UK to host 2023 Eurovision as Ukraine bows out
The UK will host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023 as Ukraine backs out after admitting it cannot guarantee the safety of contestants and spectators.
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Britain announced on Monday local time it has agreed to host next year’s Eurovision song contest, after organisers said there was no prospect of the event going ahead in war-torn Ukraine.
The BBC will instead produce what it called the world’s “largest and most complex music competition”, and will now start choosing a host city in the UK in collaboration with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Ukraine won this year’s contest, held in Italy, ahead of Britain’s entry in second place. It had insisted it could host next year’s despite the Russian invasion.
But the EBU ruled that out, and Ukrainian broadcaster UA:PBC acquiesced to a UK-hosted event infused with “Ukrainian spirit”.
“The 2023 Eurovision Song Contest will not be in Ukraine but in support of Ukraine,” UA:PBC chief Mykola Chernotytskyi said in a joint statement with the EBU and BBC.
“We are grateful to our BBC partners for showing solidarity with us,” he said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said it was his “strong wish” for Ukraine to host the 2023 edition and found it “deeply regrettable” that was no longer possible.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said the BBC had stepped in at the request of the EBU “and the Ukrainian authorities” led by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I’m just sorry that due to Russia’s continued acts of bloodshed it has not been possible to host the event in Ukraine, where it should be,” she said.
“As hosts, the UK will honour the competition’s spirit and diversity, and most importantly, ensure it reflects Ukraine’s recent Eurovision victory and Ukrainian creativity.”
In May, Ukrainian folk-rap group Kalush Orchestra won the world’s biggest live music event in Turin, on a wave of support for their country following Russia’s invasion.
RUSSIAN MISSILE STRIKES HIT UKRAINE PORT
Russia said on Sunday that its missile barrage on a Ukrainian port central to a freshly-inked grain export deal had destroyed Western-supplied weapons, after the attack sparked an outcry from Ukraine’s allies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced Saturday’s strike on the Odessa port as “Russian barbarism”.
Russia’s defence ministry said the strikes had destroyed a Ukrainian military vessel and arms delivered by Washington D.C.
“High-precision, long-range missiles launched from the sea destroyed a docked Ukrainian warship and a stockpile of anti-ship missiles delivered by the United States to the Kyiv regime,” it said.
“A Ukrainian army repair and upgrade plant has also been put out of order.”
The port attack has cast a shadow over the milestone agreement aimed at relieving a global food crisis that was hammered out over months of negotiations and signed in Istanbul.
Mr Zelenskyy said the strikes on Odessa showed Moscow could not be trusted to keep its promises and that dialogue with Moscow was becoming increasingly untenable.
“This apparent Russian barbarism brings us even closer to obtaining the very weapons we need for our victory,” Mr Zelenskyy said in a late-night address to the nation.
Under the deal, Odessa is one of three designated export hubs.
Ukrainian officials said grain was being stored in the port at the time of the strike, although the food stocks did not appear to have been hit.
The United States “strongly condemned” the attack, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying it “casts serious doubt on the credibility of Russia’s commitment to yesterday’s deal”.
Odessa region officials said the strikes left people wounded and damaged port infrastructure in Odessa, without specifying the number or severity of the injuries.
Over the weekend, Russian forces were carrying out bombardments across the sprawling front line, Ukraine’s presidency said Sunday.
It said among attacks in the industrial east and south, four Russian cruise missiles Saturday had hit residential areas in the southern city of Mykolaiv, injuring five people, including a teenager.
UKRAINE AND RUSSIA SIGN LANDMARK DEAL
Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark deal with the United Nations and Turkey on resuming grain shipments that could ease a global food crisis in which millions face hunger.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov each signed separate but identical agreements with UN and Turkish officials on reopening blocked Black Sea delivery routes.
“It gives some hope but you can’t believe what the Russians say,” said Mykola Zaverukha, a farmer with some 13,000 tonnes of grain waiting for export in the southern Mykolaiv region.
“Russia is unreliable, they have shown themselves to be year after year.”
Ukrainian officials said they did not want to put their name on the same document as the Russians because of the five-month war.
