Section: Voice of America (USA)
Ukraine Pitches for More EU Aid for Southeast As Elections Near
Ukraine’s foreign minister asked the European Union on Monday for hundreds of millions of euros in loans and aid for infrastructure and businesses in its troubled east and south, regions he said Russia was trying to “suffocate.” EU foreign ministers were discussing increasing support for Ukraine, which holds a presidential...
Facebook Voids Accounts Targeting Moldovan Election
Facebook said on Thursday it had disrupted an attempt to influence voters in Moldova, increasing concerns that EU elections in May could be prey to malign activity. Employees of the Moldovan government were linked to some of the activity, the California-based social media company said. Authorities in Chisnau, capital of the tiny former Soviet...
Women Recall ‘Hell’ of Soviet War in Afghanistan
Sitting in her living room, 65-year-old Tatyana Rybalchenko goes through a stack of black-and-white photos from more than 30 years ago. In one of them, she is dressed in a nurse’s coat and smiles sheepishly at the camera; in another, she shares a laugh with soldiers on a road with a mountain ridge behind them. The pictures don’t show...
Russia, Turkey, Iran Poised to Map Syria’s Future
The leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey meet in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on Thursday to discuss the conflict in Syria for the first time since the United States announced its troop withdrawal. The Kremlin has not divulged details of the upcoming trilateral, but a number of observers say questions about the strategic implications of a...
With Armored Vehicles and Snipers, US Seeks to Deter Russia
With the Russian border little more than an hour away, the desolate grey sky burst open with an explosion of fire and a plume of smoke. If the scene evoked the Cold War, it was intentional. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo trekked Wednesday to the Polish town of Orzysz to witness NATO live-fire exercises in an unmistakable sign to Warsaw that...
UN: 2015 Peace Accord for Ukraine’s East Not Implemented
A 2015 agreement to bring peace to Ukraine’s volatile east remains largely unimplemented and civilians are paying the highest price, with more than 3,300 killed and 3.5 million needing humanitarian aid this year, U.N. officials said Tuesday. Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in early 2014 and support for separatist rebels...
Pompeo Warns Central European Allies Over Russia, China Ties
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned during a trip to NATO allies Slovakia and Hungary that Russia and China are trying to fill a political vacuum in central Europe caused by what he described as the United States’ absence in the region over recent years. Arriving Tuesday in Bratislava, Pompeo said the United States had been a...
Ukrainian Official Charged in Acid Attack on Activist After Outcry
Ukrainian prosecutors said Monday they had charged a high-ranking regional official with organizing a deadly acid attack on a prominent anti-corruption activist that prompted widespread outrage. Kateryna Gandzyuk, who worked as an adviser to the mayor of the southern city of Kherson, was an outspoken critic of corruption in law enforcement...
Pompeo Heads to Central Europe, in US Re-Engagement
When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Hungary, Slovakia and Poland this week he wants to make up for a lack of U.S. engagement that opened the door to more Chinese and Russian influence in central Europe, administration officials say. On a tour that includes a conference on the Middle East where Washington hopes to build a coalition against...
Report: Finnish SS Volunteers Likely Killed Jews in WWII
An Israeli Holocaust historian praised authorities in Finland on Sunday for publishing a report that concluded Finnish volunteers serving with Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS “very likely” took part in World War II atrocities, including the mass murder of Jews. Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center lauded the determination of the National...
