Vladimir Putin made a stopover in notorious GULAG city Magadan on his way to meet Donald Trump in Alaska, as the Kremlin’s ‘Doomsday Radio’ blurted out strange coded messages. Putin’s cavalcade sped through the shabby streets of the Russian Pacific port as Ukraine staged multiple drone attacks on his territory to pressure the dictator ahead of today’s summit.
Magadan, eight time zones east of Moscow, is a symbol of Soviet repression as a hub for transporting hundreds of thousands to Stalin’s forced labour camps. He visited a fish oil factory and sports centre, and laid flowers at a memorial, before flying on to Alaska.
Putin - accused of turning back the clock to authoritarianism - today continued striking Ukraine with aerial bombs in Dnipropetrovsk region, with his troops edging forwards on the frontline to make more land gains, grabbing part of Zarechnoye in Donetsk region.
Sinister “Doomsday Radio” burst into life, issuing secret codes ahead of the Trump-Putin talks.
The station - which blurts out messages at times of high tension, and is seen as linked to the Kremlin’s nuclear defence forces - broadcast the signal:
NZHTI 88751 MAREL 5057 6881
NZHTI 03649 STOKOTON 2751 2830
It had issued the same mysterious coded missive six weeks before the start of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The bizarre station - a Cold War relic - has been on air for half a century and usually transmits just buzzing sounds, leading to its nickname The Buzzer.
In a blow, Putin lost a £32 million Su-30SM fighter close to Ukrainian-controlled Snake Island in the Black Sea.
The reason for the crash, which killed the pilot and weapons officer, was not immediately clear.
Putin was hit by Ukrainian bombardment of Olya port in Russia’s Astrakhan region, used to import military goods for his war machine from Iran via the Caspian Sea.
Ukraine also exploded the Syzran Oil Refinery, one of the largest run by Rosneft, in a drone swarm, which triggered deafening explosions and two major fires.
“Early this morning, a massive UAV attack was carried out on the Samara region,” said Putin’s governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev. “According to preliminary data, 13 enemy drones were destroyed.”
Footage showed flames raging at the facility in the latest attack on Russian oil refineries which are causing shortages and price rises.
Explosions rocked Russian-occupied Yenakiieve in Donetsk region after multiple Ukrainian drones launched a massive strike on the town.
In another strike, a residential tower in Kursk region was hit by a Ukrainian drone, causing the death of a woman, with ten people wounded. Fire engulfed the building.
It was unclear if the tower had been deliberately targeted or if the drone had been hit by electric warfare disruption and crashed.
