Section: Macleans (Canada)
East Ukraine rebels withdraw rocket launchers from front line
NOVOAMVROSIIVSKE, Ukraine – Separatist fighters in east Ukraine moved rocket launchers to a location 70 kilometres back from the front line with government troops Friday in the first confirmed compliance with a cease-fire agreed earlier this month. Associated Press journalists in the morning followed four trucks carrying Grad launchers from the...
Canada considers joining U.S.-led military training mission in Ukraine
OTTAWA–The Harper cabinet is actively and seriously considering whether Canada should join the U.S. and Britain in a military training mission to shore up embattled Ukrainian troops, Defence Minister Jason Kenney said Wednesday. The notion drew a lukewarm response from opposition parties, who seem reluctant to see Canada venture further into the...
Ukrainian rebels claim they are beginning heavy weapons pullback
KIEV, Ukraine – Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine said Tuesday they have begun a large-scale pullback of heavy weapons in line with an international peace plan that aims to form a wide buffer zone between separatists’ and Ukrainian forces’ artillery. The claim by Eduard Basurin, a top rebel commander, couldn’t immediately...
A year after the bloodbath on Kyiv’s Maidan square, Ukraine mourns
Efrem Lukatsky/AP KIEV, Ukraine — One year ago, Ihor Zastavnyi was shot three times and lost a leg while taking part in demonstrations that he hoped would lead to a better Ukraine. Today he faces a country that is racked by war, struggling with corruption and pleading to the world for financial help while still stinging from Russia’s...
Angela Merkel: The real leader of the free world
Markus Schreiber/AP Erika Benn, an energetic, fast-talking 77-year-old woman who guided generations of East German students through the nuances of the Russian language, is sitting on a couch in her apartment in Templin, 80 km north of Berlin, reminiscing about one of her students—a girl so shy that, in the black-and-white group photographs Benn...
Debaltseve under rebel control, as EU leaders try to salvage truce
AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File DEBALTSEVE, Ukraine – Associated Press journalists in eastern Ukraine say Debaltseve appears to be largely under the control rebels a day after Ukrainian forces began withdrawing from the besieged town. In a drive around about half the town on Thursday, all neighbourhoods were under the control of rebel fighters,...
Russia-backed rebels continue onslaught; Ukrainian troops retreat
AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine – Government forces were seen retreating from the battlefield Wednesday as Russia-backed rebels continued their onslaught on the railroad junction of Debaltseve, the epicenter of fighting between the separatist and government troops in eastern Ukraine. Fierce fighting around the town linking the...
Putin suggests US is already sending arms to Ukraine
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin is suggesting that the United States is already delivering weapons to Ukraine. At a news conference Tuesday in Budapest with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Putin was asked how he assessed the possible consequences if the United States decides to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine in its fight...
Ukraine misses deadline to start withdrawing heavy weapons
LUHANSKE, Ukraine – Ukrainian government troops and Russia-backed rebels failed Tuesday to start pulling back heavy weaponry from the front line in eastern Ukraine as a deadline passed to do so. Under a cease-fire agreement negotiated by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France last week, the warring sides were to begin withdrawing...
Canada opposes 15 Palestinian attempts to join United Nations treaties
OTTAWA – Canada has formally opposed Palestinian attempts to join 15 different United Nations treaties and conventions — a position that puts the federal government on the wrong side of history and at odds with its citizenry, the Palestinian envoy in Ottawa says. Canada is objecting in writing to the UN because it maintains Palestine is not a...
