The Russian Government on Friday issued a stern warning to the United States, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom for accusing it of sponsoring protests in Nigeria.

Russia, in a release, said the countries should rather be blamed for attempting to interfere in Nigeria’s internal affairs and undermine its bilateral relations with Russia.

The warning comes amid growing concerns over foreign influence following the October 1st protests across Nigeria.

The protests followed earlier demonstrations on August 1, which were sparked by dissatisfaction with President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, including the removal of fuel and electricity subsidies and the devaluation of the naira.

During the August protests in Kano, several protesters were arrested after waving Russian flags, raising concerns of foreign interference.

The presence of the flags raised an alarm among Nigerians given Russia’s growing presence in West Africa.

In continuation of the expression of their grievances, some youths held another round of protest on October 1 in some parts of the country.

In response, the Russian Press Secretary, Yury Paramonov, rejected claims made by certain Western and Ukrainian media outlets that Russia could be behind the unrest.

According to the embassy, figures such as the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken; a former Director of the British Council in Nigeria, David Roberts; and Ukraine’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Ivan Kholostenko, suggested that the presence of Russian flags in recent protests was evidence of Russia’s interference.

“I would like to share with you our note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, which we sent at the end of September when there were rumors of potential unrest in Nigeria, and the embassies of the USA, the UK, and Ukraine were prematurely trying to blame Russia for it. As expected, all these claims turned out to be fabrications and attempts to create discord between the friendly peoples of Russia and Nigeria.

“The Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Federal Republic of Nigeria has taken note of the media reports circulating about possible protests in Nigeria at the beginning of October this year.

“The embassy is also dismayed by the fact that certain Western and Ukrainian media outlets are attempting to preemptively accuse Russia of involvement in, or even organising such unrest.

“In particular, statements by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former Director of the British Council in Nigeria David Roberts, and the Ambassador of Ukraine to Nigeria Ivan Kholostenko have shamelessly and baselessly suggested that the use of Russian flags during recent protests is evidence of Russia’s interference and have further warned that this could happen again in the future,” the statement read in part.

The Russian embassy dismissed the accusations as baseless, reiterating that the country had no involvement in the protests.

In contrast, the embassy pointed to what it described as a coordinated media campaign by Western and Ukrainian officials, accusing them of attempting to meddle in Nigeria’s internal matters and shift blame onto Russia.

The embassy reaffirmed the strength of Russia’s relations with Nigeria and reiterated its support for peaceful dialogue within the legal framework to resolve any internal issues.

Russia, the statement added, stands firmly behind Nigeria’s leadership and its people.

The statement added, “The embassy categorically rejects such accusations and reiterates that the Russian Federation neither had any involvement in the protests that occurred in the recent past, nor does it have any connection to any potential future demonstrations or unrest.

“Russia has always respected the sovereignty of Nigeria. We strictly adhere to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of independent states. By contrast, the coordinated media campaign by Western and Ukrainian officials and outlets clearly points to their attempts to meddle in Nigeria’s internal affairs and shift the blame for any consequences onto the Russian Federation.

“We greatly value the relations between our two countries, support only peaceful dialogue within the legal framework as the proper means to resolve any internal disputes, and once again express our unwavering support for the leadership and the people of Nigeria.

In response to Russia’s warning, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Ivan Kholostenko, issued statement, condemning the Russian regime and its actions on the global stage.

Kholostenko described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, as an “unprovoked and unjustified aggressive war” aimed at fully occupying Ukraine and erasing its national identity.

“Ukraine knows perfectly well what the Russian regime is. And we would like to refer to the truthful facts.

“The truth is that the Russian army commits awful and numerous war crimes and atrocities in the territory of Ukraine every day. Russians kill, rape and torture civilians, including women and children,” Kholostenko said.

He also accused Russia of deliberately sabotaging international food security by withdrawing from the Black Sea Grain Initiative and targeting Ukrainian grain exports.

Kholostenko further cited the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, issued in March 2023 for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories, as evidence of Russia’s disregard for international law.

“All these atrocities and war crimes have been and still are being committed under Russian flags,” Kholostenko said, vowing that Russia would face just punishment under international law for its actions.

Interfax, a Russian news agency, reports that Russia’s Armed Forces and the Federal Security Service have expressed their belief that it is feasible for the voting process to proceed in regions where conflict persists. This statement comes as Russia’s war against Ukraine approaches its two-year mark.

According to Russian law, the CEC may hold elections in areas that are subject to martial law, but only after first conferring with the Defence Ministry and FSB, Moscow Times reports.

The Kremlin has announced the annexation of several regions in Ukraine. The areas affected include Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.

“Not only is the electoral system of the four [occupied regions]… in working order, but it’s highly professional,” said deputy CEC chairman Nikolai Bulayev.

President Vladimir Putin intends to seek a fifth term in office.

