Section: San Francisco Chronicle (USA)
Kiev says new cease-fire in eastern Ukraine is holding
Government forces and Russia-backed rebels agreed back in 2015 to stop fighting and pull back heavy weaponry. The cease-fire failed, however, and international monitors had said the fighting had intensified in the past month to nearly a full-blown war. …read more Source: San Francisco...
Relatives of MH17 victims seek EU help in getting radar data
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Frustrated relatives of those killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot out of the sky over eastern Ukraine are appealing to the European Union’s top diplomat to put pressure on Russia, Ukraine and the United States to hand over intelligence and radar data to investigators. An international team of...
Human rights activists condemn secret detentions in Ukraine
Human rights activists condemn secret detentions in Ukraine Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch published a report this summer detailing the use of torture and secret detentions by both the Ukrainian government and the Russia-backed separatist rebels it is fighting in the country’s east. …read more Source: San Francisco...
Rights group urges Russia to release Crimean Tatar leader
Human Rights Watch urged Russia to drop separatism charges against Umerov and provide him with necessary medical treatment. Ukraine’s Supreme Rada on Monday urged Umerov’s immediate release, calling his detention an example of “systematic repression of freedom” of Crimean Tatars. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin...
Kerry, Lavrov meet in Geneva to discuss Syria, Ukraine
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were meeting as part of a new U.S. bid to enlist Russia as a partner in Syria as the fighting on the ground becomes more volatile with the introduction of Turkish ground forces. …read more Source: San Francisco...
Russia calls snap military drills
The drills come a week after Russia for the first time since it began its operation in Syria used an air base in Iran, and after President Putin lashed out at Ukraine for allegedly sending its military intelligence office to carry out acts of sabotage in Russia-annexed Crimea. …read more Source: San Francisco...
Trump aides covertly fought freeing of Ukraine prisoner
WASHINGTON (AP) — For more than three years, lobbyist Jim Slattery worked in Washington to secure the release in Ukraine of the imprisoned political rival of the country’s then-president. The consulting firm run by Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his deputy Rick Gates, now the campaign’s liaison to...
Ukraine opens criminal probe of top Russian officials
MOSCOW (AP) — Ukraine’s General Prosecutor’s Office has launched a criminal investigation of 20 senior Russian officials, including the Russian defense minister. The list includes Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and two of his deputies, Kremlin economic adviser Sergei Glazyev, a former presidential envoy to Crimea, and other...
Manafort out amid scrutiny of covert lobbying campaign
WASHINGTON (AP) — The sudden resignation Friday of Donald Trump’s campaign chairman put renewed emphasis on revelations about his past work on behalf of Ukraine’s pro-Russian political leaders, including his firm’s role directing a covert Washington lobbying operation that would have required him under federal law to disclose...
Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigns
Emails between Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, also a top Trump adviser, and the lobbying firm Mercury LLC showed that Manafort’s firm, DMP International LLC, directly orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine’s then-ruling political party. The effort included not just legislative outreach but also...
