KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) — At least nine people have died and 14 others have been injured in forest fires in eastern Ukraine near the front line of Kiev’s conflict with Moscow-backed separatists, the emergency services said Thursday. Ukraine has sent 1,200 firefighters to battle the blaze which officials in one village near the frontline said was detonating unexploded shells previously fired over by pro-Russian separatists. Investigators were trying to determine the cause of the fire […]
Tag: Kiev
Doubts raised on Ukraine, media after Kiev admission on staging murder of anti-Kremlin reporter
(Eagle News) — Ukraine is now under heavy criticism after admitting to staging the murder of anti-Kremlin journalist Arkady Babchenko, as Moscow, international press freedom groups, and commentators hit the stunt that brought the concept of fake news to an entirely new level. Critics in social media also blasted the stunt as “deplorable” and “distressing” as Kiev’s move was seen as an attempt to put Russia in a bad light. Twitter was also […]
Saakashvili forced out of Ukraine, but for how long?
by Ania Tsukanova Agence France-Presse KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) – By deporting him to Poland, President Petro Poroshenko may have managed to get rid of his arch-enemy Mikheil Saakashvili for now. But the speed and brutality of the former Georgian president and current opposition leader’s arrest and exile may damage the Ukranian government’s reformist image in the West. Putting an end to the latest chapter of a high-profile, months-long saga, Saakashvili was arrested Monday by masked men at […]
Ukraine struggles to contain arms depot fire, blames ‘sabotage’
by Sergiy BOBOK with Dmitry GORSHKOV in Kiev Agence France-Presse YAKOVENKOVE, Ukraine – Ukraine said Thursday that a fire raging at a munitions depot in the country’s east, which the military blamed on an “act of sabotage”, could continue for up to a week. “We can evaluate everything as the intensity of the fire decreases,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said in televised comments. “This can take up to one week.” Groysman said 550 emergency workers, […]
OSCE warns of ‘massive upsurge in violence’ in Ukraine
by Dmitry ZAKS Agence France-Presse KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) – A top monitor for the conflict in Ukraine warned Thursday that a “massive upsurge in violence” has pushed fighting between Kiev’s forces and pro-Russian rebels to levels not seen in months. The statement by Alexander Hug of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) came a day after the body hailed progress toward a New Year’s truce agreement that must still be approved by […]
Poroshenko appeals to Trump for support in phone call
by Agence France Presse KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) — Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko asked Donald Trump for support against “Russian aggression” during a congratulatory telephone conversation with the US president-elect on Tuesday. Trump’s shock election victory has been met with trepidation in Kiev because of the outspoken reality TV star’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his apparent indifference to the Western coalition against Moscow. The billionaire businessman suggested earlier this year the US could […]
Russia and Ukraine square off over Crimea ‘raids’
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) – by Max DELANY with Dmitry ZAKS in Kiev Russia and Ukraine stepped up security around Crimea on Thursday as tensions soared over accusations by Moscow that Kiev had attempted armed incursions into the disputed peninsula. Russia’s FSB security service said on Wednesday it had thwarted “terrorist attacks” in Crimea this week by Ukrainian military intelligence and beaten back armed assaults, but Kiev fiercely denied the claims. The allegations ratcheted up the […]
Ukraine pilot faces verdict in Russian murder trial decried by Kiev and the West
Donetsk, Russia (AFP)—Ukrainian helicopter pilot Nadiya Savchenko is set Monday to hear the verdict in her high-profile murder trial in southern Russia, which Kiev and the West have slammed as a political sham. Prosecutors are demanding 23 years in jail for Savchenko’s alleged involvement in killing two Russian state TV journalists in war-torn eastern Ukraine, with few doubting that the 34-year-old combat helicopter navigator will be found guilty, and Kiev already pushing for a prisoner […]
Russia warns U.S. vs. arms to Ukraine as Biden due in Kiev
(Reuters) – Russia warned the United States on Thursday against supplying arms to Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, hours before U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden was due to arrive in Kiev. Ukraine accused President Vladimir Putin of treating its territory like a “playing field”, trying to unleash a full-scale war that would pose a broader threat to NATO countries. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in Moscow that a U.S. official’s suggestion Washington should consider sending […]
Russia at U.N. accuses U.S., allies of bossing world around
(Reuters) – Russia used its annual appearance at the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday to accuse the United States and its Western allies of bossing the world around, complaining they were attempting to dictate to everyone “what is good and evil.” The speech by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the 193-nation assembly was the latest example of the deteriorating relations between Moscow and Western powers, which have imposed sanctions on Russia over the conflict in neighboringUkraine. “The U.S.-led […]
Moscow, Kiev swap troops as Ukraine port girds for pro-Russian assault
(Reuters) – Ukraine and Russia swapped soldiers who had entered each other’s territory near the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, where Kiev says Moscow’s forces have come to the aid of pro-Russian insurgents advancing for an assault on a major port. Ukrainian troops and local residents were reinforcing the port of Mariupol on Sunday, the next big city in the path of pro-Russian fighters who pushed back government forces along the Azov Sea this past week […]
Deadly gun attack in eastern Ukraine shakes fragile Geneva accord
(Reuters) – At least three people were killed in a gunfight in the early hours of Sunday near a Ukrainian city controlled by pro-Russian separatists, shaking an already fragile international accord that was designed to avert a wider conflict. The incident triggered a war of words between Moscow and Ukraine’s western-backed government with each questioning the other’s compliance with the agreement, brokered last week in Geneva, to end a crisis that has made Russia’s ties […]





