Putin taunts America by changing the address of the American embassy in Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin mocked the United States but changed the address of the US embassy in Moscow to name it after pro-Kremlin separatists in Ukraine.

Moscow authorities said on Wednesday they had changed the official address of the US embassy in the Russian capital after naming a previously unnamed open space in front of the building’s main entrance.

He said the embassy is now located at 1 Donetsk People’s Republic Square, referring to a breakaway region in eastern Ukraine that Moscow recognized as independent shortly before sending troops there. troops.

The Embassy’s former address was 8 Bolshoi Devyatinsky Lane.

The statement added that the change was made after Moscow advisers offered to honor the “defenders of Donbass” – a predominantly Russian-speaking region of Ukraine that Russia says it is liberating as part of its military campaign – on the map of Moscow.

In February 2018, a street outside the Russian Embassy in Washington (pictured) is named after Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician who was shot dead outside the Kremlin in 2015.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday) taunted the US but changed the address of the US Embassy in Moscow to name it after pro-Kremlin separatists in Ukraine

The new address was chosen in a public vote attended by nearly 280,000 people, the town hall said.

In February 2018, a street outside the Russian Embassy in Washington was named after Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician who was shot dead outside the Kremlin in 2015.

President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, further heightening already high tensions between Moscow and the United States.

A few days before the invasion, Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing the independence of the pro-separatist regions of Ukraine, Donetsk and Lugansk.

Ukrainian forces have been fighting pro-Russian rebels in the region since 2014 in a conflict that has claimed some 14,000 lives.

Areas of Donetsk and neighboring Lugansk that were occupied by pro-Russian rebels before the war started – the so-called “people’s republics” – announced a general mobilization in late February, just before the war broke out. .

All men under the age of 55 have been banned from leaving the territory and warned that they could be called upon to join the fighting.

Since then, Denis Pushilin – leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic – has been forced to raise the age to 65 because so few men have been found to join the army.

Residents of the occupied areas – many of whom consider Ukraine their home country – have described thousands of men going into hiding to avoid conscription.

Russian troops have occupied Kherson since its capture at the start of the war, but have been attacked by pro-Ukrainian rebels.

A Russian military transport with the letter ‘Z’ painted on the side stands guard on a street in Kherson, near where separatist soldiers were fighting

Russian troops and dogs patrol the streets of Kherson, which has been under occupation since early March when Putin’s men captured it

Men of fighting age are said to hide in basements and back rooms of houses where no men are registered, as conscription is organized by address.

All those who did not escape conscription were sent back to the front, often poorly armed and with aging Soviet equipment – some dating from World War II.

DPR units were photographed fighting in Mariupol, Donbass and the southern region of Kherson.

Russian forces suffered heavy casualties during the war, which has now lasted more than three months, and DPR forces were no exception.

In an update late last month, the government reported total casualties of 1,912 soldiers killed and 7,919 wounded since the start of the war.

In 2015, the DPR’s total military strength was estimated to be between 30,000 and 35,000, meaning that almost a third of this force is now out of action.