Selected Reporting

Metro.co.uk • 10th December 2023

Israeli soldiers film themselves burning 'food and water supplies' in Gaza

This is the sickening moment troops from Israel Defence Forces (IDF) appear to be setting fire to humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Footage circulating on social media showed several men in IDF uniforms grinning as they light food packages and stacks of water bottles at the back of a truck.

Shared by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor non-profit, it is claimed to have been filmed in the Shejaiya neghbourhood of Gaza City, which Israel had described as a ‘centre of gravity’ for Hamas.

Overnight strikes hit

Metro.co.uk • 7th December 2023

Women face torture and forced abortions inside North Korea's camps

Kim Kyu-li considers herself ‘the luckiest woman in the world’ after a decade on the run, starvation and forced marriage.

Stories of people defecting from North Korea – like her – are not uncommon. After surviving a catastrophic famine that decimated Kim Jong-Un’s dystopian state in the mid-1990s, she fled to China where she remained for seven years.

‘When I first went to China, I could not understand Chinese language, so I had no idea what the broker was saying, whether he was negotiating to

Metro.co.uk • 30th November 2023

756 'hidden traps' reveal the evil of Putin’s war in Ukraine

Deep inside Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of landmines and unexploded weapons have been hidden.

A third of the territory has been exposed to intense fighting since Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February 2022, and is now believed to be littered with mines and cluster bombs, as well as trip wires, booby traps and grenades concealed in sinister places like children’s toys and kitchen appliances.

This scale of contamination – the largest in Europe since World War II – has slowed Kyiv’s military co

Metro.co.uk • 16th November 2023

Putin's £1,000,000,000 secret weapon has finally been revealed

It’s no secret that Russian troops have looted homes, businesses and museums, taking truckloads of treasures from Ukraine since Vladimir Putin’s invasion began almost two years ago.

But a more insidious war-time theft has been kept under wraps, until now.

Farmers in occupied Zaporizhzhia reported Russian military confiscating their crops just five days after the invasion on February 24, 2022.

Evidence unveiled today shows that since then the Kremlin has pillaged more than £1 billion worth of

Metro.co.uk • 6th November 2023

Russians gun down Georgian civilian in disputed region as tensions flare up

Russian soldiers gunned down a man near the occupation line with Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia where tensions have been simmering for awhile amid the increased borderisation.

Tamaz Ginturi was killed in what is believed to be the first fatal incident there in 15 years, since the ‘five-day’ war.

Border guards patrolling the frontline between the Moscow-backed South Ossetia and Georgian government-held territory shot him while trying to kidnap him.

The incident near the village of

Metro.co.uk • 16th October 2023

Dad filmed protecting son who died in his lap loses brothers 23 years to the day

There is a depth of despair in the eyes of Jamal al-Durrah, who mourned two members of his family killed in Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza.

It was 23 years ago to the day that the Palestinian dad was filmed with his young son Muhammad crouching behind a concrete block on a street in Gaza as Israeli forces rained bullets on them.

Footage taken by cameraman Talal Abu Rahma showed Jamal trying to shield his child from the gunfire as he screamed in terror.

Moments later, after the smoke of an explos

Metro.co.uk • 20th September 2023

Orphans await their fate as Putin's drones inch closer to crucial Ukrainian city

Time is running out for a group of orphans awaiting their fate while Russia continues to pound a Ukrainian city on the Danube River where their home is based.

Rusting Soviet-era docks in Izmail and neighbouring Reni have become targets for kamikaze drones after Russian president Vladimir Putin quit the UN and Turkey-brokered deal that had given safe passage to Ukraine’s grain exports through the Black Sea.

For the past two months, Romanian organisation Fight for Freedom has been working to eva

Metro.co.uk • 19th September 2023

Putin's 'attack dog' wears £1,400 Gucci raincoat in bizarre video

Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov is ‘trolling’ the West with trips to Moscow and ‘milking’ reports of his death, a security analyst has warned.

Rumours about the wellbeing of Vladimir Putin’s ‘puppet ’attack dog’ gained momentum after Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov said he had been sick ‘for a long time’ with ‘systemic health problems’.

