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. 3:45 a.m.: Reuters reported that Russia’s National Settlement Depository will service the country’s Eurobonds after Citibank stopped acting as a fiscal, transfer and payment agent, the finance ministry said on Thursday. The finance ministry also said that a delay in payments on its Russia-2022 Eurobond that were due on April 4 was caused by “unlawful actions” of foreign financial intermediaries. 3:00 a.m.: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC+, said it is working on …

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President Joe Biden has announced that the United States will send advanced rocket systems to Ukraine to help Kyiv resist Russian forces in the eastern part of the country. As VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports, Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Ukraine has assured the U.S. it will not use the systems to hit targets on Russian territory. …

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Queen Elizabeth II will make two appearances on the Buckingham Palace balcony on Thursday, kicking off four days of public events to mark her historic Platinum Jubilee. The extent of the 96-year-old monarch’s involvement in the celebrations for her record-breaking 70 years on the throne has been a source of speculation for months. She has cut back drastically on her public appearances since last year because of difficulties standing and walking — and a bout of COVID-19. But royal officials confirmed that she would take the salute of mounted troops from the balcony after a military parade called Trooping the …

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Russia relentlessly shelled Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, with the Luhansk regional governor conceding that Moscow’s forces now control 70% of the city and that evacuation of civilians had been halted. Some Ukrainian troops were still fighting against the Russian onslaught, Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said, but others had retreated. “There is no possibility to bring in humanitarian aid,” Haidai said in a Telegram post. But Haidai said that Lysychansk — the only other city in the Luhansk region not taken by Russia or Moscow-backed separatists — remains “fully” under Ukrainian control. The battle for Sievierodonetsk remains crucial for …

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The European Commission said Wednesday that Croatia had met all the criteria to join the eurozone, paving the way for the country to become the single currency’s 20th member on January 1. Croatia’s switch from the kuna to the euro will come less than a decade after the former Yugoslav republic joined the European Union, setting a new milestone in the bloc’s further integration. The EU’s executive said Croatia had met the strict conditions to be part of the single currency, including keeping inflation in the same range as its EU peers, as well as embracing sound public spending. Joining …

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Ukraine’s most stalwart backers in the West are promising there will be no let-up in support, despite increasingly tough talk from Russian officials. The U.S. permanent representative to NATO said Wednesday in Washington that recent Russian gains in eastern Ukraine have failed to shake the alliance’s resolve, with members continuing to have faith in Kyiv’s forces. “Collectively at NATO, I think we do hope and believe that Ukraine will ultimately prevail,” Julianne Smith told the Defense Writers Group. “The level of … respect that you see across the alliance for Ukrainian forces right now is quite high,” Smith added. “We …

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Greece’s armed forces are on high alert in the Eastern Aegean Sea as tensions escalate with Turkey. Officials have been responding to what they say are mounting provocations by Turkey’s leadership. Senior Greek Defense Ministry sources say the military intelligence they have gathered point to the prospect of so-called hybrid threats that Greece may face from its neighbor Turkey as the two NATO allies compete for oil and gas drilling rights in contested parts of the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. The points of friction between the two countries are many. A crisis, the sources say, may also spring from a …

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In the dusty, northern-most sheikhdom of the United Arab Emirates, where laborers cycle by rustic tea shops, one of the world’s largest yachts sits in a quiet port — so far avoiding the fate of other luxury vessels linked to sanctioned Russian oligarchs. The display of lavish wealth is startling in one of the UAE’s poorest emirates, a 90-minute drive from the illuminated high-rises of Dubai. But the 118-meter (387-foot) Motor Yacht A’s presence in a Ras al-Khaimah creek also shows the UAE’s neutrality during Russia’s war on Ukraine as the Gulf country remains a magnet for Russian money and …

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