Yale researchers traced hundreds of children taken to Russia in the war, finding what they described as “a higher level of crime than first understood.”

By Anthony Deutsch THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Russian presidential aircraft and funds were used in a program that took children from occupied Ukrainian territories, stripped them of Ukrainian identity and placed them with Russian families,

According to the Yale University report, the Kremlin’s aircraft and funds were used to remove children from Ukraine to Russia.

Russia could end the war in Ukraine with a nuclear strike that turns the country into a "radiation zone", an ally of Vladimir Putin has chillingly warned. Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev warned that the world is "on the brink of nuclear war".

MOSCOW, Nov 21 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the Ukraine war was escalating towards a global conflict after the United States and Britain allowed Ukraine to hit Russia with their weapons, and warned the West that Moscow could strike back.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a record-breaking defense budget, setting aside a staggering third of the government’s total spending as the war in Ukraine drains resources from both sides nearly three years on.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed off a federal budget that will boost defense spending to a record level next year. The budget for 2025 will take the amount allocated for national defense to 13.

Russian President Vladimir Putin approved budget plans, raising 2025 military spending to record levels as Moscow seeks to prevail in the war in Ukraine.