Section: The Gulf Today (United Arab Emirates)
Experts collect MH17 wreckage
AMSTERDAM: Work started on Sunday to remove the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, four months after it was shot down, killing 298 passengers and crew. Dutch experts supervised a crew from the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic’s emergency ministry as they began...
2 kids among 5 dead in east Ukraine: Officials
KIEV: Five civilians, including two children, and three more Ukrainian soldiers have died in the latest fighting in Ukraine, officials said on Saturday. The civilian deaths came in Gorlivka, some 30 kilometres north of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, late Friday, the local council in the rebel-held city said. It added that a further 12 people...
Over 30,000 rally in Tbilisi against government
Tbilisi: Over 30,000 opposition supporters rallied on Saturday in the Georgian capital Tbilisi against the government’s Russia policy and the Kremlin’s backing of separatists in the breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions. Carrying Georgian and Ukrainian flags and placards that read “Stop Putin!”, the protesters gathered on the...
Ukraine to close state offices, bank services in rebel-held east
KIEV: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko issued several decrees on Saturday to shut state institutions and banking services in pro-Russian eastern regions, pressing a move to cut links with the rebel-held territory. Ukraine has cut all state funding to separatist parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions after separatists held elections in late...
Georgia’s key reformer Kakha Bendukidze dies
TBILISI: Georgian statesman Kakha Bendukidze — a top aide to Ukraine’s president and a respected champion of economic reforms in his own ex-Soviet republic — has died in London aged 58, supporters said on Friday. British police said Bendukidze was pronounced dead on Thursday after being found lifeless in a London hotel. Although the cause...
New conflict will be catastrophic for Kiev: Moscow
MOSCOW: Moscow and Kiev traded accusations on Thursday of failing to observe a ceasefire agreement and Russia warned a resumption of hostilities against pro-Russian separatists in the east would be catastrophic for Ukraine. Ukraine accused Russia of sending soldiers and weapons to help rebels launch a new offensive in a conflict that has killed...
Heavy shelling rocks Ukraine rebel bastion
KIEV: Heavy artillery fire on Wednesday rocked east Ukraine’s pro-Russian rebel bastion of Donetsk, after international monitors warned over escalating violence following the arrival of columns of insurgent reinforcements. The explosions of mortars being fired from near the centre towards government positions at the ruined airport rumbled...
OSCE fears rising violence in eastern Ukraine
NAPLES: Nato is concerned about convoys of trucks taking artillery and supplies into east Ukraine from Russia, and wants to see international borders respected, the supreme allied commander said on Tuesday. Ukraine responded to a report on Sunday by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) by accusing Russia of sending a...
Fears grow of return to all-out fighting in Ukraine
KIEV: New unidentified unarmoured columns rumbled towards the pro-Moscow rebel stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Monday as fears grew of a return to all-out fighting in the war-torn region. The Netherlands meanwhile held an emotional ceremony for the 298 victims of flight MH17 shot down over the separatist-held eastern Ukraine in July,...
Rebels strengthen as shelling rocks Donetsk
Donetsk: Artillery fire rocked east Ukraine’s rebel stronghold of Donetsk on Sunday as separatists appeared to be reinforcing their frontline and fears grew of a return to all-out fighting. The boom of shelling rumbled on mid-morning on the edge of Donetsk, where government forces regularly exchange heavy fire with insurgent fighters, but...
