Section: Cyprus Mail (Cyprus)
Russia says US coerces Kiev and violates arms treaties
By Timothy Heritage Russia accused the United States on Thursday of coercing Kiev into pressing on with the conflict in east Ukraine and urged Washington to fully implement a treaty on eliminating intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles. In a statement responding to a US State Department report accusing Russia of violating its arms treaty...
Italian PM Renzi welcomes Putin but mentions differences
By Denis Dyomkin and Giulio Piovaccari ITALIAN Prime Minister Matteo Renzi welcomed visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday but offered no sign of breaking ranks with international partners over European Union sanctions against Moscow. Two weeks before the EU is due to decide whether to extend economic sanctions over Russia’s...
Firemen missing after explosion at fuel depot fire in Ukraine
Two Ukrainian firemen were missing after a fire they had been battling through the night at a fuel depot outside Kiev triggered a powerful explosion, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Tuesday. At least sixteen tanks, most of them storing petrol, were on fire and sending a huge pall of smoke over the area surrounding the depot near Vasylkiv,...
What kind of aggression are we talking about?
By Gwynne Dyer JUST BEFORE he sat down to a traditional Bavarian meal of sausages and beer with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the start of the G7 summit on Sunday, US President Barack Obama told the media that one of the meeting’s priorities would be discussing ways of “standing up to Russian aggression in Ukraine.” Which begs the...
UK’s Cameron trips up over Europe at G7 summit, denies U-turn
By Andrew Osborn British Prime Minister David Cameron tripped up over Europe at a summit of the Group of Seven Industrial nations (G7), appearing to issue an ultimatum to his own ministers over the EU only to swiftly withdraw it, saying he had been misunderstood. The debacle was Cameron’s first serious setback since he was re-elected a...
Merkel encourages G7 leaders to agree tough climate goals
By Paul Carrel German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Group of Seven (G7) leaders to commit to tough goals to cut greenhouse gases at the final day of their summit in the Bavarian Alps on Monday. Merkel, once dubbed the “climate chancellor”, hopes to revitalise her green credentials by getting the G7 industrial nations to agree specific emissions...
Ukraine’s Poroshenko warns of Russian invasion threat after fighting surge
By Richard Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk Ukraine’s president told his military on Thursday to be prepared for the possibility of a “full-scale invasion” by Russia across the entire length of the joint border, a day after the worst fighting with Russian-backed separatists in months. His address in parliament was one of the first times Petro...
Ukraine forces, separatists fight first serious battles in months
By Alessandra Prentice and Pavel Polityuk Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists on Wednesday fought their first serious battles in months and Ukraine’s defence minister said an attempt by rebels to take the eastern town of Maryinka had been thwarted. The Ukrainian military said the Russian-backed rebels had tried to advance using...
Russia dismisses EU criticism of travel blacklist
Russia criticised the European Union on Monday for allowing the publication of a list of European officials barred from entering the country in the diplomatic fallout over the Ukraine crisis. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow, which drew up the list in response to a similar ban on Russian officials by the EU, had handed over the list to...
Putin backs Blatter, says FIFA arrests shows U.S. meddling abroad
By Darya Korsunskaya and Dmitriy Rogovitskiy Russian President Vladimir Putin defended Russia’s right to host the 2018 soccer World Cup on Thursday and accused the United States of meddling outside its jurisdiction in the arrest of top officials from world governing body FIFA. Putin said the arrests in Switzerland on Wednesday were an...