Ukraine presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak cautioned that Russian breaches of the deal and incursions around Ukraine’s ports would be met with “an immediate military response”.
The first major accord between the warring sides — brokered with the UN and Turkey — came as Russian forces battered Ukraine’s southern coast and left several dead in the industrial Donbas.
The deal was struck at the lavish Dolmabahce Palace on the Bosphorus Strait with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The five-month war is being fought across one of Europe’s most fertile regions by two of the world’s biggest grain producers.
Up to 25 million tonnes of wheat and other grain have been blocked in Ukrainian ports by Russian warships and landmines Kyiv has laid to avert a feared amphibious assault.
Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko told AFP late Thursday that Kyiv would only accept solutions that guarantee the security of its southern regions, the position of its forces in the Black Sea and the safe export of agricultural products.
Under the terms of the elusive accord, Ukraine would export grain through the Black Sea ports of Odessa, Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk, with the hope of expanding the offering over time, a Ukrainian politician Rustem Umerov told reporters Thursday.
Despite hopes for a breakthrough, Russian forces pursued a relentless shelling campaign in the eastern Donetsk region, which has been the focus of Russia’s campaign in recent months.
“Five killed and 10 wounded in the region in the last 24 hours,” the Ukrainian presidency announced Friday.
In the Donetsk village of Chasiv Yar, which was hit by a strike on July 10 that killed more than 45 people, a 64-year-old woman gathered apricots near the wreckage.
“There is nothing anymore. The officials have left. We have to fend for ourselves to stay alive,” said Lyudmila, who only gave her first name.
In the south, Ukraine said Russian forces were shelling villages along the frontline in the Kherson area, where Kyiv’s army is trying to claw back Moscow-occupied territory.
RUSSIA’S HUNGER GAMES
Ukraine’s first lady made an emotional plea to US politicians for more weapons to fight “Russia’s Hunger Games”.
“Help us to stop this terror against Ukrainians,” Olena Zelenska said during an appearance before the US Congress.
Against a backdrop of images purporting to show children killed or maimed during the conflict, Ms Zelenska said millions of feared for their children.
Among them was Liza Dmitrieva, a four-year-old with Down’s syndrome pictured in her mother’s video happy on her stroller an hour before she was killed by a Russian strike last week in Vinnytsia.
There was also a three-year-old boy in Germany learning how to use prosthetic limbs.
“How many children like him are there in Ukraine? How many families like this may still be destroyed by war? These are Russia’s ‘Hunger Games,’” she said, referencing the fictional novels.
“We want every father and every mother to be able to tell their child, ‘Go to sleep peacefully, there will be no more air strikes, no more missile strikes.’ Is this too much to wish for?” Zelenska added.
Acknowledging that it was unusual for a first lady to seek weapons, she said it was vital Ukraine acquired air-defence systems “in order for rockets not to kill children in their strollers,” she said.
She invoked both the memory of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the US Declaration of Independence’s call for all people to enjoy “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Both President Joe Biden, whom she met Tuesday, and the US Congress have been enthusiastic about supplying weapons to Ukraine, approving a $40 billion package in May.
But with Russian forces advancing in the east, Ukraine has been seeking to secure a more steady flow of weapons including longer-range precision rockets.
US politicians applauded Zelenska as she thanked them for assistance and said, “While Russia kills, America saves.”
PUTIN HUMILIATED ON TV
Russia threatened to roll its tanks and artillery further west towards Europe after a limping Vladimir Putin was humiliated on TV.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan kept a “frazzled” Putin, who was filmed earlier limping and struggling to walk, standing for an excruciating 48 seconds as TV and news cameras filmed the awkward wait.
It came two years after the Russian president did the same to his Turkish counterpart, with Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu quickly beaming the payback to the world.
Putin shrugs as Erdogan finally walks into the room and the pair shake hands ahead of bilateral talks in Iran over grain shipments from Ukraine and security in Syria.
“Sweet payback for Erdogan who in 2020 was humiliated by Putin as he made him wait 2 minutes in a power game play in Russia,” tweeted Joyce Karam, a senior correspondent for The National.
