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Putin warns the West: Russia is ready for nuclear war

Putin warns the West: Russia is ready for nuclear war

PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin told the West that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the U.S. sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict. Putin, speaking ahead of a March 15-17 election which is certain to give him another six years in power, added that the nuclear war scenario was not "rushing" up and he saw no need for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. "From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready," Putin, 71, told Rossiya-1 television and news agency RIA when asked whether Russia was really ready…
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Ukraine rebuffs Pope Francis calling for talks with Russia

Ukraine rebuffs Pope Francis calling for talks with Russia

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…
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Pope says Ukraine should have ‘courage of the white flag’ of negotiations

Pope says Ukraine should have ‘courage of the white flag’ of negotiations

POPE Francis has said in an interview that Ukraine should have what he called the courage of the "white flag" and negotiate an end to the war with Russia that followed Moscow's full-scale invasion two years ago and that has killed tens of thousands. Francis made his comments in an interview recorded last month with Swiss broadcaster RSI, well before Friday's latest offer by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to host a summit between Ukraine and Russia to end the war. Erdogan made the fresh offer after a meeting in Istanbul with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy has said while he wants peace he…
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Putin warns West of risk of nuclear war, says Moscow can strike Western targets

Putin warns West of risk of nuclear war, says Moscow can strike Western targets

PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin told Western countries they risked provoking a nuclear war if they sent troops to fight in Ukraine, warning that Moscow had the weapons to strike targets in the West. The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Putin has previously spoken of the dangers of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, but his nuclear warning on Thursday was one of his most explicit. Addressing lawmakers and other members of the country's elite, Putin, 71, repeated his accusation that the West was bent on…
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Western leaders in Kyiv pledge support for Ukraine on war anniversary

Western leaders in Kyiv pledge support for Ukraine on war anniversary

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…
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How life in Ukraine has been shattered by two years of war

How life in Ukraine has been shattered by two years of war

WIFES have become widows, parents long for captured sons, classrooms are empty and farmers can't find the hands to work the land. Unlikely friendships have formed; old ones have fallen apart. Even in the village of Lozuvatka, about 100 km (60 miles) from the frontlines, signs are everywhere of a two-year-old war that has irrevocably changed the face of Ukraine. Alona Onyshchuk and her five-year-old daughter Anhelina visited Lozuvatka's graveyard on a snowswept winter's day. Husband and father Serhii Aloshkin lies there alongside 10 other soldiers in a new section called Heroes' Alley. "We did not expect that there would…
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Russia calls pilot killed in Spain after defecting to Ukraine a “moral corpse”

Russia calls pilot killed in Spain after defecting to Ukraine a “moral corpse”

RUSSIA'S foreign intelligence chief described a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine and was found shot dead in Spain as a "moral corpse" for betraying his country, in Moscow's first comment on the case since news of the killing emerged. Ukraine's GUR military intelligence service has confirmed that pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who flew to Ukraine with his Mi-8 helicopter last August, died in Spain, without giving the cause of death. Spanish officials have confirmed that a body was found riddled with bullets on February 13 in an underground garage in the town of Villajoyosa, near Alicante in southern Spain. Spanish and…
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World Court dismisses much of Ukraine’s case against Russia

World Court dismisses much of Ukraine’s case against Russia

JUDGES at the top U.N. court found that Russia violated elements of a U.N. anti-terrorism treaty, but declined to rule on allegations brought by Kyiv that Moscow was responsible for the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014. In the same ruling, judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Russia had breached an anti-discrimination treaty by failing to support Ukrainian language education in Crimea after its 2014 annexation of the peninsula. The decisions were a legal setback for Kyiv. The court rejected Ukraine's requests to order reparations for both violations and only…
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Ukraine’s new Christmas Day unites Catholic-Orthodox family

Ukraine’s new Christmas Day unites Catholic-Orthodox family

Ukrainian couple Lesia Shestakova, a Catholic, and Oleksandr Shestakov, an Orthodox believer, will for the first time celebrate Christmas together on December 25. Ukraine, like Russia, officially observed Orthodox Christmas on January 7 according to the Julian calendar until Kyiv passed a law earlier this year shifting the date to December 25 in line with other Western European countries. It is part of a cultural shift that is erasing traces of Russian influence as Ukraine fends off Moscow's invasion launched nearly two years ago. Lesia, Oleksandr and two of their children used to celebrate Christmas twice: first with Lesia's parents…
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Ukraine’s citizen army struggles with a hidden enemy: combat stress

Ukraine’s citizen army struggles with a hidden enemy: combat stress

PSYCHOTHERAPIST Oleh Hukovskyi stands beside a whiteboard in a makeshift classroom in eastern Ukraine and addresses a group of soldiers attending a session on how to cope with the stress of war. The former psychiatrist joined the armed forces about six months after Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, and now runs a psychological support group attached to the 67th Separate Mechanised Brigade in the direction of the ruined town of Lyman. The classes cover basic psychological theory and coping techniques including breathing exercises. While the dozen soldiers attending are responsive to questions and suggestions, Hukovskyi is aware…
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