There was no evidence to back the claim, but Telegram channels quickly ignited with speculation that Kadyrov is in a coma after being

Metro.co.uk • 16th September 2023

Iran commits acts of 'unspeakable cruelty' one year after Mahsa Amini's death

The Iranian government has committed acts of ‘unspeakable cruelty’ as Iranians mark the one-year anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death.

Over the past 12 months, hundreds of protestors and bystanders have been unlawfully killed during ‘Woman, life, Freedom’ demonstrations.

Iran has only intensified their clampdown on dissent, which has lead to some of the worst political turmoil the country has seen since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The protests were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini who died

Metro.co.uk • 13th September 2023

Inside Kim and Putin's 'arms deal' and what it could mean after rare summit

Vladimir Putin has turned to an old ally to replenish his ammunition supplies while preparing for an offensive in eastern Ukraine, a former security service officer has warned.

There are many signs Russia is set to hammer out an arms deal with North Korea along with ramping up domestic production to continue the full-scale invasion.

A meeting between Kim Jong-un, who rarely travels outside his country, and Putin wrapped up earlier today, with the supreme leader vowing support for Russia’s ‘jus

Metro.co.uk • 12th September 2023

Unmasked: Soldiers who 'enabled' mass torture at Ukrainian school

Dozens of men from military units under Russia’s command were unmasked as ‘enablers’ of unspeakable war crimes in eastern Ukraine.

These are the faces of the pro-Kremlin puppets who allowed the abuse of civilians and prisoners of war during the occupation of Izium, 30 miles from the border.

Exactly one year has passed since the discovery of mass graves in the town, which laid bare the levels of cruelty that Vladimir Putin’s troops are capable of.

Some 436 bodies – mostly of women and children

Metro.co.uk • 7th September 2023

Wagner boss trained Russian convicts to 'finish off' Ukrainian children

Wagner paramilitary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin trained Russian mercenaries to ‘murder children and women’ by throwing grenades through the windows of their homes in Ukraine.

Former prisoners from the Irkutsk region, Alexey Chernyavsky and Maxim Zelenov, fought in the Donetsk region after signing contracts with the PMC in November last year.

Like thousands of others, they were pardoned of their crimes by Vladimir Putin to be deployed to villages near the eastern city of Soledar for what the

Metro.co.uk • 6th September 2023

Boy, 15, who was 'friend to all' killed and dragged down street by drunk driver

A drunk driver ploughed into a 15-year-old boy, killing him on the spot, just seconds after getting into his car.

‘Protect your children,’ the mother of the young victim appealed to other parents at a demonstration against Bulgarian authorities.

Her son, Filip, died on Saturday evening when the swerving Mercedes slammed into him in the centre of Sofia, dragging his body behind.

Behind the wheel of the car was a man so intoxicated that he only drove a few hundred meters before the incident on

Metro.co.uk • 5th September 2023

A toddler washed up on a beach and stopped the world

Eight years have passed since the lifeless body of Alan Kurdi washed up on a beach in Turkey and stopped the world in its tracks.

Photographs of the drowned Syrian toddler splashed across newspaper front pages and primetime broadcasts roused millions to the human tragedy of Syria’s refugee crisis.

In the early hours of September 2, 2015, Alan’s family crowded onto a small inflatable boat on the beach of Bodrum.

But just minutes into their treacherous journey to Greece, the dinghy which smuggl

Metro.co.uk • 30th August 2023

Code name 'grey hair': The steely-faced warlord tipped to run Wagner

A retired colonel has been tipped to take over as the new leader of the infamous Wagner Group after leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s presumed death.

It is a role few would want after speculation that Russian president Vladimir Putin could have orchestrated the fiery plane crash near Moscow that left no survivors.

Dmitry Utkin and Valery Chekalov, two other key figures in the paramilitary group, were also killed when Wagner’s private jet plummeted from the sky on August 23, so a question mark remains

Metro.co.uk • 29th August 2023

Bodybuilder livestreams ex-wife’s execution on Instagram

Thousands of people attended the funeral of a woman murdered by her ex in Bosnia during a livestream on Instagram.

‘You will see what a live murder looks like,’ Nermin Sulejmanovic told his followers before grabbing a handgun and firing a bullet into a woman’s forehead as the cry of a child is heard in the background.

Some 12,000 people tuned in to watch the execution of Nizama Hecimovic, whose face can be seen bloodied and disfigured from the brutal punches he inflicted on her.

