Tag: conflict

Russia won’t invade Poland? ‘Zero credibility’, Warsaw says

WARSAW, Feb 9, 2024 (AFP) – Poland’s defence minister said Friday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had “zero credibility” despite denying any intent to invade Poland amid Moscow’s two-year assault on neighboring Ukraine. Tensions have long been strained between Poland and Russia but deteriorated further after Warsaw threw its weight behind Kyiv in its efforts to fight off Russia’s invasion. In an interview released Thursday with US journalist Tucker Carlson, Putin said it was “out […]

Russian drone attack kills 7, including 3 children in Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv

KHARKIV, Ukraine, Feb 10, 2024 (AFP) – A Russian drone attack on a petrol station in Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv on Saturday killed seven people, including three children, and destroyed nearly half a street, local authorities said. “A whole family of 5 people died in a fire in a private house: a husband and wife and their three children (seven-year-old, four-year-old and seven-month-old boys),” Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said on the Telegram social network. […]

Putin tells West: Russia cannot be defeated in Ukraine

By Danny Kemp and Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, Feb 9, 2024 (AFP) – President Vladimir Putin said in an interview released Thursday with controversial right-wing US talk show host Tucker Carlson that the West should understand it is “impossible” to defeat Russia in Ukraine. In a two-hour interview with the former Fox News host — coming just ahead of the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — Putin also said a deal “can be reached” […]

Russian forces storming Ukraine’s Avdiivka en masse

By Daria ANDRIIEVSKA KYIV, Ukraine, Feb 8, 2024 (AFP) – Large numbers of Russian forces are storming the frontline Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, its Ukrainian mayor said Thursday, escalating a months-long effort to capture the industrial hub. Moscow launched a costly bid in October to seize the town, which has been caught up in fighting since 2014, when it briefly fell to Moscow-backed separatists. “Unfortunately, the enemy is pressing from all directions. There is not […]

Blinken pushes for hostage deal with Israel cabinet centrists

TEL AVIV, Feb 8, 2024 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday discussed ways to secure the release of Gaza hostages with moderates in the Israeli war cabinet a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas demands. Blinken met in Tel Aviv with Benny Gantz and Gabi Eisenkot, two former military chiefs who joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet after the October 7 attack in Israel by Hamas fighters. The talks will focus […]

UN chief says world in ‘age of chaos’

By Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS UNITED NATIONS, United States, Feb 7, 2024 (AFP) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday that the world is entering “an age of chaos” with a deeply divided Security Council unable to address critical issues such as the Israel-Hamas war. With the war in Gaza entering its fifth month on Wednesday, Guterres warned that if the Israeli armed forces press on into the southern city of Rafah, it will “exponentially increase what […]

Israel PM Netanyahu dismisses Hamas demand for ceasefire, sets sights on Rafah

By Phil Hazlewood and Shaun Tandon with Adel Zaanoun in the Gaza Strip JERUSALEM, Feb 7, 2024 (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday dismissed Hamas’s demand for a ceasefire and ordered troops to prepare to move on the city of Rafah in Gaza’s far south, where more than one million Palestinians have sought refuge. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Tel Aviv hours after meeting Netanyahu, said he still saw […]

President Biden attends ritual return of three US soldiers killed in Jordan

By Aurélia END DOVER, United States, Feb 2, 2024 (AFP) – President Joe Biden on Friday joined a solemn military ritual at a Delaware air base for the return of three US soldiers killed in Jordan by a drone attack blamed on an Iran-backed militia. Six servicemen wearing camouflage, dark berets and white gloves marched slowly three times on and off the ramp of a huge C-5 transport plane to carry the bodies in flag-draped […]

US retaliatory strikes hit Iran-linked targets in Syria, Iraq

By W.G. Dunlop and Aurélia End WASHINGTON, Feb 2, 2024 (AFP) – The US military launched retaliatory air strikes against Iranian forces and Tehran-backed militia groups in both Iraq and Syria on Friday, following a recent drone attack that killed three American soldiers at a remote base in Jordan. The extensive air attacks were ordered in response to the deaths of the soldiers last Sunday in a drone strike blamed by Washington on Iran-backed forces. […]

Hamas gives ‘initial’ support to Gaza truce plan as fighting rages

By Adel Zaanoun, with Sharon Aronowicz in Tel Aviv GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Feb 2, 2024 (AFP) – Fighting in Gaza raged on Friday with scores reported killed overnight, after mediator Qatar said Hamas had given its “initial” support to a hostage-prisoner exchange deal that would pause its war with Israel. The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 112 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours, while the Hamas press office reported […]

North Korea fires more cruise missiles in testing spree

SEOUL, Feb 2, 2024 (AFP) – North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles Friday, Seoul’s military said, continuing a fresh streak of weapons testing as Kim Jong Un’s regime ramps up what it calls “war preparations”. So far this year, Kim has declared South Korea his country’s “principal enemy”, jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement. Pyongyang has also carried out ever more weapons tests, including […]

Russia has created 520,000 new defence jobs, Putin says

MOSCOW, Feb 2, 2024 (AFP) – Russia has created more than half a million new jobs in its defence sector to meet soaring demand on the battlefield, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. The Kremlin has thrown massive resources at its full-scale assault on Ukraine, with the defence sector accounting for much of the sanction-hit economy’s growth. “In the last year and a half alone, 520,000 new jobs have been created in defence,” Putin told […]