Britain is reportedly preparing to designate the Wagner group – a Russian private army that is deeply involved in the invasion of Ukraine – as a terrorist organization. The European Union and the United States are debating similar moves. That would put the group in the same bracket as Islamic State and al-Qaida. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. …
New developments: Support for Ukraine on agenda as G-7 finance ministers meet in Japan. British Defense Ministry says Russia likely added up to 10,000 prisoners to those recruited to fight in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it is not yet time for his forces to launch a long-anticipated counteroffensive to recapture territory held by invading Russian troops. “We still need a bit more time,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with British media outlets released Thursday. Preparations include training of Ukrainian forces by Western partners, as well as shipments of ammunition, tanks and air defense systems to boost the capabilities …
The number of people internally displaced globally hit a record 71.1 million at the end of last year, according to a report released Thursday by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. The figure represents a 20% increase from 2021. Among the drivers of new displacements last year were the war in Ukraine, which the report said accounted for 17 million displacements, and massive floods in Pakistan that caused eight million displacements. SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA’s Heather Murdock Worldwide, conflict and violence were responsible for leaving 62.5 million people internally displaced at the end of 2022. Nearly three-quarters of …
As Turkey heads to the polls for its momentous elections Sunday, former U.S. ambassadors to Ankara will be monitoring from afar. While the perspectives shaped by their respective tenures in Turkey may vary, three former mission chiefs speaking to VOA share at least one view: The elections in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will face the biggest challenge to his two-decade rule will determine the course of Turkey’s future, its role as a NATO ally and its international standing. Turkey’s elections are taking place amid an economy battered by inflation and a currency that has depreciated, much of which has …
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has turned to Huda Par, a radical Islamist party, to consolidate his Kurdish base. But the move is controversial, with the Huda Par accused of past links to political violence. Dorian Jones reports from Diyarbakir. …
Much of western Europe is dealing with dwindling populations, and the problem is especially severe in Spain, where the government says more than half of the country’s municipalities are in danger of total depopulation as many young people move to cities or choose not to have children. Jonathan Spier narrates this report from Alfonso Beato in the Catalonian town of Vilada, where a Honduran immigrant and her three daughters are breathing life into a community. …
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Poland’s decision to rename the Russian city of Kaliningrad in its official documents was a “hostile act,” as ties continue to fray over the war in Ukraine. Kaliningrad, which sits in an exclave that is sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic coast, was known by the German name of Koenigsberg until after World War II, when it was annexed by the Soviet Union and renamed to honor politician Mikhail Kalinin. Warsaw says Kalinin’s connection to the 1940 Katyn massacre — when thousands of Polish officers were executed by Soviet forces — had …
Repeated attempts by hackers, including some linked to Russia, to damage or take down critical infrastructure in Latvia have been answered, thanks in part to help from U.S. and Canadian cyber personnel. The three countries Wednesday announced the completion of a three-month-long operation focused on hunting down threats to Latvia’s infrastructure that also involved a series of defensive actions. The so-called “hunt forward” mission involved more than a dozen U.S. personnel from U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force, a Canadian cyber task force and Latvia’s CERT.LV, the Latvian military’s cybersecurity response division. “Latvia has demonstrated incredible resilience for the …
United States to provide $1.2 billion in new military aid to Ukraine, including air defenses and ammunition. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says “only a matter of time before we can restore a sustainable and just peace for our part of Europe, for Ukraine.” Agence France-Presse journalist Arman Soldin was killed by rocket fire in eastern Ukraine where journalists were with a group of Ukrainian soldiers. Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power plant operator warned Wednesday that Russia planned to evacuate more than 3,000 workers from the town that serves the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Energoatom posted on Telegram that “there is now …
Nearly one year into a 3½-year prison term, Georgian journalist Nika Gvaramia says he’s doing OK. “I’m good. I met all this very prepared,” he told VOA from a prison in Rustavi, Georgia, through written messages shared with VOA via his lawyer. “I knew it was going to happen and I knew I would have to endure it.” Gvaramia is a former member of the Georgian parliament and founder of the pro-opposition broadcaster Mtavari Arkhi. Last May, a court convicted him of abuse of power related to his work in 2019 as the director for a separate broadcaster, Rustavi 2. …
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s primary challenger in the May 14 elections, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, is targeting the Kurdish vote in presidential and parliamentary elections. This marks a turnaround for Kilicdaroglu’s CHP party, which for decades ignored Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish region. Dorian Jones reports from the region’s main city, Diyarbakir. …
