Section: The Gulf Today (United Arab Emirates)
Ukraine conflict leaves kids in lurch
KHARTSYZK: Seryozha colours in his drawing of a tank, lost in thought. Like many 7-year-olds in eastern Ukraine, he has trouble recalling a time before the war. “They’ve always been shooting,” he says, vigorously scratching with the brightest of pencils. Yelena Nikulenko, the director of the children’s home in the rebel-held town of...
Ukraine ceasefire on ‘thin ice’: OSCE
KIEV: The ceasefire in eastern Ukraine between Kiev’s forces and pro-Russian rebels is largely being observed but is still on “thin ice,” an Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitor said on Thursday, one month after both sides agreed to the truce. “The ceasefire holds broadly along the long contact line” in the...
Poland to hold countrywide defence drills
WARSAW: Poland will stress-test its defence capabilities with a series of countrywide drills involving the government, local authorities and the military in response to the Ukraine crisis, Polish president’s chief security advisor said. A former eastern bloc country which became a Nato member in 1999, Poland is concerned that Russia’s...
Kiev says one soldier killed in eastern Ukraine
KIEV: Ukraine said on Sunday that one soldier has been killed in the country’s east by pro-Russia separatists but that the EU-mediated ceasefire was largely being observed. “One soldier died and three were injured” since Saturday, said security spokesman Andriy Lysenko in a briefing in Kiev. “However the Minsk accords are largely being...
Nemtsov’s girlfriend threatened
KIEV: The Ukrainian girlfriend of murdered Russian opposition activist Boris Nemtsov, who was by his side when he was shot dead, has complained to police of receiving death threats, Ukrainian prosecutors said on Friday. “Ganna Duritska… filed a statement about the threat to her life from unidentified people during her time in her...
Ukraine pulls rocket launchers back from frontline
KIEV: Kiev said on Friday it had withdrawn all its Uragan multiple rocket launchers from the main conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, in compliance with a ceasefire agreement with pro-Russian rebels. Two of the imposing Uragan (Hurricane) rocket launchers — equipped with 16 launch tubes for 220mm rockets — were being readied for loading on to a...
OSCE to monitor truce violation areas: Kiev
KIEV: The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany have agreed to send observers to flashpoint sites in eastern Ukraine as sporadic deadly attacks continue to rattle a shaky truce, Kiev said on Tuesday. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin described the situation on the ground as “very difficult and tense,” three weeks after a...
Ukraine death toll crosses 6,000: UN
GENEVA: UN rights leaders on Monday decried the “merciless devastation of civilian lives and infrastructure” in Ukraine as the death toll passed 6,000, warning that targeting civilian areas could be a “crime against humanity.” The United Nations’ ninth report on the situation in violence-wracked Ukraine paints a bleak picture of...
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-focused centre-left coalition tipped for another term. Moscow’s annexation of Crimea last year and its meddling in eastern Ukraine have galvanised the European Union, including this...
Isolated clashes hamper Ukraine ‘shaky’ truce
KIEV: Ukraine said on Saturday that isolated clashes were punctuating a shaky truce with pro-Russian rebels after international monitors warned that the conflict in the country stands at a “crossroads.” Kiev military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that fighting had halted along most of the frontline but rebels were attacking government positions...
