Page 106 - Russia

Nato to start wargames with 90,000 officers in east European region

NATO will launch next week its biggest military exercises in decades with around 90,000 personnel set to take part in months-long wargames aimed at showing that the alliance can defend all of its territory up to its border with Russia, top officers said Thursday. The exercises come as Russia's war on Ukraine bogs down. NATO as an organization is not directly involved in the conflict, except to supply Kyiv with non-lethal support, although many member countries send weapons and ammunition individually or in groups, and provide military training. In the months before President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022, NATO began beefing up security on its eastern flank with Russia and Ukraine. It's the alliance's biggest buildup since the Cold War. The wargames are meant to deter Russia from targeting a member country. The exercises dubbed Steadfast Defender 24 will show that NATO can conduct and sustain complex multi-domain operations over several months,

Ukraine starts to rebuild towns, cities even as war with Russia continues

Badly damaged in fighting with Russian forces almost two years ago, Trostianets is one of six settlements being rebuilt with state funds in a pilot programme

Russian minister rejects US offer to resume talks on nuclear arms control

Russia's top diplomat dismissed the United States proposal to resume a dialogue on nuclear arms control, saying Thursday that it's impossible while Washington offers military support to Ukraine. Speaking at an annual news conference, Sergey Lavrov accused the West of fuelling global security risks by encouraging Ukraine to ramp up strikes on the Russian territory and warned that Moscow will achieve its goals in the conflict regardless of Western support for Kyiv. Commenting on a US proposal to resume contacts in the sphere of nuclear arms control, Lavrov said that Moscow has rejected the offer. He said that for such talks to be held, Washington first needs to revise its current policy toward Russia. Lavrov charged that Washington's push for the revival of nuclear talks has been driven by a desire to resume inspections of Russia's nuclear weapons sites. He described such US demands as indecent in view of Ukraine's attacks on Russian nuclear-capable bomber bases during the ...

France ramps up weapons production for Ukraine, says Russia testing West

French manufacturers have reduced the manufacturing times for some of the weapons systems they supply to Ukraine by half or more, as France increasingly switches away from its previous policy of dipping into its own military stocks to support the war effort against Russia's invasion, France's defense minister said in an interview published on Thursday. The logic of ceding materiel taken from the armies' stocks is reaching its end, the minister, Sbastien Lecornu, said in the interview with Le Parisien. From now on, the solution is to directly connect French defense industries with the Ukrainian army. He cited the Caesar self-propelled 155 mm howitzer, made in France by Nexter, as an example of how French defense contractors are adopting a war footing. Caesars are among an array of Western-supplied artillery systems that have given Ukrainian gun crews an edge, especially when paired with high-precision munitions, against Russian artillery batteries using older Soviet-designed ...

2 yrs into war, West seeks ways to steer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine

It's been nearly two years since the United States and its allies froze hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian foreign holdings in retaliation for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. That roughly USD 300 billion in Russian Central Bank money has been sitting untapped as the war grinds on, while officials from multiple countries have debated the legality of sending the money to Ukraine. The idea of using Russia's frozen assets is gaining new traction lately as continued allied funding for Ukraine becomes more uncertain and the US Congress is in a stalemate over providing more support. But there are tradeoffs since the weaponisation of global finance could harm the US dollar's standing as the world's dominant currency. At this week's World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, Switzerland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for a strong decision this year for the frozen assets in Western banks to be directed towards defense against the Russian war and for reconstruction of ...

In Russia's egg crisis, Tamil Nadu town hopes to crack export opportunity

A combination of high inflation and sanctions imposed by the West has led to the egg crisis in Russia

Confiscating $300 bn of Russian assets no panacea, West cautions in Davos

The lion's share of the assets - essentially securities in which the Russian Central Bank had invested - are frozen in Euroclear, a depository based in Brussels

Russia's attacks on Ukraine increased civilian casualties in Dec: UN

Russia's intense missile and drone attacks across Ukraine in recent weeks sharply increased civilian casualties in December with over 100 killed and nearly 500 injured, the United Nations said in a new report on Tuesday. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said there was a 26.5 per cent increase in civilian casualties last month -- from 468 in November to 592 in December. With some reports still pending verification, it said, the increase was likely higher. Danielle Bell, who heads the UN's monitoring mission, said: "Civilian casualties had been steadily decreasing in 2023 but the wave of attacks in late December and early January violently interrupted that trend." The UN mission said it is verifying reports the recent intense Russian missile and drone attacks that began hitting populated areas across Ukraine on December 29 and continued into early January killed 86 civilians and injured 416 others. "These attacks sow death and destruction on Ukraine's ...

