Section: Voice of America (USA)
Russia Extends Ukraine Sailors’ Detention Amid Prisoner Swap Talks
A Russian court on Wednesday prolonged the detention of 24 Ukrainian sailors captured last year near Crimea, in the midst of sensitive prisoner-swap talks between the two ex-Soviet neighbors.Moscow’s Lefortovsky district court ruled that the sailors must stay in detention for an extra three months until Oct. 24. After the hearings, the...
Victims’ Families, Nations Commemorate MH17 Tragedy
Families of victims and their countries’ embassies are marking the fifth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, amid mounting evidence of Russia’s involvement in shooting the passenger plane out of the sky.The airliner flying between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur was shot...
Austria: Firtash Extradition to US Blocked by ‘Extensive’ Bid to Reopen Case
This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service. Some information is from AP.WASHINGTON — The Austrian justice minister’s Tuesday announcement that he will extradite Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash to face bribery charges in the United States has been upended by an application to reopen the case in Vienna.Last month,...
Ukrainian Hacker Sought by US Arrested
Ukraine has arrested an alleged major computer hacker who has been sought by the United States for years.The head of Ukraine’s national security service Ivan Bakanov said Tuesday that Mykhailo Rytikov was arrested in the city of Odessa, in an operation conducted in coordination with Britain and the U.S. Bakanov said the operation found a...
Russian, Ukrainian Leaders Talk at Last
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Friday held their first talks since the election of the Ukraine president last April — a 20-minute phone call noteworthy for its implications regarding efforts to end the simmering war between Kyiv and pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s east....
Russian Journalist Feels ‘Doomed’ by Inclusion on Terror List
VOA’s Fatima Tlis contributed to this story from Washington.A Russian journalist who has been pursued by Russian police since last November following a radio commentary on a bombing said she was stunned to find out that authorities have added her to the official list of “terrorists and extremists.”In a telephone interview with...
Ukraine-Russia Tensions Spark Human Rights Debate
A U.N. report on extensive human rights violations in the Russian-backed separatist regions of eastern Ukraine and in the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula has triggered a fiery debate at the U.N. human rights council. The conflict between Russian-backed rebels and the Ukrainian government in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk is entering...
Ukraine-Russia Conflict Sparks Human Rights Debate
A U.N. report on extensive human rights violations in the Russian-backed separatist regions of eastern Ukraine and in the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula has triggered a fiery debate at the U.N. human rights council. The conflict between Russian-backed rebels and the Ukrainian government in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk is entering...
Russia’s Putin Says He’s Ready for Talks With Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he’s willing to sit down with Ukraine’s new president for talks to settle a deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine.Putin responded Thursday to Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s proposal to hold talks with the mediation of U.S., British, French and German leaders, saying that he is open to the idea. He said,...
Ukraine: Chernobyl’s Radioactive Dust Shelter Unveiled
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday inaugurated a giant structure built to confine radioactive debris at the nuclear reactor that exploded in Chernobyl in 1986.The confinement structure for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s Reactor No. 4 cost 1.5 billion euros (almost $1.7 billion) to build, and the entire project...
