Category: Євросоюз

KYIV — Five civilians died and 15 more were wounded following Russian strikes Saturday and overnight in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, its governor said, as Moscow claimed further gains in its monthslong grinding offensive in the country’s war-battered industrial heartland. Shortly after Donetsk Gov. Vadym Filashkin reported on the casualties Sunday, other local Ukrainian officials said Russian shelling wounded more civilians in the east and south. At least eight people suffered wounds after Moscow’s forces Sunday struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol, local Gov. Serhii Lysak reported that same day. Lysak said a toddler and a 10-year-old girl were among …

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CLARK, Philippines — France renewed a commitment to help defend freedom of navigation and overflight in the Asia-Pacific Sunday and said that its supersonic fighter jets — a pair of which landed for the first time in the Philippines — and advance military power would enable it to respond rapidly to any humanitarian or security crisis in the region.  France is also working to quickly conclude a defense pact that would allow it to deploy a larger number of forces for joint exercises to the Philippines, French Ambassador to Manila Marie Fontanel said.  France has moved to broaden its defense engagements …

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Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday warned the United States that if Washington deployed long-range missiles in Germany, then Russia would station similar missiles in striking distance of the West. The United States said on July 10 that it would start deploying long-range missiles in Germany from 2026 in preparation for a longer-term deployment that will include SM-6, Tomahawk cruise missiles and developmental hypersonic weapons. In a speech to sailors from Russia, China, Algeria and India to mark Russian navy day in the former imperial capital of St. Petersburg, Putin warned the United States that it risked triggering a …

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LONDON — When Donald Trump suggested during the 2016 presidential campaign that he might not honor a U.S. commitment to defend other NATO countries if they were attacked, it triggered alarm throughout the trans-Atlantic alliance. With Trump’s “America First” rhetoric drawing cheers from fervent supporters, the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is once again on the agenda. But this time, European leaders acknowledge the alliance must evolve to meet the challenges of the 21st century and say they are ready to shoulder more responsibility for their own defense. A lot has changed in eight years. First, Trump’s presidency forced …

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Dakar, Senegal — Mali’s army and its Russian allies suffered a major setback and significant losses on Saturday while fighting separatists in the country’s north, a spokesman for the rebels told AFP.  The West African nation’s military leaders, who took power in a 2020 coup, have made it a priority to retake all of the country from separatist and jihadi forces, particularly in Kidal, a pro-independence northern bastion.  “Azawad fighters are in control in Tinzaouaten and further south in the Kidal region,” said Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesman for an alliance of predominantly Tuareg separatist armed groups called CSP-DPA.  “Russian mercenaries …

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Helsinki, Finland — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will visit China from Friday to Tuesday for a trip that analysts say aims to repair the rift caused by Rome’s withdrawal last year from China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure and transportation plan sometimes called the New Silk Road. China’s foreign ministry said Thursday that during her trip, Meloni would hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and Chairman of China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee Zhao Leji. Italian President Sergio Mattarella plans to visit China in October. Analysts say the trips show that Rome hopes to repair …

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HAVANA — Havana residents watched from shore on Saturday as Russian warships arrived for the second time in as many months in a visit that Cuba called routine.  Cuban authorities fired shots into the air to signal their welcome, while curious fishermen watched from Havana’s waterside promenade as the ships advanced up the bay. Russian residents were also among the few up early to see the fleet’s arrival.  The patrol ship Neustrahimiy, training vessel Smolniy and support vessels, all from the Baltic Fleet, are scheduled to depart on Tuesday.  A brief statement by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces described their arrival …

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BUDAPEST, HUNGARY — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday that Russia’s leadership was “hyper rational” and that Ukraine would never be able to fulfill its hopes of becoming a member of the European Union or NATO. Orban, a nationalist in power since 2010, made the comments during a speech in which he forecast a shift in global power away from the “irrational” West toward Asia and Russia. “In the next long decades, maybe centuries, Asia will be the dominant center of the world,” Orban said, mentioning China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia as the world’s future big powers. “And we …

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paris — They’re often thought to have practically cornered the market on romance, yet they also can bicker and squabble as though they were Olympic sports. They practically wrote the book on fraternity, liberty and equality — words inscribed on their schools and town halls — but also recognize that those ideals aren’t always applied to citizens of color. Les Français — the French, as the people of France call themselves — simply don’t fit neatly into any one box. Now that they’re hosting the Olympics, here’s a look at some of the particularities that make the French, well, French:  The …

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MADRID — The global cruise industry expects to carry 10% more passengers by 2028 than the 31.7 million who took cruise holidays in 2023, when the sector surpassed pre-pandemic levels, but sees some routes exposed to protests over overtourism. Long criticized for its impact on the environment and coastal communities, the industry has ordered 57 more cruise ships in addition to some 300 now in operation to meet the projected demand, said the European director of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), Marie-Caroline Laurent. At the same time, companies are working to adapt the ships so they can switch to electricity from …

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KYIV, Ukraine — Signing an agreement with Russia to stop the war with Ukraine would amount to signing a deal with the devil, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as pressure mounts on the country to seek an end to more than two years of fighting.  A deal would only buy time for Russian President Vladimir Putin to strengthen his army and usher in another,potentially more violent chapter in the war, Mykhailo Podolyak told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.  “If you want to sign a deal with the devil who will then drag you to hell, …

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PARIS — Vandals targeted France’s high-speed train network with a series of coordinated actions that brought major disruption to some of the country’s busiest rail lines ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony Friday. The state-owned railway operator said arsonists had targeted installations along the lines connecting Paris with cities such as Lille in the north, Bordeaux in west and Strasbourg in the east. It urged all travelers to postpone their journeys. Repairs were under way but traffic would be severely disrupted until at least the end of the weekend. Trains were being sent back to their points of departure. “Last …

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KYIV, Ukraine — Russia overnight attacked Ukrainian energy facilities in two regions with drones, disrupting electricity supplies, Ukraine’s national power grid operator said Friday. Power supplies have, however, been already restored to most consumers in the northern Chernihiv and Zhytomyr regions, Ukrenergo said. Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 20 out of the 22 Russian attack drones launched overnight, Ukraine’s air force chief said. Most of the drones were shot down in the Kherson, Sumy, Zhytomyr and Chernihiv regions. The governor of the Chernihiv region said that some infrastructure and a dormitory were damaged during the attack on the town of Nizhyn, without …

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Washington — Over the past three weeks, Shirali Abdurehim, a 39-year-old Uyghur honey seller in Istanbul, has been detained in an immigration detention center. Abdurehim, a father of nine children, has lived in Turkey with his wife since 2013 as a refugee after fleeing repression in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China. He is one of at least a dozen Uyghurs who have been detained in recent weeks, according to detainees, lawyers and rights advocates. VOA has also seen at least four posts on the social media site Facebook calling for the release of family members since last weekend. …

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kyiv, ukraine — The former prisoners of war still puzzle over the strange events leading up to the night now seared into their memories, when an explosion ripped through the Russian-controlled Olenivka prison barracks and killed so many comrades two years ago. Among the survivors: Kyrylo Masalitin, whose months in captivity and long beard age him beyond his 30 years. Arsen Dmytryk, the informal commander of the group of POWs that was shifted without explanation to a room newly stocked with bare bunks. And Mykyta Shastun, who recalled guards laughing as the building burned, acting not at all like men under …

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