ukraine

NATO Chief Calls for Defense Surge to Avoid 'Big War' with Russia

NATO chief Mark Rutte issued a stark warning Thursday to "turbo-charge" defense spending, saying European nations were not prepared for the threat of future war with Russia. "We are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years," Rutte said in a keynote address in Brussels, his first major speech since taking office as NATO ...

Russia Vows Retaliation After Ukraine Strikes Military Airfield

Russia on Wednesday vowed retribution against Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of firing Western-supplied missiles on a military airfield in its southern Rostov region. President Vladimir Putin has previously threatened to launch a hypersonic ballistic missile at the centre of Kyiv if Ukraine did not halt its attacks on Russian territory using US-supplied ...

EU Targets Russia’s ‘Shadow Fleet’ with New Sanctions

EU countries agreed on Wednesday to blacklist around 50 additional oil tankers from Russia's "shadow fleet," which have been used to circumvent Western sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine, officials said. The move, which is set to be formally approved by foreign ministers on Monday, is part of the EU's 15th sanctions package since Russia's ...

Trump Reaffirms Solving Ukraine Crisis his Top Priority

Donald Trump has reaffirmed that solving the Ukraine crisis would be his top priority once he assumes office next month, describing the Middle East as a "less difficult situation." "I think we have to solve the Ukraine problem with Russia," the US president-elect told French magazine Paris Match in an interview recorded on Saturday and released ...

Three Dead in Russian Attacks on East, South Ukraine

Three people were killed and more than a dozen wounded in Russian attacks on southern and eastern Ukraine over the past 24 hours, authorities said Tuesday. Tensions over the three-year war have escalated in recent weeks, with Moscow pummelling Ukrainian energy infrastructure and threatening to strike Kyiv with its new hypersonic missile. In the ...

Zelensky Insists on a "Just Peace" in Paris

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday insisted at a meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump that any settlement with Russia after its invasion of Ukraine had to be "just", as fears grow in Kyiv on the position of the incoming administration. President Emmanuel Macron hosted three-way talks with Zelensky and Trump at the Elysee ...

Europe’s Vega-C Rocket Launches Satellite Into Orbit After Delays

Europe's new Vega-C rocket launched Thursday from French Guiana and put a satellite into orbit in its first takeoff since a failed flight two years ago. After two days of delays, the rocket -- crucial to Europe's autonomy in reaching space -- took off without problems, carrying the Sentinel-1C satellite for the European Union's Copernicus Earth ...

Russia Ready to Defend Itself Through "Any Means", Lavrov Says

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said he hoped Ukraine's allies took "seriously" Moscow's recent use of a hypersonic missile in the conflict there, and warned that Russia was ready to use "any means" to defend itself. The United States and its allies "must understand that we would be ready to use ...

Russia and Ukraine to Attend Rare Joint Summit in Malta

Russia and Ukraine will send their foreign ministers to Malta this week for a summit of the OSCE, officials said Wednesday, in one of the few events attended by both countries since Moscow's Ukraine offensive began. The trip marks Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's first to an EU member since the start of the conflict in February 2022, and ...

NATO Chief Says Russia Supporting North Korea in Exchange for Soldiers

NATO chief Mark Rutte said Wednesday that Russia was giving support to North Korea's missile and nuclear programmes in exchange for Pyongyang sending troops to fight in the war with Ukraine. He urged NATO members to send enough arms to Ukraine to change the course of the conflict as Russian forces make gains along the frontline. "In return for ...

Ukraine Pushes NATO for Invite as Trump Rule Looms

Ukraine insisted Tuesday that NATO membership was the only "real guarantee" for its security as foreign ministers from the alliance looked set to rebuff Kyiv's push for an invite ahead of Donald Trump's return to the US presidency. Trump has vowed to press for a quick deal to end Russia's war, leaving Kyiv scrambling to position itself ahead of ...