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Paris, France | AFP | Tuesday 4/4/2023 by Daphne Benoit and Didier Lauras Finland on Tuesday becoming the 31st member of NATO is a strategic step that doubles the military alliance’s border with Russia and provides the coalition with additional military capacity. Here are the key facts: – Russia ‘more vulnerable’ – Finland broke with decades of non-alignment to ask to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after Russia invaded its pro-Western neighbour Ukraine in […]
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Tuesday 4/4/2023 by Max DELANY Finland became the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday, in a historic realignment of Europe’s defences that drew an angry warning of “countermeasures” from the Kremlin. Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine last year upended Europe’s security landscape and prompted Finland — and its neighbour Sweden — to drop decades of military non-alignment. Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto formally wrapped up the process by handing Helsinki’s […]
Russia alleged on Monday the “terrorist attack” that killed a top military blogger the day before was orchestrated by Ukraine with the help of supporters of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Russian investigators detained 26-year-old Darya Trepova, who was said to have links to Navalny, and posted a video in which she is heard saying she brought to the cafe a statuette rigged with an explosive device. Ukraine has blamed Russia’s domestic infighting for […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group on Monday claimed it had “in a legal sense” captured the eastern Ukraine town of Bakhmut — the site of the longest battle of Moscow’s operation in the country — with its units now in control of city hall. The Wagner group has supported Russian troops throughout the offensive to surround Bakhmut, the fight for which both sides have invested heavily, despite analysts’ assertions that the city […]
Ukraine on Saturday branded Russia’s presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of April “a slap in the face”, joining a chorus of outrage from Western countries. Moscow assumes the presidency as part of its monthly rotation between the Security Council’s 15 member states, with ties with the West at their lowest point since the Cold War over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia’s tenure was “a slap […]
by Nivrita GANGULY Agence France-Presse MUMBAI, India (AFP) — India is snapping up discounted crude from Russia, refining it and selling it, becoming a key supplier to Europe as it reshapes global fuel flows more than a year into Moscow’s war in Ukraine. New Delhi has resisted Western pressure to freeze out Moscow, opting instead to strengthen trade ties with its long-standing ally — with the added benefits of tempering inflation while saving money. – […]
by Elias HUUHTANEN Agence France-Presse IMATRA, Finland (AFP) — When Russia invaded Ukraine, a new iron curtain severed once-close ties between Moscow and Helsinki — something Ari Joronen can see with his own eyes from his farm in eastern Finland. “The trees have been cleared because of the new border fence,” he says, overlooking part of his property in the town of Imatra that adjoins the Russian border, a few hundred meters from his house. […]
by Anna MALPAS Agence France-Presse KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — In the cellar of a Kyiv kindergarten decorated with bunting and wall paintings of doughnuts and cats, dozens of children are taking shelter during an air raid. The staff try to reduce the psychological impact on children who can barely remember a time without sirens and fear. “They go calmly, none of them cries,” says one of the carers, Tetiana, 68. The children chatter and giggle […]
Washington, United States | AFP | US President Joe Biden on Tuesday blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stated plan to deploy nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, branding it “dangerous” talk. “This is dangerous kind of talk and it’s worrisome,” Biden told reporters at the White House. The Kremlin leader announced on Saturday that he was ordering the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, run by fellow authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko as […]
Energodar, Ukraine | AFP | Wednesday 3/29/2023 The chief of the UN atomic watchdog said Wednesday he was working on a security plan for the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and warned of increased military activity around it. During a rare visit to Europe’s largest nuclear plant currently controlled by Russian forces, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said he was working to find a compromise that would suit both Moscow […]
President Vladimir Putin conceded Wednesday that sanctions imposed on Russia for its intervention in Ukraine could bring about “negative” consequences for the country, after insisting Moscow was adapting to the penalties. “The sanctions imposed against the Russian economy in the medium term could really have a negative impact,” Putin said in a televised meeting with the government. Western capitals have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Moscow after Putin launched his operation in Ukraine over a […]
by Pierre-Henry DESHAYES and Viken KANTARCI Agence France-Presse ON BOARD A BOEING 737 MEDEVAC PLANE, Poland (AFP) — You can see the pain held just in check in the faces of Ukraine’s war wounded as they are evacuated in a flying hospital. “It’s the first time I’ve taken a plane,” says 22-year-old Mykola Fedirko, who was hit by a shell holding off Russian troops in a trench in the Donetsk region. “I would have loved […]
