Section: The Washington Post (USA)
Kerry holds talks in Ukraine amid bid by European partners to quell fighting
KIEV, Ukraine — Diplomats and leaders from Europe and the United States converged in the Ukrainian capital Thursday in an effort to quell an growing offensive by pro-Russian separatists that has left civilians trapped by heavy shelling.Read full article >> …read more Source: The Washington...
Ukraine’s ability to fight separatist forces is tested by economic and military challenges
KIEV, Ukraine — To hear it from their president, the Ukrainian people have never been more determined to beat back what they see as a threat to Western civilization — all the way to the Russian border.Read full article >> …read more Source: The Washington...
Pro-Moscow rebel faction snubs further cease-fire talks in tense eastern Ukraine
MOSCOW—Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk will not initiate further cease-fire talks with Ukraine and plan to expand battles for new territory, their leader was quoted as saying Friday in warnings that all but ensure fresh confrontations in eastern Ukraine.Read full article >> …read more Source: The Washington...
Pro-Moscow rebels force Ukraine retreat in battle for key airport stronghold
MOSCOW— The Ukrainian army retreated Thursday from key strongholds at the Donetsk airport, an epicenter of fighting in the country’s conflict-battered eastern region, handing a symbolic gain to pro-Russian rebels amid a surge of violence that threatens to further unravel peace efforts.Read full article >> …read more Source: The...
Russia’s response to SOTU: ‘U.S. intends to dominate the world’
MOSCOW — President Obama briefly, but pointedly, addressed a year of tense relations with Russia over Ukraine during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, saying the United States was “upholding the principle that bigger nations can’t bully the small.” Today Russia replied: Who are you calling a bully? Russian Foreign Minister...
As fighting deepens in eastern Ukraine, death toll rises
MOSCOW — Intensifying battles, mounting death tolls and dire new warnings from Russia have dragged eastern Ukraine’s long-running conflict into some of the worst fighting since last summer, rendering a months-old cease-fire agreement effectively defunct.Read full article >> …read more Source: The Washington...
Russian economic crisis helps save Putin’s post-Olympic dream at Sochi
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — After the television cameras went dark on the Winter Olympic Games last year in Sochi, the areas around the resort city were in danger of becoming expensive ghost towns.President Vladimir Putin spent $50 billion on the Olympics, and had hoped his investment would leave behind a skier’s paradise in the mountainous...
What’s the weirdest thing about leaving a Russian jail after a year? The price of milk.
MOSCOW — The Russian ruble is slumping again, all but erasing gains made through extraordinary spending measures in late December and reminding the country that hard times are likely to continue into the new year. Chapter and verse have been written about how historically low oil prices, coupled with economic sanctions over Ukraine, have created...
7 awful conflicts that were under-reported in 2014
2014 has been a brutal year. The death toll of Syria’s ongoing civil war likely eclipsed 200,000, while the hideous rise of the Islamic State spurred a U.S.-led bombing campaign. A separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine led to thousands of deaths and clouded relations between the West and Moscow, which is believed to be aiding the rebels....
Fleeing their country’s civil war, Ukrainian Jews head for Israel
KIEV — Yulia, Kostiantyn and their daughter Valerie don’t look like a typical refugee family. All well-dressed – even the Chihuahua, Micky, donning a chic doggy jacket – they might not seem out of place mingling with Kiev’s oligarchs. But the truth is that the family, Ukrainians of Jewish heritage who arrived here...
