Europe

More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines have surrendered in the port of Mariupol, Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday of its main strategic target in the eastern Donbas region, which has been reduced to ruins but not yet under Russian control. If the Russians take the Azovstal industrial district, where the …

Summary Peace talks hit a dead end – Putin West’s economic Blitzkrieg has failed – Putin Putin: Bucha is fake like a staged Syrian chemical attack Russia to achieve ‘noble’ war aims – Putin Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that peace talks with Ukraine had hit a dead …

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine would undoubtedly achieve what he said were its “noble” objectives. Speaking at an awards ceremony at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East, Putin was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies that said Moscow had …

Russia has made a “massive strategic blunder” as Finland and Sweden look poised to join Nato as early as the summer, according to officials. US officials said Nato membership for both Nordic countries was “a topic of conversation and multiple sessions” during talks between the alliance’s foreign ministers last week …

Slovakia reported delivering its only S-300 weapons system to Ukraine last week Russian forces have destroyed foreign-supplied S-300 anti-aircraft launchers in a number of precision strikes on Ukraine, the Defense Ministry, in Moscow, claimed on Monday. Days earlier, Slovakia reported the donation of a battery of old Soviet-made S-300 air …

Centrist President Emmanuel Macron took his hunt for more re-election support on Monday to France’s former industrial heartland in the north, a blue-collar stronghold of far-right rival Marine Le Pen, who he will face in an April 24 runoff vote. Macron, 44, is vying to become the first president in …

Spain’s Civil Guard says it is investigating a businessman in the eastern Valencia region who owned a private taxidermy collection with more than 1,000 stuffed animals, including just over 400 from protected species and at least one specimen of a North African oryx, already extinct. The collection would fetch 29 …

The change comes after the Russian offensive in Ukraine, the bloc’s chief says NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that the bloc will deploy a permanent full-scale military force on the eastern flank to deter Russia. The move comes in response to Moscow’s military campaign against Ukraine. In an interview …

It comes into the category of ‘stating the obvious’ that all sides commit atrocities in war – especially in the course of modern conflicts fought out in urban centers in and around civilians. Indeed war itself is an atrocity, reflective as it is of a complete breakdown in human affairs …

Incumbent Macron, far-right leader Le Pen, seen as frontrunners in presidential election. Polls are open in France for a presidential election that has been characterised by demagoguery and the lack of a political agenda. Voting started at 8 am and will end at 8pm (18:00 GMT) when the first projections …

France heads to the polls on Sunday with Emmanuel Macron facing a far tougher test than first envisaged They are antique car aficionados and struggling students. They are retired people living in the countryside, cheerful multilingual accountants who have lived abroad, and even frustrated, disadvantaged members of the country’s Muslim …

More than 30 people were killed and over 100 were wounded in a rocket strike on a railway station in east Ukraine on Friday as civilians tried to evacuate to safer parts of the country, the state railway company said. It said two rockets had struck a station in the …

The Kremlin said on Friday that what it calls Russia’s “special operation” in Ukraine could end in the “foreseeable future” since its aims were being achieved and work was being carried out by both the Russian military and Russian peace negotiators. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also said Moscow understood that …

Police forces were hunting for a man who left a parcel bomb in the Cathedral of Toulouse, Southwestern France, on Friday, ahead of the first round of voting in France’s presidential race on April 10, police said. The man deposited the parcel around 0700 GMT at the altar of the …

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday suspended Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council over reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights” in Ukraine, prompting Moscow to announce it was quitting the body. The U.S.-led push garnered 93 votes in favor, while 24 countries voted …

Spain says the meeting is an opportunity to open a ‘new stage’ in ties with Morocco-based on ‘mutual respect’ and ‘avoid future crises’. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is set to meet Moroccan King Mohammed VI during a two-day visit to Rabat that seeks to mark an easing of diplomatic …

Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders order their foreign ministers to begin the preparation for a future peace treaty. Armenia and Azerbaijan are preparing for peace talks, their officials said on Thursday, after a recent flare-up in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met …

Vienna revoked the status of four diplomatic staff members, joining other European nations’ expulsion spree Austria has declared personae non-gratae to four Russian diplomats, the foreign ministry announced on Thursday. Many other nations made similar moves this week, expelling dozens of Russian diplomats. Three employees of the Russian embassy in …

Russia has condemned the United States’ fresh sanctions on two of its largest banks, saying they are a direct blow to the Russian population and ordinary citizens. Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov made the remarks on Wednesday after Washington announced a new round of sanctions against Sberbank …

The conflict in Ukraine takes a new twist as Russia uses its newest Kinzhal hypersonic missiles close to the border with NATO member Romania, and Kiev says it will soon receive a new shipment of advanced US weapons, including Javelin and Stinger missiles. According to reports, Russia said on Saturday …