Category: crisis

No Pardon for Britons Sentenced to Death, Pro-Russian Separatist Leader Says

LONDON—The leader of the Russian-backed separatist Donetsk region of Ukraine said on Sunday there was no reason to pardon two British nationals who were sentenced to death last week after being captured while fighting for Ukraine. A court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic on Thursday found Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner—and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun—guilty…


Russian Artillery Pounds Sievierodonetsk

KYIV—Russian forces swarmed into the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, a Ukrainian official said on Monday. Pro-Moscow separatists claimed the last bridge out of Sievierodonetsk had been destroyed and Ukrainian defenders there must now surrender or die. Ukraine said there was still another way out although it was severely damaged. Regional governor Sergei Gadai said…


Putin Says Russia Will Not Mothball Oil Wells Despite West’s Import Ban

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russian companies will not block off their oil wells despite the West’s efforts to lessen its dependence on energy supplies from Moscow. The United States introduced its embargo on Russian imports in March just days after Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine, while the European Union agreed…


Two Britons, One Moroccan Sentenced to Death by Court of Russian Proxy in Ukraine

LONDON—Two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine were sentenced to death on Thursday by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), one of Russia’s proxies in eastern Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported. The court found the three men—Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun—guilty of…


Ukraine Claims Troops Hold on Sievierodonetsk, Advance in South

KYIV/SLOVIANSK, Ukraine—Ukrainian troops claimed on Thursday to have pushed forward in intense street fighting in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, but said their only hope to turn the tide was more artillery to offset Russia’s massive firepower. In the south, Ukraine’s defence ministry said it had captured new ground in a counter-attack in Kherson Province….


Chornobyl Radiation Detectors Back Online, Levels Normal—IAEA

VIENNA—Radiation detectors in the Exclusion Zone around Ukraine’s defunct Chornobyl nuclear power plant are back online for the first time since Russia seized the area on Feb. 24, and radiation levels are normal, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday. “Most of the 39 detectors sending data from the Exclusion Zone … are now visible…


Build Back Poorer, and Build Back Broke

Commentary President Joe Biden’s effort to “build back better” has degenerated into “build back poorer” for the American people and “build back broke” for the American government. With gasoline prices setting new record highs every week, the American people are becoming poorer. With the high cost of diesel fuel (up 70 percent over the last…


Street Fighting Rages as Kyiv Seeks to Hold Sievierodonetsk Gains

KYIV/DRUZHKIVKA, Ukraine—Ukrainian troops battled Russians street-to-street in the ruins of Sievierodonetsk on Tuesday, trying to hold onto gains from a counter-offensive that had reversed momentum in one of the bloodiest land battles of the war. The fight for the small industrial city has emerged as a pivotal battle in eastern Ukraine, with Russia focusing its…


Russia’s Lavrov Calls Decision to Block Plane ‘Unprecedented’

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday described as “unprecedented” a move by three eastern European countries to block his plane from traveling to Serbia, adding that he had yet to receive an explanation for their decision. He said that he would instead invite his Serbian counterpart to visit him in Moscow, adding: “The main…


Don’t Close the Embassy, US Ambassador Tells Russia

LONDON—Russia should not close the U.S. embassy despite the crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine because the world’s two biggest nuclear powers must continue to talk, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow was quoted as saying on Monday. President Vladimir Putin has cast the invasion of Ukraine as a turning point in Russian history: a…