Page 22 - Ukraine

Putin mobilises 300,000 more troops, wields Ukraine nuclear threat

"Those who are trying to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the wind patterns can also turn in their direction," the president said, accusing the US and allies of seeking to "destroy"

Ukraine conflict: Putin announces partial mobilisation for Russian citizens

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced a partial mobilisation in Russia as the war in Ukraine reaches nearly seven months. Putin's address to the nation comes a day after Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans to hold votes on becoming integral parts of Russia. The Kremlin-backed efforts to swallow up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war following Ukrainian successes on the battlefield. The referendums, which have been expected to take since the first months of the war, will start Friday in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. Putin said he has signed a decree on the partial mobilisation, which is due to start on Wednesday. We are talking about partial mobilisation, that is, only citizens who are currently in the reserve will be subject to conscription, and above all, those who served in the armed forces have a certain military specialty and relevant ...

African leader warns of rising pressure to choose sides over war in Ukraine

African Union chairperson Macky Sall said Tuesday that Africa does not want to be the breeding ground of a new Cold War, alluding to the pressure mounting on the continent's leaders to choose sides over the war in Ukraine. Many African countries depend heavily on grain imports from Russia and Ukraine. Amid market shortages, Russia's foreign minister has sought to portray the West as the villain, blaming it for rising food prices. Western leaders, meanwhile, have accused the Kremlin of cynically using food as a weapon and waging an imperial-style war of conquest. So far Africa has stayed somewhat neutral on Ukraine: Some 25 countries either voted to abstain or did not vote at all on the UN resolution that condemned the war in Ukraine earlier this year. I have come to say that Africa has suffered enough of the burden of history; that it does not want to be the breeding ground of a new Cold War, but rather a pole of stability and opportunity open to all its partners, on a mutually ...

Russia triggers plan to formally annex occupied Ukrainian regions

Four Russia-occupied regions announce referendum plans; votes will be held on whether to become part of Russia; Ukraine and the West regard votes as sham and illegal

Russia may step up Ukraine civilian target attacks, says Britain

Russian shelling hit cities and towns across a wide stretch of Ukraine during the night, officials said Sunday, and the British Defence Ministry warned that Russia is likely to increase its attacks on civilian targets as it suffers battlefield defeats. In the last seven days, Russia has increased its targeting of civilian infrastructure even where it probably perceives no immediate military effect, the ministry said in an online briefing. As it faces setbacks on the front lines, Russia has likely extended the locations it is prepared to strike in an attempt to directly undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and government." Overnight shelling hit a hospital in the city of Mykolaiv, a significant Black Sea port, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said. He also said shelling hit other parts of the region, wounding two people. Three people were wounded in nighttime shelling of the city of Nikopol, which is across the river from Europe's largest nuclear power station, regional governor

Ukraine carries out mass exhumations from 440 forest graves in Izyum

Ukrainian authorities have carried out mass exhumations of more than 440 bodies buried in a forest located at the edge of Izyum city, recently liberated from Russian occupation

Ukrainian president Zelenskyy says burial site contains torture victims

Investigators searching through a mass burial site in Ukraine have found evidence that some of the dead were tortured, including bodies with broken limbs and ropes around their necks, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy said Friday. The site near Izium, which was recently recaptured from Russian forces, appears to be one of the largest of its kind discovered in Ukraine. Zelenskyy spoke in a video he rushed out just hours after the exhumations began, apparently to underscore the gravity of the discovery. He said more than 400 graves have been found at the site but that the number of victims isn't yet known. Digging in the rain, workers hauled body after body out of the sandy soil in a misty pine forest near Izium. Protected by head-to-toe suits and rubber gloves, they gently felt through the decomposing remains of the victims' clothing, seemingly looking for identifying items. Associated Press journalists who visited the site saw graves marked with simple wooden crosses.Flowers h

SCO meet: 'Colour revolutions' must stop, says Chinese President Xi Jinping

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday asked SCO member states to guard against "colour revolutions" instigated by "external forces" and asked them to maintain strategic independence and safeguard regional stability, in a veiled attack on the US as it expands its influence in the Indo-Pacific region. Addressing the 22nd SCO summit here in the historic Uzbek city, Xi also announced plans to establish a centre in China to train counter-terrorism personnel by the grouping and mooted a development bank to speed up regional economic integration. Xi congratulated India for taking over the rotating Presidency of the Beijing-based eight-member regional grouping. Here I wish to express China's congratulations to India on assuming the next SCO presidency. We will, together with other member states, support India during its presidency, he said at the summit, also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The once-in-a-century pandemic has continued unabated. Regional conflicts keep flaring up

After the mess in Ukraine, is Vladimir Putin of any use to Russia?

Putin's claim to power has evolved over his nearly 22 years atop the Kremlin

Mass grave with more than 440 bodies found in Kharkiv: President Zelensky

Ukrainian authorities found a mass burial site near a recaptured northeastern city previously occupied by Russian forces, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday night. A mass grave of people was found in Izium in the Kharkiv region. The necessary procedures have already begun there. More information - clear, verifiable information - should be available tomorrow, Zelenskyy said in his nightly televised address. Associated Press journalists saw the site in a forest outside Izium on Thursday. A mass grave bore a marker saying it contained the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers. It was surrounded by hundreds of individual graves with only crosses to mark them. Zelenskyy invoked the names of other Ukrainian cities where authorities said retreating Russian troops left behind mass civilian graves and evidence of alleged war crimes. Bucha, Mariupol, now, unfortunately, Izium. Russia leaves death everywhere. And it must be held accountable for it. The world must bring Russia to real ...