The foreign ministers of Turkey and Syria will hold their first official meeting on Wednesday since the start of Syrian civil war more than a decade ago, officials said. The talks in Moscow will also involve the top diplomats of Russia and Iran, Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement. The announcement delivers a diplomatic boost to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan just days before he faces the toughest general election of his 21-year rule on Sunday. Erdogan supported early rebel efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, keeping a military presence in northern stretches of the war-torn country that angers …
The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are to meet next week in Brussels, the European Union said Monday, the latest attempt to secure a durable peace accord and resolve long-standing differences over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The meeting on May 14 between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev follows talks between their two foreign ministers that prompted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to suggest a breakthrough was possible. An announcement on the EU Council’s website said a three-corner meeting with Council President Charles Michel would take place at EU headquarters. Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former …
Drought-stricken Spain says last month was the hottest and driest April since records began in 1961. The State Meteorological Agency, known by the Spanish acronym AEMET, said Monday that the average daily temperature in April was 14.9 degrees Celsius (58.8 Fahrenheit), which was 3 degrees Celsius above the average. AEMET said average maximum temperatures during the month were up by 4.7 degrees Celsius. Rainfall was a fifth of what would normally be expected in the month, making it the driest April on record in Spain. Last year was Spain’s hottest since record-keeping started in 1961, and also the country’s sixth …
The United States’ top international development chief, Samantha Power, is heading to Serbia and Kosovo this week to meet with leaders there, as U.S. and European leaders work to stabilize relations between those two former wartime enemies at a time of heightened tensions. Power becomes the first head of the U.S. Agency for International Development to travel to Serbia, which maintains close historical and cultural ties with Russia. Serbia and Kosovo have remained on often hostile terms since Kosovo’s 1990s split from Serbia at the end of the Cold War. Frictions between Serbia and Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian …
In just a few months, U.S. officials have pivoted from publicly warning Beijing not to provide material support for Russia’s war in Ukraine to acknowledging there is a role for China to play in brokering peace talks. On February 24, the day that China unveiled its 12-point peace proposal, Blinken voiced skepticism during remarks to the United Nations Security Council Ministerial Meeting on Ukraine. “No member of this council should call for peace while supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine and on the U.N. Charter,” the top U.S. diplomat said one year after Russia invaded Ukraine. By May 3, Blinken publicly …
New developments: Fears about the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant are growing after the Moscow-installed governor of the Ukrainian region where it is located ordered civilian evacuations. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prighozin said his forces will remain in the besieged Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. He indicated his soldiers will continue the assault on the city after the Russian military promised more arms and ammunition. Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin sent a defiant message to those who attempted to assassinate him. Prilepin is recovering from extensive injuries after a car bomb exploded killing his driver. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said …
New developments: Fears about the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is growing after the Moscow-installed governor of the Ukrainian region where it is located ordered civilian evacuations. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prighozin said his forces will remain in the besieged Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. He indicated his soldiers will continue the assault on the city after the Russian military promised more arms and ammunition. Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin sent a defiant message to those who attempted to assassinate him. Prilepin is recovering from extensive injuries after a car bomb exploded killing his driver. At least five people were …
Days after two mass shootings left 17 people dead in Serbia, the European country’s Interior Ministry urged citizens Sunday to turn in all unregistered weapons or run the risk of a prison sentence. Individuals who hand over illegally owned guns, grenades, ammunition and other weaponry between Monday and June 8 will not face any charges, the ministry said in a statement. Those who ignore the order will face prosecution and if convicted, potentially years behind bars, government officials have warned. Weekend funerals were held for the victims of the shootings at a Belgrade school Wednesday and in a rural area …
Ukrainians are on war footing, even if they’re not the ones on the front lines. A much hyped and widely expected spring counteroffensive could come any day now. But Ukraine’s defense minister recently warned against putting too much hope in his country’s counterstrikes. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …