Pope Francis spent most of an hour-long meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday night discussing the crisis in Ukraine, with the pontiff calling for a “sincere and great effort to achieve peace” in the region.
Ukraine’s military says six of its servicemen have been killed and another 14 wounded in fighting over the past day, one of the highest casualty tolls reported in a single day since an often-violated cease-fire was called more than three months ago.
Russia has begun work on a helicopter carrier similar to a previously ordered, French-built warship whose delivery has been stalled due to Paris’s concerns over Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis, news agency TASS reported, citing a senior navy official.
The US and Poland are discussing the deployment of American heavy weapons in eastern Europe in response to Russian expansionism and sabre-rattling in the region in what represents a radical break with post-cold war military planning.
A Russian fighter jet, flying at high speed, came within 10 feet of a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Black Sea late last month, several U.S. officials told CNN Thursday.
Last year saw Putin’s Russia cement itself as an increasingly assertive international power. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its sustained aggression toward Ukraine resulted in an array of Western sanctions.
Britain has pulled out agents from live operations in “hostile countries” after Russia and China cracked top-secret information contained in files leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, the Sunday Times reported.
The Pentagon is considering a proposal to place M1 Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and armored howitzers in NATO countries in the Baltic and Eastern Europe in a bid to stem what is viewed as Russian aggression.
The United States and the European Union are finalizing further sanctions against Russia that could be imposed if Moscow takes additional military action in Ukraine, senior U.S. administration officials and European diplomats said Thursday.
Back in Siberia, Valentin knew plenty of people who protested against Russia’s involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, and a few who hung flags and posters around his home city of Krasnoyarsk.
