Section: The Malaysian Insider (Malaysia)
Nato considers first formal talks with Russia since 2014
Nato is discussing whether to invite Russia to their first formal talks since 2014, aiming to put ties damaged by the Ukraine crisis back on an even keel, diplomatic sources said Wednesday. Despite their differences both sides recognised the need for “transparency”, the sources said, against a backdrop of a series of crises including...
2 French teens, Ukrainian man killed in Alpine avalanche
Two French teenagers and a Ukrainian man were killed on Wednesday when an avalanche swept away skiers in the French Alps, including a group on a school outing, local officials said. The avalanche hit a piste at the Deux Alpes resort in eastern France which has been closed to the public all season, engulfing a group of French pupils and...
Russia sues Ukraine over default on US$3 billion debt
Russia’s finance ministry said today it was suing Ukraine for defaulting on a US$3-billion debt to Moscow, following an order by President Vladimir Putin. Kiev is “in a state of default” regarding its obligations toward Moscow and legal proceedings would ensue, the ministry said. “Russia’s finance ministry has...
EU-Ukraine trade deal comes into force, angers Moscow
Ukraine’s free-trade deal with the EU comes into effect on Friday, coinciding with the start of Moscow’s food embargo against Kiev that will force the impoverished former Soviet republic to revisit its economic model. The free-trade accord is part of the broader EU Association Agreement – signed at the end of June 2014 – and stands at...
Brawl in Ukraine parliament after MP manhandles premier
A fight erupted between dozens of lawmakers in Ukraine’s parliament on Friday after an MP picked up Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and hoisted him away from the podium as he was defending his embattled government’s record. Yatsenyuk had almost ended up his weekly questions session when a lawmaker from President Petro...
Biden visits war-scarred Ukraine to reaffirm US support
US Vice-President Joe Biden arrives in Kiev late today to reassure its pro-Western leaders that Washington remains committed to Ukraine despite stepped-up efforts to work with Russia against Isis. Biden’s three-day visit is his fourth to Kiev since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March 2014 and then watched with approval...
State of emergency in Crimea after electricity pylons ‘blown up’
A state of emergency has been declared in Crimea after pylons carrying electricity from Ukraine were blown up cutting off power to almost two million people, media and the Russian government said today. The Russian Energy Ministry didn’t say what had caused the outages, but Russian media reported that two pylons in the Kherson region...
Military jet crashes in Ukraine, killing pilot
A Soviet-designed Su-25 jet aircraft crashed in south-eastern Ukraine on Wednesday during a training exercise, killing its pilot, the Ukrainian military said. The incident took place at around 0800 GMT (4pm MYT) in the Zaporizhya region, about 450km from Kiev, a defence ministry spokesman said, without specifying the cause of the crash…....
Ukraine famine memorial unveiled in US capital
A monument commemorating the millions of Ukrainians who died during a Soviet-era famine was unveiled in the US capital on Saturday, in a ceremony that brought back horrific memories for survivors. “It’s terrible, I will never forget,” 90-year-old Alla Gromow, in a wheelchair, said as she recalled how neighbours engaged in...
Plane that crashed in South Sudan was in no state to fly
The decades-old Antonov plane that crashed yesterday in South Sudan, killing at least 36 people, “was is no state to fly”, the Ukraine-based aircraft company said. “The An-12B was is no state to fly because it failed to undergo timely technical servicing… that should have included work on extending its resources and...
