Tag: Russia

US slams Putin nuclear order, says Russian forces have problems

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear forces alert Sunday, and said his conventional ground forces were experiencing logistical problems in their invasion of Ukraine. US officials said Putin’s stunning announcement, four days after his powerful military launched an assault on Ukraine, was dangerously escalatory and part of a pattern of fabricating excuses to justify aggression. Putin said he took the action in response to “aggressive” and […]

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Putin orders nuclear alert as Ukraine fiercely resists Russian invasion

  by Dave CLARK with Sergey Bobok in Kharkiv, Ukraine Agence France Presse KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that his nuclear forces were on alert sparked outcry in the West as the invading troops faced stiff resistance on Monday. The UN General Assembly will hold a rare emergency session Monday to discuss the conflict, which has claimed dozens of lives and raised fears that it will displace millions of people. Ukraine […]

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Canada to send military equipment to Ukraine

  OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada announced Sunday that it would ship non-lethal protective military equipment such as helmets to Ukraine’s army, but again ruled out sending troops in against Russian forces. Ukrainian troops need bulletproof vests, helmets, gas masks and night vision equipment, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said at a press conference. The contributions by Ottawa will amount to 25 million Canadian dollars (17.6 million euros), said Joly, stressing that she had […]

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Ukraine says will meet Russia as Putin puts nuclear defences on alert

Ukraine said Sunday it had agreed to talks with Russia after four days of conflict, as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his defence chiefs to put nuclear “deterrence forces” on alert. The conflict has already killed dozens of civilians, forced hundreds of thousands to flee and turned Moscow into a global pariah. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said a Ukrainian delegation would meet the Russian one at the border with Belarus, which has allowed Russian troops […]

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US announces $54 mn in aid for Ukraine

The United States said Sunday it is sending nearly $54 million in new humanitarian aid to Ukraine as it grapples with the Russian invasion. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is focused on Ukraine’s “urgent humanitarian needs as an important part of our response to Russia’s premeditated, unprovoked and unjustified attack.” This new assistance to be channelled through NGOs includes “provision of food, safe drinking water, shelter, emergency health care, winterization and protection,” […]

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Ukraine says to meet Russia for talks at Belarus border

Ukraine on Sunday said it would hold talks with Russia at its border with Belarus — near the Chernobyl exclusion zone — after a phone call between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. “The politicians agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet the Russian one without preconditions at the Ukraine-Belarus border, near the Pripyat River,” Zelensky’s office said in a statement. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that a Russian delegation was currently […]

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Putin orders nuclear forces on high alert

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his defence chiefs to put the country’s nuclear “deterrence forces” on high alert Sunday and accused the West of taking “unfriendly” steps against his country. International tensions are already soaring over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Putin’s order will cause further alarm. Moscow has the world’s second-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and a huge cache of ballistic missiles which form the backbone of the country’s deterrence forces. “I order the […]

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‘A new era’: Germany rewrites its defence, foreign policies

Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday announced a major shift in Germany’s foreign and defence policy, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forces Europe’s biggest economy to ditch decades of reluctance in raising its military profile. Haunted by its post-war guilt, Germany has always treaded lightly and quietly on the world stage when it comes to conflicts. But at an emergency parliamentary sitting on Sunday, Scholz, who himself had been accused of dawdling on the Ukraine crisis, […]

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Ukraine: 370,000 refugees already

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia invaded Thursday. The United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, says at least 370,000 people have fled the fighting so far and it is planning to deal with up to four million if the situation worsens.   – Poland –   Some 156,000 Ukrainians have fled over the Polish border, its frontier guards say. On Friday alone, 50,000 Ukrainians arrived. While 90 percent of the refugees […]

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Ukraine forms ‘international brigade’ to fight Russia

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday urged foreigners to head to Ukrainian embassies worldwide to sign up for an “international brigade” of volunteers to help fight invading Russian forces. “All foreigners wishing to join the resistance against the Russian occupiers and protect global security are invited by the Ukrainian leadership to come to our state and join the ranks of the territorial defence forces,” Zelensky said in a statement. “A separate unit is being formed from […]

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Kyiv ready for talks, but rejects Moscow’s Belarus proposal

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that he was ready for talks with Russia, but rejected Moscow’s push to stage them in Belarus as it was a launchpad for invading forces. “Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku. We proposed all of them,” Zelensky said in an address posted online. “And any other city in a country from whose territory missiles do not fly would suit us,” the 44-year-old president said. “That’s the only way talks can be honest. And could […]

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Nordics to close airspace to Russian planes

Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland Sunday said they would close their airspace to Russian planes, joining other European countries in ramping up sanctions over Moscow invading Ukraine. Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border with Russia, “is preparing to close its airspace to Russian air traffic,” Transport Minister Timo Harakka wrote in an overnight tweet. He did not state when the measure would take effect. Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said on Twitter his country […]

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