Section: Cyprus Mail (Cyprus)
EU’s Juncker plans to visit Russia in June
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has agreed to attend an event in Russia next month, a Commission spokeswoman said on Monday, in a move that may stir debate on the EU’s fraught relations with Moscow. “President Juncker has been invited and plans to participate in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 16,”...
Sixteen killed in house fire in village near Kiev
Sixteen people have been killed and one is missing after a fire broke out in a residential building housing elderly people in a village near Kiev, Ukraine’s state emergency service said in a statement on Sunday. It said the fire broke out in the early hours of Sunday morning in a privately-owned two-storey building that was temporarily...
Kremlin: Savchenko’s release won’t accelerate warming in EU-Russia ties
President Vladimir Putin has consistently expressed his willingness to improve ties with the European Union, the Kremlin said on Thursday, but the release of Ukrainian Nadiya Savchenko from a Russian jail is unlikely to make this task easier. Savchenko’s handover on Wednesday, in return for two Russian prisoners, had been demanded by the...
Ukraine’s Poroshenko to oversee Savchenko prisoner swap on Wed -Interfax
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will arrive in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in the next few hours where jailed Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko will be exchanged for Russian prisoners held by Kiev, Interfax news agency quoted a source as saying. The post Ukraine’s Poroshenko to oversee Savchenko prisoner swap on Wed -Interfax...
Russia, Ukraine commit to Minsk accords in call with France, Germany
The leaders of Russia and Ukraine discussed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the French President preparations to hold elections in an eastern Ukrainian area hit by a pro-Russian insurrection, according to the German government. Progress on implementing the Minsk peace accords, negotiated by Berlin and Paris, has stalled. The elections...
EU to make it easier to suspend visa-free travel amid immigration worries
European Union interior ministers will back plans on Friday to make it easier and faster to suspend visa-free travel with any third country, officials said, amid deepening public concern about the scale of immigration into the bloc. The EU is in politically sensitive talks with Turkey on relaxing travel requirements for Turks seeking to visit...
Trump would talk to N.Korea’s Kim, wants to renegotiate climate accord
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang’s nuclear program, proposing a major shift in U.S. policy toward the isolated nation. In a wide-ranging interview with Reuters, Trump also called for a renegotiation of the Paris climate accord,...
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and supporters attacked
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and fellow anti-corruption activists were attacked, thrown to the ground and kicked by a group of men at an airport in southern Russia on Tuesday, according to video posted on social media. Footage showed the assailants, described by Navalny as Cossacks and wearing traditional fur hats, some in...
Ukraine Eurovision win raises eyebrows in Russia
By Alexei Kalmykov and Vladimir Soldatkin Ukrainians hailed their country’s unexpected victory in the Eurovision song contest as a Europe-wide endorsement of Ukraine in its smouldering conflict with Russia, while Moscow said the contest had been hijacked by politics. Ukrainian singer Jamala overtook the bookmakers’ favourites, Russia...
Ukraine’s Jamala takes home Eurovision crown with song about war
Ukraine’s Jamala struck a surprise gold in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with a song “1944” about war-time deportations of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union in one of the most controversial winners in the competition’s history. In a show known down the years for its playfulness and camp, 32-year-old Jamala struck a sombre...
