Page 96 - Latest Updates on Ukraine peace talks

PM Modi calls Belgian counterpart; discusses West Asia, Ukraine peace

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday spoke with his Belgian counterpart Alexander De Croo and agreed to enhance cooperation and support for early restoration of peace and security in West Asia and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. During the telephone call, Modi also congratulated De Croo on the successful hosting of the First Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels last week. After the conversation, Modi tweeted, "Spoke to Belgium PM @alexanderdecroo. Congratulated him on the success of the First Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels. Exchanged views on strengthening bilateral ties; advancing India-EU Partnership under Belgian Presidency; and cooperation on regional and global issues." De Croo also put out a tweet saying, "Called prime minister @narendramodi to discuss the conflicts in #Ukraine & #Gaza and protecting shipping lanes in the Red Sea. We also talked about our growing commercial relations #semiconductors #pharmaceuticals #greenhydrogen and the upcoming royal trade mission to ...

Gazprom buys former Shell stake in Sakhalin Energy for $1 billion

Sakhalin Project is fully owned by Gazprom, company filings showed

US warned Russia of terror attack 2 wks in advance, Moscow didn't listen

The US warning to Russia couldn't have been plainer: Two weeks before the deadliest attack in Russia in years, Americans had publicly and privately advised President Vladimir Putin's government that extremists had imminent plans for just such slaughter. The United States shared those advance intelligence indications under a tenet of the US intelligence community called the duty to warn," which obliges US intelligence officials to lean toward sharing knowledge of a dire threat if conditions allow. That holds whether the targets are allies, adversaries or somewhere in between. There's little sign Russia acted to try to head off Friday's attack at a concert hall on Moscow's edge, which killed more than 130 people. The Islamic State's affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility, and the US said it has information backing up the extremist group's claim. John Kirby, the Biden administration's national security spokesman, made clear that the warning shouldn't be seen as a breakthrough

Ukraine ramps up spending on locally-produced weapons to repel Russia

Ukraine needs any edge it can get to repel Russia from its territory. One emerging bright spot is its small but fast-growing defence industry, which the government is flooding with money in hopes that a surge of homemade weapons and ammunition can help turn the tide. The effort ramped up sharply over the past year as the US and Europe strained to deliver weapons and other aid to Ukraine, which is up against a much bigger Russian military backed by a thriving domestic defence industry. The Ukrainian government budgeted nearly USD 1.4 billion in 2024 to buy and develop weapons at home 20 times more than before Russia's full-scale invasion. And in another major shift, a huge portion of weapons are now being bought from privately owned factories. They are sprouting up across the country and rapidly taking over an industry that had been dominated by state-owned companies. A privately owned mortar factory that launched in western Ukraine last year is making roughly 20,000 shells a month

Islamists carried out concert attack, Ukraine had a role, implies Putin

In the deadliest attack inside Russia for two decades, four men burst into the Crocus City Hall on Friday night, spraying bullets during a concert by the Soviet-era rock group Picnic

US sanctions Russian fintech firms accused of enabling sanctions evasion

The U.S. on Monday imposed sanctions on a collection of fintech firms and people, mostly in Russia, accused of enabling sanctions evasion. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 13 firms five of which are owned by an already sanctioned person and 2 people who have all either helped build or operate blockchain-based services for, or enabled virtual currency payments in, the Russian financial sector, thus enabling potential sanctions evasion," according to U.S. Treasury. Included in Monday's sanctions are a group of Moscow-based fintech companies and a Russia and UAE-based virtual currency exchange, among others. Lawmakers and administration officials have voiced concerns that Russia may be using cryptocurrency to avoid pain from the avalanche of sanctions imposed on banks, oligarchs and the energy industry in response to Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Experts say an increased reliance on cryptocurrency would be an inevitable avenue for Russia to try to

No evidence that Ukrainian govt had anything to do with Moscow attack: US

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday that this terrorist attack was conducted by ISIS and Russian President Vladimir Putin understands that

Kyiv endures 3rd bombardment in 5 days as Russia steps up attack on Ukraine

Russia launched missiles against Kyiv for the third time in five days Monday as Moscow escalated its aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities while the front line in the war remains largely stationary. Nine people were injured in the strike on the Ukrainian capital, the Ukraine Rescue Service said. The Pecherskyi district was the hardest hit. Missile debris damaged homes in two districts and a local college gym in another district, Ukraine's National Police said. Russia fired two ballistic missiles at Kyiv from occupied Crimea in the daylight attack, but both were intercepted above the city, said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. On Thursday, Russia attacked Kyiv for the first time in six weeks, firing more than two dozen missiles before dawn. On Friday, Russia unleashed a massive attack against Ukraine's energy sector, calling the assault retaliation for recent strikes on Russian soil. Days of intense Ukrainian shelling of the Russian border region of ...

