WASHINGTON: Russia is recruiting Syrian fighters experienced in urban combat as it ramps up its assault on Ukraine, according to US officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday. Moscow, which launched an invasion into its Eastern European neighbour on February 24, has in recent days recruited fighters from […]
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WASHINGTON: Russia’s blocking of Facebook is a symptom of its broader effort to cut itself off from sources of information that could imperil its internationally condemned invasion of Ukraine, experts say. The often-criticised social network is part of a web of information sources that can challenge the Kremlin’s preferred perspective […]
WASHINGTON: The US and Russian armed forces have set up a direct phone line to reduce the risks of “miscalculation” amid the war in Ukraine, the Pentagon said yesterday. The “deconfliction line” between US European Command and the Russian Ministry of Defence was established earlier this week, Pentagon spokesman John […]
MOSCOW: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian state television today that he believed some foreign leaders were preparing for war against Russia. He also accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of presiding over “a society where Nazism is flourishing”.
TAIPEI: Taiwan plans to more than double its yearly missile production capacity to close to 500 this year, the island’s defence ministry said in a report, as it boosts its combat power amid what it sees as China’s growing military threat. Taiwan last year approved extra military spending of Tw$240 […]
KYIV: Russia today faced increasing isolation over its invasion of Ukraine, with fierce resistance on the ground denying President Vladimir Putin decisive early gains despite heavy shelling and a huge military convoy outside the capital, Kyiv. Ceasefire talks between Russia and its southern neighbour held yesterday failed to reach a […]
VIENNA: Iran said yesterday efforts to revive a 2015 nuclear deal could succeed if the United States took a political decision to meet Tehran’s remaining demands, as months of negotiations enter what one Iranian diplomat called a “now or never” stage. The stakes are high, since the failure of 10 […]
LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday (Feb 24) said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a “dictator” who now faced “massive” Western sanctions for invading Ukraine. “We cannot and will not just look away,” Johnson said in a televised address to the nation, after phoning Ukraine’s President Volodymyr […]
BERLIN: French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said today that Russian President Vladimir Putin no longer accepted Ukraine’s independence under international law. “President Putin in his speech (on Monday) declared in a sense the negation of Ukraine as a sovereign country,” he told reporters after talks with his German counterpart […]
KYIV: Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky today demanded “immediate” security guarantees from the West and Moscow aimed at averting a feared Russian invasion. Zelensky made his comments as Russia began to evacuate diplomats from its Kyiv embassy after Moscow formally approved the use of military force abroad. “Ukraine needs security guarantees. […]