Category: Новини

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed his country’s broad ties with China on Sunday, including military cooperation, as he met with Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu in Moscow.  “Development of relations between our two nations is going well in all areas — in the economy, social, cultural and educational sectors, and in military departments,” Putin said …

Sunday marked the second wartime celebration of Orthodox Easter in Ukraine. Russian forces and the paramilitary Wagner Group freed 130 Ukrainian prisoners of war, while one of Ukraine’s top military commanders marked the holiday by visiting front-line troops. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …

New developments: Ukraine says more than 100 prisoners of war were freed in a major Orthodox Easter exchange with Russia Sunday. It’s the second time Orthodox Ukrainians are marking the holiday since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion. Russian shelling overnight hit an Orthodox church in Zaporizhzhia province despite the holiday. At least four civilians were …

New developments: Eleven people were killed and 21 were injured in Russian airstrikes in the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk. Rescue crews are trying to reach victims trapped in the rubble of an apartment building. Russian President Vladimir Putin has enacted a law making it easier to mobilize Russians into the military, even as one of …

Pope Francis on Sunday publicly defended St. John Paul II, condemning as “offensive and baseless” insinuations that recently surfaced about the late pontiff. In remarks to tourists and pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said he was aiming to interpret the feelings of the faithful worldwide by expressing gratitude to the Polish pontiff’s memory. Days …

Ireland’s president has led tributes to Mark Sheehan, guitarist with Irish rock band The Script, after his death at 46. The band said Sheehan died in a hospital Friday after a brief illness. In a statement, The Script called him a “much-loved husband, father, brother, band mate and friend.” Formed in Dublin in 2001 by …

In the wake of Friday’s deadly Russian missile strikes, Ukraine’s air force said the country would soon have weapons with which to try to prevent such attacks: a Patriot air defense system. The delivery of the Patriot is expected in Ukraine sometime after Easter, Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said. The primarily Orthodox Christian …

In a muddy trench under fire from Russian forces 200 meters away, Ukrainian servicemen injured while holding the line near the bloodiest battle of Moscow’s invasion face a precarious extraction. “If someone gets unlucky, we have to carry them between 1 and 3 kilometers to the nearest place they can be collected,” a Ukrainian soldier, …

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni acknowledged “anomalies” in the handling of a Russian businessman who escaped from house arrest in Italy to avoid extradition to the United States and said Saturday she would speak with the justice minister to understand what happened. During a visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Meloni termed the case of Artyom Uss …

Germany will switch off its last three nuclear reactors Saturday, exiting atomic power even as it seeks to wean itself off fossil fuels and manage an energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. While many Western countries are upping their investments in atomic energy to reduce their emissions, Germany is bringing an early end …

The construction of barbed-wired fence along Finland’s long border with Russia – primarily meant to curb illegal migration – has broken ground near the southeastern town of Imatra less than two weeks after the Nordic country joined NATO as the 31st member of the military alliance.  The Finnish Border Guard on Friday showcased the building …

Ukrainian soldiers evacuate parts of Bakhmut as fighting there intensifies. Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a bill to make it easier to mobilize Russians into the military. China has promised not to sell weapons to either Ukraine or Russia, The Associated Press reports. Russian forces have brought large amounts of provisions and water to the …

“Remember, Joey, the best drop of blood in you is Irish,” President Joe Biden said, quoting his grandfather. Such fierce ethnic pride from “the most Irish of all American presidents,” as the Taoiseach describes him, was guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser, and Biden knew it. Biden displayed an endless supply of that pride during a …

For 35 years, the Emsland nuclear power plant in northwestern Germany has reliably provided millions of homes with electricity and many with well-paid jobs in what was once an agricultural backwater. Now, it and the country’s two other remaining nuclear plants are being shut down. Germany long ago decided to phase out both fossil fuels …

A French court on Friday convicted 11 alleged members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on charges of terror financing. The defendants, all Kurds from Turkey who speak little or no French, were accused of being part of a network that seeks a so-called revolutionary tax, or “kampanya,” from the Kurdish diaspora.  Deemed a terrorist …

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill Friday allowing authorities to issue electronic notices to draftees and reservists amid the fighting in Ukraine, sparking fears of a new wave of mobilization. Russia’s military service rules previously required the in-person delivery of notices to conscripts and reservists called up for duty. Under the new law, the …

China has responded to Western criticism by saying that it will remain neutral in the Russia-Ukraine war and not sell weapons to either side. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports. …

U.S. President Joe Biden broke down in tears on Friday after a chance meeting at an Irish church with the priest who performed the last rites on his son Beau, said a priest who accompanied Biden during the visit. The Rev. Richard Gibbons, who led Biden on a tour of the Catholic shrine of Knock, …

A new draft bill passed by Russian lawmakers on April 11 will make it nearly impossible for men to avoid military conscription, just as Moscow is expected launch a fresh counteroffensive in its war on Ukraine. Anna Rice has the story. …