International

Putin’s Personal Cameraman Quit After Recording His Invasion Speech

Published

2 weeks ago

May 4, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s personal cameraman, Ilya Filatov, reportedly quit his job immediately after filming Putin’s announcement that he would be invading Ukraine.

The timing of Filatov’s exit from a job that he had for over a decade led to speculation that he actually faced dismissal because of negative comments he allegedly made about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

However, Filatov “denies this version,” according to independent Russian news site The Insider, which is banned in Russia. Filatov claims that he quit because he “reached the ceiling in the profession” and that he was “tired of sitting in quarantine for many months,” which he was required to do to reduce the likelihood he could contract COVID-19 and infect Putin.

Filatov’s sudden departure from his long time role as Putin’s cameraman was part of a pattern of Russian employee exits following comments suggesting opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As explained by The Insider, “Since the beginning of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, one by one employees of Russian TV channels have been fired or left the frame. On April 21, Alexander Gurevich, the host of the One Hundred to One program, resigned from the VGTRK . Prior to this, anti-war comments on his behalf appeared under the episodes of the show on YouTube. In March, it became known that Zhanna Agalakova, an employee of Channel One, quit , and journalist Vadim Glusker quit NTV.”

The Insider also noted how Marina Ovsyannikova, an employee of Channel One, “broke into the live newscast for a few seconds with a poster “Stop the war! Don’t believe the propaganda, they lie to you here.” Before the action, she recorded a video message in which she condemned the actions of the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine. On March 15, the journalist was fined 30,000 rubles. In April, she became a freelance correspondent for the German Welt.”

Related Topics:international Putin Russia Ukraine ukraine crisis

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International

Report: Ukraine Sunk Russian Warship By Using US Intel

Published

2 weeks ago

May 6, 2022

Leo Terrell Staff

Ukraine sunk the Russian warship Moskva last month using United States intelligence, according to a new report from NBC News.

“A guided missile cruiser carrying a crew of 510, the Moskva was the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet,” NBC News reported. “It sank on April 14 after being struck by two Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles, U.S. officials said. Moscow said the vessel sank after a fire. The Moskva was the largest Russian warship sunk in combat since World War II. American officials said there were significant Russian casualties, but they don’t know how many.”

“The attack happened after Ukrainian forces asked the Americans about a ship sailing in the Black Sea south of Odesa, U.S. officials told NBC News,” the outlet added. “The U.S. identified it as the Moskva, officials said, and helped confirm its location, after which the Ukrainians targeted the ship.”

The news comes the day after a report from The New York Times revealed that the United States has provided Ukraine with intelligence on Russian military units that has enabled the country to kill multiple Russian generals.

“The targeting help is part of a classified effort by the Biden administration to provide real-time battlefield intelligence to Ukraine,” The New York Times reported. “That intelligence also includes anticipated Russian troop movements gleaned from recent American assessments of Moscow’s secret battle plan for the fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, the officials said. Officials declined to specify how many generals had been killed as a result of U.S. assistance.”

“The United States has focused on providing the location and other details about the Russian military’s mobile headquarters, which relocate frequently,” the outlet added. “Ukrainian officials have combined that geographic information with their own intelligence — including intercepted communications that alert the Ukrainian military to the presence of senior Russian officers — to conduct artillery strikes and other attacks that have killed Russian officers.”

International

Russia Accused Of Genocide Over Mass Graves With Up To 9,000 Civilians Near Mariupol

Published

4 weeks ago

April 22, 2022

Leo Terrell Staff

On Thursday, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko revealed that as many as 9,000 Ukrainian civilians could have been executed by Russian soldiers and buried in mass graves outside the city.

“Then Hitler killed Jews, Roma and Slavs. And now Putin is destroying Ukrainians. He has already killed tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol,” Boychenko said, according to his city council.

“This requires a strong reaction from the entire world. We need to stop the genocide by any means possible,” he added.

The news comes shortly after Boychenko told the Associated Press that corpses were “carpeted through the streets of our city” and that the final death toll caused by the Russians could be more than 20,000.

“Boychenko also said Russian forces have brought mobile crematoria to the city to dispose of the bodies and accused Russian forces of refusing to allow humanitarian convoys into the city in an attempt to disguise the carnage,” the AP reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky similarly stated that “tens of thousands” were dead in the city.

“Mariupol has been destroyed, there are tens of thousands of dead, but even despite this, the Russians are not stopping their offensive,” Zelensky said in an interview with South Korean lawmakers.