Section: AsiaOne (Singapore)
Germany says ‘significant progress’ made at Ukraine meeting
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after meeting his Russian, Ukrainian and French counterparts in Berlin on Saturday that “significant progress” had been made towards a resolution of the conflict between Kiev and Moscow.Steinmeier said Ukraine and Russia were close to striking an agreement on the withdrawal of...
Russia building major military base near Ukrainian border
Russia has started to build a huge military base housing ammunition depots and barracks for several thousand soldiers near the Ukrainian border, a project that suggests the Kremlin is digging in for a prolonged stand-off with Kiev.The base, when completed, will even have its own swimming pool, skating rink and barber shop, according to public...
Ukraine still faces threat of Russian military offensive – Poroshenko
Ukraine still faces the threat of a full-scale Russian military attack despite several days of relative calm on the front-lines of the east where government forces confront Russian-backed separatists, President Petro Poroshenko said on Tuesday.Poroshenko comments at a government meeting come amid signs of discord in the governing coalition over...
IMF chief urges Ukraine’s creditors to back debt restructuring plan
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde on Sunday lauded Ukraine’s economic progress and urged its creditors to join in a deal to restructure $18 billion of its sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt.Speaking in Kiev alongside Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Lagarde said Ukraine had “surprised the world” by its...
Replica of most powerful nuclear bomb ever goes on display in Moscow
MOSCOW – Eight metres long and weighing 25 tonnes, a replica of the so-called Tsar Bomb, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated, has gone on display for the first time in Russia, in the midst of an ongoing standoff with the West over Ukraine.Tested in 1961 by the Soviet Union, the hydrogen bomb – also known as the AN602 –...
Russia risks Japanese ire with Far East war commemoration
MOSCOW- Russia staged a military parade on Wednesday to commemorate seizing a group of Pacific islands from Japan at the end of World War Two, a move likely to inflame tensions over a long-running territorial dispute with Tokyo.The show of force, the first of its kind on the island of Sakhalin in Russia’s Far East, is part of a push by...
2 US Predator drones deployed to Latvia
WASHINGTON – The US military has deployed two MQ-1 Predator surveillance drones and 70 airmen to Latvia for a two-week training mission aimed at reassuring European allies wary of Russia.The mission, which began Friday and is due to end on September 15, comes as the United States increases military exercises and training in Eastern Europe...
Ukraine police conscript dies in parliament clashes
KIEV – A Ukrainian National Guard officer died on Monday after being injured in the heart in fierce clashes between protesters and police that wounded around 100 people.”He died on the operating table,” a spokeswoman for the National Guard, Svitlana Pavlovska, told AFP.Street battles broke out between dozens of demonstrators and...
Civilians, soldiers die in east Ukraine fighting as Putin visits Crimea
Fighting flared between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels in separate parts of eastern Ukraine overnight, killing at least two Ukrainian soldiers and several civilians, Kiev’s military and separatist sources said on Monday.The clashes, near the port of Mariupol in the southeast and at rebel-held Horlivka, further frayed an...
Deal proves elusive at ‘final’ Ukraine debt talks
KIEV – Ukraine and its creditors sharpened their knives for a decisive battle Friday after direct negotiations failed to reach a workable solution for keeping the ex-Soviet country from hurtling into default.The war-torn country and its biggest commercial lenders ended their second day of meetings at the Franklin Templeton investment...
