Tag Archives: Ukraine

Russia ordered the killing in broad daylight in a Berlin park of a former Chechen militant, a German court found on Wednesday, sentencing the agent who carried out the 2019 act of “state terrorism” to life imprisonment. Georgian citizen Tornike Khangoshvili was killed with three shots from a Glock pistol …

Ukraine’s parliament approved on Tuesday a draft law that allows foreign troops to take part in military exercises on the territory of the former Soviet republic in 2022, a move likely to infuriate Russia. According to the draft law, submitted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine plans to hold 10 …

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto on Tuesday that he wants “immediate” talks with the United States and NATO over security guarantees, the Kremlin said, as tensions mount over Ukraine. Putin “reiterated the need to immediately launch negotiations with the United States and NATO in order …

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden have agreed to hold more talks amid tensions over a Russian troop build-up near Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Sunday, and Putin would like to meet in person at some stage too. The Kremlin said Putin and Biden had agreed …

Ukraine and Russia blamed each other after a push to agree a new ceasefire in eastern Ukraine broke down late on Thursday as tensions over a Russian troop buildup near its southern neighbour persisted. Ukraine said Moscow had rejected a series of its proposals, including prisoner swaps, reopening a checkpoint …

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin began virtual talks on Ukraine and other subjects on Tuesday, Russian state television reported, amid Western fears that Moscow plans to attack its southern neighbour. Biden will tell Putin that Russia and its banks could be hit with the toughest economic …

US Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin have a chasm of mutual distrust to bridge when they hold a virtual meeting on Tuesday in the shadow of what the United States believes is a threatened Russian invasion of Ukraine. “A lamentable state,” was how the Kremlin described relations ahead of …

The Belarusian defence ministry said on Sunday it had summoned Ukraine’s military attaché to protest against what it called repeated violations of Belarus’ airspace by Ukrainian aircraft. Relations between the two countries have plummeted since last year, when Russia sided with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during mass street protests and …

Russia has dismissed new US media reports about a possible Russian attack on Ukraine, accusing Washington of trying to aggravate the situation while blaming Moscow, the Kommersant newspaper said on Saturday, citing the Foreign Ministry. The Washington Post cited officials and an intelligence document on Saturday as saying US intelligence …

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Moscow of the “severe costs” Russia would pay if it invaded Ukraine, urging his Russian counterpart on Thursday to seek a diplomatic exit from the crisis. Blinken delivered the warning to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at what he called a “candid” meeting …

Russia said on Wednesday it was ordering U.S. embassy staff who have been in Moscow for more than three years to fly home by Jan. 31, a retaliatory move for what Moscow said was a U.S. decision to limit the terms of Russian diplomats. The step, the latest in an …

Russia would pay a high price for any new military aggression against Ukraine, NATO and the United States warned on Tuesday as the Western military alliance met to discuss Moscow’s possible motives for massing troops near the Ukrainian border. President Vladimir Putin countered that Russia would be forced to act …

Russia has no plans to invade Ukraine and suggestions to the contrary are malicious US propaganda, Moscow’s foreign intelligence chief said on Saturday. U.S., NATO, and Ukrainian officials have raised the alarm in recent weeks over what they say are unusual Russian troop movements near the border with Ukraine, suggesting …

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday said Ukraine had uncovered a plot to overthrow his government next week involving individuals from Russia, although he declined to say whether he thought the Kremlin was behind it. Speaking at an hour-long press conference, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian intelligence had obtained audio recordings of the …

Kiev’s forces are increasingly launching offensives in war-torn Donbass, attempting to use Western firepower to bring the two breakaway self-declared separatist republics to heel with military force, Moscow has blasted. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the situation in the east of the …

Russia staged military drills in the Black Sea, south of Ukraine, on Wednesday and said it needed to sharpen the combat-readiness of its conventional and nuclear forces because of heightened NATO activity near its borders. Ukraine, which with its ally the United States has said it believes Russia may be …

Russia’s defence minister on Tuesday accused U.S. bombers of rehearsing a nuclear strike on Russia from two different directions earlier this month and complained that the planes had come within 20 km (12.4 miles) of the Russian border. The accusation comes at a time of high tension between Washington and …

Two refitted former U.S. Coast Guard patrol boats intended to bolster the Ukrainian navy have arrived at the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa, the Ukrainian navy said on Tuesday. “We appreciate the contribution of the United States to deter the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine,” naval …

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Sunday slammed the United States for driving “hysteria” over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine after Western countries accused Moscow of a troop build-up near the ex-Soviet country. His comments come as Western countries this week raised alarm over Russian military activity near Ukraine and …

Ukraine summoned the Bulgarian ambassador on Friday after Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said the Crimean Peninsula was part of Russia after being annexed from Ukraine in 2014. In a presidential debate ahead of Bulgaria’s run-off presidential vote on Sunday Radev said Western sanctions against Moscow were not delivering the expected …