He is expected to win given the current political landscape in Russia.

The next year’s presidential election is scheduled for March 15–17.

This was disclosed in a statement to the Office of the President-elect and signed by Tunde Rahman, Vanguard reports.

In a letter of congratulations that he personally signed, Zelenskyy expressed his satisfaction with the orderly conduct of the general elections in Nigeria and specifically commended Tinubu’s election as the country’s new president.

He also stated that his country is eager to further deepen its collaboration with Nigeria.

Zelenskyy used the opportunity of the goodwill message to extend his invitation to the President-elect to visit Ukraine on a State Visit as soon as he settles down in office after the inauguration on May 29, 2023.

The International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday the Olympic Council of Asia had offered Russian and Belarusian athletes the chance to compete in Asia, giving them a qualification pathway for the 2024 Games.

Ukraine said it could boycott the event if Russian and Belarusian athletes take part even if both countries participate under a neutral flag.

“Attempts by the International Olympic Committee to bring Russian athletes back into the Olympic Games are attempts to tell the whole world that terror is somehow acceptable,” he said in his nightly address on Sunday, January 29.

He said Russia must not be allowed to “use (the Games) or any other sport event as propaganda for its aggression or its state chauvinism”.

In a video that circulated online from the aftermath of the incident, cries could be heard at the scene which was consumed by a fire.

There were no immediate details on the cause of the crash.

“In total, 16 people are currently known to have died,” the head of national police, Igor Klymenko, said.

Among the dead are several top officials of the interior ministry including Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky and his first deputy minister, Yevgeniy Yenin, he said.

Monastyrsky, a 42-year-old father of two, was appointed interior minister in 2021.

Twenty two people were hospitalised including 10 children.

Officials said that at the time of the crash children and employees were in the kindergarten.

Medics and police were working at the scene.

The scene of the crash in the town of Brovary is located some 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Kyiv.

Russian and Ukrainian forces fought for control of Brovary in the early stages of Moscow’s invasion until Russia’s troops withdrew in early April.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24 last year.

The crash came on the heels of a tragedy that saw 45 people including six children die when a Russian missile struck a residential building in the eastern city of Dnipro at the weekend.

In an interview with the BBC released Friday, January 13, Reznikov said he was sure Ukraine would receive long-sought weapons, including tanks and fighter jets, as both Ukraine and Russia seemed to be preparing for new offensives in the spring. “This concern about the next level of escalation, for me, is some kind of protocol,” the Ukrainian defence minister said.

“Ukraine as a country, and the armed forces of Ukraine, became [a] member of NATO. De facto, not de jure. Because we have weaponry, and the understanding of how to use it.”

Ukraine, for years, has tried to join NATO, a transatlantic military alliance between the US, Canada and 28 European countries, something President Vladimir Putin has described as a security threat for Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed for fast-track accession last year due to the war, but it is unclear whether full membership is something the alliance members will seriously consider even after the war is over, despite pledges of support.

Article 5 of the NATO Treaty says an armed attack against any member should be considered an attack against all.

Reznikov, however, denied that his comments would be seen as controversial, not only by Russia but, perhaps, by NATO itself, as the alliance has taken steps not to be seen as a party to the conflict.

“Why [would it be] controversial? It’s true. It’s a fact,” Reznikov said. “I’m sure that in the near future, we’ll become member of NATO, de jure.”

The defence minister spoke in the capital, Kyiv, as Russian forces claimed to have captured the small town of Soledar, in the eastern Donetsk region, in some of the most intense battles in the nearly 11-month-old war.

The Russian offensive is led by the mercenary Wagner Group, whose founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, a long-time Putin ally, has become a vocal critic of the Russian army’s performance in Ukraine.

The situation in Soledar was “very difficult”, Reznikov said, but “under control”. He said Wagner fighters were being used in “wave after wave after wave” of attacks, leading to a high number of deaths, and that Prigozhin was interested in the possible economic benefits of seizing the town, home to Europe’s largest salt mines. “They’ll earn money from blood,” he said.

The group need to deliver some kind of proof to declare they’re better than the regular armed forces of the Russian Federation, Reznikov. If seized, Bakhmut could pave the way for a Russian push towards Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, two Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk, a region that has been a key target for President Putin.

Reznikov claimed that “approximately 500 or 600” Russian fighters were being killed every day across the country, while Ukraine was losing a tenth of that. He believed Russia could be trying to gather “forces, ammunition and weapons” for an offensive from areas it already occupies in the south and east.

Ukraine, in the meantime, needed time to regroup and rearm while it waited for the delivery of Western weapons. “Spring is the best period to refresh the movement for all sides,” he said. “We understand they’ll be ready to start and, surely, we have to be ready to start.”

However, rejected claims that Russia could be preparing another invasion from Belarus towards capital Kyiv.

