Category: Євросоюз

Two months after the Berlin Wall fell, another powerful symbol opened its doors in the middle of Moscow: a gleaming new McDonald’s.  It was the first American fast-food restaurant to enter the Soviet Union, reflecting the new political openness of the era. For Vlad Vexler, who as a 9-year-old waited in a two-hour line to enter the restaurant near Moscow’s Pushkin Square on its opening day in January 1990, it was a gateway to the utopia he imagined the West to be.  “We thought that life there was magical, and there were no problems,” Vexler said.  So, it was all …

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The chairperson of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Monday that Russia’s targeting of Ukrainian civilians, as well as schools and hospitals, is “state terrorism.” “The invading force started to target the civilian population and infrastructure in an attempt to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people,” Zbigniew Rau said. “This is deplorable and shameful and amounts to state terrorism. Schools, hospitals and kindergartens are being deliberately targeted with internationally banned weapons.” The United Nations has said it has credible reports that Russian forces are using cluster munitions in populated areas. Rau, who is Poland’s foreign minister, …

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An anti-war protester interrupted the main news program on Russian state TV Channel One on Monday, holding up a sign behind the studio presenter with slogans denouncing the war in Ukraine. The sign, in English and Russian, read: “NO WAR. Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They are lying to you here.” Another phrase, which looked like “Russians against war,” was partly obscured. The extraordinary protest took place on day 19 of the war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 in what it calls a special military operation. “Stop the war. No to war,” the woman protester …

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German prosecutors said Monday they have charged Wirecard’s former chief executive Markus Braun and two other high-ranking managers for the colossal commercial fraud that led to the collapse of the payment company. The trio are accused of market manipulation, embezzlement and gang fraud on a commercial scale, said prosecutors, noting that the indictment itself runs to 474 pages. The German fintech company, once touted as a shining star of innovative start-ups, crashed in June 2020 after admitting that a missing 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) from its balance sheets likely didn’t exist. The time it took for prosecutors to file …

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EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has confirmed the bloc is poised to impose a fourth round of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Speaking in Skopje during a visit to the North Macedonian capital on Monday, the EU’s top diplomat accused Moscow of targeting civilians in its war against Ukraine, noting that “more than” 2,400 civilians had died in the besieged port city of Mariupol alone. “Putin’s war is not only about Ukraine, it’s about security and stability of our European continent. It affects all of us,” Borrell said, adding that another package of sanctions targeting Russia’s …

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Marina, a 34-year-old mother of a seven-year-old boy, waves a hand in what she thinks is the direction of Ukraine. “I have to stay near Ukraine, and my husband, that is where my heart is,” she says. “America, Britain, Spain, Italy, what would I do there without him,” she says, after I ask her whether she will leave Poland to settle somewhere else, if Russia’s war on her country drags on. It took Marina more than a day to reach the Polish border on the train from just west of Kyiv. She says it was stultifying and claustrophobic in the …

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Germany plans to buy up to 35 U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets and 15 Eurofighter jets, a parliamentary source said Monday, as part of a major push to modernize the armed forces in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The F-35 jets made by Lockheed Martin would help replace Germany’s decades-old Tornado fleet, according to media reports confirmed by the source. Tornados are the only jets capable of carrying U.S. nuclear bombs stationed in Germany that are a key part of NATO deterrence. Lockheed’s F-35 stealth jets are considered the most modern combat aircraft in the world, and their unique shape …

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BERLIN — Germany will purchase F-35 fighter jets built by U.S. firm Lockheed Martin LMT.N to replace its aging Tornado aircraft, according to two government sources, with one of the sources saying Berlin aims to buy up to 35 of the stealth jets.  A German defense source told Reuters in early February that Germany was leaning toward purchasing the F-35 but a final decision had not been taken.   The Tornado is the only German jet capable of carrying U.S. nuclear bombs, stored in Germany, in case of a conflict.  But the air force has been flying the jet since the …

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Every Sunday, dozens of Ukrainian and Russian Christian believers congregate at First Russian Baptist Church in Mount Crawford, Virginia. VOA’s Yahya Barzinji visited the church, spoke to congregants and filed this report narrated by Namo Abdulla. …