Just weeks be

Metro.co.uk • 29th August 2023

‘We're living in a Soviet horror movie’

‘He should never be allowed behind a keyboard after having one too many vodkas.’

That comment from a Georgian official is directed towards former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia’s security council, who has never been a friend to the former Soviet republic that has its eyes on both EU and Nato memberships.

Exactly 15 years ago, Medvedev read out a decree recognising the independence of the ‘breakaway provinces’ of Abkhazia and South Ossetia – representing 20% of th

Metro.co.uk • 24th August 2023

Whistleblower issues chilling warning about Putin's future plans

Vladimir Putin’s next frontline could be the Balkans, a whistleblower has warned.

Seeds have been sown even before the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 to stir trouble in Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Bosnia, as Moscow quietly moves pieces in its geopolitical chess game with the West.

Part of the Kremlin’s plan involves ‘grooming’ foreign students in Russia and planting them in governmental institutions back in their homelands.

Petar Tanev, who was born in Bulgaria but lived in M

Metro.co.uk • 21st August 2023

Woman fined for fighting back 'too much' during sexual assault

A woman was fined for fighting back all too well against a man who sexually assaulted her.

Milica Živković walked into court as a victim, but the judge gave her a slap on the wrist for ‘exceeding the necessity of self-defence’.

The 24-year-old was walking home with a friend after a night out in the town of Kolašin, in northern Montenegro, when she noticed a man was following them.

He tried to speak with them, but the two ignored his advances and tried to laugh it off.

What followed next made

Metro.co.uk • 8th August 2023

Technical glitch exposes Bulgarian MP's vile rant on domestic abuse victims

Protests will take place across Bulgaria this evening after the former minister of culture branded victims of domestic abuse ‘whores’.

Vezhdi Rashidov, an MP for centre-right GERB party, made the shocking comment during a break in Parliament on Monday when microphones are expected to be turned off.

After a vote on amendments of the Balkan country’s law on domestic violence, he can be heard telling colleagues: ‘There are laws even now. Why are we scratching our tongues?

‘All the whores woke up

Metro.co.uk • 7th August 2023

Moment Russian cruise ship is forced out of Georgia by anti-Putin protesters

This is the moment anti-war demonstrators forced a Russian cruise ship out of Georgian shores.

Protests spread across the city of Batumi and the capital Tbilisi last week in what was the latest show of changing attitudes towards Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin.

The reason behind them – the 633ft-long Astoria Grande with 800 mostly Russian tourists on board.

Passengers disembarking from the vessel, which recently began cruises from the Russian port of Sochi, were met by protesters holding banners dec

Metro.co.uk • 6th August 2023

'My dad, my mum, my sister, my brothers – all of them died in the earthquake'

Every time Khadija Qasim got displaced in Syria, she carried one thing with her – a sewing machine.

The 53-year-old was making a living working as a seamstress when two deadly earthquakes rocked her country and neighbouring Turkey.

More than 50,000 people were killed, thousands of others missing and millions left homeless after the disaster turned entire cities into nothing but rubble.

At the time, Khadija had fled the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor, seeking refuge with her children in the town

Metro.co.uk • 2nd August 2023

Russians 'raped prisoners and electrocuted their genitals' in torture chambers

Rape, suffocation, waterboarding and beatings are just some of the brutal methods Russian soldiers used on detainees in southern Ukraine, it has emerged.

Evidence collected from more than 35 ‘torture chambers’ in Kherson lays bare the horrific sexual crimes committed by Putin’s troops.

Genital electrocutions and rape with a foreign object were among their sickening tactics, law firm Global Rights Compliance revealed in a shocking new report.

Anna Mykytenko, a senior legal adviser at the firm,

Metro • 2nd July 2023

'Iran's armed forces murdered my mum, it's time the UK called them terrorists'

A woman whose mother was killed by 167 shotgun pellets has urged Britain to recognise Iran’s most powerful armed forces as a terrorist organisation.

It all started with the death in police custody of Mahsa (Jina) Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman accused of wearing her headscarf improperly in September 2022.

Three days later, Minoo Majidi joined protests in Kermanshah, in the west of the Middle Eastern country, when security forces on motorbikes gunned her down at close range.

Her el