The Russian embassy in Cyprus has rejected as unfounded press reports suggesting that Moscow was mulling establishing a consulate in the territories occupied by Turkey in the north of the island.
The French embassy was re-established in Kyiv this weekend after security conditions were deemed “acceptable” in the Ukrainian capital.
The French embassy returned to Kyiv on Friday (15 April), while it continues to advise French nationals against travelling to Ukraine formally. Before the re-establishment, the embassy was moved to Lviv, where it had been functioning since 28 February.
Putin’s Aggression Has Turned a Nation Against Itself
In early April, the coffin containing the body of 75-year-old Vladimir Zhirinovsky—the ultranationalist and populist who was a crucial pillar of the Russian state for two decades—was taken to the Hall of Columns in central Moscow for people to pay their respects. Sixty-nine years ago, it was there that Stalin had lain in state, in the process killing one last wave of Russians, who were crushed to death in the huge crowds that had gathered to bid farewell to the Soviet dictator.
Russia’s defence ministry has told the Ukrainian forces still fighting in the besieged southern port of Mariupol to lay down their arms starting 6 a.m. Moscow time on Sunday to save their lives.
Președintele rus Vladimir Putin a avut o conversație telefonică fructuoasă cu prințul moștenitor al Arabiei Saudite Mohammed bin Salman.
Insanity has often been defined as trying the same thing over and over and getting the same result.
Case in point, Ukraine was seeking NATO membership to bolster its security. This membership would have come at the expense of Russian security, as Russian president Vladimir Putin made clear. To thwart NATO’s (i.e., the US’s) hegemonic ambitions and preserve its own security, Russia felt compelled to address its security concerns. When these Russian security concerns were treated with contempt by the US and Ukraine, Russia took action to protect itself.
Ukraine said on Friday it was trying to break Russia’s siege of Mariupol as fighting raged around the city’s massive steel works and port, and the capital Kyiv was rocked by some of the most powerful explosions in two weeks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the military situation in the south and east of the country was “still very difficult,” while praising the work of his armed forces.
Earlier this week, Swedish media reported that the country’s Prime Minister plans to apply for Sweden to join NATO in June. Finland’s PM, for her part, said Finland would decide on NATO membership “within weeks”.
The possible accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO risks undermining stability in northern Europe, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine “is in many ways bigger than Russia, it’s bigger than Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Ned Price recently declared. “There are principles that are at stake here … Each and every country has a sovereign right to determine its own foreign policy, has a sovereign right to determine for itself with whom it will choose to associate in terms of its alliances, its partnerships and what orientation it wishes to direct its gaze.” The United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated last year, does not recognize “spheres of influence,” adding that the concept “should have been retired after World War II.”
As the war in Ukraine unfolds, global uncertainty has surged, according to the latest reading of the World Uncertainty Index—a quarterly measure across 143 countries. This increase is a bad sign for growth. Our research finds that such increases foreshadow significant output declines. Based on our estimates, the rise in uncertainty in the first quarter could be enough to reduce full-year global growth by up to 0.35 percentage point.