Author: Fworld

Against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a European Union summit later this week aims to assert the bloc’s energy independence from Russia — and strengthen its collective defense. For VOA, Lisa Bryant reports from Paris. Camera: Lisa Bryant Produced by: Rob Raffaele …

A French court on Wednesday sentenced to jail terms of up to 13 years three men charged with connections to the brutal 2016 jihadi killing of an 85-year-old priest.  Father Jacques Hamel was found with his throat slit at the foot of the altar on July 26, 2016, at his small church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a …

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris travels to Poland’s capital, Warsaw, Wednesday as the Biden administration and its NATO allies debated the best ways to fortify Ukraine while avoiding being drawn directly into the fighting, which would risk a wider European war. U.S. officials say Harris will be carrying a message to Poland that the United …

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is headed to Turkey ahead of a meeting Thursday with his Ukrainian counterpart at a Turkish resort. Ankara, which has close ties with Moscow and Kyiv, has been seeking to mediate since Russia invaded Ukraine. Turkey’s resort city of Antalya will be the venue for the first meeting between Lavrov …

The European Union has agreed to expand its third round of sanctions being imposed on Russia to target a larger number of oligarchs and officials close to President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The French Presidency of the European Council said in a series of tweets on March 9 that the new …

Four iconic U.S. food and beverage companies have joined the growing list of Western companies who have either shut down operations in Russia or are exiting altogether over that country’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Fast food giant McDonald’s, which opened its first Russian location in Moscow’s Pushkin Square in 1990, said Tuesday that it was …

A look at the latest situation on Day 14 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. …

Biden bans Russian energy imports, says won’t subsidize ‘Putin’s war’ …

The Russian Football Union (RFU) has appealed FIFA and UEFA bans on its football teams. The football governing bodies suspended Russia from competition on February 28 following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. “The RFU will demand the restoration of all men’s and women’s national teams of Russia in all types of football in the tournaments …

With Russia intensifying its war on Ukraine, killing civilians and triggering a mass refugee crisis, President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a U.S. ban on imported Russian oil. Critics of Russia have said that sanctioning its energy exports would be the best — perhaps only — way to force Moscow to pull back. A full …

The U.S. is banning all imports of Russian oil and gas, President Joe Biden announced Tuesday — a move that he said “will deal another powerful blow to Putin’s war machine” as the Russian army continues its assault on Ukraine. This step, outlined in an executive order, is the latest move by Washington to squeeze …

Resistance to the Russian invasion of Ukraine takes many forms. For some people in the Donetsk region, it means flooding their local volunteer center to create supplies for Ukrainian soldiers fighting the Russians. Yaroslava Movchan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. …

It’s a global day to celebrate women, but many fleeing Ukraine feel only the stress of finding a new life for their children as husbands, brothers and fathers stay behind to defend their country from Russia’s invasion. The number of refugees fleeing Ukraine reached 2 million on Tuesday, according to the United Nations, the fastest …

Thirteen days into a brutal war in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin has failed to subjugate Ukraine. He appears no nearer to replacing its defiant government with a puppet regime. An out-gunned Ukraine has defied widespread pre-war predictions that it wouldn’t be able to hold out for long against superior Russian forces, and the …

Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine      …

Russia did not show up to a key international court hearing aimed at putting a legal stop to fighting in Ukraine that is creating Europe’s biggest refugee crisis in years. At issue is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim of “genocide” to justify his invasion of Ukraine. The empty seats allocated to Russia’s legal team at …

Russia’s efforts to sway the opinions of people across the world about the righteousness of its invasion of Ukraine appears to be mirroring the effort of some of its forces on the ground – despite bringing lots of firepower, the Kremlin’s influence operations seem to be stalling, unable to penetrate key audiences. Much of Moscow’s …

More than one-and-a-half million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries since the Russian invasion, making it Europe’s fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War Two. Henry Ridgwell reports from the town of Przemysl on the Polish-Ukraine border. …

France on Monday warned Russia not to resort to blackmail over efforts to revive a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, after Moscow demanded a U.S. guarantee that sanctions it faces over Ukraine would not hurt its trade with Tehran. Iran in turn said it would not allow others to impede its interests as, …

South Korea said Monday it will halt all transactions with Russia’s central bank in the latest series of punitive actions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine …

US lawmakers favor more support for Kyiv, but not a no-fly zone     …

The Ukrainian father of two took off with a sprint when he saw the GPS coordinates from his wife’s cellphone draw nearer to the border crossing into Poland. Yevgen Chornomordenko had been waiting for 11 days on the Polish side of the border for his wife, Alina, and two children to arrive from the Ukrainian …

Thousands of people have been detained at protests in dozens of cities across Russia against President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war in Ukraine, the Russian Interior Ministry and an independent protest monitor said on Sunday. The monitor OVD-Info said 3,895 people were detained during protests in 53 cities. It added that police departments may have more …

A day after many of them spoke with Ukraine’s president, U.S. lawmakers are pledging to provide additional military aid to Kyiv as the government there continues to fight for its survival amid the invasion by Russia. Congress will soon approve emergency funding, putting “$10 billion into both defensive equipment for Ukraine, but also humanitarian assistance …

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi dismissed suggestions his country’s “neutral” stance in the Russia-Ukraine conflict is straining Islamabad’s relationship with the United States or the West at large, in an interview Sunday with VOA. The South Asian nuclear-armed Muslim country has resisted Western pressure to condemn Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, instead advocating …

Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita urged the United States on Sunday to provide more humanitarian support as the number of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine to the small European country hit 120,000. At the beginning of a meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, she said her country of 2.6 million, one …