Europe

Republican and Democratic members of US Congress introduced legislation on Thursday that would make it easier to finance Ukraine’s fight against Russia using seized and frozen Russian assets. Congress has approved more than $100 billion in military, humanitarian and economic assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict in …

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated the growing use of national currencies for cross-border exchanges signals the end of the hegemony of the US dollar. Speaking on Friday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Putin said the present trend of using local currency for cross-border trade, including in …

Reiterating Moscow’s nuclear posture, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the country may deploy nuclear weapons only if Russia’s existence is threatened. “Nuclear weapons have been made to ensure our security in the broadest sense of the word and the existence of the Russian state, but we…have no such …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rebuked visiting African leaders in their bid to ease tensions in the country’s raging conflict with Russia and insisting on the need to “free out land.” The diplomatic delegation came to Kiev on Friday to express the continent’s concerns about the fallout of the Ukraine …

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has declared receipt of the first shipment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons deployed to the country as a deterrent, but vowed to use them if attacked. He further clarified in an interview on Tuesday that the decision to deploy the nuclear weapons in Belarus came after …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reiterated his opposition to Sweden’s bid to join the US-led NATO military alliance, vowing to block the move at the organization’s upcoming summit in July since Stockholm continues to harbor anti-Ankara terrorists. Erdogan made the remarks on Wednesday prior to a meeting in Ankara between …

NATO Security General Jens Stoltenberg has urged the member states to arm Ukraine for an offensive against Russia, after reassuring that there is no consensus for the country to join the military alliance while it is at war with Russia. “The most obvious thing is to ensure they have the …

China poses a growing threat to global security, Germany said in its first national security strategy on Wednesday, underscoring Berlin’s shift in emphasis from economic interests to geopolitics following Russia’s war with Ukraine. Using blunt language about its top trading partner, the strategy document describes Beijing as aggressively claiming supremacy …

Greek authorities says 104 rescued so far after fishing vessel capsizes off coast of Peloponnese Peninsula, in worst such disaster this year A fishing boat carrying migrants capsized and sank off the coast of Greece on Wednesday, authorities said, leaving at least 78 people dead and many dozens feared missing …

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, some of which he said were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The deployment is Moscow’s first move of such warheads – …

Russia says it has repelled attacks by Ukrainian forces on several villages in the southeastern regions of Ukraine, rejecting earlier claims by Kiev that its troops have “liberated” those villages from Russian control. In a statement on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said the country’s forces have successfully fought off three …

Nearly 7,000 people have been evacuated from flooded areas in the war-ravaged Russia-controlled Kherson region of eastern Ukraine, its acting governor has declared. Vladimir Saldo declared in a post on his Telegram social media channel that coordination has been made to provide essentials for affected residents who have received certificates …

Ukrainian officials say the death toll from, what they said, Russian missile strikes on the central city of Kryvyi Rig, the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelensky, has risen to six. Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rig’s military administration, claimed on Tuesday that six missiles had hit five civilian sites …

Police say three people have been found dead in the English city of Nottingham, and three others were hit by a van in linked incidents. The three hit by the van were injured and a man has been arrested on suspicion of murder, Nottinghamshire Police said. This is an horrific …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan redoubled his call Monday for the international recognition of northern Cyprus, making the Mediterranean statelet his first port of call since his re-election. Erdogan met the north’s leader Ersin Tatar, whose rule is recognized only by Turkey, two weeks after extending his two-decade rule until …

Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul and former Italian prime minister who transformed the nation’s politics with polarising policies and often alarmed his allies with his brazen remarks, died on Monday aged 86. Berlusconi, Italy’s longest-serving premier who counted Russian President Vladimir Putin as a close friend and gained notoriety …

Russia said on Sunday that Ukraine had made unsuccessful attempt to attack a Russian naval ship with six high-speed drone boats as the Russian vessel patrolled major natural gas pipelines in the Black Sea. The ‘Priazovye’ ship was carrying out what Russia’s defense ministry said was “monitoring of the situation …

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine had begun a major offensive against Russia’s army but that Ukrainian forces had failed to achieve their objectives despite intense fighting over at least three days. “We can state for sure that this offensive has begun. This is evidenced by the use of strategic …

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrel said Friday that “everything indicates” Russia is behind the Kakhovka dam breach, which Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of causing. The dam was destroyed on Tuesday, forcing thousands to flee their homes as water surged into the Dnipro River, flooding dozens of …

The Armed Forces of Ukraine incurred the losses as it pushed against Russian defenses, the military has claimed. Ukrainian forces have lost up to 1,240 troops and 39 tanks during one 24-hour period, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported in its latest daily update on Friday. This adds to the …