Ukraine on Monday summoned the Vatican’s envoy to Kyiv after Pope Francis suggested the country should consider raising “the white flag” against Russia, causing fury in Kyiv. Ukraine has angrily rejected Pope Francis’s suggestion to negotiate with Russia two years after its invasion, vowing “never” to surrender to Moscow. “Due to the statements of Pope…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Russian advances had been “halted” in Ukraine and the situation was now “much better” for his troops than in recent months. “The Russian advance has been halted,” Zelensky told French broadcaster BFM TV. “Our command, our military has stopped the Russian advance in eastern Ukraine,” he said. Kyiv…
Moldova on Monday said it would summon the Russian ambassador to show “its disapproval of the decision to open polling stations” in separatist Transnistria during the Russian presidential election. Moldova last week downplayed talk of rising tensions after pro-Russian rebel officials in Transnistria appealed to Russia for “protection.” Russian news agencies reported that six polling…
While Russian citizens will cast their votes in the 2024 presidential election from March 15-17, early voting is already underway in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine. Russia claimed to have annexed the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in September 2022 following referendums that Kyiv and the West described as a sham. Moscow has opened…
The first tier of inner containment will be installed in four stages. On March 8, specialists from Rosatom Engineering Division (ASE) started to install the first tier of inner containment of the reactor building at Unit 1 of El-Dabaa NPP in the Arab Republic of Egypt. The first tier of inner containment consists of 12…
Russians will vote for one of the four presidential candidates officially registered by the Central Election Commission (CEC) this week. In addition to President Vladimir Putin, who is running as an independent candidate, the candidates include Leonid Slutsky of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party and Vladislav Davankov of the…
Russian nationals who visit Moscow’s embassy in Latvia to vote in the March 15-17 presidential election will undergo police screenings, local media reported on Monday, citing the head of the Baltic country’s police force. “Access to the embassy will be controlled accordingly, residence permit and visa checkpoints will be set up in coordination with the State…
The navies of China, Russia and Iran are staging joint drills in the Gulf of Oman this week, Beijing said Monday. The military activities — to be conducted from Monday through Friday — are aimed at “jointly maintaining regional maritime security,” according to a statement published on social media platform WeChat by China’s defense ministry.…
Russia authorities have arrested a citizen of South Korea on charges of spying, the state-run TASS news agency reported Monday, citing an anonymous law enforcement official. “During operational search activities as part of an investigation into espionage, a citizen of the Republic of Korea, Baek Won Sung, was identified and detained,” the unnamed law enforcement…
President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed into law a bill that bans advertisers from working with “foreign agents,” a move widely expected to make it next to impossible for independent media outlets hit with the designation to earn money. News of the bill’s passing in Russia’s lower-house State Duma late last month sent shockwaves through…
A Moscow court has overturned the jail sentence against exiled Russian-Canadian activist Pyotr Verzilov and sent his case for review, the Setevyye Svobody (Network Freedoms) NGO reported on Monday. In November, Verzilov was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison in absentia for spreading “deliberately false” information about the Russian military. He was accused of “causing social…
Ukraine won its first Oscar for best documentary with “20 Days in Mariupol,” directed by Mstyslav Chernov, on Sunday night in Los Angeles. The film chronicles the harrowing Russian siege of Mariupol, a once beautiful port city, by the only journalists still on the ground, Chernov and the photographer/journalist Evgeniy Maloletka. At the Academy Awards…