The Kremlin expressed alarm on Wednesday that the “Doomsday Clock” had edged closer to midnight than ever, even though the scientists who moved the symbolic dial cited Moscow’s own “thinly veiled threats” to use nuclear weapons. The “Doomsday Clock,” created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to illustrate how close humanity has come to…

MOSCOW—The Kremlin said on Friday that Russian forces’ withdrawal from Kherson would not change the status of the region, which Moscow has proclaimed part of Russia after moving to annex it from Ukraine. Russia claimed Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions after holding what it called referendums in September—votes that were denounced by Kyiv and…

A top Russian leader on Saturday urged the Kremlin to consider deploying low-yield nuclear weapons in Ukraine after Russian troops retreated from Lyman. Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Chechnya, wrote on Telegram that he believes “more drastic measures should be taken, right up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use…

A top Russian official on Thursday warned that nuclear weapons could be used to defend annexed Ukrainian regions, days after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech announcing the partial mobilization of national forces. “The Donbas republics and other territories will be accepted into Russia,” former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the current deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council,…

KYIV, Ukraine—The U.N. atomic watchdog agency urged Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday to establish a “nuclear safety and security protection zone” around the Zaporizhzhia power plant amid mounting fears the fighting could trigger a catastrophe in a country still scarred by the Chernobyl disaster. “We are playing with fire, and something very, very catastrophic could…

KYIV, Ukraine—Europe’s largest nuclear plant was knocked off Ukraine’s electricity grid Monday, its last transmission line disconnected because of a fire caused by shelling, the facility’s operator and the U.N. atomic watchdog said. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was informed Monday by Ukrainian authorities that the reserve line “was deliberately disconnected in…

Russia’s seaborne crude exports rose in the week of April 16–22, potentially serving to further bolster President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Forty tankers loaded about 28 million barrels of oil from Russian export terminals in that week, according to vessel-tracking data and port agent reports collected and analyzed by Bloomberg. That means that the…

Russia has no plans to kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or remove him from office, said a top Kremlin spokesman on Wednesday. Speaking to state-run media, spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to a question about whether Russia wants Zelenskyy dead: “No, this is not true.” He added that Russian authorities “have never talked about the occupation of…

A top Kremlin official this week ruled out using nuclear force over the conflict in Ukraine. “No one is thinking about using—about even the idea of using a nuclear weapon,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told PBS on Monday evening. Last week, Peskov suggested in an interview with CNN that Russia would consider using nuclear…

Retaliatory visa measures are being developed in Russia, said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday as another top Kremlin official said U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent comments are a “cause for concern.” During public comments, Lavrov said that the new visa measures would restrict entry for citizens from “unfriendly” nations. He did not provide details about…