Russian

Wagner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — The United States assesses that members of Russia’s military leadership were aware of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s planned mutiny before he marched on Moscow, according to Biden administration officials. One senior official told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz that General Sergei Surovikin, who was previously Russia’s top commander in Ukraine, and others […]

omersukrugoksu/Getty Images (LONDON) — A chaotic armed rebellion that threatened the longstanding leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin began Friday and appeared to have been quelled by Saturday evening. The uprising, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the paramilitary Wagner Group, began in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. Forces loyal to Prigozhin marched toward […]

Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images (LONDON) — A Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia on espionage charges had his appeal denied in court on Thursday. Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent with the paper’s Moscow bureau, was arrested in March and stands accused of “acting on the instructions of the American side” and collecting state secrets about the […]

Fuse/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — At a movie theatre in central Moscow this month, people had come to watch an illicit film. It wasn’t a documentary about the war in Ukraine or political persecution under Vladimir Putin’s regime; it was Avatar: Way of Water. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Russian cinemas were supposed […]

Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images (LONDON) — A Russian judge denied the appeal of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who has been charged with spying, in a Moscow court on Tuesday. The reporter, a correspondent with the paper’s Moscow bureau, stands accused of “acting on the instructions of the American side” and collecting state secrets […]

Darrin Klimek/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — The team of Russia’s top opposition leader, Alexey Navalny, is a sounding the alarm that his health is seriously deteriorating in prison and that an ambulance was called for him last Friday night because of “acute stomach pain.” Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokeswoman, tweeted that Navalny had lost 8 kilograms […]

Maxime Popov/AFP via Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Newer generation fighter jets are giving Russia “increasing dominance” in the skies over the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, according to a senior Ukrainian official. It is a potentially worrying shift for the United States and its allies because Russia’s inability to achieve total air superiority throughout […]

U.S. Air Force, FILE (NEW YORK) — Russian fighter jets collided with the rear propeller of an unmanned U.S. military drone on Tuesday, forcing the U.S. to bring down the drone into the waters off the Black Sea close to Ukraine, U.S. officials said. U.S. European Command labeled the incident as “dangerous” and said it could […]

pop_jop/Getty Images (OSLO, Norway) — Andrey Medvedev is tense. He arrives unsmiling. Sitting in a hotel lobby in central Oslo, he anxiously eyes a man walking past the bar, asking why he’s looking at him. Medvedev’s anxiety is understandable. Until recently, he was a unit commander in the Wagner Group, the Russian private military company […]

Konstantin Yefremov (NEW YORK) — A senior Russian army lieutenant who fled Russia told ABC News he witnessed his country’s troops torture prisoners in Ukraine, including beating and threats to rape them. Konstantin Yefremov, the most senior Russian soldier to defect and speak out openly against the war, is now in hiding and spoke to […]