Section: San Francisco Chronicle (USA)
Germany, France press for progress on Ukraine peace process
BERLIN — The leaders of Russia, Ukraine and France gathered in Berlin on Wednesday for four-way talks hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel designed to revive the stalled peace process in eastern Ukraine. The 2015 Minsk agreement brokered by France and Germany has helped end large-scale battles between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russia...
Thousands attend warlord’s funeral in Ukraine’s rebel east
MOSCOW (AP) — Thousands have turned out for the funeral of a senior commander of pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine, who was killed in a bomb blast. Ukrainian officials have accused Pavlov of war crimes, and he once admitted personally killing 15 prisoners of war. …read more Source: San Francisco...
Germany hosts Ukraine summit, also expected to discuss Syria
BERLIN (AP) — The leaders of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France will hold a summit in Berlin for talks on the stagnant peace process in eastern Ukraine — a meeting that also is expected to touch on Syria’s civil war. …read more Source: San Francisco...
EU leaders to debate stance on Russia at Brussels summit
Putin has proven to be a master at dividing the Europeans, and no geopolitical challenge has proven more difficult for the EU than the increasingly unpredictable and threatening neighbor to its east. […] a Dutch-led investigation naming Russia as the source of a mobile missile launcher that shot down a Malaysian jetliner over eastern...
Ultra-nationalist ‘war camps’ train Russian youths
A dozen people dressed in military fatigues scale a crumbling, abandoned high-rise with Kalashnikovs strapped to their backs. […] camps, which are on the rise in Russia, imitate a broader Kremlin policy of “patriotic education” that has seen a marked increase in government funding in recent years. The ESM camps serve as breeding...
German, Russian, Ukrainian, French leaders to meet in Berlin
A German government statement Tuesday said that Merkel invited Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and French President Francois Hollande to “assess the implementation of the Minsk (peace) agreements since the last meeting and discuss further steps.” …read more Source: San Francisco...
EU mulls more Syria sanctions as political efforts falter
LUXEMBOURG (AP) — European Union foreign ministers debated Monday whether to extend sanctions against the Syrian regime as political efforts to secure a cease-fire and access for humanitarian aid falter. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the ministers might add more Syrians accused of rights abuses or war crimes to the sanctions...
Russia, the West clash in tiny Montenegro election
The vote pits Montenegro’s long-ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, led by powerful pro-Western Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, against a cluster of pro-Russian and pro-Serbian opposition groups which staunchly oppose the country’s NATO bid. Djukanovic, who ruled Montenegro as a premier or president for more than 25 years, is...
War prisoners languish in Ukraine conflict
Eventually, he and 12 others were found by the rebel government’s Committee on POWs and transferred to a detention facility in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, the rebels’ main stronghold. […] allowed to call his wife, Lazarenko said the Cossacks had held him in a windowless basement where he could only lie down on sacks...
Putin suspends weapons-grade plutonium deal with US
MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin on Monday suspended a deal with the United States on the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium, once a symbol of U.S.-Russian rapprochement that has fallen apart amid tensions over Ukraine, Syria and other disputes. Russia said last year it had started up a plant that produces mixed-oxide commercial nuclear...
