Category: Євросоюз

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch. UN Chief Calls for Diplomacy on Ukraine U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Russia, Ukraine and the West on Monday to de-escalate tensions, saying “there is no alternative to diplomacy” and warning the cost in lives and destruction would be “too high to contemplate.” UN Chief on Russia-Ukraine: ‘No Alternative to Diplomacy’ Millions of Yemenis in Danger of Losing Food Aid U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Tuesday that 8 million Yemenis had their World …

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Western leaders and Russia maintained a withering war of words Friday in the weeks-long standoff over Ukraine and amid Kremlin threats to retaliate militarily unless NATO agrees to withdraw the small level of forces it has stationed in the formerly communist countries of Eastern Europe, now members of the Western alliance. Leaders of both self-proclaimed breakaway republics in Donbas called on their citizens Friday to begin evacuations, saying those who are fit enough should pick up arms and the rest should leave — with food and shelter to be provided in the Russian town of Rostov-on-the-Don. In a broadcast, the …

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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday of Russian troops surrounding Ukraine, that it is “high time to seriously de-escalate.”  “I still think it will not happen,” he told Western leaders gathered in Germany for the Munich Security Conference about a possible Russian invasion of its southwestern neighbor. “But if it did, it would be catastrophic.”  Guterres has repeatedly called for de-escalation, diplomacy and dialogue, warning that the price of armed conflict in human suffering, destruction and damage to European and global security is too high to even contemplate.  He said that he is often asked if the world is experiencing …

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Millions of Britons were urged to cancel travel plans and stay indoors Friday amid fears of high winds and flying debris as the second major storm this week prompted a rare “red” weather warning across southern England. Storm Eunice is likely to cause significant disruption and dangerous conditions, with gusts that may exceed 145 kph in highly exposed coastal areas, the U.K.’s weather forecasting office said. The Met Office issued “red” warnings – indicating a danger to life – for parts of southwest England between 7 a.m. and noon and for southeast England and London from 10 a.m. until 3 …

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U.S. officials say the United States will sell Poland 250 M1 Abrams battle tanks to enhance the country’s security amid escalating tensions with Russia over Ukraine. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters in Warsaw Friday he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have informed Congress of their intent to sell the vehicles.  “The timeframe for delivery of these tanks is currently under discussion,” Austin said. Poland announced plans this summer to buy the tanks from the United States as part of a deal worth approximately $6 billion, but the sale kept getting delayed. Austin said the procurement by Poland …

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One of the many unsettling questions raised by the possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is what an armed conflict in Eastern Europe would do to the energy supply of the countries of the European Union, which have become increasingly reliant on Russian natural gas for electricity generation, industrial applications, and commercial and residential use. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the countries of the European Union and the United Kingdom imported more than 80% of the natural gas they consumed in 2020, up from 65% a decade before. Of the gas it imports, the EU receives the …

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The gold medalist said she felt empty. The silver medalist pledged never to skate again. The favorite left in tears without saying a word. After one of the most dramatic nights in their sport’s history, Russia’s trio of teenage figure skating stars each enter an uncertain future. Her Olympics and life turned upside down by a doping case, world record-holder Kamila Valieva faces a possible ban and a coach whose first response to her disastrous skate Thursday was criticism. “Why did you let it go? Why did you stop fighting?” cameras caught Eteri Tutberidze — the notoriously strict coach who …

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U.S. President Joe Biden says there is a “very high” likelihood that Russia will invade Ukraine in the next several days. Three top U.S. officials are in Europe to meet with allies about the escalations in Eastern Europe. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb reports from Brussels. …

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The Vatican’s big fraud and extortion trial resumes Friday after exposing some unseemly realities of how the Holy See operates, with a new spy story taking center stage that is more befitting of a 007 thriller than the inner workings of a papacy. According to written testimony obtained Thursday, one of Pope Francis’ top advisers brought in members of the Italian secret service to sweep his office for bugs and commissioned intelligence reports from them, completely bypassing the Vatican’s own police force in the process. The reported actions of Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the No. 2 in the Vatican secretariat …

