Year: 2022

New details have emerged about Belarusians fighting for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion as part of a broader struggle to free their own country from Russian domination and the rule of Moscow-backed autocrat Alexander Lukashenko. Speaking exclusively to VOA in a Tuesday phone interview, the deputy commander of the largest pro-Ukraine Belarusian fighting force said its …

Read more “How Belarusian Fighters in Ukraine Evolved Into Prominent Force Against Russian Invasion”

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters a second month, social media and television continue to constantly broadcast disturbing images and news about the conflict. That’s raising some concerns about the effect it might be having on children’s mental health. Video: Artyom Kokhan …

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A Red Cross convoy traveling to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol will make another attempt to evacuate civilians from the besieged port Saturday as Russian forces looked to be regrouping for new attacks in the southeast. Mariupol, encircled since the early days of Russia’s 5-week-old invasion, has been Moscow’s main target in Ukraine’s southeastern region …

Read more “Red Cross Heads Again for Mariupol as Russia Shifts Ukraine Focus”

The U.S. Defense Department announced Friday it is allotting $300 million in “security assistance” for Ukraine to bolster the country’s defense capabilities, adding to the $1.6 billion Washington has committed since Russia invaded in late February. The package includes laser-guided rocket systems, drones, ammunition, night-vision devices, tactical secure communications systems, medical supplies and spare parts. …

Read more “Pentagon Commits Extra $300 Million in Security Aid to Ukraine”

Shouts of fear and panic. The thunder of gunfire. Dozens of corpses in pools of blood on the floor of the Bataclan concert hall. A Paris court Friday released audio recordings and photos of the 2015 Paris terror attacks that had never been made public before, to expose the horrors of that night.  Some survivors …

Read more “Paris Attacks Trial: Key Suspect Speaks, Shocking Images “

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the western Ukrainian town of Ternopil was full at lunch time — as it has been most days since Russia invaded Ukraine. “The cathedral is full of people praying for peace,” Archbishop Vasyl Semeniuk told me. But as I reported Thursday, the Greek-Catholic …

Read more “Reporter’s Notebook: An Apocalyptic War With No End?”

The first European Union-China summit in nearly two years took place Friday by video link and lasted just two hours. The European Union warned China not to support Russia’s war in Ukraine or interfere with international sanctions against Moscow, during a virtual summit that failed to ease sharp differences between the sides over the conflict. …

Read more “Europe Warns China over Ukraine War”

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said he has reached separate agreements with Ukrainian and Russian authorities on what assistance his agency will provide as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters a second month. Fears have been high throughout the five-week-long war of a potential nuclear accident, as Russia indiscriminately shells many parts of …

Read more “IAEA to Assist in Safeguarding Ukraine Nuclear Sites”

The Kremlin’s clampdown on news of the war in Ukraine has hackers and volunteers from around the world are sending messages directly to Russian citizens’ phones to keep them informed. Matt Dibble has the story. …

Ukraine’s presidential office says Ukrainian and Russian officials held online peace talks Friday, but gave no further details. The meeting follows Tuesday’s face-to-face peace talks in Istanbul, which both Turkish and Ukrainian officials described as positive.   In a television interview Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, while acknowledging that some Russian commitments to deescalate …

Read more “Ukraine-Russia Peace Talks Resume”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised India for not judging the Ukraine crisis in a “one-sided way,” and said that the two countries would find ways to trade using local currencies. “Our relations were very sustainable during many difficult times in the past,” the Russian foreign minister said during a visit to New Delhi Friday. …

Read more “Russian Foreign Minister Praises Indian Position on Ukraine Crisis”

The besieged Southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol is waiting Friday to see whether Russia will honor a humanitarian corridor that could allow aid into the city and allow evacuations out. “We remain hopeful, we are in action moving towards Mariupol … but it’s not yet clear that this will happen today,” Ewan Watson, a spokesman …

Read more “Ukraine’s Mariupol Hoping For Humanitarian Corridor”

Golden butterflies adorn the walls of the Netherland’s only euthanasia expertise center, put up in remembrance of thousands of patients who have chosen to die with dignity over the past two decades. Situated in a leafy upmarket suburb of The Hague, the Euthanasia Expertise Center is the only one of its kind, giving information, assisting …

Read more “‘Dying With Dignity’: Dutch Mark 20 Years of Euthanasia”

An accident in a mine in central Serbia killed at least eight people and wounded 20 Friday, state Serbian television RTS reported. The accident in the Soko coal mine happened around 5 a.m. (0300 GMT). The RTS report says part of the mine pit collapsed trapping the miners inside. The head of the medical center …

Read more “Central Serbia Mine Accident Kills At Least 8, Injures 20”

Australia said Friday it will send armored vehicles to Ukraine after a plea for much needed military aid from its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made during an address to the Australian Parliament. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told lawmakers in Australia by video link Thursday from Ukraine that those “fighting against evil” must be armed. He urged …

Read more “Australia to Send Armored Troop Carriers to Ukraine”

For Jacques Pitteloud, Switzerland’s ambassador in Washington, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought back memories of Soviet tanks rolling into Czechoslovakia in 1968, crushing a set of democratic reforms known at the time as the “Prague Spring.” “That’s when I realized for the first time what it meant when free people are being attacked …

Read more “Swiss Envoy Sees Lesson for Democracies in Ukraine War”

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A Russian opera said Thursday it had canceled a concert by Russian superstar soprano Anna Netrebko over her comments on Moscow’s military operation in neighboring Ukraine. The 50-year-old singer who lives in the Austrian capital of Vienna on Wednesday “condemned” the operation, after she and other Russian artists in Europe and the United States came …

Read more “Russian Opera Drops Top Soprano Over Ukraine Comments”

The U.K. will ban conversion therapy for gay or bisexual people in England and Wales, but not for transgender people, ITV reported Thursday. Hours earlier, the government had confirmed an ITV report that it would drop a plan to introduce legislation to ban LGBT conversion therapy and would instead review how existing law could be …

Read more “Report: UK to Ban Conversion Therapy for Gays, but Not for Trans People”

War crimes happen whenever there is war, but seldom have they been investigated in real time and within weeks of the outbreak of hostilities, as is happening with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. After a brief initial hesitation to publicly brand the architects of the Ukraine invasion as war criminals, the United States and its European …

Read more “Could Russia Get Away With War Crimes in Ukraine?”

Yulia isn’t convinced Ukraine should give up any part of its territory to Russia — even if by doing so it could end the war. The 25-year-old from Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv is now living in a shelter in the western Ukrainian town of Lviv, and her life is on hold while the …

Read more “Increasingly Confident Ukrainians Want No Concessions to Russia”

Turkey is in the grip of nationwide protests by doctors over surging violence and worsening economic conditions. The country is witnessing an unprecedented increase in doctors quitting to take jobs overseas, which as Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, threatens one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s major achievements. …

Moldova is watching the war in neighboring Ukraine with special concern. Like Ukraine, Moldova is not a member of NATO or the European Union, and it has a very large Russian-speaking population – factors that for some Moldovans have sown fears of becoming the next target of Russian ambitions. Jon Spier narrates this report from …

Read more “Moldova Watches Ukraine with Special Concern”