Section: The Gulf Today (United Arab Emirates)
Poroshenko tells parties to pick new PM this week
KIEV: President Petro Poroshenko urged parties from Ukraine’s ruling coalition to decide this week on a candidate to lead the government, part of a personnel shake-up aimed at kick-starting stalled reforms and resuming the flow of international financial aid. “I’ll support any candidate for the prime minister’s post who’s...
EU wants more countries to impose sanctions on Russia
BRUSSELS: The European Union (EU) called on Friday for more countries to impose sanctions on Russia over Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula two years ago, saying European governments were very worried about Moscow’s military build-up in the region. In a statement issued on the anniversary of Russia’s formal...
Ukraine finally topples Soviet founder’s statue
KIEV: It took two days and a giant crane, but Ukraine on Thursday finally managed to lift its biggest remaining statue of Soviet founder Lenin off its pedestal and consign it to the dustbins of history. The 20-metre-tall bronze and granite monument fell victim to a Ukrainian ban on Soviet symbols that was imposed in May 2015 as part of the...
Ukraine’s pro-Russian rebels issue their own passports
MOSCOW: Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine’s separatist Donetsk province on Wednesday began issuing their own passports in a bid to reassert their independence from the Western-backed leaders in Kiev. The red documents are similar in appearance to their Russian counterparts and are issued by the authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk...
Two Ukrainian soldiers killed in separatist east
KIEV: Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in clashes between government forces and pro-Russian rebels over the past 24 hours, a military spokesman in Kiev said on Saturday. The latest casualties came after talks to resolve the nearly two-year conflict floundered in Paris last week, with Moscow and Kiev saying they could not agree on polls in the...
Ukranian pilot on hunger strike starts drinking water
KIEV: Ukrainian military pilot Nadiya Savchenko, on trial in Russia over the killing of two journalists, has started drinking water but will continue her week-long hunger strike until the verdict, her lawyer said on Thursday. “Nadezhda halted only a ‘dry’ hunger strike,” lawyer Mark Feigin told AFP. “She will be fasting until the verdict is...
Russian military seeks five combat dolphins
MOSCOW: Russia’s defence ministry is looking to buy five dolphins, the government revealed on Wednesday, as the country strives to revive its Soviet-era use of sea mammals for military tasks. The military has opened the bidding on a 1.75 million ruble ($24,000) contract to deliver dolphins to the military in the Crimean port city of...
Ukrainians picket Russian embassy over jailed pilot
KIEV: Hundreds of angry Ukrainians picketed Moscow’s embassy in Kiev on Tuesday as global calls grew for the release of a hunger-striking military helicopter pilot on trial in Russia. Nadia Savchenko is on trial for alleged involvement in the death of two Russian state television journalists in a mortar attack that occurred two months after...
Ukraine urges US to press Russia over jailed pilot
KIEV: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called on Washington and Brussels on Monday to step up pressure on Moscow to secure the release of a hunger-striking Ukrainian pilot from a Russian jail. Three Nobel Prize laureates were also among thousands of people who signed a petition urging European leaders “to take emergency measures” to seek the...
Hundreds of Ukrainians attack Russia embassy
KIEV: Angry protesters threw stones and eggs at the Russian embassy in Kiev on Sunday, breaking several of its windows after smashing cars and burning a Russian flag, as Ukrainians’ anger boiled over at Moscow’s refusal to free a hunger-striking pilot. Hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside Moscow’s diplomatic mission to...