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The United States and its Western allies are bracing for the possibility that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would have a ripple effect in cyberspace, even if Western entities are not initially the intended target. “I am absolutely concerned,” U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told the virtual Munich Cyber Security Conference on Thursday when asked about the chances of catastrophic spillover from a cyberattack on Ukraine. “It’s not hypothetical,” Monaco said, pointing to the June 2017 “NotPetya” virus, engineered by Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU. The virus initially targeted a Ukrainian accounting website but went on to hobble …

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U.S. military pilot Gail S. Halvorsen — known as the “Candy Bomber” for his candy airdrops during the Berlin airlift after World War II ended — has died at age 101. Halvorsen died Wednesday following a brief illness in his home state of Utah, surrounded by most of his children, James Stewart, the director of the Gail S. Halvorsen Aviation Education Foundation, said Thursday. Halvorsen was beloved and venerated in Berlin, which he last visited in 2019 when the city celebrated the 70th anniversary of the day the Soviets lifted their post-War World II blockade cutting off supplies to West …

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Police officers who beat and insulted journalists covering a protest this week will be removed from their positions, Azerbaijan’s Interior Ministry has said. The Interior Ministry press secretary told VOA’s Azerbaijan Service on Thursday that officers involved in the incident will be removed “due to impolite behavior especially against Fatima Movlamli.” Movlamli, a reporter for the news website Azadliq, and Sevinj Sadigova were detained on Tuesday and a third journalist, Teymur Kerimov said on Facebook that police prevented him from broadcasting live. In a Facebook post about her arrest, Movlamli said police told her she was not considered a journalist …

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Who says you have to be born in Italy to make excellent pizza? Ibrahim Songne, a West African now living in northern Italy, has successfully challenged that assumption. VOA’s Betty Ayoub has the story. …

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Dozens of African heads of state are in Brussels for a summit of European Union and African Union leaders, beginning Thursday. The coronavirus pandemic, investment and security are high on the agenda, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London. …

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The Kremlin said Thursday it will take time to withdraw Russian forces that have completed drills near the Ukraine border, while the United States and other Ukrainian allies say there are no concrete signs of a pullback of the Russian military elements that have sparked fears of a new invasion of Ukraine.  A senior U.S. official told reporters late Wednesday that despite Russia saying it was starting to send some units back to their bases, it had actually added as many as 7,000 more troops along the Ukraine border.  “The Russians have also said in recent days that they are …

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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris travels Thursday to Munich, where officials say she will focus on consulting with allies about the Russia-Ukraine crisis. While in Germany, where Harris will lead the U.S. delegation at the Munich Security Conference, she is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and the leaders of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Harris is also due to give an address Saturday that administration officials said would highlight the level of unity among Western countries and NATO members on diplomatic, military and economic fronts. “The vice president will underscore how that unity is …

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The top European Union court ruled on Wednesday that the EU can withhold funding from member states that fail to uphold its rule of law principles, giving the bloc a powerful tool to enforce its democratic values.  “The European Union must be able to defend those values, within the limits of its powers,” the European Court of Justice said in the ruling. The decision by the Luxembourg-based court cannot be appealed.  “Today’s judgments confirm that we are on the right track,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said when announcing how the bloc would proceed in the next couple …

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NATO’s chief said on Wednesday there was no evidence that Russia was withdrawing forces from the Ukraine border, but he added there was still a chance for a diplomatic solution. NATO leaders and defense ministers were meeting in Brussels for talks. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb has more. …

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President Emmanuel Macron hosts African leaders on Wednesday ahead of an expected announcement that France is withdrawing its troops from Mali after an almost decade-long deployment to battle a jihadist insurgency. Multiple sources have told AFP that Macron will announce that French forces will leave Mali and redeploy elsewhere in the Sahel region, following a breakdown in relations with the ruling junta. It remains unclear when, and how, Macron will make the announcement, which could come as part of Wednesday’s meeting or when he travels to Brussels on Thursday for a two-day EU-Africa summit. The deployment in Mali of a …

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced Wednesday a move by Russian legislators to recognize two Russian-supported breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent. Russia’s lower house voted Tuesday to ask President Vladimir Putin to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics, which declared independence from Ukraine in 2014 after President Viktor Yanukovych was removed from office in the Ukrainian Revolution.  The European Union urged Moscow not to follow through on the vote by the State Duma. Approval of the vote could further intensify tensions between Russia and Western countries over Russia’s military buildup along Ukraine’s borders that has fueled …

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