Section: The Gulf Today (United Arab Emirates)
Latvian president will not seek second term
RIGA: Latvian President Andris Berzins said on Friday he will not seek a second term, weeks ahead of a ballot to be held amid security concerns in the Baltic state over Russia’s actions in Ukraine. The region has been on edge since Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine last year and offered alleged military support for...
Ukraine army, rebels accuse each other of attacks
KIEV: Ukraine’s military and pro-Russian rebels accused each other on Friday of intensifying attacks in separatist eastern territories despite a two-month-old ceasefire deal. The conflict has reached stalemate in recent weeks with the truce, brokered in the Belarussian capital of Minsk in mid-February, still technically in force though...
Czech plans to register citizens for military service
PRAGUE: The Czech government plans to create a register of citizens who could be called up for military service, in response to growing concerns over threats from Daesh and insecurity in Ukraine, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on Thursday. Sobotka said the move would not amount to the reintroduction of compulsory military service, but would...
Ukraine rebel warns of possible return to war
Donetsk: Ukrainian pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko accused the Kiev government of “totally ignoring” the terms of a peace deal and warned in an interview with reporters that fighting might resume. The warning came as international monitors overseeing a fragile February truce — which is largely holding despite isolated clashes...
Poroshenko not opposed to plebiscite
KIEV: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday publicly lifted his objections to a referendum that could give more powers to the restive regions engulfed in more than a year of warfare, reversing his government’s previous position. Russia-backed separatists, however, dismissed Poroshenko’s gesture as meaningless. The conflict...
Six Ukraine soldiers killed as war marks year
KIEV: Six Ukrainian troops were killed by landmines in the restive separatist-held east on Sunday, breaking a lull of several days in a conflict that began a year ago this week. After weeks in which a shaky ceasefire deal appeared to be largely holding despite isolated clashes, the fatalities brought to nine the number of soldiers reported dead...
Three soldiers killed in restive east Ukraine
KIEV: Three Ukrainian soldiers died when a mine exploded in the separatist-held east where isolated clashes continue to undermine a ceasefire aimed at ending a year-long war. Army spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on Saturday that “as a result of the explosion of an enemy mine … three Ukrainian soldiers were killed, two injured” in the previous...
Turkey to watch oppression of Tatars in Crimea
VILNIUS: Turkey said on Friday it will send and “informal mission” to Crimea to monitor what it termed the “oppression” of Crimean Tatars, an ethnic group that opposed Russia’s 2014 seizure of the Black Sea peninsula. “We are sending an informal mission to observe the human rights violations in Crimea soon,” Turkey’s Foreign Minister...
US lawmaker urges weapons for Ukraine
KIEV: A top US lawmaker in Kiev on Tuesday urged President Barack Obama to provide arms to Ukraine, calling its conflict with pro-Russian separatists “the most significant threat to peace…since the end of WWII.” William “Mac” Thornberry, Chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services, met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and...
Ukraine accuses rebels of firing Grad rockets
KIEV: Ukraine government forces on Saturday accused pro-Russian separatists of using Grad multiple rocket launchers overnight in the country’s war-torn east in violation of a truce deal signed last month. Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters that separatists fired the heavy weapons towards the village of Novotoshkivka from their...
