A collection of 219 posts
At an emergency NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, US President Joe Biden said that the defence alliance had “never been more united” even though Russia’s Vladimir Putin was counting on dissension among its members over his invasion of Ukraine, according to Euronews. Biden commented, “Putin is getting exactly
NATO representatives meeting on Thursday will consider boosting the strength of the defence alliance’s eastern flank even further given Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. While NATO has already bumped up troop numbers, which now number 40,000 on its eastern border, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia could see
Russian forces using chemical weapons in Ukraine would not only be a violation of international law, but have “far-reaching consequences”, warned NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the defence alliance’s headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, writes Al Jazeera. He also said Moscow could not “win a nuclear war”
Ukrainians are going through a “living hell”, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday, in what he termed an unwinnable war in Ukraine, the Guardian reported. “Sooner or later it will have to move from the battlefields to the peace table”, Guterres said of the war. “That is inevitable.
Efforts to reduce dependency upon Russian sources of energy within countries in Central and Eastern Europe have taken on a new urgency following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over three weeks ago. Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Asen Vassilev says Bulgaria will not renew its contract with Gazprom when the
The US Defence Department says there is “clear evidence” that Russian forces are committing war crimes in Ukraine, according to reporting by the Guardian. In a news conference on Monday, the Pentagon alleged Russia’s military is attacking indiscriminately and that the Defence Department would contribute to an investigative process
NATO troops have begun arriving at the Sliac military base in Slovakia to deploy US-made “Patriot” anti-missile defence systems in various places to maximise Bratislava’s airspace defences, according to a report by Slovak Spectator. The Patriots are primarily for beefing up Slovakia’s airspace protection, and will
A failure to negotiate peace between Ukraine and Russia could lead to World War 3, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Fareed Zakaria on Sunday morning in their interview on CNN. The President said he was ready to have direct negotiations with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. While offering that Ukraine
Chinese president Xi Jinping spoke to US President Joe Biden today for an hour and 50 minutes on Friday about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In their video call, Xi said “conflicts and confrontations” were in no one’s interest and that China and the US should work for world
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that Slovakia providing air defence systems to Ukraine is a no-go, according to an article on Euractiv. This week Bratislava said it was considering sending Soviet-era S-300 missile systems if it received Western replacements from its NATO allies.
Members of Germany’s Bundestag gave a standing ovation to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky following his 10-minute speech on Thursday, writes the BBC. In his address Zelensky reminded MPs that Kyiv had asked Berlin to limit its economic ties with Moscow before the war, but Germany instead helped
Czechia’s Ministry of Defence says 100,000 Czechs have coughed up over EUR 27 million through a crowdfunding campaign which began last month to send weapons to Ukraine, writes Prague Morning. Funds from the campaign, intended for weapons and military supplies, are being sent directly to Ukraine’s embassy
A theatre sheltering 1,200 civilians in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was bombed on Wednesday night. An estimated 400,000 residents in the southern port city are still without running water, electricity and gas, and unable to leave. Hundreds of patients and staff are still being held captive in
The BBC reported that Russian troops were holding 400 doctors and patients captive in a hospital in the coastal city of Mariupol on Tuesday evening. In a separate development, the city’s local authorities said that around 2,000 cars were able to leave the besieged city, and the ICRC
While the Hungarian forint was hardest hit, all the currencies of the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region are suffering adverse effects as a result of the war in Ukraine. Proximity to the war zone, dependence on Russian gas and the impact of EU sanctions combined to commence the CEE