Month: March 2022

For Anastasia and Maria Starozhitska, the flight from war-torn Ukraine ends here — at a bustling train station in northeastern Paris, where pigeons bask in the afternoon sun. “We are in winter clothes, and we come Paris and it’s all summer clothes,” Anastasia Starozhitska jokes of the unseasonably warm weather, minutes after stepping off a train from Stuttgart with her mother. “We need to laugh,” she adds. It’s been a marathon journey for the two Starozhitskas, both film directors who fled their native Kyiv two weeks ago, after Russia started bombing the city, including its main television tower. First, they …

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Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine     …

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In response to Russian invasion, NATO defense ministers, heads of state to discuss increasing security preparations …

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Russia said on Tuesday it has written guarantees it can carry out its work as a party to the Iran nuclear deal, suggesting Moscow could allow a revival of the tattered 2015 pact to go forward.  Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s comments appeared to signal Moscow may have backed off its previous view that Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine were an impediment to salvaging the nuclear deal.  U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters a revival of the nuclear deal would not be “an escape hatch” for Russia to avoid sanctions imposed because of …

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The prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia traveled to the embattled Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday in a show of support for Ukraine even as bombardment by the Russian military edged closer to the center of the city.  The three leaders went ahead with the hours-long train trip despite worries within the European Union about the security risks of traveling within a war zone.  “It is here, in war-torn Kyiv, that history is being made. It is here, that freedom fights against the world of tyranny. It is here that …

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U.S. President Joe Biden will travel next week to Brussels, where he will join an “extraordinary” NATO summit set to take place on March 24 — one month after Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine. White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced Biden’s travel plans hours after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called for the meeting, tweeting that alliance members “will address Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, our strong support for Ukraine, and further strengthening NATO’s deterrence & defense.” Biden told reporters Tuesday afternoon, “Putin’s aggression against Ukraine has united people all across America.”  The administration is expected to announce additional aid measures …

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British Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has had her British passport returned, British lawmaker Tulip Siddiq said on Tuesday, as Tehran and London pressed on with talks about a long-standing 400-million-pound ($520 million) debt. “I am very pleased to say that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been given her British passport back,” Siddiq, who is the member of parliament for where Zaghari-Ratcliffe used to live in London, said on Twitter. “She is still at her family home in Tehran. I also understand that there is a British negotiating team in Tehran right now,” she added on Twitter. Reuters was unable to ascertain …

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The U.S. broadcaster FOX News on Tuesday announced that cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski has died in Ukraine. Zakrzewski, 55, was injured while on assignment with FOX News correspondent Benjamin Hall. Their vehicle was struck by incoming fire in Horenka, near Kyiv, according to a memo shared with the broadcaster’s staff. Oleksandra Kuvshynova, a Ukrainian journalist who was with them at the time, was also killed, the adviser to Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Anton Gerashchenko, said. Hall, the State Department correspondent for FOX, is still hospitalized and receiving treatment for injuries. Both he and Zakrzewski were experienced journalists who had covered …

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White House says ‘no evidence’ Russia willing to pair diplomacy with de-escalation  …

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