Overall imports down 4% but shipments from Russia, China up: Govt data

Overall exports, meanwhile, increased 0.9 per cent, according to the data compiled by the commerce department

PM Modi speaks with Putin, assures support for Russia's presidency of Brics

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday agreed to chalk out a roadmap for future initiatives to further strengthen the "special and privileged strategic partnership" between the two nations. Modi said he had a "good conversation" with Putin and exchanged views on various regional and global issues, including Russia's Presidency of the BRICS in 2024. Last month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Russia, during which the two countries decided to step up military and technical cooperation, including manufacturing of modern weaponry. "Had a good conversation with President Putin. We discussed various positive developments in our Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership and agreed to chalk out a roadmap for future initiatives. We also had a useful exchange of views on various regional and global issues, including Russia's Presidency of the BRICS," the Prime Minister said on X. Later in a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs sai

Taiwan election result: How China, Russia and US view the outcome

In the recent Taiwan election, anti-China Lai Ching-te emerged victorious, prompting distinct responses from China, the United States, and Russia. Watch the video to know who said what

North Korean minister visits Moscow as concern grows over alleged arms deal

North Korea's foreign minister is visiting Russia on Monday for three days of talks, as international concern grows over an alleged arms cooperation deal between the two countries. A delegation led by Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrived in Moscow on Sunday, according to North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. She is to meet her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said. Choe is visiting at Lavrov's invitation, the ministry said. The United States and South Korea say North Korea has provided Russia with arms, including artillery and missiles, to help its fight in Ukraine. The Biden administration said it has evidence that missiles provided by North Korea to Russia have been used in Ukraine. In a joint statement last week, the U.S., South Korea and their partners said the missiles support Russia's war, while North Korea receives valuable technical and military insights in return. Koo Byoungsam, spokesperso

More countries join talks on Ukraine leader's peace formula

Leaders of talks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's peace formula on Sunday said a growing number of countries are working to help set the groundwork for Russia to join one day, an admittedly distant goal as the nearly two-year war grinds on and with neither side willing to cede ground. The fourth such meeting of national security advisors was held in the Swiss town of Davos, where Zelenskyy is set to attend the World Economic Forum's annual meeting starting Tuesday. He will endeavour to keep up international focus on Ukraine's defence amid eroding support for Kyiv in the West and swelling distractions like conflict in the Middle East. Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, posted photos of the meeting's opening and hailed a "good sign" that the number of participants in a string of conferences on Zelenskyy's peace formula was growing -- nearly half from Europe, as well as 18 from Asia and 12 from Africa. "Countries from the Global South are increasingly

Despite pressure, we are largest economy of Europe: President Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the country has become Europe's first economy and stands at number fifth in the world in terms of purchasing power parity

N Korea to welcome Russian tourists, country's first since pandemic: Report

Russian tourists reportedly going on a ski trip to North Korea will be the first international travelers to visit the country since its borders closed in 2020 amid the global pandemic lockdown. The report, published Wednesday by the Russian state-run Tass news agency, underscores deepening cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang. It also follows the meeting last September between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a cosmodrome in Russia's Far East. Tass did not specify a timeframe but the report brough some surprise to Asia observers who had expected the first post-pandemic tourists to North Korea to come from China, the North's biggest diplomatic ally and economic pipeline. According to Tass, an unspecified number of tourists from Russia's far eastern region of Primorye will first fly to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, where they will visit monuments such as the Tower of Juche Idea, named after the North's guiding philosophy of juche or

Russia requests UNSC meeting after US, Britain strike Houthis in Yemen

A spokesman for Yemen's Houthis said there was no justification for the US-British attack and said the Iran-backed group will continue targeting ships heading towards Israel

Zelenskyy rules out cease-fire, saying Russia could use it to rearm

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday ruled out a cease-fire in his country's war with Russia, saying the Kremlin's forces would use the pause to rearm and regroup before overwhelming Kyiv's troops. A pause on the Ukrainian battlefield will not mean a pause in the war, Zelenskyy said during a visit to Estonia. A pause would play into (Russia's) hands, he said. It might crush us afterward. Limited cease-fires have occasionally been proposed since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 but have never taken hold. Both sides are scrambling to replenish their weapons after 22 months of fighting and with the prospect of a protracted conflict. With the roughly 1,500-kilometre (630-mile) front line mostly static during freezing winter weather, they both require artillery shells, missiles and drones that enable long-range strikes. Zelenskyy noted that Moscow is allegedly buying artillery shells and missiles from North Korea and drones from Iran. Zelenskyy was in the .

Russia plans to produce over 32,000 drones each year by 2030: Report

Drones have been widely used by Moscow and Kyiv since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and both sides are sharply increasing military production as the war drags on

Best of BS Opinion: Seizing Russia's frozen assets is the right move & more

Here is the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for today

Seizing Russia's frozen assets is the right move

The same principle that applies to individuals committing torts should be applied to nations