Category Archives: Ukraine

Antony Blinken says US will ‘uphold principle of Nato’s open door’ for Ukraine – video

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US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said 'there will be no change 'to Washington’s support for Ukraine’s right to pursue Nato membership, the most contentious issue in relations with Moscow.

The US has presented its written response to Russian demands on Ukraine, offering to negotiate with Russia over some aspects of European security, but not the issue of eventual Ukrainian membership to the Nato alliance.

Blinken was speaking hours after his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, threatened 'retaliatory measures' if the US response did not satisfy the Kremlin

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Qatar in talks to supply gas to Europe if Russia cuts supplies

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Emir expected to tell US president Qatar can provide short-term emergency liquid gas to help replace any loss of supplies

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, is expected to tell the US president, Joe Biden, that his country will provide some short-term emergency liquid gas to help replace any shortages if Russia cuts off supplies to Germany.

Qatar is looking to supply Europe through transferring excess gas in storage in east Asia. It is also hoping to return to the European market on a bigger scale as its own production levels rise, but wants to see an end to a European Commission anti-trust investigation.

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US weapons arrive in Ukraine as Biden faces test over allies’ unity – live

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Joe Biden will meet with several CEOs this afternoon to discuss Democrats’ Build Back Better Act, the $1.75tn spending package that includes massive investments in healthcare, childcare and climate initiatives.

“This afternoon, I’m meeting with CEOs who support passing my Build Back Better Agenda to discuss how it’ll invest in American workers, grow our economy, and lower inflation in the long-term,” Biden said on Twitter.

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Ukraine tensions: what is the Normandy format and has it achieved anything?

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French, German, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats are meeting in Paris in the latest effort to de-escalate the crisis

The Normandy format is an informal forum that was set up by French, German, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats in 2014, after Russia kickstarted a separatist conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. It takes its name from the Normandy landings in the second world war. The first meeting took place in Normandy on the margins of the ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the allied landings.

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Focused Russian attack on Ukraine seen as more likely than full-scale invasion

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Officials and experts say several elements missing for full-scale invasion despite recent troop movements

Russia does not currently have enough troops on the border with Ukraine to carry out a full-scale military invasion and occupation of the country, according to western experts and senior officials in Kyiv.

They believe a Russian attack to capture most or all of Ukraine in the near future is unlikely, despite an unprecedented buildup of about 125,000 Russian soldiers, and military exercises due to take place next month in Belarus, within striking distance of the capital.

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‘A resort of ghosts’: on the Ukraine frontline waiting for war again – video

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The Guardian's Luke Harding travels to the eastern Ukraine coastal city of Mariupol to see how preparations are being made for a potential Russian attack. With tensions in the region high and Russian troops gathering on the border, Ukrainian soldiers remain defiant, despite their depleted firepower. And while the world's attention has returned to the region for the first time since Russia took Crimea in 2014, for Ukrainians the war has been ongoing

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Ukraine: Biden warns Putin of personal sanctions if Russia invades – video

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Speaking to reporters in Washington, Joe Biden said he would consider personal sanctions against Vladimir Putin if Russia invaded Ukraine, citing 'severe consequences'. The threat of sanctions came as the US helped prepare for the diversion of natural gas supplies from around the world to Europe in the event that the flow from Russia is cut

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Why are Germany and France at odds with the Anglosphere over how to handle Russia?

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Analysis: Differing views over Russia within Nato alliance resurface in Ukraine crisis

Can the western alliance against Russia over its buildup of troops on the Ukrainian border hold together? It is a question that politicians and diplomats are increasingly grappling with amid fears that Germany and, to a lesser extent, France are in danger of dividing from the US and the UK, not only over how to respond to any future Russian act of aggression in Ukraine, but also in their assessment of the imminence of the threat.

Every effort is being made to minimise the differences within the Nato alliance, including through regular calls such as the one led by Joe Biden on Monday, but they may be impossible to avoid since they reflect not just different short-term assessments on intelligence, but a deep fissure going back decades about what Germany and France, as opposed to the Anglosphere, regard as the best way to handle Russia.

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Biden warns Russia of ‘enormous consequences’ if it invades Ukraine – live

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Staff turnover in the Biden administration is nowhere near what it was under Donald Trump, when senior aides came and went as through a revolving door in a hurricane.

Nonetheless, the press always likes a bit of speculation about who might be in and who might be out, and here comes the Washington Post with an exhaustive examination of how Ron Klain, Joe Biden’s chief of staff, has not had the smoothest first year in the job.

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US finalizing plans to divert gas to Europe if Russia cuts off supply

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Officials working with global suppliers to avoid European gas crisis if flow from Russia is cut as Biden says he would consider personal sanctions against Putin

The US has helped prepare for the diversion of natural gas supplies from around the world to Europe in the event that the flow from Russia is cut, in an effort to blunt Vladimir Putin’s most powerful economic weapon.

As fears of an invasion of Ukraine have grown, US officials said on Tuesday that they had been negotiating with global suppliers, and they were now confident that Europe would not suffer from a sudden loss of energy for heating in the middle of winter.

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Australia news live update: nation records 76 Covid deaths; Anthony Albanese announces Labor election priorities

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Labor leader outlines election priorities; nation records 76 Covid deaths; Peter Dutton warns against Russia invasion of Ukraine; giant ram survives 4.7 magnitude earthquake in WA. Follow all the latest news

The benchmark ASX200 is set to fall 1.7% this morning, according to futures data, following further losses on overseas markets overnight.

