Section: The Gulf Today (United Arab Emirates)
Ukrainian court sentences ex-president to 13 years in prison for treason
KIEV (Reuters) – A Ukrainian court on Thursday sentenced former president Viktor Yanukovich in absentia to 13 years in jail on treason charges, a judge said, saying his conduct in office had opened the door to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and conflict in eastern Ukraine. Yanukovich fled to Russia in 2014 following street protests...
14 sailors perish, 6 remain missing after Black Sea ship fire
MOSCOW: Ambulance crews on the Crimean Peninsula transported a dozen survivors of a ship fire to hospitals on Tuesday while six of their crewmates have remained missing in the Black Sea. At least 14 sailors died in the tragedy. Two Tanzanian-flagged tankers caught fire on Monday while liquefied petroleum gas was being pumped from one tanker to...
Ukraine church marks first Christmas free of Russian “fetters”
KIEV: Ukraine’s Orthodox Christian Church celebrated its first Christmas on Monday outside Russian control and President Petro Poroshenko said the document enshrining its newly gained independence had broken “the last fetters tying us to Moscow.” Hundreds of Ukrainians queued in the snow after the lavish two-hour liturgy at...
Russia ‘open for dialogue’ with US
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a New Year letter to his US counterpart Donald Trump, said on Sunday that Moscow was ready for dialogue on a “wide-ranging agenda,” the Kremlin said. At the end of November, Trump abruptly cancelled a planned meeting with Putin on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Argentina, citing tensions about...
Russia expands economic sanctions on Ukraine
Moscow: Russia on Tuesday expanded its economic sanctions on Ukraine, adding more than 250 people and businesses to a blacklist first announced at the start of November. According to a decree by Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, 245 individuals and seven companies, mostly in the energy and defence sectors, were sanctioned by Moscow. Relations...
Ukraine may force church to add ‘Russian’ to its name
KIEV: Ukrainian MPs passed a law on Thursday that could force the Moscow-backed church in Ukraine to add “Russian” to its name, aimed at curbing the influence of priests whom the authorities call a threat to national security. Ukraine on Saturday created a new Orthodox church independent from Moscow, which leaders have lobbied for since the fall...
Ukraine creates church independent from Russia
KIEV: A historic council of Orthodox bishops in Kiev has created a new Ukrainian church independent from Russia, President Petro Poroshenko announced on Saturday. The announcement came after Ukrainian priests held a historic synod in Kiev’s 11th-century Saint Sophia Cathedral to work towards establishing an Orthodox church independent from...
Putin and Trump can hold talks before June next year: Kremlin
BUENOS AIRES: The Kremlin hopes that US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin can meet and hold talks before a G20 summit in Japan in June next year, a Kremlin aide said on Saturday. Trump cancelled a planned meeting with Putin at the G20 summit in Argentina this weekend citing unease over Russia’s Nov. 25 seizure of...
Mattis blasts Russia’s ‘brazen contempt’ toward Ukraine
KIEV: US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis on Saturday blasted Moscow following the Russian navy’s “brazen” violation of a waterway treaty with Kiev and the seizure of three Ukrainian vessels. Speaking of a 2003 agreement governing the Kerch Strait between the Azov Sea and Black Sea, Mattis said Moscow had shown “brazen...
Ukraine-Russia tensions refuse to ebb
Kiev: Ukraine on Friday barred Russian men aged 16-60 from entry as tensions mounted between the two countries over Moscow’s seizure of three Ukrainian ships last week. The move came after Kiev imposed martial law in border regions this week in response to the Russian seizure of the ships and 24 sailors off Moscow-annexed Crimea. The...