The movement from the north “would take a lot of time and they [Russia] have no resources”, Reznikov said.

The Russian defence ministry has replaced the commander of its forces in Ukraine, putting Gen Valery Gerasimov, to replace Gen Sergei Surovikin, who had been appointed in October.

The change, Reznikov said, was a result of the “conflict between Prigozhin (Wagner boss) and the armed forces of the Russian Federation”.

Gen Surovikin oversaw the recent brutal attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure that, according to Reznikov, “reduced the [Russian missile] stocks without any results”, repeating a Ukrainian claim that “they’re running out of missiles”.

As Poland and the UK revealed plans to deliver battle tanks for the first time, Reznikov said he was sure Ukraine would receive “tanks, fighting aircrafts or jets, and long-range weaponry to hit targets in 300km (186 miles) as well”, because “things were changing” in Western countries.

He dismissed concerns that the announcements could trigger a Russian response.

“I have a war in my country,” he said. “They’re hitting my cities, my hospital, my kindergartens, my schools. They killed a lot of civilians, a lot of civilians. They’re an army of rapists, murderers and looters. What’s the next level of escalation?”

No casualties were reported in the alleged attack, which took place some 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the Ukrainian border in the province of Oryol.

“Today (Wednesday) at 04:00 (0100 GMT), a suspected drone blew up a fuel depot in the village of Stalnoi Kon. There were no casualties,” the governor of the Oryol region, Andrei Klytchkov, said in a statement on Telegram.

Since the launch of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, several fuel or ammunition depots in southern Russia have been attacked by drones or helicopters, with the Russian authorities blaming Ukrainian forces.

Most of the attacks occurred against targets only tens of kilometres from the border, which makes Wednesday’s incident stand out for taking place deeper into the Russian territory.

The blast came after Russia fired dozens of missiles at several towns across Ukraine on Tuesday.

“According to preliminary data, 19 people were killed and 105 more were injured,” Ukraine’s emergency services said on Facebook.

The emergency services previously reported a figure of 14 dead and 97 injured.

Mass retaliatory strikes hit Ukraine nationwide on Monday, after Moscow blamed Kyiv for a blast on a bridge connecting Russia to Crimea, a peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Ukraine said Russian forces had fired more than 80 missiles on cities across the country – including the capital Kyiv – damaging in particular energy facilities.

More than 300 localities were without power across the county following the attacks, the emergency services said.

The emergency services also said Russia on Tuesday morning carried out a strike on Zaporizhzhia, a Ukraine-controlled city in an eponymous region that Moscow claimed to have annexed.

They said 12 S-300 missiles were fired at “civilian” infrastructure, killing one person in the latest of a series of attacks on the city over the past week.

The explosions hit Kyiv around 8:15 am local time (0515 GMT), and an AFP journalist in the city saw numerous ambulances appearing to head toward the scene of the blasts.

“Several explosions in the Shevchenkivskyi district – in the centre of the capital,” Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said on social media.

Videos posted on social media showed black smoke rising above several areas in the city.

Russia’s last strike on Kyiv took place on June 26.

The explosions came a day after Moscow blamed Ukraine for the explosion on a bridge linking Crimea to Russia, leaving three people dead.

“The authors, perpetrators and sponsors are the Ukrainian secret services,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said of Saturday’s Crimea bridge bombing, which he described as a “terrorist act”.

Putin was speaking during a meeting with the head of the investigation committee he has set up to look into the bombing, Russian news agencies reported.

The Russian leader is gearing up for a meeting with his Security Council later Monday, the Kremlin told local news agencies.

“Tomorrow the president has a planned meeting with the permanent members of the Security Council,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The blast that hit the bridge sparked celebrations from Ukrainians and others on social media.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his nightly address on Saturday, did not directly mention the incident, and officials in Kyiv have made no direct claim of responsibility.

On Saturday, Russia said some road and rail traffic had resumed over the strategic link, a symbol of the Kremlin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

The 19-kilometre (12-mile) bridge is a vital supply link between Russia and the annexed Crimean peninsula.

Some military analysts argue that the blast could have a major impact if Moscow sees the need to shift already hard-pressed troops to Crimea from other regions — or if it prompts a rush by residents to leave.

Mick Ryan, a retired Australian senior officer now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that even if Kyiv was not behind the blast, it constituted “a massive influence operation win for Ukraine.

“It is a demonstration to Russians, and the rest of the world, that Russia’s military cannot protect any of the provinces it recently annexed,” he said on Twitter.

“Protest! Fight! Run away! Or become Ukrainian prisoners of war! Those are the options for your survival,” Zelensky said in his daily video address.

He said 55,000 Russian soldiers had already died in Ukraine.

Zelensky also appealed to mothers and wives of Russian men called up for service.

Do not doubt this, the children of your country’s leaders will not take part in the war against Ukraine.