Section: Voice of America (USA)
As Election Heats Up, War Grinds On in Eastern Ukraine
The war with Russia is a key issue in the Ukrainian presidential election — but on the ground, civilians say their problems are not being addressed. In the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, Ukrainian soldiers, rebel fighters and civilians are dying every day as the conflict grinds on. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee...
US Signs Defense Cooperation Agreement with Hungary
On the sidelines of two days of events marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the United States signed a bilateral defense cooperation agreement with Hungary, an act that went almost unnoticed by American media. Hungarian media, however, widely published the news Saturday, quoting...
Relocation of ‘Russian’ Bank Alarms Western Security Officials
Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban made his name as a young anti-Communist dissident delivering a fiery anti-Russian speech at the 1989 reburial of Imre Nagy, leader of the Hungarian revolt of 1956 against the Soviet Union. Among the KGB officers dispatched by the Kremlin to help quash the Imre Nagy-led Hungarian uprising was Nikolai...
NATO Chief Rejects ‘Spheres of Influence’
At the final press conference marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a question was raised as to whether NATO was partly responsible for current tensions with Moscow, “because it has expanded right up to the borders of Russia” and whether it was a good idea to “publicly advertise open invitations...
Kyiv Renames Street in Honor of Late US Senator McCain
Kyiv on Thursday renamed one of its streets after John McCain, in a gesture of honor to the late U.S. senator who supported Ukraine’s pro-Western leadership in the standoff with Russia. McCain, who died last year at age 81, backed Kyiv’s popular uprising which in 2014 ousted Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin president as well as supported...
Media Circus as Ukraine’s Poroshenko, Zelenskiy Mull Stadium Debate, Drug Tests
Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko agreed on Thursday to go head-to-head with comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a debate at the country’s biggest stadium, as flamboyant media spectacle and social media drive the race for the presidency. Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old actor best known in the country for playing the president in a television show, is...
Family of American Killed in MH17 Crash Sues Russia Banks, Money-Transfer Firms
The family of an American killed when a Malaysian Airlines plane was shot down over Ukraine in 2014 filed a lawsuit on Thursday against U.S.-based money transfer companies and two Russian banks they accuse of providing services to the group they blame for striking Flight MH17. MH17 was brought down over territory held by pro-Russian separatist...
Poll: Almost Half of Young Russians Want to Emigrate
Forty-four percent of Russians aged 15-29 want to emigrate as their economy stagnates, according to a survey by the pollster Gallup. The poll, based on 2,000 face-to-face interviews conducted in 2018, indicated that 20 percent of all Russians wanted to move abroad, the highest share since 2007, when it stood at 17 percent. Young people of working...
Glaring US Absences Raise Questions About Relevance of G-7
Foreign and interior ministers from the Group of Seven countries are gathering in France this week to try to find ambitious solutions to world security challenges. Putting a dampener on that are two glaring American absences: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. The fact that ranking U.S. officials...
From Potholes to Procurement: Ukraine’s Chronic Corruption Angers Voters
To experience corruption in Ukraine, just go for a drive. The bone-crunching, bouncing ride over the countless potholes is a daily ritual for travelers across the country. Campaigners say the local authorities’ failure to repair the winter road damage is just one symptom of the myriad corruption schemes that plague the country. Tackling...
