World

Russian troops have pulled out of the city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine due to the risk they were being encircled by Ukrainian forces, a Russian news agency has said. Lyman was in occupied Donetsk, one of the Ukrainian regions that was annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a ceremony in Moscow on Friday.

There was an awful near silence as the war crime investigators went about their business and the bodies of the victims were methodically packed into body bags. We counted at least 15 body bags being loaded one on top of each other into a succession of ambulances. The death toll is higher and includes several

Vladimir Putin has railed against Western “dictatorship” as he declared Russian rule over four regions of Ukraine. It is the biggest forced occupation since the Second World War, amounting to 15% of Ukrainian territory. Russia has been “reborn and strengthened”, the Russian president claimed during a ceremony at the Kremlin. Following a series of referendums

Vladimir Putin has for seven months insisted his invasion of Ukraine was only a special military operation. That way he hoped the conflict would seem distant and contained to the broad Russian public. With his military suffering setback after setback, a week ago he announced the mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of reservists. But even

The Finnish government has said it will ban anyone coming into the country with a tourist visa from Friday following thousands of arrivals after Vladimir Putin’s mobilisation order. Finland closing its border shuts off the last remaining direct land route to the European Union for Russians trying to avoid conscription into the war with Ukraine.

The Swedish coastguard has reportedly found a fourth leak on the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet quoted the coastguard as saying it had located the leak after two pipelines running from Russia to Germany were damaged in three places on Monday. “Two of these four are in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone,” coastguard

They come on foot, bicycles, cars and even electric scooters. They bring what they can which isn’t much, dragging their suitcases behind them. Some have dogs and others cat boxes. They are exhausted after a journey that has taken days, but all seem hugely relieved to have left Putin’s Russia. One couple laughed with relief.

All four of the occupied areas of Ukraine have voted to join Russia after referendums in the republics and regions, pro-Moscow officials have said. British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is one of the many western politicians who earlier described the votes in the self-declared republics of Luhansk and Donetsk and the regions of Kherson and

The Nord Stream pipeline network, part of which supplies Germany with gas from Russia, has been damaged in three places, its operator has said. The damage to the system on the bed of the Baltic Sea – all caused in one day – was “unprecedented”, Nord Stream AG added. The Kremlin said it could not

New satellite images showing large numbers of Russians fleeing to Georgia and Mongolia have been released after Vladimir Putin’s order to mobilise hundreds of thousands of reservists for the conflict in Ukraine. The images show queues of vehicles – cargo trucks and cars – waiting in long traffic jams attempting to get over the borders.

A man has opened fire on an enlistment centre and another recruitment office has been attacked with Molotov cocktails – after Vladimir Putin ordered the conscription of at least 300,000 men in Russia. The violence comes as the first tranche of people ordered to report for duty arrive at military bases, and it follows a

Italy’s Democratic Party has conceded defeat in the country’s election after an exit poll suggested far-right leader Giorgia Meloni’s alliance is leading the vote. The Democratic Party said it would be Italy‘s main opposition force after an exit poll indicated Ms Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party would win 22-26% of the vote. The right-wing coalition

Mahsa Amini, the young woman whose death in police custody has prompted mass protests in Iran, was “tortured and insulted” before she died, her cousin has said. In an exclusive interview with Sky News, Erfan Mortezaei told Sky News about what happened to his cousin and how she has become the “voice of the anger

As Finland looks set to ban Russian tourists from crossing the border to escape being drafted into Vladimir Putin’s army, Estonia has warned residents they will be banned from the EU if they too join up. On Wednesday, Russia’s leader – faced with a series of defeats in Ukraine – announced a partial mobilisation that

Iran’s president says protesters should be “dealt with decisively” following nationwide anti-government unrest sparked by the death of a young woman in police custody. Authorities have been cracking down for days on demonstrators who are angry over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She had been arrested for allegedly wearing “unsuitable attire”. Iranian state TV

The southern counteroffensive by the Ukrainians to recapture the city of Kherson has been known about but unseen. The entire frontline has been closed to everyone for over two weeks, indeed it’s been shrouded in secrecy. After days of negotiation the military relented and allowed Sky News to the Kherson frontline to see what has