Section: Metro News (Canada)
Canada providing $200-million loan to Ukraine
OTTAWA – Canada will provide another low-interest, $200-million loan to Ukraine to help promote economic stability. The government says the loan will come from Export Development Canada. The loan agreement includes a provision enabling Canada to audit how the money is used and requires Ukraine to provide regular reports on the spending....
Rockets kill 21 in Ukraine city as rebel offensive begins
KIEV, Ukraine – Indiscriminate rocket fire slammed into a market, schools and homes Saturday in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, killing at least 21 people, authorities said. Ukraine’s top rebel leader announced that an offensive had begun on the strategically important port. The report came a day after the rebels rejected a peace...
Signs emerge of major Ukraine rebel offensive looming
DONETSK, Ukraine – Signs emerged Friday pointing to a major offensive in eastern Ukraine by rebels fighting to break off from the rest of the country. A rebel leader said they will continue to fight and won’t join further peace talks — but left unclear whether they would respect this week’s agreement to pull back heavy weapons from...
Russia, Ukraine agree on pullback line for heavy arms
BERLIN – Diplomats from Russia and Ukraine agreed Wednesday on a dividing line from where both sides should pull back their heavy weapons, just hours after separatist forces deployed more arms and manpower to an emerging flashpoint in eastern Ukraine. Germany’s Foreign Minister, who hosted a meeting of his counterparts from Russia, Ukraine...
Interim NATO rapid-response force of several thousand now active
BERLIN – NATO’s interim agile expeditionary force is now active but planning continues for a permanent “spearhead” unit, the alliance’s chief said Wednesday. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Berlin the interim force is made up of troops from Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and “some others.” NATO said it had...
Ukraine drops nonaligned status, won’t join NATO yet
KIEV, Ukraine – The Ukrainian president on Monday signed a bill dropping his country’s nonaligned status but signalled that he will hold a referendum before seeking NATO membership. The bill, which Parliament adopted last week and Petro Poroshenko signed into the law at a news conference on Monday, has angered Moscow which called it a...
Ukraine peace talks are set to start in the capital of Belarus
MINSK, Belarus – Negotiators are heading to the capital of Belarus for another round of talks about a settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. Representatives of Ukraine, Russia, pro-Russia rebels and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are to hold the talks in Minsk on Wednesday and on Friday. The negotiations are focusing on...
Canada faces long conflicts in Iraq and Ukraine
OTTAWA – It could very well be that 2014 is remembered as the year when Canada traded one shadow war for possibly two others. The flag was barely folded and put away in Kabul, marking a formal end to more than 12 years of counter-insurgency war against the ghostly Taliban, before CF-18s were dispatched to begin pounding extremist targets in Iraq....
Dutch government defends handling of Ukraine crash probe
AMSTERDAM – The Dutch government has rejected a call to hand over the investigation into the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster to the United Nations, saying it’s doing the best it can under difficult circumstances. Flight 17 was shot down July 17 over territory held by pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard —...
Austria unhappy over opera star’s outreach to Donetsk
VIENNA – Opera star Anna Netrebko says she doesn’t want to get involved in Ukraine’s politics. But her appearance with a separatist spokesman is being interpreted as taking sides by the government of Austria, her adopted home. Netrebko on Monday gave separatist Oleg Tsaryov a check for 1 million rubles (more than $18,000). She also...
