últimas notícias

Russian President Vladimir Putin granted citizenship to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Snowden’s name appears as one of approximately 70 foreign nationals listed in a decree and approved by Putin for Russian citizenship.

The former NSA intelligence officer turned U.S. government whistleblower fled to Hong Kong and later to Russia in to evade federal prosecution after leaking classified documents to journalists. He was granted asylum in Russia in 2013 and later permanent residency. Snowden, 39, has remained in Russia ever since.

Putin’s decision to grant Snowden citizenship comes just days after ordering approximately 300,000 people to join the fight in Ukraine.

— Amanda Macias

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that his country will increase its support to Ukraine while also backing new sanctions against Russia.

“More weapons, more sanctions, more isolation of Russia,” Rutte wrote on Twitter.

“Because of Russia’s mobilization and mock referendums. Protecting Europe is crucial to our security,” he added.

Rutte also said that he spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the additional support the Netherlands is expected to provide.

— Amanda Macias

Amid increasing public anger about Russia’s mobilization drive, two of the country’s most senior lawmakers ordered regional officials to solve the “excesses” that have stoked protests and seen flocks of military-age men attempt to flee.

Valentina Matviyenko and Vyacheslav Volodin both took to the Telegram messaging app to address what they said were the many complaints from the public about the mistakes that were made when recruiting civilians into the military.

“Appeals are coming in,” Volodin, speaker of the Duma, Russia’s lower chamber of Parliament, said in a post Sunday. “Each case should be dealt with separately. If a mistake is made, it must be corrected,” he said.

“All levels of government must understand their responsibility,” he added.

Videos posted to social media have also shown arguments between military recruiters and reservists, as well as members of the public, prompting even ultra-loyal pro-Kremlin figures to publicly express concern.

Read the full story from NBC News.

More than 7.4 million Ukrainians have become refugees and moved to neighboring countries since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the U.N. Refugee Agency estimates.

More than 4.1 million of those people have applied for temporary resident status in neighboring Western countries, according to data collected by the agency.

“The escalation of conflict in Ukraine has caused civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure, forcing people to flee their homes seeking safety, protection and assistance,” the U.N. Refugee Agency wrote.

— Amanda Macias

The United Nations has confirmed 5,996 civilian deaths and 8,848 injuries in Ukraine since Russia invaded its ex-Soviet neighbor on Feb. 24.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said the death toll in Ukraine is likely higher, because the armed conflict can delay fatality reports.

The international organization said most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as missiles and airstrikes.

— Amanda Macias

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced an additional $457.5 million aimed at supporting Ukrainian law enforcement and criminal justice agencies.

“In addition to expanding our direct assistance to Ukrainian law enforcement, a portion of this new assistance will also continue U.S. support for the Ukrainian government’s efforts to document, investigate, and prosecute atrocities perpetrated by Russia’s forces, drawing on our long-standing relationship with Ukrainian criminal justice agencies, including the Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General and the NPU’s war crimes unit,” Blinken wrote in a statement.

The $457.5 million brings U.S. commitment to more than $645 million since December.

— Amanda Macias

The Kremlin said it was in “sporadic” contact with Washington on nuclear issues after the two traded threats concerning the use of nuclear weapons, Reuters reported.

Washington over the weekend warned of “horrific consequences” and a decisive U.S. response if Putin were to make good on his threat of using nuclear weapons to defend Russian territory. That territory, in Putin’s eyes, may soon include areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces, where Moscow is now staging highly-criticized referendums to join the Russian Federation.

Ukrainian and Western officials are deriding the votes as a sham with a pre-determined outcome in favor of Russia, which they warn could give Putin a pretext to use nuclear weapons in order to attack forces trying to retake them for Ukraine.

— Natasha Turak

Thousands of Orthodox Jewish pilgrims traveled to Ukraine to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, despite safety warnings not to do so from both Israeli and Ukrainian governments.

The pilgrims descended upon the town of Uman in central Ukraine where a highly respected rabbi, Nachman of Breslov, was buried in 1810. Hasidic Jews have been making the annual pilgrimage since 1991, when the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine’s subsequent independence made the religious celebration more accessible to foreigners.

— Natasha Turak, Getty Images, Reuters

Russian stocks fell sharply on Monday to reach their lowest point since Feb. 24, the day the first Russian troops entered Ukraine.

The MOEX Russia Index was down 6.9% by early afternoon in Europe, having fallen as much as 7.4% earlier in the session.

Markets in Moscow have been in general decline since President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization last week, setting the Russian economy on a war footing and likely prolonging the conflict in Ukraine.

– Elliot Smith

A gunman has been detained after opening fire at a Russian military draft office in the Siberian town of Ust-Ilimsk.

A man who identified himself to police as 25-year-old Ruslan Zinin shot the manager of the draft office at point-blank range, Reuters reported, citing videos of the event published on social media. Reuters and CNBC were not able to independently verify the videos.

