Section: Saudi Gazette (Saudi Arabia)
Artillery rocks Ukraine rebel bastion Donetsk despite truce
DONETSK, Ukraine — Artillery fire rocked the outskirts of the rebel-held east Ukraine city of Donetsk on Sunday in the latest clashes to rattle an internationally brokered cease-fire between pro-Russian separatists and Kiev. The sound of intensive explosions began at 9:00 a.m. (0600 GMT) and appeared to come from the area arou...
Sri Lanka probes ex-envoy over alleged Ukraine arms deals
COLOMBO — Sri Lanka is investigating its former ambassador to Russia following a media report that he helped arm pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine, the foreign minister said on Sunday. The Colombo-based Sunday Times said the Ukraine government has lodged a formal complaint with Colombo detailing former ambassador Udayanga Weer...
Confidence in Ukraine’s truce hurt by arms violations
NOVOAMVROSIIVSKE, Ukraine — With cameras and clipboards in hands, teams of blue-jacketed international observers drive around the muddy countryside of eastern Ukraine looking for rocket launchers and artillery. Their task is to verify whether government troops and Russian-backed rebel forces are removing heavy weapons from the front l...
Putin fetes Crimea takeover in front of huge crowd
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin gives a speech during a rally and a concert by the Kremlin Wall in central Moscow on Wednesday, to mark one year since he signed off on the annexation of Crimea in a epochal shift that ruptured ties with Ukraine and the West. — AFP MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday...
Ukraine rebels warn they could abandon ceasefire
KIEV — Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine threatened on Wednesday to abandon a cease-fire following changes to a law granting their regions self-rule. Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky said in a statement that legislation giving areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions special status has been weakened by the amendments....
Japan vows to stop gaffe-prone ex-PM visiting Crimea
TOKYO — Japan vowed on Tuesday to try to stop a gaffe-prone former prime minister from visiting Crimea to ask its citizens how they feel about being annexed by Russia. A clearly exasperated Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters the government was trying to prevent Yukio Hatoyama from making the trip, amid fears he mi...
Estonia’s ruling pro-Western Reform Party wins election
TALLINN — Estonia’s ruling Reform Party has emerged as the overall winner in the Baltic country’s general election dominated by economic issues and security concerns over Russia’s actions in Ukraine. With all votes counted, Prime Minister Taavi R …read more Source: Saudi...
Estonians vote under shadow of resurgent Russia
TALLINN — Estonians voted on Sunday in an election marked by jitters over a militarily resurgent Russia and a popular pro-Kremlin party, with the security conscious center-left coalition tipped for a return to power. Moscow’s annexation of Crimea last year and its meddling in eastern Ukraine have galvanized the Eur...
Pro-Russian rebels demonstrate arms pullback in Ukraine
OBILNE, Ukraine — Pro-Russian rebels on Wednesday took journalists to see a column of artillery pieces being moved, saying it proved that their forces were withdrawing heavy weapons in line with a truce. However, there was no way of verifying whether the 14 122mm howitzers towed down a road in eastern Ukraine were really being withdrawn fro...
US furious over Russia’s ‘lies’ on Ukraine
KIEV — The United States expressed fury at Russia’s “lies” over Ukraine after European powers urged a frayed cease-fire be respected, while a rare overnight calm was reported in the war zone on Wednesday. But the crisis still simmered dangerously. Britain said it was dispatching a team of soldiers to Ukraine for “tra...