Kerala Oppn urges action to bring back youth forced into Russia-Ukraine war

Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly V D Satheesan sent a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday seeking immediate intervention of the central government to ensure the safe return of youths recruited by private agencies to the Russian army. In the letter, the Congress leader demanded measures for the safe return of the three youths from Kerala trapped in the war zone and an investigation against the recruitment agencies that are a part of the human trafficking network. "I urge your good self to make every effort to bring back all of those who are stuck in the combat zone and to initiate a comprehensive investigation against these recruitment agencies that form part of a large illegal trafficking network," he said in the letter. Satheesan termed as shocking the "revelation" that some private recruitment companies in Kerala have been recruiting young people to go to war-battered Ukraine after tempting them with the prospect of lucrative employment in ...

Poland activates aircrafts after Russian cruise missile enters its airspace

It came after Ukrainian officials reported Russia had launched about 20 missiles and seven Shahed attack drones targeting the western Ukrainian region of Lviv, which is near the Polish border

Gunmen who raided Moscow concert hall tried to escape to Ukraine: Putin

Russian authorities arrested the four people suspected of taking part in the attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed at least 133 people and believe they were headed to Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said Saturday during an address to the nation. Kyiv, meanwhile, strongly denied any involvement in Friday's attack on the Crocus City Hall music venue in Krasnogorsk, which the Islamic State group's affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for in a statement posted on social media channels linked to the group. Kyiv accused Putin and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the assault in order to stoke fervor in Russia's war in Ukraine, which recently entered its third year. A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. agencies had confirmed that IS was responsible for the attack. Putin said authorities have detained a total of 11 people in the attack, which also injured scores of concertgoers and left the venue a smoldering ruin

Russia points finger at Ukraine as death toll in Moscow terror attack rises

They planned to cross the border into Ukraine where they 'had contacts,' the service known as the FSB said in a statement without giving more detail, the Interfax news service reported

Death toll in Moscow attack reaches 133; Isis claims responsibility

Several assailants burst into a large concert hall in Moscow on Friday and sprayed the crowd with gunfire, killing at least 40 people, injuring more than 100 and setting fire to the venue in a brazen attack just days after President Vladimir Putin cemented his grip on power in a highly orchestrated electoral landslide. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on affiliated channels on social media, which couldn't be independently verified. It wasn't immediately clear what happened to the attackers after the raid, which Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described as a huge tragedy" and state authorities were investigating as terrorism. The attack, which left the concert hall in flames with a collapsing roof, was the deadliest in Russia in years and came as the country's war in Ukraine dragged into a third year. The Kremlin said that Putin was informed about the raid minutes after the assailants burst into the Crocus City Hall, a large music venue

Moscow concert hall terrorist attack: Death toll rises to 115; 11 detained

Russian officials say 93 people have been killed by assailants who burst into a concert hall in western Moscow and sprayed the crowd with gunfire. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on affiliated channels on social media. The attack was the deadliest in Russia in years and left the concert hall in flames and with a collapsing roof. The head of Russia's Federal Security Service told Putin Saturday that four people directly involved in the attack were among 11 people detained, Russian state news agency Tass said. Eleven people have been detained after gunmen stormed a concert hall in Moscow and opened fire on the crowd, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service told President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

Russia's oil-exporting machine finally getting snarled by sanctions

State-run Sovcomflot transported about a fifth of all Russia's crude deliveries to India last year

Prez Putin rejected terror alert before deadliest attack in decades

The US Embassy in Moscow had issued a public warning on March 7 that "extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts

Deadliest terror attack in decade shakes Russia after Putin's vote triumph

Some Russian state-media commentators suggested Kyiv may be to blame, but Ukraine denied any role, calling it a false-flag operation by the Kremlin

Ukraine sees power outages after largest missile barrage of the year

Moscow's goal is to disable Ukraine's power system via the same means as last year, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said in an emailed statement

Russia and China veto US's immediate Gaza ceasefire resolution at UNSC

The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 11 members in favour, three against and one abstention

EU Commission proposes to impose tariffs on grain imports from Russia

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, is proposing to member countries to impose tariffs on grain imports from Russia and Belarus, commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday. Speaking at the end of the opening day of a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, Von der Leyen said the move would prevent Russia from destabilizing the EU market with its imports of cereals, oilseeds and derived products. It will stop Russia from using the revenues from the export of these goods to the European Union, and it will ensure that illegal Russian exports of stolen Ukrainian grain do not enter the EU market, she said. Von der Leyen did not give any details about the value of the proposed tariffs. Russia was one of the main trade partners of the European Union before it invaded Ukraine. In support to Ukraine in the war against Russia, the EU has imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia. The measures have targeted the energy sector, banks, the world's bigges