Category: News

MOSCOW, RUSSIA — Russia detained more than 5,000 people protesting President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine in dozens of cities Sunday — an unprecedented number as Moscow clamps down on anyone opposing the Kremlin’s military assault on the country.   OVD-info, which monitors arrests during protests, said police had detained at least 5,016 people in 60 cities …

Read more “Russia Arrests Over 5,000 in Single Day for Protesting Ukraine War  “

The message from Mariupol, Ukraine’s besieged port city on the Sea of Azov, was stark. “We’re still holding on,” a resident, Ihor, concluded his brief 34-word message …

SUCEAVA, ROMANIA — As Olga Okhrimenko walked into a bustling ballroom-turned-refugee shelter at a four-star Romanian hotel, her corgi, Knolly, strained at the leash anxiously seeking the warmth inside. It had taken them three days to flee Ukraine by car, bus and taxi in the bitter cold.  The 34-year-old Ukrainian marketing manager could hardly contain …

Read more “At Romania Hotel, Ballroom Welcomes Refugees Fleeing Ukraine “

South Korea said Monday it will halt all transactions with Russia’s central bank in the latest series of punitive actions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine …

US lawmakers favor more support for Kyiv, but not a no-fly zone     …

Israel has offered to mediate between Ukraine and Russia …

Ukraine remains under attack from Russian forces waging war on orders from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Steadily increasing Western sanctions have so far failed to deter Russia’s aggression, as evacuation efforts in Ukraine stall because of indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has the story. …

The impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — a country long known as the “breadbasket of Europe” because of the prodigious amounts of wheat, corn and other cereal grains that it produces — will extend far beyond Europe, wreaking havoc on global food supplies, experts from aid agencies say. Ukraine produces 16% of the world’s …

Read more “Crisis in Ukraine Drives Food Prices Higher Around World”

As international sanctions on Moscow have triggered a decrease in the ruble’s value, North Korean workers in Russia are struggling to meet the remittance quotas set by Pyongyang, according to multiple sources in Russia and official North Korean documents obtained by VOA’s Korean Service. North Korea is believed to use the hard currency to fund …

Read more “Sanctioning Russia Curtails North Korea’s Hard Currency Intake”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pledged Washington’s support to Moldova, a small, Western-leaning former Soviet republic that is contending with an influx of refugees from neighboring Ukraine. Moldova says that more than 230,000 refugees have crossed its border with Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24. At least 120,000 of them …

Read more “Blinken Pledges US Support to Moldova Amid Refugee Influx from Ukraine”

The International Organization for Migration or IOM is calling on governments to stop discriminating against third-country nationals trying to flee conflict in Ukraine to neighboring countries. Nearly 1.4 million Ukrainian refugees have so far reached Poland, Moldova, Hungary, and other European countries, this according to the latest figures from the U.N. Refugee Agency. Among them …

Read more “UN Agency Calls for End to Discrimination Against Third-Country Nationals Fleeing Ukraine”

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi dismissed suggestions his country’s “neutral” stance in the Russia-Ukraine conflict is straining Islamabad’s relationship with the United States or the West at large, in an interview Sunday with VOA. The South Asian nuclear-armed Muslim country has resisted Western pressure to condemn Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, instead advocating …

Read more “Pakistan Vows Neutrality in Ukraine Crisis, Insists Ties with US on Track”

Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita urged the United States on Sunday to provide more humanitarian support as the number of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine to the small European country hit 120,000. At the beginning of a meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, she said her country of 2.6 million, one …

Read more “Moldova Asks US for More Support as Refugee Numbers Surge”

The city council of Ukraine’s Mariupol said an evacuation of some of 400,000 residents trapped by encircling Russian forces would start at 12 p.m. local time (1000 GMT) on Sunday under a temporary cease-fire that will last till 9 p.m. A similar plan had to be abandoned Saturday after the cease-fire was not fully observed, …

Read more “Ukraine’s Mariupol Attempts Second Evacuation”

The superyacht Dilbar stretches nearly 140 meters in length. It has two helipads, berths for more than 130 people and a 25-meter swimming pool that itself can accommodate another superyacht. Dilbar was launched in 2016 at a reported cost of more than $648 million. Five years later, its purported owner, the Kremlin-aligned Russian oligarch Alisher …

Read more “Fleeing Sanctions, Oligarchs Seek Safe Ports for Superyachts”

When Russia invaded her home country of Ukraine, Maria decided she had to get there and help defend it — even if it meant leaving her fiancé behind in Chicago days after getting married. Maria and her fiancé, David, married Saturday before about 20 people in the backyard of an Oak Park home — the …

Read more “Ukrainian Woman Weds Chicago Fiancé Ahead Of Return Home”

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke Saturday night with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. They talked about the work the United States, its allies, partners and private industry are doing to raise the cost of the war for Russia. Biden said his administration is ramping up security, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and is working with …

Read more “Biden, Zelenskyy Discuss Raising Cost of War for Russia”

Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine    …

The already challenging path to bringing home Americans jailed in Russia and Ukraine is likely even more complicated now with a war overwhelming the region and increasingly hostile relations between the United States and the Kremlin. Marine veteran Trevor Reed and corporate security executive Paul Whelan are each serving lengthy prison sentences in Russia, but …

Read more “War in Ukraine Complicates Path Home for American Detainees”

Iran has agreed to supply answers long sought by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, Tehran and the U.N. agency said Saturday, as talks in Vienna over its tattered atomic deal with world powers appear to be coming to an end. A joint statement by Mohammad Eslami, the head of the civilian Atomic Energy Organization of …

Read more “Iran to Answer UN Nuclear Questions as Deal Talks Near End”

Mastercard and Visa are suspending their operations in Russia, the companies said Saturday, in the latest blow to the country’s financial system after its invasion of Ukraine. Mastercard said cards issued by Russian banks will no longer be supported by its network and any Mastercard issued outside the country will not work at Russian stores …

Read more “Mastercard, Visa Suspend Operations in Russia After Invasion”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday visited a welcome center set up by Polish authorities in what once was a shopping mall in Korczowa, close to the border with Ukraine, where roughly 3,000 refugees are taking shelter after the Russian invasion of their homeland. While at the border later, Blinken stepped briefly onto …

Read more “Blinken Hears Harrowing Tales From Refugees Fleeing Ukraine”

WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner was arrested last month at a Moscow airport after Russian authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges. The Russian Customs Service said Saturday that the cartridges were identified as containing oil derived from cannabis, which could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The customs service …

Read more “American Basketball Star Brittney Griner Arrested in Russia on Drug Charges”

China has decided to raise its defense spending by 7.1%, which is the largest increase since 2019. The rise is significant because the country’s economy is expected to grow this year at the lowest level in decades at 5.5%. China’s defense spending is being carefully watched around the world in view of the atmosphere of …

Read more “China Boosts Military Spending Amid Ukraine Uncertainties”