Month: March 2022

A $13.6 billion emergency package of military and humanitarian aid for besieged Ukraine and its European allies easily won final congressional approval Thursday, hitching a ride on a government-wide spending bill that’s five months late but loaded with political prizes for both parties. With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion killing thousands and forcing over 2 …

Read more “US Senate Gives Final Approval to Ukraine Aid, Huge Budget Bill”

Beijing is controlling messaging on the war in Ukraine, analysts and observers say, as social media companies and traditional Chinese state media outlets have been suppressing voices critical of Russia’s invasion.  On February 22, Horizon News, an affiliate of China’s state-owned Beijing News, accidentally posted on Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, censorship instructions related to posts …

Read more “Chinese State Censors at Work to Control Messaging on War”

The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Friday on alleged manufacture of biological weapons in Ukraine at the request of Moscow, whose credibility on chemical weapons was questioned during a session on Syria. Russia on Thursday accused the United States of funding research into the development of biological weapons in Ukraine, which has …

Read more “UN Security Council to Meet Friday on Biological Weapons, at Moscow’s Request”

President Joe Biden will announce Friday that, along with the European Union and the Group of Seven countries, the U.S. will move to revoke “most favored nation” trade status for Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. That’s according to a source familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the …

Read more “US, Allies to Revoke ‘Most Favored Nation’ Status for Russia”

VOA News reporter Celia Mendoza visited the village of Medyka, in Poland, one of the busiest border crossings since the start of Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is what she saw. …

Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine    …

Acts of vandalism. Cancel culture. Financial hits. Putin’s war on Ukraine is causing problems for some Russians living in the United States. As VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports, many oppose Moscow’s aggression and are speaking out for peace. …

A shrinking number of well-known companies are still doing business in Russia, even as hundreds have announced plans to curtail ties.  Burger King restaurants are open, Eli Lilly is supplying drugs, and PepsiCo is selling milk and baby food, but no more soda.  The pace of businesses exiting Russia accelerated over the past week as …

Read more “Not All Western Companies Sever Ties to Russia Over Ukraine”

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is in Bucharest on Friday, after her visit Thursday to Warsaw, where she underscored the U.S. commitment to NATO’s eastern flank and supported calls for a probe of Russia’s alleged bombing of a Ukrainian hospital. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports. …

Praise for the way U.S. agencies secured and shared intelligence on Russia’s plans to invade Ukraine are being tempered by growing concern that one of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaigns is starting to take hold in the United States and the West. For days, officials at the White House, State Department and Pentagon have been pushing …

Read more “US Fears Russian Disinformation About Ukraine Bioweapons Gaining Traction”

Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers met at a Turkish Mediterranean Sea resort Thursday but failed to end the fighting in Ukraine, with mutual recriminations. Both ministers indicated the diplomatic door remained open. Speaking at a news conference after the meeting in Antalya, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba criticized what he called Russia’s lack of sincerity. …

Read more “Ukraine-Russia Meeting in Turkey Ends in Deadlock   “

Twitter says it has created a version of its microblogging service that can be used by Russians despite the regular version of the service being restricted in the country. The service will be available via a special “onion” URL on the darkweb that is accessible only when using a Tor browser. Onion URLs and Tor …

Read more “Twitter Offers Darkweb Site to Restore Access for Russian Users”

The United Nations estimates that with Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, more than 12 million Ukrainians inside their country and about 4 million refugees will need assistance in the coming months. Some New Yorkers are stepping in to help. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Natalia Latukhina. …

Acts of vandalism. Cancel culture. Financial hits. Putin’s war on Ukraine is causing problems for some Russians living in the United States. As VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports, many oppose Moscow’s aggression and are speaking out for peace. Ihar Tsikhanenka, Mike O’Sullivan, Michelle Quinn, and Mike Eckels contributed to this report. …

Ukraine is dominating a two-day European Union summit outside Paris, where leaders are discussing ways to cut their energy ties with Russia, shore up their defense, and consider Kyiv’s membership application. The European Union is not following the United States in immediately banning imports of Russian oil and gas. But EU leaders, meeting at Versailles …

Read more “Ukraine Dominates Two-day EU Summit Outside Paris”

Citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said Thursday the country’s military spending needs to be increased substantially and seeks to raise it to 2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) as soon as possible. Speaking to reporters about the plan in Stockholm, Andersson said her government is presenting a …

Read more “Swedish PM Seeks Increased Military Spending to 2% of GDP”

Israel has emerged as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine. Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is the only world leader who has traveled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin since the assault began, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week thanked Bennett for his mediation efforts. Linda Gradstein and Ricki Rosen report for …

Read more “Israel Launches Effort to Mediate between Russia, Ukraine”

The foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia held talks in Turkey Thursday marking the first high-level discussions between the two countries since Russia launched an all-out invasion of its neighbor. But after a 90-minute dialogue, both sides said there had been no breakthrough. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said he had discussed a 24-hour cease-fire …

Read more “Ukrainian, Russian Foreign Ministers End Talks With No Breakthrough”

Britain says it has added several high-profile Russian billionaires to its sanctions list, including including Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Premier League soccer club Chelsea, and industrialist Oleg Deripaska, who has called for an end to the war Moscow launched with Ukraine last month. The British government said in a statement on March 10 …

Read more “UK slaps Sanctions on 7 More Russian Oligarchs”

For the first time in four long days, three-year-old Ulya Nochovna is sleeping soundly in a bed. She has fled hundreds of kilometers through a war zone, from her home in Kyiv to Poland. Her family has been given beds in a refugee shelter in the town of Przemysł, a few kilometers from the frontier. …

Read more “Refugees, Twice Over: A Ukrainian Family’s Flight from Russian Missiles”

Each Ukrainian who has fled the Russian invasion has a heartbreaking story of separation and loss. VOA followed the Nochovna family — four women, age 3 to 73 — as they fled Kyiv for Poland. As Henry Ridgwell reports from Krakow, it is the second time the Nochovnas have been forced from their home. …

As Turkey and Israel take their biggest step in years toward reviving strained relations, some analysts say the two regional powers prefer going it alone in another diplomatic effort — trying to mediate a peaceful resolution of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog in Ankara on …

Read more “Turkey, Israel Reset Ties But Pursue Rival Mediations in Russia-Ukraine War”

Rich Russians are trying to shift some of their wealth from Europe to Dubai to shield assets from a tightening wave of Western sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, financial and legal sources said. Dubai, the Gulf’s freewheeling financial and business hub, has long been a magnet for the globe’s ultra-rich and the …

Read more “Fearing West’s Wrath, Russia’s Rich Look to Stash Wealth in Dubai”

Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine    …