Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
(Reuters) – Pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine ignored a public call by Russian President Vladimir Putin to postpone a referendum on self-rule, declaring they would go ahead on Sunday with a vote that could lead to war. The decision, which contradicted the conciliatory tone set by Putin just a day earlier, caused consternation in the West, which fears the referendum will tear Ukraine apart. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said Russia was heading […]
(Reuters) – Ukrainian forces killed up to five pro-Moscow rebels on Thursday as they closed in on the separatists’ military stronghold in the east and Russia launched army drills near the border in response, raising fears its troops would go in. Under an international accord signed in Geneva last week, illegal armed groups in Ukraine, including the rebels occupying about a dozen public buildings in the largely Russian-speaking east, are supposed to disarm and go home. […]
Russia’s defense minister has announced new exercises in regions bordering on Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier said Kyiv’s military operations in the east would “have consequences.” Russia’s announcement that maneuvers near the border had been resumed came after clashes in eastern Ukraine, with the interior ministry in Kyiv saying it had killed up to five militants. “We are compelled to react to such a situation,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was reported as saying by […]
President Vladimir Putin has called claims Russia is behind eastern Ukraine’s unrest “nonsense.” He has accused the government in Kyiv of raising tensions in the region, while expressing hope for crisis talks. During the beginning of a televised call with the nation on Thursday, Putin said Ukraine’s decision to send armed forces to the country’s restive east rather than establishing a dialogue was a “grave crime.” He also dismissed Western accusations that Russian special forces […]
NATO has told Russia to “stop massing” its troops on Ukraine’s border and open a “genuine dialogue.” Kyiv meanwhile has offered amnesties to pro-Russian occupiers of buildings in eastern Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday that Russia had 40,000 troops “ready for combat” along Ukraine’s eastern border. Moscow said the Western alliance was merely imagining a Russian threat. Visiting the Czech capital, Prague, Rasmussen (pictured) told a news conference that if […]
The 2014 Winter Paralympics have begun in Sochi, Russia. Just one Ukraine athlete participated in the opening ceremony, amid simmering tensions over Crimea. After all 45 teams had taken part in the opening ceremony at the Fisht Stadium on Friday, the Games were officially opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin: “I declare the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games open,” he said. Ukraine was among those nations that participated in the opening ceremony, but warned it could […]
(Reuters) – Holed up on their bases, Ukraine’s besieged servicemen and the Russians surrounding them in Crimea are locked in a standoff that at times is tense and at others surreal. Almost a week after Russian forces began their swift and bloodless takeover of the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula, there is a standoff as the two sides dig in and play a waiting game. The Russians have swatted down isolated attempts by the Ukrainian forces […]
(Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin delivered a robust defense of Russia’s actions in Crimea on Tuesday and said he would use force in Ukraine only as a last resort, easing market fears that East-West tension over the former Soviet republic could lead to war. But tension remained high on the ground. Russian forces fired warning shots in a confrontation with Ukrainian servicemen at an air base, and Russian navy ships were reported to have blockaded the strait […]
(Reuters) – The West faced its biggest confrontation with Russia since the Cold War and Ukraine marshaled its forces for defense after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the right to invade his neighbor. Ethnic Russian forces have already bloodlessly seized Crimea, an isolated Black Sea peninsula where most of the population are Russian and Moscow has a naval base, and sought to disarm the small Ukrainian contingents there on Sunday. Of potentially even greater concern […]
(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics on Friday determined to prove his doubters wrong after militant attacks, and ballooning costs overshadowed preparations. Putin has staked his reputation on hosting a safe and successful Games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where a spectacle before 40,000 spectators at the new Fisht Stadium will signal the start of the full sporting programme. He will be joined by […]