Ukraine medic describes Russian torture in Mariupol as 'torment of hell'

A volunteer Ukrainian medic held captive three months by Russian forces in Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol told U.S. lawmakers Thursday of cradling and comforting fellow prisoners as they died of torture and inadequately treated wounds. Ukrainian Yuliia Paievska, who was captured by pro-Russian forces in Mariupol in March and held at shifting locations in Russian-allied territory in Ukraine's Donetsk region, spoke to lawmakers with the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, better known as the Helsinki Commission, a government agency created in part to promote international compliance with human rights. Her accounts Thursday were her most detailed publicly of her treatment in captivity, in what Ukrainians and international rights groups say are widespread detentions of both Ukrainian noncombatants and fighters by Russia's forces. Known to Ukrainians by the nickname Taira, Paievska and her care of Mariupol's wounded during the nearly seven-month Russian invasion o

Zelenskyy's car collides with another vehicle; no serious injuries

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's car collided with another vehicle early Thursday after a battlefield visit, but he was not seriously injured, his spokesman said. Zelenskyy was returning to Kyiv from the Kharkiv region, where he visited troops in the recaptured city of Izium. A passenger vehicle collided with the president's motorcade in the Ukrainian capital, his spokesman, Sergii Nikiforov, said in a Facebook post. The driver of the other vehicle received first aid from Zelenskyy's medical team and was taken away by ambulance, he said. Medics examined the president, who suffered no serious injuries, Nikiforov wrote. He did not specify what injuries Zelenskyy might have suffered. The spokesman added that the circumstances of the accident are under investigation. Zelenskyy was late in posting the nightly video address that he has given during the war, possibly because of the car accident.

Zelenskyy visits retaken strategic city, watches Ukrainian flag rise

Hand on heart, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy watched his country's flag rise Wednesday above the recaptured city of Izium, making a rare foray outside the capital that highlights Moscow's embarrassing retreat from a Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russian forces left the war-scarred city last week as Kyiv's soldiers pressed a stunning advance that has reclaimed large swaths of territory in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region. As Zelenskyy looked on and sang the national anthem, the Ukrainian flag was raised in front of the burned-out city hall. After almost six months under Russian occupation, Izium was left largely devastated, with apartment buildings blackened by fire and pockmarked by artillery strikes. A gaping hole and piles of rubble stood where one building had collapsed. The view is very shocking, but it is not shocking for me," Zelenskyy told journalists, "because we began to see the same pictures from Bucha, from the first de-occupied territories the same destroy

EU chief proposes revenue cap on electricity distributors in Ukraine

A top European Union official unveiled on Wednesday a plan to cap the revenues of electricity producing companies that are making extraordinary profits due to the war in Ukraine and climate change, saying the proposal could raise USD 140 billion to help people hit by spiralling energy prices. These companies are making revenues they never accounted for, they never even dreamt of, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France. In our social market economy, profits are OK, they are good. But in these times it is wrong to receive extraordinary record revenues and profits benefitting from war and on the back of consumers. In these times, profits must be shared and channeled to those who need it the most, she said. Our proposal will raise more than 140 billion euros (USD 140 billion) for member states to cushion the blow directly, von der Leyen said in a State of the European Union address to the EU assembly. With winter approaching, the 27 E

PM Modi to attend SCO Summit in Samarkand, all eyes on bilateral meetings

After the Samarkand summit, the presidency of the SCO will be handed over to India for the next year till September 2023. New Delhi will most likely host the next SCO summit

There is a sense of momentum by Ukrainian forces against Russia, says US

The White House has said that there is a sense of momentum by Ukrainian forces against Russia but cautioned that the ongoing war in Ukraine remains "unpredictable". We've been watching closely. The events in the north are more dramatic than what we've seen in the south. I would let President Volodymyr Zelenskyy determine and decide whether he feels militarily they've reached a turning point. But clearly, at least in the Donbas, there's a sense of momentum here by the Ukrainian armed forces, said John Kirby, the Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House on Tuesday. Responding to questions, Kirby said that in the north they have seen Russians evacuate, withdraw, and retreat from their defensive positions, particularly there in and around the Kharkiv oblast. They have left fighting positions. They've left supplies, he said. They are calling it a repositioning, but it's certain they have withdrawn in the face of Ukrainian armed forces .

Inter-governmental panel on the cards to resolve Chabahar Port row

Tehran wants domestic resolution; New Delhi seeks international arbitration framework

Ukraine liberates over 6,000 sq km territory from Russia in Sept: Zelensky

Since the beginning of this month, Ukrainian forces have liberated over 6,000 sq.km of the war-torn nation's territory from Russian forces, says President Volodymyr Zelensky

73,000 evacuated from Ukraine's conflict-hit areas in August: Ministry

More than 73,000 people have been evacuated from the conflict-affected regions of Ukraine in August, Ukraine's Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories said

US vows to support Ukrainians fighting hard to defend their country

The US has vowed to continue to give support to Ukraine as the Ukrainians are fighting hard to defend their country and take back territory seized by Russia. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, but Ukrainian forces retook large areas around Kyiv in early April after Russia abandoned its push towards the capital. "We're not going to speak for Ukrainians. We'll leave it to Ukrainians to describe their operations. But it's clear they are fighting hard to defend their country and take back territory, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday. We're going to continue to give them the support they need to succeed on the battlefield, she said. The US has announced two significant security assistance packages last week, brought more than 50 countries together to coordinate its support, and has worked to fulfil the Ukrainian requests for what they need to be successful on the battlefield, the official noted. After Ukraine seized Balakliya last Thursday, .