Putin suffers fresh blow in Ukraine war as ninth general killed in combat

EXCLUSIVE: Two-time BAFTA nominee Maxine Peake (The Village) is set to star as renowned Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in the timely Cannes market package Mother Russia.

Participants in the 2019 Kyiv Pride march in Ukraine (Pic: Kyiv Pride / Victor Vysochin / @arrideo.photography)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly outraged about his secret gymnast lover falling pregnant again.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentIconoclastic Russian auteur Kirill Serebrennikov (“Leto,” “Petrov’s Flu”) will be unveiling footage in Cannes from his new work-in-progress film “Limonov, the Ballad of Eddie,” starring Ben Whishaw as radical Russian poet and dissident Eduard Limonov and Viktoria Miroshnichenko (“Beanpole”) as his wife Elena.Serebrennikov, who will coming to Cannes with his latest completed work “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” premiering in competition, was shooting “Limonov” in Russia when the war broke out. The director has since been able to leave the country and will complete the rest of the shoot in Europe.A “Limonov” promo reel will be unspooled for buyers in Cannes on May 17.

Pussy Riot’s Masha Alyokhina has escaped from Russia as president Vladimir Putin continues to crack down on dissidents in the country.Alyokhina, along with her bandmates, has been arrested and imprisoned multiple times over the past decade and more for publicly protesting Putin’s rule, most recently last year when she was detained for 48 hours after attending protests encouraging others to protest on social media.Amid the continued Russian invasion of Ukraine, a new story in The New York Times reveals that Alyokhina was under house arrest and, when authorities decided to turn that into a 21-day jail sentence last month, she decided to flee Russia.The story outlines Alyokhina’s escape, which included posing as a food courier and being placed on Russia’s wanted list after being refused entry into Belarus on account of her Russian passport having been confiscated by authorities.The report then reveals that Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson was able to assist Alyokhina in getting her a travel document from a European country that allowed her to travel freely from Russia to the EU. It adds that she has now travelled to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.“I still don’t understand completely what I’ve done,” she said in the piece.

As Russian president Vladimir Putin was preparing to address the nation Monday morning during the annual Victory Day parade commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, local television menus were reportedly hacked with program descriptions on smart TVs replaced by a message reading, “The blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of murdered children is on your hands. TV and the authorities are lying. No to war.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of preparing to invade Russia and told soldiers they are fighting for the future of their 'motherland' in a Victory Day speech in the country's capital on Monday (9 May).

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it is clear now that Russian President Vladimir Putin is responsible for “heinous war crimes” following a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

Vladimir Putin has flexed his military supremacy and arsenal of nuclear weapons in a chilling new threat to the West.