Kyiv - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

Russia accuses Kyiv of election sabotage, Medvedev warns ‘traitors’

RUSSIA accused Ukraine of using "terrorist activities" to try to disrupt its presidential election and former President Dmitry Medvedev decried as "traitors" the scattered protesters who have tried to set fire to voting booths and pour dye into ballot boxes. The Ukraine war has cast a shadow over voting in the election, which is all but certain to hand President Vladimir Putin six more years in the Kremlin but has been marked by sporadic acts of protest. On the second of three days of voting, the Russian foreign ministry said Kyiv had "intensified its terrorist activities" in connection with the election "to demonstrate its…

Mar

2024

By The African Mirror

Ukraine rebuffs Pope Francis calling for talks with Russia

WORLD

UKRAINE rebuffed Pope Francis's call to negotiate an end to the war with Russia, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saying the pontiff was engaging in "virtual mediation" and his foreign minister saying Kyiv would never capitulate. Francis said that when things were going badly for a party to a conflict one had to show the "courage of the white flag" and negotiate. The pope's interview was believed to be the first time Francis has used terms like "white flag" or "defeated" in discussing the Ukraine war, though he has referred in the past to the need for talks. Zelenskiy made no direct reference to…

Feb

2024

By OLENA HARMASH and ANGELO AMANTE

Western leaders in Kyiv pledge support for Ukraine on war anniversary

WORLD

THE prime ministers of Italy and Canada signed security deals with Ukraine as Western leaders rallied around a war-weary Kyiv on the second anniversary of Russia's military invasion, with no end in sight to the fighting. After initial successes in pushing back the Russian army, Ukraine has suffered recent setbacks on the eastern battlefields, with its generals complaining of growing shortages of both arms and soldiers. Looking to dispel concerns the West is losing interest in the conflict, Italy's Giorgia Meloni and Canada's Justin Trudeau came to Kyiv early on Saturday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander…

Feb

2024

By YURII KOVALENKO and STEFANIIA BERN

Ukrainian family hopes for father’s return from Russian captivity

WORLD

EVERY Sunday in Kyiv, two-year-old Tymofii carries a picture of his father at rallies organised by activists and family members to remind citizens of the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers being held as prisoners of war by Russia. Tymofii was not yet one when he last saw his father Denys Chumak, who was captured while fighting in the besieged southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol in May 2022. "I am not alone," said his mother and Denys' wife Alisa, referring to the crowd of about 100 people. "On the one hand, this makes it easier but on the other, it's more…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

Ukraine presses ahead with removal of Soviet monuments

WORLD

UKRAINIAN officials pressed on with a campaign to remove Soviet-era monuments as authorities in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv dismantled a statue of a Red Army commander from a central boulevard. Ukraine has doubled down on efforts to erase all traces of Russian rule amid a full-scale invasion by Kremlin troops, now nearing its two-year mark. Municipal workers on Saturday carefully hoisted the hulking statue of Mykola Shchors, a Soviet field commander during the Russian Civil War, off its pedestal. The structure had occupied a prominent spot on a central artery named after Ukraine's national poet. Onlookers stopped to watch and…

Oct

2023

By DAN PELESCHUK

Wanted: Thousands of Ukrainian judges, in huge overhaul sought by EU

WORLD

VIRA Levko, a judge in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, typically handles dozens of administrative cases and several criminal hearings every day. And she says there are others who are far busier than her. When Levko tells colleagues abroad about her workload, they find it hard to believe. "They don't understand how a judge can hold so much information in their head," she told Reuters at the Dniprovskyi district court. Ukraine is desperately short of judges and is kick-starting a long-delayed nationwide hiring spree to fill more than 2,000 vacancies and vet around as many sitting judges for potential malfeasance. The…

Jul

2023

By The African Mirror

Russia launches first overnight drone attack on Kyiv in 12 days, Ukraine military says

WORLD

PAVEL POLITYUK RUSSIA launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv and the surrounding region after a 12-day break, with air defence systems destroying all the weapons on their approach, Ukrainian military officials said. The country's air force said that the attack included eight Iranian-made Shahed drones and three cruise missiles which were shot down. "Another enemy attack on Kyiv," Serhiy Popko, a colonel general who heads Kyiv's military administration, said in a post on the Telegram channel. Three private houses were damaged as a result of falling drone debris in the Kyiv region, injuring one person, the military head of…

Jun

2023

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE

Russia says it thwarted major Ukrainian offensive, Kyiv says Moscow spreads lies

WORLD

RUSSIA said its forces had thwarted a major Ukrainian offensive at five points along the front in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk and killed hundreds of troops while Ukraine accused Moscow of spreading lies. It was not immediately clear whether or not the attack represented the start of a Ukrainian counteroffensive which Kyiv has been promising for months to drive out Russian forces after the invasion of February 2022. Russia's defence ministry said Ukraine had attacked on Sunday morning with six mechanised and two tank battalions in southern Donetsk, where Moscow has long suspected Ukraine would seek to drive a…

May

2023

By VALENTYN OGIRENKO and GLEB GARANICH

Russia unleashes largest drone attack on Kyiv ahead of its founding anniversary

WORLD

RUSSIA unleashed waves of air strikes on Kyiv overnight in what officials said appeared to be the largest drone attack on the city since the start of the war, as the Ukrainian capital prepared to celebrate the anniversary of its founding. Ukraine's Air Force said it downed 52 out of the 54 Russia-launched drones, calling it a record attack with the Iranian-made 'kamikaze' drones. It was not immediately clear how many of the drones were shot over Kyiv. In what also appears to be the first deadly attack on Kyiv in May and the 14th assault this month, falling debris…

May

2023

By GLEB GARANICH and SERGIY KARAZY

Kyiv says it shoots down volley of Russian hypersonic missiles

WORLD

UKRAINE said that it had shot down six Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missiles in a single night, thwarting a superweapon Moscow had previously touted as all but unstoppable. It was the first time Ukraine had claimed to have struck an entire volley of multiple hypersonic missiles, and if confirmed would be a demonstration of the effectiveness of newly deployed Western air defences. Air raid sirens blared across nearly all of Ukraine early on Tuesday and were heard over Kyiv and its region for more than three hours. "The enemy's mission is to sow panic and create chaos. However, in the northern…