In the US, the S&P500 fell 0.72% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index dropped 0.43%, while London’s FTSE100 shed a whopping 2.63%.

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US, UK and Europe totally united in the face of Russia threat to Ukraine, Biden says

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Virtual meeting between western powers comes as the US put 8,500 troops on alert and as France prepares to host a meeting of Russian and Ukrainian officials

US president Joe Biden has insisted there was “total” unity among western powers after crisis talks with European leaders on how to deter Russia from an attack against Ukraine.

“I had a very, very, very good meeting – total unanimity with all the European leaders,” Biden told reporters shortly after finishing a one hour and 20 minute video conference on Monday with allied leaders from Europe and Nato.

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Ukraine: US puts 8,500 troops on alert to deploy to bolster Nato – video

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The US military has put up to 8,500 troops on alert to be ready to deploy to Europe, potentially at very short notice, should the Nato alliance activate a rapid response force. It's the latest sign of US resolve in the face of a Russian military buildup near Ukraine. The Pentagon spokesman John Kirby stressed that no decision had been made on whether to deploy the troops, and that any such deployment would separate from intra-European movements of US troops to Nato's eastern flank, to reassure nervous allies. The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, told US citizens in Ukraine that ‘now is the time to leave’

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Rising costs of Ukraine gamble could force Russia’s hand

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Analysis: Putin can still turn back but it looks less likely as economic and political consequences mount

Russia’s aggressive buildup near Ukraine energised Nato into sending more forces to eastern Europe on Monday and led to a plunge on Russian markets, raising the stakes on the Kremlin’s bet that it could cajole, extort or force Ukraine into submission.

For Moscow it has become more difficult to pull back from its aggressive stance after US and Nato announcements that more troops would be deployed to the military alliance’s eastern flank. A unilateral drawdown now would leave the Kremlin a clear loser in the standoff, having provoked a strengthening of the very Nato presence that it had sought to banish from eastern Europe.

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Nato reinforces eastern borders as Ukraine tensions mount

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Stoltenberg says ‘deteriorating security situation’ has led Nato allies to ready frigates, fighter jets and troops for ‘collective defence’

Nato is reinforcing its eastern borders with land, sea and air forces, the military alliance’s secretary general has said, as a Russian invasion of Ukraine appeared increasingly likely.

Jens Stoltenberg said the “deteriorating security situation” had led Nato allies to ready frigates, fighter jets and troops for their “collective defence”.

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Ukraine taking UK claim of Russian invasion plot seriously, says adviser

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Warning greeted with shock and some scepticism in Kyiv but aide says it fits ‘logical chain’

Ukraine is reacting “seriously” to UK Foreign Office allegations that Moscow has plans to invade the country and install a puppet government, a senior government adviser has said, adding that Kyiv is resisting Russian efforts to destabilise its government and economy.

The extraordinary Foreign Office claims that Moscow may topple the government and install Yevhen Murayev, a former MP who controls a pro-Russia television station, were met with shock and some scepticism in Ukrainian political and media circles on Sunday.

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German navy chief resigns over comments on Putin and Ukraine – video

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The chief of Germany’s navy has resigned after arguing during a livestreamed event that Vladimir Putin 'deserves respect' and Kyiv will not win back annexed Crimea. Ukraine’s ambassador in Berlin said Kay-Achim Schönbach's comments 'massively' called into question Germany’s trustworthiness

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Confusion over UK claim that Putin plans coup in Ukraine

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Foreign Office claim of plot to install pro-Moscow government in Kyiv comes with scant detail

The Foreign Office has said that it had exposed evidence of a plot to install a pro-Moscow government in Ukraine, and Boris Johnson promised to “ramp up pressure on Russia”, as his own domestic political troubles deepened.

Saturday’s rare reference to intelligence-gathering went into almost no detail about a conspiracy that, if accurate, could mean a serious escalation in the threat to Ukraine. Politicians there were sceptical that the government could be replaced without a full-blown invasion of the capital, Kyiv.

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US embassy in Ukraine ‘requests staff evacuation’ amid war fears

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Report comes as arms deliveries promised by Joe Biden arrive in response to threat of Russian invasion

The US embassy in Ukraine has requested the evacuation of all non-essential staff amid increasing fears of an imminent Russian invasion and the arrival overnight of arms deliveries promised by President Joe Biden, according to a CNN report.

US evacuations are likely to start “as early as next week”, the US cable news network said, citing a source close to the Ukrainian government. It marks the embassy’s shift in focus towards “helping Ukraine bolster its defences in the face of growing Russian aggression”.

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‘We are ready for whatever comes’: on the Ukraine frontline

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In Chonhar a blue and yellow flag marks the de facto border as Russian forces amass across a shimmering expanse of water

Peering through binoculars, Mykola Chekman pointed to the bridge connecting Ukraine to Russian-controlled Crimea. “It’s not the first time the peninsula has been occupied,” he observed. He added: “Crimea has seen a lot of war.”

Chekman – a Ukrainian army photographer – was standing on the castellated tower of what was once a tourist cafe. It is now a base for Ukrainian forces, facing off against their invisible Russian counterparts across a shimmering expanse of water and duck-filled lagoons.

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