Category: Євросоюз

As Russia’s Vladimir Putin defended his war in Ukraine Monday, a top European Union official visited Ukraine, while France floated a possible new political alliance for Kyiv and other EU hopefuls. It seemed like two different May 9ths Monday. In Moscow, a bellicose speech by Putin as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany, 77 years ago. And in Strasbourg, France, the commemoration of Europe Day — and the foundation of the European Union, which has gained new attention with the war in Ukraine. Speaking before the European Parliament, President Emmanuel Macron of France — the EU’s current …

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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern about the potential for Russia’s war in Ukraine to spread, during a visit to Moldova’s capital Monday.  “The impact of the war in Ukraine across the region and the world is profound and far-reaching; the consequences of escalation are too frightening to contemplate,” Guterres said during a joint news conference with Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita in Chisinau.   “I am deeply concerned about the continuation and possible spread of the war Russia is waging in Ukraine, and by the impact it is having not only in the region but around the world,” the U.N. …

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The U.S. on Monday suspended 232 tariffs on Ukrainian steel for a year, in a new attempt to boost the war-torn country’s economy.  “We can’t just admire the fortitude and spirit of the Ukrainian people — we need to have their backs and support one of the most important industries to Ukraine’s economic well-being,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in announcing the tariff rollback.  “For steel mills to continue as an economic lifeline for the people of Ukraine, they must be able to export their steel,” she said.  But how much the tariff curb might help Ukraine’s economy was …

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Former French prime minister Francois Fillon will learn Monday whether an appeals court has upheld his conviction for setting his wife up with lucrative fake jobs. Revelations about the probe torpedoed conservative Fillon’s 2017 presidential campaign, leaving the way clear for centrist Emmanuel Macron — re-elected to a second term last month. The 68-year-old was convicted by a lower court in 2020 and sentenced to five years in jail, three of them suspended. At the November appeals hearing, prosecutors said there was clear evidence that Fillon and his stand-in as MP for the Sarthe department, Marc Joulaud, employed Fillon’s wife …

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Germany’s conservative CDU won an election in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday, a boost to the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, which was ousted from the national government in federal elections last year. An exit poll by the political research group, Infratest dimap, put the Christian Democrats (CDU) at 43.5% of votes, up 11.5% from when Schleswig-Holstein last held a state election in 2017. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats, the main party in Germany’s “traffic light” coalition with the environmentalist Greens and liberal Free Democrats (FDP), meanwhile slumped to 15.9%, as it had presented a largely …

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The United States Department of the Treasury has announced new sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has named entities and people that it says are critical to Russia’s ability to wage war, including the board members of two of Russia’s most important banks, a Russian state-owned bank and 10 of its subsidiaries, a state-supported weapons manufacturer, and three of Russia’s state-controlled television stations that generate revenue for the state, according to a department statement.   OFAC is also taking action to cut off access to services that are used by …

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The United States and other leading economies in the Group of Seven nations Sunday agreed to ban or phase out the purchase of Russian oil, directly targeting a major source of income for Moscow to pay for its 10-week invasion of Ukraine.   “This will hit hard at the main artery of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s economy and deny him the revenue he needs to fund his war,” the G-7 leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S. said after a virtual meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.   The U.S. has already ended its purchase of …

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The U.K., U.S. and Irish governments have urged rival parties in Northern Ireland to come together to resurrect its power-sharing government after Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein scored a historic victory to become the biggest party in Northern Ireland’s Assembly. Sinn Fein, which seeks union with Ireland, won 27 seats in the 90-seat legislature, beating the Democratic Unionist Party, which secured 25 seats. It’s the first time in Northern Ireland’s history that an Irish nationalist party has topped the voting. But it’s not clear whether Sinn Fein will lead a new government because of Northern Ireland’s delicate power-sharing politics and …

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Dozens of Ukrainians were feared dead Sunday after a Russian bomb leveled a school sheltering about 90 people in eastern Ukraine. The governor of the disputed Luhansk province where intense fighting has raged for weeks between Russian and Ukrainian forces said 30 people were rescued at the site in Bilohorivka but that the others in the school probably did not survive. “Most likely, all 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead,” Governor Serhiy Haidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app. He said Russian shelling also killed two boys, ages 11 and 14, in the nearby town of …

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is meeting virtually Sunday with the Group of 7 leaders, who head the world’s largest economies. The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and the United States are meeting with the Ukrainian leader to show their support for Ukraine as it fights off a Russian invasion that began in February. The G-7 has pledged billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine. Sunday’s meeting is a day ahead of Russia’s annual Victory Day celebration, commemorating the 77th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. The holiday is celebrated across Russia with military parades. …