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Russia may default on its debts in the wake of unprecedented sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, but that would not trigger a global financial crisis, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Sunday. Georgieva told CBS’s “Face the Nation” program that sanctions imposed by the United States and other democracies were already having a “severe” impact on the Russian economy and would trigger a deep recession there this year. The war and the sanctions would also have significant spillover effects on neighboring countries that depended on Russian energy supplies and had already resulted in a wave of …

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Up to 30,000 men, women and children joined an anti-war demonstration in central Berlin on Sunday, with many waving Ukrainian flags or holding banners with slogans opposing the Russian invasion. Gathering near the Brandenburg Gate, symbol of a divided Germany during the Cold War, protesters – including people in wheelchairs and toddlers in pushchairs – walked through the streets of Berlin, at times chanting and singing. Slogans on posters and banners included “Stop Putin,” “Stop War,” “Russian soldiers go home” and “Solidarity with Ukraine!” “Above all, it’s extremely important for Ukrainians to see that we will not forget them, not …

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U.S. officials say Russia’s lethal shelling in the western part of Ukraine on Sunday, close to the border with Poland, is something that they had anticipated. “This does not come as a surprise to the American intelligence and national security community,” said U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan during a Sunday morning appearance on CNN. “What it shows is that Vladimir Putin is frustrated by the fact that his forces are not making the kind of progress that he thought that they would make.” At least 35 people died and 134 were wounded early Sunday when Russia fired cruise missiles …

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One of Ukraine’s biggest military training bases, located 25 kilometers from the Polish border in the west of the country, was struck by Russian missiles in an attack that left 35 people dead and 134 others injured, according to Ukrainian officials. The base at Yavoriv is only 60 kilometers from Lviv, a major hub for Ukrainian evacuees heading into Poland. It has also been used by NATO military instructors, but Ukrainian officials say they are still trying to establish whether any were on-site for the attack and were injured. The strike on the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security is …

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Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine    …

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Turkey and Armenia have pledged to pursue the normalization of ties in what the Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu described as a “productive and constructive” meeting on Saturday. After talks with his Armenian counterpart, Ararat Mirzoyan, Cavusoglu said that Azerbaijan also “supports the process” of normalization. Armenia and Turkey have no diplomatic relations, a closed land border and a deep-seated hostility rooted in the mass killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War I. But in December, the two countries appointed special envoys to normalize relations, spurred by support from regional powerbroker Russia and Armenia’s arch-foe Azerbaijan. The …

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Britain will pay people to open their homes to Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion as the government moves to deflect anger over its response to the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. The new program called “Homes for Ukraine” will let refugees from the war come to Britain even if they do not have family ties, the government said Sunday. Britain will pay people 350 pounds ($456) a month if they can offer refugees a spare room or property for a minimum period of six months. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has sought to portray Britain as helping …

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The United States on Saturday said it would rush up to $200 million in additional small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine, as Ukrainian officials pleaded for more equipment to defend against heavy shelling by Russian forces. U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday authorized the additional security assistance, the White House said, paving the way for the “immediate” shipment of fresh military equipment to Ukraine, a senior administration official said. Biden’s decision brings the total U.S. security aid provided to Ukraine to $1.2 billion since January 2021, and to $3.2 billion since 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimea region …

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The clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Dutch city of Amsterdam, announced Saturday it was splitting from the Moscow church because of threats to them over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  In a statement posted to its website it said that after a meeting, “the clergy unanimously announced that it is no longer possible for them to function within the Moscow Patriarchate and provide a spiritually safe environment for our faithful.”  It was “with a heavy heart” that the four priests of Saint Nicholas of Myra in Amsterdam had reached their decision, they said.  They had asked Archbishop Elisey, …

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The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, has launched a huge relief operation to aid and protect millions of Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion, both inside Ukraine and as refugees in neighboring countries. Latest U.N. estimates find at least 2 million people are displaced inside Ukraine, and more than 2.5 million refugees are sheltering in neighboring countries. The figures keep moving upwards in the fast-paced displacement crisis in line with the escalating war. Speaking from Rzeszow, Poland, UNHCR spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh says his agency is scaling up operations to keep pace with needs.  He says access to conflict-affected communities in hard-hit …

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