Explainer – What Putin’s election win tells us about Russia today
Moscow, Russia Reuters President Vladimir Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in Russia’s election on Sunday, cementing his grip on power, though thousands of opponents staged a noon protest at polling stations and Western countries said the vote was neither free nor fair. Here are some key takeaways from the election. Russian incumbent President Vladimir […]
Putin warns West of risk of nuclear war, says Moscow can strike Western targets
Moscow, Russia Reuters President Vladimir Putin told Western countries on Thursday they risked provoking a nuclear war if they sent troops to fight in Ukraine, warning that Moscow had the weapons to strike targets in the West. The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 […]
Ukraine welcomes Western allies’ air defence coalition
Reuters President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his defence minister welcomed the formation by Ukraine’s Western allies on Thursday of a 20-nation “coalition” to boost air defences, seen as a key element in the country’s campaign against Russian forces. Zelenskiy said the group, one of several devoted to specific areas of Ukraine’s defence, was formed at a […]
Essay: Israel-Gaza conflict – an opportunity for Putin while the world is distracted
In an article first published on The Conversation, ROBERT M DOVER, of the University of Hull, looks at how a war in the MIddle East could impact that still going on in Ukraine…
UN warns of unprecedented refugee challenge as West tightens borders
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters The UN refugee agency is facing one of the most difficult moments in its more than 70-year history as record displacements coincide with funding shortfalls and a “short-sighted” focus on border controls, its chief said on Monday. Conflicts from Ukraine to Sudan have contributed to the displacement of some 110 million people around […]
West backs Ukraine with more air defences, harsh winter of fighting expected
Kyiv, Ukraine/Brussels, BelgiumReuters Ukraine’s allies on Wednesday announced delivery of new air defences and committed more military aid to Kyiv after intense Russian missile strikes and in anticipation of fighting through a harsh winter. More than 50 Western countries met in Brussels on the heels of heavy retaliatory strikes on Ukraine this week ordered by […]
Mali junta says “Western-backed” military officers attempted coup
Bamako, MaliReuters Mali’s interim government on Monday said “Western-backed” military officers attempted a coup last week, without providing details or evidence. The purported foiled putsch took place on the night between 11th and 12th May, the junta that took power in an August, 2020, coup said in a statement. Colonel Assimi Goita, leader of Malian […]
Putin puts nuclear deterrent on alert as West rallies behind Ukraine
Kyiv, Ukraine/Moscow, Russia Reuters President Vladimir Putin put Russia’s nuclear deterrent on high alert on Sunday in the face of a barrage of Western reprisals for his war on Ukraine, which said it had repelled Russian ground forces attacking its biggest cities. The United States said Putin was escalating the war in a “totally unacceptable” […]
Western allies to expel some Russian banks from global system; Ukraine vows to fight on
Kyiv, UkraineReuters Western allies announced sweeping new sanctions against Moscow on Saturday, including kicking some Russian banks off the main global payments system, as a defiant President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces were repelling Russian troops advancing on Kyiv. Seeking to ratchet up economic punishment for Russian President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine, […]
Ukraine under full-scale attack; West unites to sanction Russia
Kyiv/Mariupol, UkraineReuters Ukrainian forces battled Russian invaders on three sides on Thursday after Moscow mounted an assault by land, sea and air in the biggest attack on a European state since World War II, prompting tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. After Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war in a pre-dawn televised […]