Tag: conflict

Russian jailed five years for refusing to fight in Ukraine

  Moscow, Russia (AFP) A Russian court sentenced a 24-year-old professional soldier to five years in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine, officials said on Thursday. The soldier, “not wanting to take part in a special military operation”, did not report for duty in May 2022, said the press service for courts in the region of Bashkortostan in the southern Urals. Law enforcement located the man, Marsel Kandarov, in September, the statement added. Separately, […]

NATO hints at more heavy weapons for Ukraine

  Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) Kyiv can expect more deliveries of heavy weapons from Western countries soon, NATO said Sunday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin praised his forces after their claimed capture of a Ukraine town. Dramatic rescue efforts unfolded at a tower block in the eastern city of Dnipro, shattered by a Russian missile strike that left 30 people dead and an estimated 34 people missing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the Russian people’s “cowardly […]

Kremlin says British tanks in Ukraine will ‘burn’

  Moscow, Russia (AFP) The Kremlin said on Monday that British tanks promised to Ukraine will “burn” on the battlefield. “The special military operation will continue. These tanks are burning and will burn,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, using Moscow’s term for the Ukraine offensive. He added that plans by some Western countries — like the UK and Poland — to send tanks to Ukraine will “not change the situation on the ground. It […]

Toll from Dnipro strike in Ukraine rises to 35

  Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) A weekend strike on a residential building in Ukraine’s centre-east city of Dnipro killed at least 35 people, including two children, the regional governor said Monday as rescue operations continued. “As of now, the enemy attack took the lives of 35 residents of the building, including two children. Thirty nine people were saved, 75 were injured,” Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said on social media. He added that the “fate of […]

Zelensky promises ‘everything necesary’ to defend Soledar from Russia

by Susannah WALDEN Agence France-Presse BAKHMUT, Ukraine (AFP) — President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut and Soledar in the east would be armed with everything they need to keep Russian troops at bay in some of the bloodiest battles of the war. Kyiv said earlier its troops were fighting to retain control of the now-battered industrial towns in the east, which Russian mercenaries claimed earlier this week to have taken. The […]

Fate of Ukraine’s Soledar uncertain as Wagner claims control

by Susannah WALDEN Agence France-Presse KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AFP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that fighting was still raging in a key eastern frontline city that a Russian mercenary group earlier said it controlled, as Moscow announced a new military commander in Ukraine. The fate of Soledar in eastern Ukraine was uncertain after Russian group Wagner claimed it controlled the gateway town — but the Kremlin cautioned against declaring victory prematurely. And in his […]

Russia hits Ukraine’s Kharkiv after German minister visits

by Oleksandr YANOVSKY Agence France-Presse KHARKIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Russian strikes hit eastern Ukraine’s city of Kharkiv late Tuesday, the regional governor said, just hours after a surprise visit by the German foreign minister with her Ukrainian counterpart. Annalena Baerbock vowed further German support for Kyiv on her unannounced trip, but Ukraine’s top diplomat Dmytro Kuleba said Berlin’s refusal to send his country battle tanks was costing lives. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently agreed to […]

URGENT: Western arms ‘prolong suffering’ of Ukrainians: Kremlin

Moscow, Russia (AFP) The Kremlin on Monday said moves by France and other Western countries to supply Ukraine with weapons — including light tanks — would only make life more difficult for Ukrainians. “Fundamentally, these deliveries cannot and will not change anything… (they) can only prolong the suffering of the Ukrainian people,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to a question on France’s decision last week to send armoured vehicles to Ukraine. French […]

Russia captured east Ukraine village near Bakhmut: separatists

Moscow, Russia (AFP) Russian-backed separatist forces in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine said Monday they had seized a village near the key city of Bakhmut that Moscow has been trying to capture for months. The village of Bakhmutske in “the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic was liberated by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” on Monday, read a statement from separatist authorities on Telegram. AFP could not independently verify these claims. The […]

‘Sacred goal’: Russia paints Ukraine assault in spiritual terms

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, a powerful ally of President Vladimir Putin, is embracing the rhetoric of the mediaeval crusades in urging support for Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine. When Pope Urban ordered the first crusade to the Middle East in 1095, he told Christians to rise up and defend fellow believers, promising that their sins would be wiped away. Nearly 10 centuries later, Kirill has called on believers to support pro-Russian […]

Russia says toll from Ukraine strike rises to 89

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — The toll from a Ukrainian New Year strike in Makiivka has risen to 89, Moscow said Wednesday, after Russians gathered to mourn the troops in a rare public display of anger and grief. Russia said in the early hours of Wednesday that more bodies had been found under the rubble in the town of Makiivka in the Russian-controlled region of Donetsk and the toll had risen to 89. The defense ministry […]

Russia says scores of soldiers killed in Ukrainian strike

by Robbie COREY-BOULET Agence France-Presse KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Russia on Monday said more than 60 soldiers were killed in a Ukrainian strike on Russian-controlled territory in a New Year assault, the biggest loss of life reported by Moscow so far. Kyiv took responsibility for the strike, which it said took place in the occupied city of Makiivka in eastern Ukraine on New Year’s Eve. In a rare announcement that followed criticism by Russian military […]