Karam added that Putin appeared “frazzled” and grimaced as the two posed for photos ahead of the talks.
Following the meeting, Putin told Russian reporters certain conditions must be met “if they sincerely want to improve the situation on the international food markets”.
Soon after the power between the two leaders, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov threatened to expand beyond the Donbas and roll its war machine deep into the west of Ukraine.
He added that the geographical objectives of their “special military operation” would not be limited to the east of Ukraine if long-range weapons are delivered to Kyiv, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin recently said that the United States will send four additional high-mobility artillery rocket systems (Himars) to Ukraine.
PUTIN LIMPS ALONG RED CARPET
A shaky Vladimir Putin has fuelled more rumours about his deteriorating health after he was seen limping along a red carpet as he arrived in Tehran for talks on Tuesday on the Syrian war.
The Russian President, who has been plagued by speculation that he is suffering from Parkinson’s or cancer, was seen getting off the plane while not moving his right arm.
In recent months, Mr Putin has been dogged by claims of his failing health which has been fuelled by footage of his bloated face, slouching posture, and constant gripping for support.
Mr Putin’s trip to Iran is only the second time he has travelled abroad since ordering the invasion of Ukraine in order to attend the gathering that also involves Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The summit comes days after US President Joe Biden visited the Middle East for the first time in his presidency, with stops in Iran’s regional foes Israel and Saudi Arabia.
It is the first hosted by Iran’s ultra-conservative president Ebrahim Raisi since he took office last year and is ostensibly aimed at ending more than 11 years of conflict in Syria.
All three are involved in the conflict, with Iran and Russia supporting Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey backing rebel forces.
Ahead of the trilateral meeting, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met Erdogan, who has repeatedly threatened to launch a new military offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Syria.
Khamenei warned the Turkish leader that such a move would be “detrimental” for the region and called for the issue to be resolved through dialogue between Ankara, Damascus, Moscow and Tehran.
Erdogan, speaking later at a joint news conference with his Iranian counterpart, said Kurdish militias caused “great trouble” for both Iran and Turkey.
“We should fight against these terrorist organisations in solidarity and alliance,” he added.
The presidents also oversaw the signing of a number of agreements in different fields, including in trade and economy.
BIDEN WELCOMES UKRAINE’S FIRST LADY TO WHITE HOUSE
Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska has been greeted with a bouquet of sunflowers from President Joe Biden and his wife Jill on Tuesday in show support for her country’s fight against the nearly five-month-old Russian invasion.
The president’s bouquet included blue hydrangeas — in a nod to the blue and yellow colours of Ukraine’s flag — as well as white orchids, according to a pool reporter.
Ukraine’s first lady, 44, is visiting Washington to liaise with US leaders about the multibillion-dollar effort to arm Kyiv’s military and financially prop up its government as it fights off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
And while the US President Biden had no public events on his Tuesday schedule, he didn’t join a subsequent meeting in the Blue Room between a delegation of Ukrainians led by Mrs Zelenska and US representatives led by Mrs Biden, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff and US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
“One of the things that I said when I came back was you cannot go into a war zone and come back and not feel the sorrow and pain,” Mrs Biden said.
Reporters were removed from the room before Mrs Zelenska spoke.
The Ukrainian first lady will address members of Congress on Wednesday on behalf of her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
UKRAINE GRAIN
Erdogan has for months been offering to meet Putin in a bid to help resolve heightened global tensions.
“The timing of this summit is not a coincidence,” Russian analyst Vladimir Sotnikov said.
“Turkey wants to conduct a ‘special operation’ in Syria just as Russia is implementing a ‘special operation’ in Ukraine.” Turkey has launched waves of attacks on Syria since 2016, targeting Kurdish militias as well as Islamic State group jihadists and Assad loyalists.
In their talks, Putin and Erdogan would discuss mechanisms to export grain from Ukraine, a Kremlin source said.
Russia’s war on Ukraine has massively hampered shipments from one of the world’s biggest exporters of wheat and other grain, sparking fears of global food shortages.
