Another Russian oligarch’s yacht was seized Thursday as part of efforts to punish Russia over its war in Ukraine. At the request of the United States, Fijian officials took a $300 million yacht belonging to Suleiman Kerimov, the Justice Department said. Officials say the yacht is in Lautoka, Fiji. Kerimov’s yacht, the Cayman Island-flagged Amadea, …
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Queen Elizabeth II will miss the traditional royal garden party season, where she would normally meet with hundreds of people on the grounds of her residences in London and Edinburgh, palace officials said Thursday. The 96-year-old monarch will be represented instead by other members of her family, Buckingham Palace said in a statement. Before the …
Read more “Queen to Miss Traditional Royal Garden Party Season “
After the regime’s crackdown on protesters in Belarus following the 2020 presidential elections, some 200,000-300,000 people fled Belarus ending up as refugees in Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and a number of other EU countries. Now they’re helping Ukrainian refugees and Belarusians who are being forced to move, yet again. Maxim Moskalkov reports. Dana Preobrazhenskaya contributed to …
Read more “Belarusian Diaspora Does What It Can to Help Ukraine”
Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, at least 23 journalists have been killed in the country, according to a journalists’ union. And at least seven of those deaths took place while the journalists were on assignment, says the Committee to Protect Journalists. Oleksii Kovalenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by …
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Russia has announced the expulsion of seven people from the Danish Embassy in Moscow in response to a similar move announced by Copenhagen four weeks earlier. “They must leave the country within two weeks,” the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said in a statement Thursday. The move came exactly one month after Denmark expelled 15 employees …
Read more “Russia Expels 7 Danish Embassy Staff in Tit-For-Tat Move”
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday that it would use nuclear reactors to help reduce its own and other countries’ dependence on Russian energy. Japan has become more reliant on Russian gas since shutting down nuclear reactors after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in which an earthquake and tsunami triggered a meltdown, devastating its …
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For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT: 4:30 a.m.: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday he condemned in the strongest terms Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying it amounted to war crimes, Reuters reported. Kishida was speaking …
With the help of international experts, Ukraine is rushing to collect evidence of widespread war crimes, using 21st century technology to bring the perpetrators to justice. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. A warning to our viewers: this story contains graphic images. Camera: Veronica Balderas Iglesias …
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled new punitive actions against Russia on Wednesday, even as Russia pounded Ukraine, targeting rail stations and other supply lines in attempts to stop the West from “stuffing Ukraine with weapons.” The Russian strikes, with air- and sea-launched missiles, hit five railway stations and fuel and ammunition depots, …
Read more “European Union Proposes New Sanctions as Russia Pounds Ukraine”
India and France on Wednesday called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities” in Ukraine, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi again stopping short of condemning Russia’s invasion of its neighbor. India, which imports much of its military hardware from Russia, has long walked a diplomatic tightrope between the West and Moscow, notably refusing to denounce the …
Read more “France, India Call for Immediate End to Ukraine Hostilities”
The shirt worn by Diego Maradona when he scored the controversial “Hand of God” goal against England in the 1986 World Cup has sold for $9.3 million (7.1 million pounds), the highest price ever paid at auction for a piece of sports memorabilia. Auctioneer Sotheby’s sold the shirt in an online auction that closed Wednesday. …
Read more “Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ Shirt Sets Auction Record”
Iran will later this month execute a Swedish-Iranian national whom it has imprisoned since 2016 and convicted of spying for Israel, media reported. Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency on Wednesday released a report in which Iranian officials stated that Tehran will implement the death penalty against Ahmad Reza Jalali by May 21. Jalali, a researcher …
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Refugees fleeing the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, now under Russian control, are heading to the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro to find safety. In Dnipro, the city has opened a special center to accommodate the newcomers. Yaroslava Movchan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera – Oleksandr Khoroshun. …
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His appeals for an Orthodox Easter truce in Ukraine went unheeded. His planned meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church was canceled. A proposed visit to Moscow? Nyet. Even his attempt to showcase Russian-Ukrainian friendship fell flat. Pope Francis hasn’t made much of a diplomatic mark in Russia’s war in Ukraine, seemingly unable …
Read more “Pope’s Ukraine Diplomacy a Political and Spiritual Tightrope”
Stanislav Shushkevich, the first leader of an independent Belarus and one of the signatories of the accords that formally dissolved the Soviet Union, has died at the age of 87. His wife Irina told Agence France-Presse that Shushkevich passed away Tuesday in the capital Minsk. He had been hospitalized in intensive care last month after …
France’s Socialist Party and the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party reached an agreement in principle on Wednesday to form an alliance for June’s parliamentary election. The coalition pact, which the Greens and Communists agreed to earlier this week, is an attempt to deprive Macron of a majority in parliament in the June 12-19 vote …
Read more “French Left Agrees in Principle on Rare Coalition Deal to Take on Macron “
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled a new package of sanctions that includes a ban on all Russian oil, with crude oil imports stopping within six months and imports of refined products by the end of the year. The package must be unanimously approved by EU members. “Let’s be clear, it will not …
The European Union considered new sanctions against Russia on Wednesday, including measures targeting Russia’s oil and banking industries. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pushed for more extensive European actions to cut off imports of Russian energy, and said earlier this week that a new EU package “should include clear steps to block Russia’s revenues from …
Pope Francis said in an interview published on Tuesday that he has asked for a meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to stop the war in Ukraine but had not received a reply. The pontiff also told the Italian daily Corriere Della Sera that Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, …
The mayor of Ukraine’s besieged city of Mariupol said Tuesday 100,000 citizens remained in the city, while Ukrainian officials awaited the arrival of the first group of people who were able to leave a bombed-out steel plant. Mayor Vadym Boychenko said those still in the city included some civilians trapped in the bunkers and tunnels …
Spain said Monday that the mobile phones of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Defense Minister Margarita Robles were tapped using Pegasus spyware in an “illicit and external” intervention. Their phones were infected last year by software owned by the Israeli-based firm NSO, which is the target of numerous investigations worldwide, according to a senior …
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also led to another casualty: freedom of the press in Russia, according to a new report by Reporters Without Borders. The media advocacy group has ranked Russia near the bottom of its 2022 World Press Freedom index, which was issued Tuesday in conjunction with World Press Freedom Day. The annual …
Read more “Press Freedom Advocacy Group Says Propaganda a Global Threat to Free Media”
Turkey is one of the few countries where Russian airplanes can fly and Russian passport holders can enter without visas, making it a prime destination for Russians seeking to escape both Putin’s crackdowns and the effects of economic sanctions. For VOA, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …