NewsWorldEuropeMilitary commanders hit with sanctions as war enters its 100th day<\/p>\n
Zelensky shuts down anchor\u2019s suggestion that Trump would have stopped Russian invasion <\/p>\n
The European Union has blacklisted Russian military leaders who it said led troops to commit atrocities in Ukraine, describing them as the \u201cbutchers\u201d of Bucha and Mariupol.<\/p>\n
The latest round of EU sanctions over Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine hits 65 more Kremlin-linked figures and confirms a ban on most oil imports and the removal of Russia\u2019s top lender Sberbank from the Swift payments system.<\/p>\n
Among the 65 people named was Azatbek Omurbekov, who the EU said led Russian troops as they \u201ckilled, raped and tortured civilians in Bucha\u201d, earning him the nickname \u201cButcher of Bucha\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mikhail Mizintsev, a general the EU said oversaw the siege and bombardment of Mariupol that killed thousands, was also targeted and deemed the \u201cbutcher of Mariupol\u201d. Russia has denied killing civilians in 100 days of what it calls a special military operation.<\/p>\n
Moscow today announced its intention to stay in\u00a0Ukraine\u00a0until achieving all its goals. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: \u201cOne of the main goals of the operation is to protect people in the [Donetsk People\u2019s Republic and Luhansk People\u2019s Republic] \u2013 two breakaway regionscontrolled by Russian-backed separatists.<\/p>\n
1654318381Switzerland rejects request for transfer or arms to Ukraine over military neutralitySwitzerland \u201ccannot agree\u201d to Denmark and Germany\u2019s requests to \u201ctransfer war material\u201d to Ukraine, Federal Council spokesman Andr\u00e9 Simonazzi said on Friday.<\/p>\n
However, Mr Simonazzi added, \u201cthe delivery of individual parts to European armaments companies remains possible.\u201d <\/p>\n
Switzerland\u2019s War Materiel Act mandates that export requests cannot be approved if the recipient country is in an international armed conflict.<\/p>\n
Maanya Sachdeva4 June 2022 05:53<\/p>\n
1654316581Guterres renews calls for peace in Ukraine over ‘three-dimensional global crisis’United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres once again called for an immediate end to the war in Ukraine, or 100 days since Russia\u2019s invasion began.<\/p>\n
Mr Guterres, in a tweet on Friday, said the war \u201cis inflaming a three-dimensional global crisis \u2013 food, energy and finance\u201d which is \u201cpummelling the most vulnerable people, countries and economies\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sooner this war ends, the better,\u201d he wrote, adding, \u201cFor the sake of Ukraine, Russia, and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maanya Sachdeva4 June 2022 05:23<\/p>\n
1654314641Ukrainian forces have reclaimed 20 per cent of Sievierodonetsk from Russia, officials sayUkrainian armed forces have recaptured \u201capproximately 20 per cent\u201d of Sievierodonetsk from Russia since its invasion began, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said on Friday. <\/p>\n
Making an announcement on national television, Mr Haidai said: \u201cWhereas before the situation was difficult, the percentage (held by Russia) was somewhere around 70 per cent , now we have already pushed them back by approximately 20 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further, he added that Russian military were attacking and advancing on Ukrainian positions for hours \u2013 \u201cmoving forward, step-by-step\u201d \u2013 until they were driven back.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced that the country\u2019s forces had made \u201csome progress\u201d in the region, without providing any additional details.<\/p>\n
Russian forces have been trying to capture Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, the only two cities in eastern Ukraine\u2019s Luhansk province not controlled by the Kremlin. These provinces constitute the Donbas, or Ukraine\u2019s eastern industrial region that Russia has been gunning to control.<\/p>\n
Maanya Sachdeva4 June 2022 04:50<\/p>\n
1654308000Biden says negotiations necessary to end Ukraine warJoe Biden on Friday said he thinks a \u201cnegotiated settlement\u201d will be necessary to end Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Asked whether Ukraine should give up some of its territory to Russia in order to end the war and bring peace to the region, the US president said his policy continues to be that the United States will not make any decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine.<\/p>\n
He said \u201cit\u2019s their territory\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m not going to tell them what they should and shouldn\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he also said \u201cit appears to me that at some point along the line there\u2019s going to have to be a negotiated settlement here.\u201d He said he does not know what such an agreement would look like but that the US will continue to help Ukrainians defend themselves.<\/p>\n
Mr Biden commented from Delaware on Friday, the 100th day of Russia\u2019s invasion.<\/p>\n
Liam James4 June 2022 03:00<\/p>\n
1654302840Switzerland refuses Danish request to arm UkraineSwitzerland\u2019s government on Friday said it would not honour a request by Denmark to send nearly two-dozen Swiss-made armored personnel carriers to Ukraine, citing Swiss \u201cneutrality law\u201d that bans the export of war material to a country at war.<\/p>\n
The executive Federal Council confirmed the decision, reported in Swiss media this week, on Friday just as the Swiss government also announced that it would allow the transfer of some military equipment to Germany and Britain as they replenish supplies that the two countries have sent to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The announcement testified to the fine line Swiss authorities are treading to hold to Switzerland\u2019s legal requirement to remain neutral as laid out in the War Materiel Act, which bars the transfer of Swiss-made weapons systems, ammunition and other war material to a country involved in an international conflict.<\/p>\n
Denmark had requested that Switzerland transfer 22 Swiss-made Piranha III wheeled armored personnel carriers, which Denmark had procured and stored in Germany, to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Liam James4 June 2022 01:34<\/p>\n
1654298400Russia will remain in Ukraine until goals are met, says KremlinThe Kremlin says it will press on with its military operations in Ukraine until its goals are met.<\/p>\n
Asked how the Kremlin views progress in Ukraine 100 days into the war Friday, Vladimir Putin\u2019s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian troops have succeeded in their main task of protecting civilians in areas of the Donbas controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.<\/p>\n
Mr Peskov said Russian forces had \u201cliberated\u201d many areas in Ukraine from the \u201cpro-Nazi\u201d Ukrainian military and nationalist units, adding that \u201cthis work will continue until all the goals of the special military operation are achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking during a conference call with reporters, Mr Peskov was evasive when asked whether Russian authorities are planning to hold referendums in those areas to join Russia, saying that it will depend on how the situation evolves. Mr Peskov and other Russian officials have said repeatedly that it will be up to the residents of those regions to determine their status.<\/p>\n
In 2014, Russia used a referendum to claim legitimacy for its capture of Crimea from Ukraine. The result was claimed to 95.5 per cent in favour of Russian rule \u2013 the result was widely viewed in the west as rigged and the UN voted to describe the referendum as illegal.<\/p>\n
Liam James4 June 2022 00:20<\/p>\n
1654294107Battles rage on in Sievierodonetsk, says Luhansk governorA regional governor in eastern Ukraine says intense fighting is continuing in a key town that has faced a massive Russian offensive.<\/p>\n
Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai told the Associated Press that \u201cfierce battles are continuing in Sievierodonetsk\u201d, where about 13,000 residents left in the city are sheltering in basements to escape relentless Russian bombardment.<\/p>\n
Mr Haidai said Friday that the Russian forces were also pummeling the nearby city of Lysychansk that has remained under Ukrainian control. <\/p>\n
Some 20,000 residents, or about one-fifth of Lysychansk\u2019s pre-war population, have remained in the city which has seen 60 per cent of its residential buildings and civilian infrastructure shattered by the Russian shelling. Mr Haidai said a civilian was killed in the Russian shelling of Lysychansk on Friday.<\/p>\n
He told the AP that the Russians have been shelling a key highway linking Lysychansk with Bakhmut, but that it remained under Ukrainian control.<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n
Liam James3 June 2022 23:08<\/p>\n
1654289907Hillary Clinton says Putin has \u2018almost messianic belief in himself and what he was destined to be\u2019Russia\u2019s president Vladimir Putin has an \u201calmost messianic belief in himself and what he was destined to be\u201d, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has said (Namita Singh writes).<\/p>\n
She was in conversation with civil liberties advocate Helena Kennedy at the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts in Wales when the former first lady shared her brief experience of working alongside Mr Putin during her tenure as the US secretary of state.<\/p>\n
Ms Clinton said she saw him harbouring the \u201cgoal of restoring imperial Russia\u201d while working with him between 2009 and 2014, when he was prime minister of Russia. It prompted her to write multiple memos warning the world about the impending \u201cthreat to Europe and the rest of the world\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he invaded Ukraine, I was sadly not surprised,\u201d she said, according to The Guardian. \u201cI was very pleasantly surprised at how effective the government of [Volodymyr] Zelensky and Ukraine defended themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liam James3 June 2022 21:58<\/p>\n
1654284927Germany approves \u20ac100bn defence fund in response to Ukraine warGermany\u2019s Bundestag has approved the creation of a \u20ac100bn (\u00a386bn) special defence fund in response to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The money is destined to top up the regular defence budget of around \u20ac50bn euro over several years to help rebuild Germany\u2019s military, which has been neglected since the end of the Cold war.<\/p>\n
The fund should enable Germany to meet the Nato target of spending 2 per cent of its economic output on defence each year, making it the world\u2019s third-biggest military spender behind the United States and China. <\/p>\n
The Kremlin earlier on Friday accused Germany of \u201cremilitarisation\u201d as it moved to boost military spending and said it increased security risks.<\/p>\n
The Bundestag also passed a budget foreseeing \u20ac139bn of new debt this year \u2013 Germany\u2019s second-highest-ever level \u2013 to cushion Europe\u2019s biggest economy against fallout from the Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n
Liam James3 June 2022 20:35<\/p>\n
1654280667Russian TV mocks \u2018opulent\u2019 Queen\u2019s Platinum Jubilee celebrations and warns UK faces power cutsRussian state-owned television channel has mocked the UK\u2019s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, after the country began four days of events to mark the Queen\u2019s 70-year reign (Tom Batchelor writes).<\/p>\n
A bulletin aired by the Kremlin-affiliated broadcaster Rossiya 1 suggested Britain had \u201cfound the money for an opulent celebration\u201d in the middle of an energy crisis.<\/p>\n
The channel sought to juxtapose the pageantry of the day with apparently declining living standards in the UK, which the report blamed on sanctions imposed on Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UK, which as a consequence of its sanctions against Russia is bracing for power cuts, has found the money for an opulent celebration of the Queen\u2019s platinum jubilee,\u201d the evening news, which included a live report from a Rossiya 1 journalist in London, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reign of Elizabeth II has seen the final collapse of the British empire,\u201d the report was translated as saying.<\/p>\n
Read the full report here:<\/p>\n
Liam James3 June 2022 19:24<\/p>\n
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NewsWorldEuropeMilitary commanders hit with sanctions as war enters its 100th day Zelensky shuts down anchor\u2019s suggestion that Trump would have stopped Russian invasion The European Union has blacklisted Russian military leaders who it said led troops to commit atrocities in Ukraine, describing them as the \u201cbutchers\u201d of Bucha and Mariupol. The latest round of EU […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n