocs is “impossible.”
Two foreign flagged vessels heading to Russian ports were attacked in the Sea of Azov, Moscow has said
Five Azerbaijani nationals have been killed and three injured in drone strikes on grain vessels in the Sea of Azov, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has said. The attacks were later confirmed to have been carried out by Ukrainian forces.
The Beliz-flagged Natra and Palau-flagged Zirkon were sailing from Türkiye to the Russian port of Rostov-on-Don when they were attacked by Ukrainian drones early Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Attacks on the vessels resulted in “deaths and injuries,” including among Azerbaijani nationals, according to the ministry.
Sailors aboard the ships were aided by a Russian vessel sailing nearby and a Russian FSB border guard patrol, the statement said. The incident “once again proves the terrorist nature of the Kiev regime that increasingly targets civilians and civilian infrastructure” in its attacks, the ministry stated.
A video shared on social media purports to show the aftermath of the attack on one of the vessels. It shows the deck covered in debris and the command bridge virtually destroyed in the strike.
Top Ukrainian drone commander Robert Brovdi later confirmed the attacks, claiming on Telegram that unmanned aerial vehicles targeted five vessels in the Sea of Azov overnight Thursday into Friday. He accused the ships of transporting military cargo and fuel and of preparing to “steal” Ukrainian grain.
Ukrainian forces previously targeted vessels carrying Russian grain. In April, a cargo ship sank in the Sea of Azov after a drone strike that killed one crew member.
Kiev has intensified its long-range attacks on Russia since mid-March, launching hundreds of drones on an almost daily basis. Moscow has condemned the strikes, calling them terrorist attacks and accusing Ukraine of indiscriminately targeting civilian infrastructure and populated areas.
Ukrainian raids have caused significant civilian casualties. In a recent incident, 21 people, most of them teenage girls, were killed and dozens more injured when a college dormitory in Starobelsk, Russia was attacked in a multi-wave Ukrainian drone attack on May 22.