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Red Soviet flags and orange-and-black striped military ribbons are on display in Russian cities and towns. Neighborhoods are staging holiday concerts. Flowers are being laid by veterans’ groups at monuments to the Great Patriotic War, as World War II is known in the country. At first glance, preparations for Monday’s celebration of Victory Day, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, seem to be the same as ever. But the mood this year is very different, because Russian troops are fighting and dying again. And this battle, now in its 11th week, is going on in neighboring Ukraine, against …

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Food prices around the world have soared to record levels this year as the Russia-Ukraine war slashes key exports of wheat and fertilizer from those countries, at the same time as droughts, floods and heat fueled by climate change claim more harvests. Wheat prices hit a 14-year peak in March, and maize prices reached the highest ever recorded, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES) said in a report released on Friday. That has made basic staples more expensive – or harder to find – for families in many countries, especially the poorest. Climate change, widespread poverty …

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A deadly fire at an aerospace research institute in Tver, northwest of Moscow. Another blaze at a munitions factory in Perm, more than 1,100 kilometers to the east. And fires in two separate oil depots in Bryansk, near Belarus. Coincidences, or a sign that Ukrainians or their supporters are mounting a campaign of sabotage inside Russia to punish Moscow for invading their country? Since the blaze at the Central Research Institute of the Aerospace Defense Forces in Tver on April 21, which killed at least 17 people, social media has leapt on every report of a fire somewhere in Russia …

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Ukrainians are finding different ways to leave the areas under heavy fire along the southern front line of the Russian-Ukrainian war. …

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Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the IRA, hailed its first election win in Northern Ireland’s history as a “defining moment” for the British-controlled region and called for a debate on the creation of a united Ireland. Sinn Fein secured 29% of first-preference votes for the regional parliament, way ahead of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party’s 21.3%, official results showed. While the final seat count has not been declared, analysts said no one could catch Sinn Fein. “Today represents a very significant moment of change. It’s a defining moment in our politics and for our people,” the head of …

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The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says global food prices stabilized last month at a very high level but were slightly lower than in March, which saw the highest ever jump in food prices. FAO officials see little prospect of a significant decrease in the price of food as long as the Russian-Ukrainian war goes on. Both countries combined account for nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley exports and up to 80% of sunflower seed oil shipments. The FAO’s deputy director in the markets and trade division, Josef Schmidhuber, said disruption in the export of those …

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Ukrainian officials have warned the country’s residents that the battles with Russian troops are likely to intensify this weekend, in the lead-up to Russia’s Victory Day celebrations Monday, commemorating the 77th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. The holiday is celebrated across Russia with military parades. Reuters reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin will send a “doomsday” message to the West on May 9. A Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said Friday that Russia has no intention of deploying tactical nuclear weapons to Ukraine. “Russia firmly abides by the principle that there can be no victors in a …

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The Russian girlfriend of a Belarusian dissident, arrested with him a year ago when their plane was forced to land in Minsk, was on Friday sentenced to six years in prison, a rights group said.  Sofia Sapega, 24, was detained with Belarusian opposition activist Roman Protasevich, 27, in May 2021 when their Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was grounded as it passed over Belarus.  Sapega, a Russian citizen, faced seven criminal charges including “inciting social hatred” and “violence or threats” against police.  Following a closed-door trial, a court in Belarus sentenced Sapega to six years, rights group Vyasna said.  …

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U.N. officials warn that soaring prices of food, fuel, fertilizers, and other commodities due to the Russia-Ukraine war could have a profound destabilizing impact on the African continent.  Africa is still reeling from the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has plunged some 50 million people into extreme poverty. The continent is also tackling crises generated by climate change, conflict, and political unrest. Added to this toxic mix is now the war in Ukraine.  Ahunna Eziakonwa, the U.N. Development Program’s assistant administrator and regional director for Africa, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is reverberating badly on the continent. “Things …

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A Moscow court on Friday ordered the arrest in absentia of Alexander Nevzorov, a prominent Russian journalist accused of spreading false information about what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine. The court said Nevzorov, who has been put on Russia’s international wanted list, would be detained for two months if he ever returns to Russia or is extradited. Nevzorov’s wife wrote on Instagram in March that she and her husband were in Israel, but that the couple had no plans to move there permanently. Investigators had opened a case against Nevzorov in March for posting on social media …

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