Turkey - a NATO member on speaking terms with both Russia and Ukraine — has spearheaded efforts to resume the grain deliveries.
Ultimately, Erdogan is hoping to get “the green light” from Putin and Raisi for Turkey’s military operation in Syria, said Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned on Monday that Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports threatens supplies to countless thousands vulnerable to starvation.
Borrell dubbed the issue “one of life and death for many human beings”.
‘IRAN-PHOBIA’
On Sunday, a day after Biden ended his tour of the Middle East, Iran accused the United States of provoking crises in the region.
Biden had vowed the US would not “tolerate efforts by any country to dominate another in the region through military build-ups, incursions, and/or threats”, in reference to Iran.
In a speech at a Saudi summit of Gulf Arab states as well as Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, Biden assured those gathered that the US would remain fully engaged in the Middle East.
“We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran,” he said.
Following the meeting, a joint statement committed the leaders to “preserve regional security and stability”.
It also underscored diplomatic efforts to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, a goal the Islamic republic has always denied seeking.
On Sunday, Iran accused the US of having “once again resorted to the failed policy of Iran-phobia, trying to create tensions and crises in the region”.
The US last week alleged Iran plans to deliver “hundreds of drones” to Russia to aid its war on Ukraine, an accusation the Islamic republic dismissed as “baseless”.
‘MEDIEVAL SIEGE MENTALITY’
A top foreign affairs specialist and former White House adviser has revealed how Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to overcome problems the country is facing due to the onset of unprecedented Western sanctions.
Following Mr Putin’s decision to send troops into Ukraine, there are more than 11,000 sanctions imposed against Russia, with almost 9000 of those coming into effect after February.
The “special military operation” that the Russian tyrant initially claimed would take only a matter of days, has stretched on for almost five months with no end in sight.
Questions have now been raised over how long Russia can survive the problems caused by the sanctions.
US National Security Council’s former senior director, Fiona Hill, said Mr Putin is essentially playing mind games to try to pressure Western nations to drop the sanctions against Russia.
Ms Hill said Mr Putin has a “classical medieval siege mentality” and believes he can “wait us all out.”
“He’s going to try to make it as easy for himself as possible. Russia can keep on terrorising everybody and lobbing missiles all over the place. [It] can keep on putting an embargo on grain and making it very difficult,” Ms Hill told Foreign Policy Magazine.
“Putin’s assumption is that the Turks, the Lebanese, the African Union and everybody will start putting pressure on the United States and the West because he’s saying, ‘That’s the result of their sanctions.’
“Which it isn’t, of course – it’s him deliberately manipulating famine in Africa to put us all in the hot seat as the bad guys here. Putin’s game is to have us defeat ourselves, basically, because we can’t imagine being able to sustain this over several years.”
Australia is among the Western countries who have imposed a number of different sanctions on Russian individuals and entities, sanctions on the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and import and export sanctions.
The first impacts almost every Russian state bank, sovereign wealth funds, many Russian oligarchs and their family members, and members of the Russian Government.
Australia also expanded its list of import and export sanctions goods, making it an offence for any citizen or corporation to be involved in the export of certain goods to Russia.
These goods include aluminium ores, aluminium oxide and aluminium hydroxide, as well as luxury goods such as purebred horses, caviar, crustaceans, truffles, wine, tobacco, pearls and artwork.
PUTIN’S RIGHT-HAND MAN POISONED IN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
One of Vladimir Putin’s key aides has reportedly survived an attempted assassination by poisoning, according to a sensational new claim by Kremlin insiders.
Nikolai Patrushev, 71, head of the Russian security council and former head of the FSB secret service, was reportedly rushed to hospital in recent days after falling unwell.
According to sources in the Kremlin, toxicology test results revealed that Mr Patrushev had been afflicted by a “synthetic poison”, but had ultimately survived the attempt on his life.
“It is known that Nikolai Patrushev felt unwell in the evening after work, almost immediately after he went home,” the source claimed.
“Security quickly worked, immediately calling a team of doctors to him.
“After the examination, the medical workers who arrived said that urgent hospitalisation was necessary and Patrushev was taken by the FSO officers in their transport, accompanied by medical workers, to the medical unit that serves the president.”
“After rendering assistance, Patrushev was taken home in a stable condition. The results of his analysis confirmed that the toxic substance was a synthetic poison.”
These sensational allegations appeared anonymously on the General SVR channel on the messaging app Telegram, which claims to have insider sources in the Kremlin.
“Information about both the assassination attempt itself and the investigation into this assassination attempt is kept in strict secrecy,” the post said.
The report claimed that Mr Patrushev “was saved by timely medical care and, probably, by an insufficiently high concentration of the poisonous substance that entered the body through the skin”.
It was also claimed Mr Putin was told of the alleged attack only “when Patrushev’s life was no longer in danger”.
Mr Patrushev — who hasn’t been spotted in public for much of the past month — is seen as Mr Putin’s right-hand man, having known the 69-year-old since both were in the KGB back in the 1970s.
He is widely seen as the man to whom Putin hands power when he is absent for medical treatment, and is also a key architect of the war in Ukraine.
His son Dmitry, 44, Russia’s agriculture minister, has been tipped by some pundits as Mr Putin’s likely successor.
‘DOOMSDAY’: MOSCOW’S CHILLING THREAT AS UKRAINE TARGETS CRIMEA
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned an attack on Crimea would prompt a “doomsday” response after Ukraine threatened to strike the annexed peninsula.
If Crimea is attacked, “Judgment Day will come very fast and hard. It will be very difficult to hide,” Medvedev said, according to a translation by TASS news agency.
While he did not explain what “Judgement Day” would be, he has previously threatened that punishing a nuclear power could endanger humanity.
The threat came after Ukrainian Minister of Defence Vadym Skibitskyi said Russian military facilities in occupied Crimea are on the target list for recently deployed US HIMARS missiles.
Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, also told a meeting of World War Two veterans that an attack on Crime was an attack on Russia.
“If any other state, be it Ukraine or NATO countries, believes that Crimea is not Russian, then this is a systemic threat for us,” he said, according to Interfax news agency.
“This is a direct and an explicit threat, especially given what has happened to Crimea. Crimea returned to Russia.”
Russia occupied the Black Sea peninsula in 2014 and has claimed it as its territory since.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said they would not be intimidated by Medvedev’s “doomsday” remark.
“A little man forgotten by history, trying to seem serious and scary, but in reality causing only pity,” he said.
“Look how cynical it is to say the same thing today - on the next anniversary of Russia’s destruction of the Malaysian Boeing in the sky over the Ukrainian Donbass.”
During Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Russian forces shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on July 17, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.
ZELENSKYY SACKS TOP OFFICIALS AMID TREASON PROBE
Ukraine faced new turmoil on Sunday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announcing he sacked his top two law enforcement officials, in the government’s most serious shake-up since Russia launched its deadly invasion in February.
The domestic crisis came as the European Union prepared to discuss tightening sanctions against Russia on Monday, and as Kyiv accused Moscow of launching fresh strikes on multiple residential areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The new attacks came after Moscow announced it would step up its military operations and Ukraine accused Russia of installing missile launchers at Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
Mr Zelenskyy said he was firing prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova and security chief Ivan Bakanov amid a high number of cases of suspected treason by Ukrainian law enforcement officials.
In a national address, Mr Zelenskyy said over 650 cases of suspected treason and aiding and abetting Russia by Ukrainian security officials are currently being investigated, including 60 cases of officials who he said have remained in territories occupied by Russia and are “working against our state.”
“Such a great number of crimes against the foundations of national security and the connections established between Ukrainian law enforcement officials and Russian special services pose very serious questions to the relevant leaders,” Mr Zelenskyy said.
“Each such question will be answered.”
Mr Zelenskyy also highlighted the devastating military might Moscow has used against Ukraine, saying that as of Sunday Russian forces have launched more than 3,000 cruise missiles on targets in Ukraine.
RUSSIA ACCUSED OF ‘STORING WEAPONS IN NUCLEAR PLANT’
The European Union will discuss tightening sanctions against Russia on Monday, as Moscow is accused of using the continent’s largest nuclear power plant to store weapons and launch missiles on the surrounding regions of southern Ukraine.
The situation at the captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is “extremely tense”, Ukraine’s atomic energy agency chief Petro Kotin said, adding that the Russians had installed missile launchers and used the facility to shell the Dnipro region.
Describing “a deluge of fire”, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko on Saturday said Grad missiles had pounded residential areas.
“Rescuers found two dead people under the ruins” in the riverside city of Nikopol, he said.
With the conflict grinding on and increasingly spilling out into global energy and food crises, the EU’s foreign ministers are considering banning gold purchases from Russia, which would align with sanctions already imposed by G7 partners.
More Russian figures could also be placed on the EU’s blacklist. “Moscow must continue to pay a high price for its aggression,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after forwarding the proposed measures.
Brussels is expected to hold initial sanctions discussions Monday, but not make a same-day decision, according to a senior EU official.
More than 20 weeks since Russia invaded its neighbour, killing thousands and displacing millions of Ukrainians, Moscow announced on Saturday that it would step up its military operations.
Minister Sergei Shoigu “gave the necessary instructions to further increase” military pressure, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.
The war-ravaged nation’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already accused Russia of seeking to inflict maximum damage, but pledged that Ukraine would “endure”.
In his Saturday evening address, Zelenskyy said Ukraine has “withstood Russia’s brutal blows” and managed to take back some of the territory it lost since the start of the war, and will eventually recapture more occupied land.
“We will endure. We will win,” he said, and “rebuild our lives”. While the heaviest fighting has continued to focus on the industrial Donbass region in the east, in the northeast near Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, the bombardments have been fast and hard in recent days.
A Russian missile attack killed three in the town of Chuguiv over the weekend and destroyed a residential house and a local school.
“Why me? Just because I was born in Ukraine?” asked resident Raiysa Kuval as she sat on the rubble.
“We were leaving peacefully, and they tore apart mother from father, child from mother, brother from sister … It’s unbearable.”
In the embattled Donbass region, grinding trench battles and artillery duels have morphed into a war of attrition.
Moscow-backed separatists said Friday they were closing in on their next target, Siversk, after wresting control of sister cities Lysychansk and Severodonetsk about 30 kilometres to its east.
Donetsk separatist official Daniil Versonov said rebel fighters were “clearing” eastern districts of Siversk in small groups.
Hundreds of kilometres from the frontline, missile strikes caused heavy civilian casualties in the central city Vinnytsia, with the death toll raised to 24 on Saturday.
“Unfortunately, one woman died in hospital today, she was 85 per cent burned,” said Sergei Borzov, the governor of Vinnytsia region, adding that 68 people were still receiving treatment, including four children.
In the face of international condemnation, the Russian Defence Ministry said it had targeted a meeting in Vinnytsia of the “command of the Ukrainian Air Force with representatives of foreign arms suppliers”.
But a senior U.S. defence official said on condition of anonymity that he had “no indication” there was a military target nearby.
PUTIN HEALTH RUMOURS ‘WISHFUL THINKING’: MILITARY CHIEF
The head of Britain’s armed forces has dismissed as “wishful thinking” speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin is suffering from ill-health or could be assassinated.
As the Conservative party chooses a successor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Admiral Tony Radakin also said Britain’s next leader should be aware that Russia poses “the biggest threat” to the UK and that its challenge would endure for decades.
“I think some of the comments that he’s not well or that actually surely somebody’s going to assassinate him or take him out, I think they’re wishful thinking,” the chief of the defence staff said of Putin, in a BBC television interview broadcast on Sunday, local time.
“As military professionals we see a relatively stable regime in Russia. President Putin has been able to quash any opposition, we see a hierarchy that is invested in President Putin and so nobody at the top has got the motivation to challenge President Putin,” Radakin added.
“And that is bleak.”
Ukraine will dominate military briefings for Johnson’s successor when he or she takes office on September 6, Radakin said.
“And then we have to remind the prime minister of the extraordinary responsibility they have with the UK as a nuclear power, and that is part of the initiation for a new British prime minister.”
- Additional reporting by AFP
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