Month: June 2022

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT. 2:45 a.m.: The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense shares its latest Defense Intelligence update “on the situation in Ukraine.”   1:30 a..m.: The body of French journalist Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, who was killed in Ukraine, is repatriated, reports Agence France-Presse. 12:30 a.m.: Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian retailers have lost almost $1.7 billion, according to a tweet by The Kyiv Independent.   Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. …

READ MORE

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the battle for the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk is “one of the most difficult” of the war, while highlighting its importance in the key Donbas region. “In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there,” Zelenskyy said in a video address late Wednesday.   Ukrainian forces were forced to retreat to the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk on Wednesday in the face of a fierce Russian attack. Days ago, Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive that gave them control of about half the city, but Luhansk regional Governor Serhiy Haidai told the RBC-Ukraine media outlet …

READ MORE

The risk of monkeypox becoming established in nonendemic nations is real, the WHO warned Wednesday, with more than 1,000 cases confirmed in such countries.  World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the U.N. health agency was not recommending mass vaccination against the virus and added that no deaths had been reported from the outbreaks.  “The risk of monkeypox becoming established in nonendemic countries is real,” Tedros told a press conference.  The zoonotic disease is endemic in humans in nine African countries, but outbreaks have been reported in the past month in several other states — mostly in Europe, and …

READ MORE

Increasingly isolated from their home country, residents fear being annexed by or even forced to fight for the Russians …

READ MORE

The family of RFE/RL freelance correspondent Andrey Kuznechyk say the journalist has been sentenced to six years in prison in Belarus on a charge of creating an extremist group.  According to the relatives, the Mahilyou regional court in the country’s east took only a few hours to hear the case and hand down its verdict and punishment on June 8 in a closed-door trial. The 43-year-old father of an 8-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son was initially sentenced to 10 days in jail on November 26 on hooliganism charges that he rejected. On December 6, when his sentence ended, he was …

READ MORE

Millions of tons of grain remain trapped in Ukraine as Russia continues its aggression against the country and world wheat prices soar. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Ankara Wednesday with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu for talks focused on creating shipping corridors to allow Ukrainian grain exports to access world markets. But both sides failed to reach any agreements to avert a looming world food crisis. At a joint news conference with Lavrov, Cavusoglu said Turkey was ready to work with the United Nations to create a secure shipping corridor to allow Ukrainian ships to transport wheat to …

READ MORE

China and Russia were called to explain to the international community on Wednesday why they vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for new sanctions on North Korea for its recent string of prohibited long-range and ballistic missile tests.    Wednesday was the first time the General Assembly implemented its April 25 resolution requiring any of the five permanent members of the powerful Security Council (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) to explain their actions to the wider U.N. membership when they exercise their use of the veto.    Both countries shifted the blame to the U.S., saying Washington …

READ MORE