The head of the draft office was taken to the hospital and is in critical condition, Irkutsk regional governor Igor Kobzev wrote on the Telegram, adding that the shooter “will absolutely be punished.”

Reuters also reported a man attempting to set himself on fire at a bus station in Ryazan, a city south of Moscow, “shouting that he did not want to fight in Ukraine,” the wire service wrote. He was picked up by an ambulance.

Acts of protest against the Kremlin’s order for “partial mobilization” have been recorded in numerous parts of Russia, with at least 2,000 protesters arrested and long lines of cars forming at borders of Russian men trying to leave the country. Draftees are being overwhelmingly taken from Russia’s poorer and more remote areas like Yakutia, in eastern Siberia, and Dagestan, in the Caucuses.

— Natasha Turak

Russian state news agency RIA has reported turnout levels in the Russian-controlled “referendums” in four of Ukraine’s occupied territories. It said that turnout for the votes so far ranged from 49% in the southern Kherson region to 77% in the eastern Donetsk oblast.

The announced figures are high enough that Moscow will likely deem the results legitimate, although numerous reports and videos have surfaced of people being forced to vote and votes being staged. Voting began on Friday and will run until Tuesday.

Ukrainian and international governments have roundly condemned the referendums, calling them a “sham” and refusing to recognize the results, which they say will be rigged in Russia’s favor.

— Natasha Turak

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a sobering assessment of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning last week that he would use all means at his disposal, widely read as a nod to Russia’s nuclear arsenal, to defend Russian territories.

Russia using nuclear weapons “could be a reality,” Zelenskyy told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“He wants to scare the whole world. These are the first steps of his nuclear blackmail. I don’t think he’s bluffing,” Zelenskyy said.

A Russian-led referendum is underway in the Ukrainian territories that have been occupied by Russia since its invasion in February. Western and Ukrainian governments reject its legitimacy as a sham. But many worry that if Moscow annexes the territories based on the results, those lands will be included in the territory that Putin views as worthy of a potential nuclear response if attacked by Ukrainian forces trying to recapture them.

Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company, is accusing Russian forces of staging referendum votes to make it look like staff of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, have cast their ballots in the Russian-controlled contest.

“They staged another performance near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, pretending to be the staff of the nuclear plant as invited mobsters,” Energoatam wrote in a Telegram post.

“A large group of men in civilian clothes waited for the end of the shift at the station and mingled with its staff who were leaving after the shift. Along the way, those lined up gave interviews to pro-Russian propaganda media and shouted words of support for Russia and the pseudo-referendum, after which they went to the bus in which the “voting” was held and demonstratively filled out the ballots.”

The post added, “This fact once again proves that among the patriotic workers of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, no one volunteered to participate in the occupying farce, so the propagandists were once again forced to make a ‘good’ picture for Russian customers.”

Zaporizhzhia, in southeastern Ukraine, has been under Russian occupation since March.

Voting in the so-called referendum has been underway since Friday, under the control of Russian forces, on whether the Russian-occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson will join the Russian Federation.

Ukrainian and Western officials reject any legitimacy of the referendums, saying they are a sham to justify Russian annexation of the territories, and reports have emerged of armed Russian troops going door-to-door and forcing people to vote.

— Natasha Turak

Protests against Russia’s “partial mobilization” drive are taking place around the country, with reports and videos on social media of clashes between people and police in the Russian republic of Dagestan.

At least 100 people there have been arrested in the regional capital of Makhachkala, according to OVD-Info, an independent Russian human rights group. CNBC has not been able to independently verify the numbers.

Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim region in the mountainous Russian Caucasus, and is overwhelmingly poor. The province has suffered the highest death toll among its troops sent to fight in Ukraine than any other Russian province, the BBC reported.

At least 2,000 people have been arrested in anti-mobilization protests since Wednesday. Putin has said that 300,000 military reservists will be called up for what he still calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

— Natasha Turak

The first troops in Russia’s “partial mobilization” wave have started arriving at military bases, and the country will struggle to arm and train them all properly, security analysts say.

“Unlike most Western armies, the Russian military provides low-level, initial training to soldiers within their designated operational units, rather than in dedicated training establishments,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense wrote in its daily intelligence update on Twitter.

“The lack of military trainers, and the haste with which Russia has started the mobilisation, suggests that many of the drafted troops will deploy to the front line with minimal relevant preparation. They are likely to suffer a high attrition rate,” the ministry wrote.

— Natasha Turak

Washington has issued a warning in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s veiled threat of using nuclear weapons during his speech announcing Russia’s “partial mobilization” last week.

“It’s very important that Moscow hear from us and know from us that the consequences would be horrific. And we’ve made that very clear,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in response to Putin’s remarks during an interview with CBS News.

Putin, during his speech last Wednesday, warned that if the territorial integrity of Russia was threatened, the Kremlin would “certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. It is not a bluff.”

— Natasha Turak