Section: The Gulf Today (United Arab Emirates)
3 killed in breach of Ukraine holiday truce
KIEV: At least three people have been killed as Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists clashed in the first violation of a holiday truce, military officials from both sides said Sunday. The victims — a Ukrainian soldier and two civilians — are the first since the warring sides agreed on Tuesday to halt fire through the New Year...
Ukraine MPs approve tit-for-tat Russian embargo
KIEV: Ukraine’s parliament voted on Thursday to give the government the right to impose a trade embargo against Russia, which said last week that it would suspend a free trade zone with Ukraine from Jan.1. The law, supported by 291 of parliament’s 420 lawmakers, will come into force when it has been signed by the president. Russian...
Ukraine, rebels accuse each other of violating latest truce
KIEV: Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian rebels accused each other of violating a holiday ceasefire on Wednesday, just hours after it came into force in the war-torn country’s east. “Illegal armed groups have already violated these agreements. Since the beginning of the day we recorded seven enemy shellings of our positions,” military...
Russia slams EU for extending sanctions
MOSCOW: Russia on Monday lashed out at the European Union (EU) for prolonging sanctions over the Ukraine crisis for another six months rather than choosing to co-operate over issues including the fight against terrorism. “It is necessary to point out that instead of building constructive co-operation to counter the key challenges of our times...
Blast kills Ukraine rebel commander
KIEV: The pro-Russian leader of a rebel militia in eastern Ukraine was killed in a suspected car bombing on Saturday in the breakaway eastern region of Lugansk, local media said. Pavel Dremov, the 39-year-old head of an ethnic Cossack militia of several hundred fighters “was killed along with his driver” when his car exploded at a petrol station...
Ukraine lawmaker manhandles PM Yatseniuk
KIEV: Fighting broke out among members of Ukraine’s ruling coalition on Friday after a member of President Petro Poroshenko’s bloc physically picked up Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk and pulled him from the podium. Yatseniuk was defending his embattled government’s record when lawmaker Oleh Barna walked over to him, presenting...
Ukraine invites Netherlands to help probe stolen art
KIEV: Ukrainian investigators on Thursday called on the Netherlands to help probe the fate of a batch of precious Dutch paintings reportedly being held by a volunteer battalion fighting pro-Russian insurgents in the east of the ex-Soviet state. “We are waiting — and they are welcomed here in Ukraine — the official investigators who can...
Ukraine won’t repay debt because ‘they are crooks:’ Russia
MOSCOW/KIEV: Russian officials blasted the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday for changing its long-established lending rules to keep supporting Ukraine and called Kiev’s authorities “crooks” who are unlikely to repay a $3 billion debt to Moscow. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Ukraine has 10 days after the Moscow-held Eurobond...
One soldier killed in renewed east Ukraine clashes
KIEV: One Ukrainian soldier was killed in fresh clashes between government forces and pro-Russian rebels in the war-torn country’s east, s military spokesman said on Sunday. “Over the last day, one soldier was killed in fighting,” spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told journalists, adding that clashes took place near a village right on the...
Georgia strips Saakashvili of citizenship
TBILISI: Georgia on Friday stripped former president Mikheil Saakashvili of his citizenship, in a move one of his supporters described as part of a settling of political scores. Georgian President Georgy Margvelashvili signed a decree removing his predecessor’s citizenship on the grounds that Saakashvili, now governor of Ukraine’s...
