Europe

Europe new ‘hotspot’ for arms imports: report

by Marc PRÉEL Agence France-Presse STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) – Europe saw the world’s biggest rise in arms imports in the past five years, a trend set to accelerate following recent rearmament commitments amid the threat posed by Russia, researchers said Monday. While arms exports declined globally by 4.6 percent in 2017-2021 compared to the preceding five years, Europe posted a 19-percent increase, according to a study published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). […]

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Zelensky warns NATO as Russia strikes near Polish border

Attack was at military base in Yavoriv which had been a training centre for Ukrainian forces with foreign instructors by Ionut IORDACHESCU with Dave CLARK in Kyiv Agence France Presse LVIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned NATO Monday that its member states would soon be attacked by Russian forces after an air strike hit a Ukrainian military base close to the Polish border. Meanwhile, the death toll in the strategic southern port […]

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US journalist shot dead in Ukraine

First foreign reported killed while covering Russia-Ukraine tensions   by Dmitry ZAKS Agence France Presse IRPIN, Ukraine (AFP) — A US journalist was shot dead and another wounded on Sunday in Irpin, a frontline suburb of Kyiv that has witnessed some of the fiercest fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine. Video documentary maker Brent Renaud, 50, was working for Time Studios on a project about global refugee issues, the media outlet said. “We are devastated by […]

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US sets high-level talks with China Monday over Russia war

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A high-level US delegation meets in Rome Monday with a top Chinese official, the White House said as it warned Beijing would face severe “consequences” if it helps Russia evade sanctions over its war in Ukraine. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Communist Party’s chief diplomat, “will discuss ongoing efforts to manage the competition between our two countries and discuss the impact of Russia’s war […]

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More than 250 detained in Ukraine protests across Russia

  MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia detained more than 250 people for protesting Moscow’s “military operation” in Ukraine Sunday, as the conflict continues for a third week. OVD-Info, which monitors arrests during protests, said police had detained 268 people during demonstrations in 23 Russian cities. An AFP journalist present at a protest in the capital Moscow witnessed at least a dozen arrests and said police were taking away anybody without press papers. A young woman […]

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Russia says it could target Western arms supplies to Ukraine

  MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Saturday said its troops could target supplies of Western weapons in Ukraine, where the Russian army has been advancing since late February. “We warned the United States that the orchestrated pumping of weapons from a number of countries is not just a dangerous move, it is a move that turns these convoys into legitimate targets,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state television. He said Moscow had […]

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Mayor of Ukraine city abducted by Russian troops

  KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — The mayor of southern Ukraine’s Melitopol was kidnapped on Friday by Russian soldiers occupying the city, President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian officials said. “A group of 10 occupiers kidnapped the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov,” Ukraine’s parliament said on Twitter. “He refused to cooperate with the enemy,” it added. It said the mayor was seized when he was at the city’s crisis centre dealing with supply issues. In a video […]

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Eastern Europe embraces Ukraine refugees as workforce

  by Vessela SERGUEVA with Julia ZAPPEI in Vienna Agence France Presse SOFIA, Bulgaria (AFP) — Eastern European countries are embracing the millions of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion as a potential workforce but analysts warn it be challenging to integrate them all. Some 2.5 million people have already fled Ukraine, according to the United Nations, which calls it Europe’s fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II. More than half are now in Poland but tens […]

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Suffocated by sanctions, Russia squeezes foreign firms leaving

  MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia is piling huge pressure on foreign companies fleeing the country following Moscow’s decision to send troops to Ukraine even as some tycoons warn that the seizure of assets would take the country “back to 1917”. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a plan to nationalise foreign-owned companies, and on Friday parliament’s lower house was set to discuss the initiative. Russian prosecutors on Friday warned they would be closely […]

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2.5 million people have now fled ‘senseless’ Ukraine war: UN

  by Robin MILLARD Agence France Presse Some 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded two weeks ago, and around two million more have been internally displaced by the “senseless” war, the United Nations said Friday. The UN was planning for four million people fleeing the country following the full-scale Russian invasion which began on February 24. But it said it would be no surprise if that figure shot up, given the scale […]

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US Congress passes budget including $14 billion for Ukraine

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Congress passed a huge omnibus 2022 spending bill Thursday including almost $14 billion in humanitarian and military aid to war-torn Ukraine, as its invasion by Russia entered its third week. Lawmakers had been facing the latest in a series of shutdown showdowns, with government funding due to expire at midnight Friday into Saturday, meaning thousands of workers would have been sent home without pay. With the deadline fast […]

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UN Security Council to meet Friday on biological weapons at Moscow’s request

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – The UN Security Council will hold an urgent meeting Friday at the request of Russia over the alleged development of biological weapons in Ukraine. Russia on Thursday accused the United States of funding research into the development of biological weapons in Ukraine, which has faced an assault by tens of thousands of Russian troops since February 24. Both Washington and Kyiv have denied the existence of laboratories intended to […]

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