Tag Archives: Crimea

CNN reports: The Trump administration is ready to recognize Russian control of Crimea as part of the US proposal to drive an end to the war with Ukraine, an official familiar with the framework told CNN on Friday. Crimea, southern Ukraine, has been under Russian occupation since it was illegally annexed in 2014. Four other Ukrainian regions – Donetsk and …

Semafor reports: The Trump administration is considering recognizing Ukraine’s Crimea region as Russian territory as part of any future agreement to end Moscow’s war on Kyiv, according to two people familiar with the matter. Administration officials have also discussed the possibility of having the US urge the United Nations to do the same, according to both people. Such a request …

The Daily Beast reports: Ukraine’s defense ministry published a video Thursday mocking Russian tourists who fled Crimea after huge explosions ripped through an airbase on the occupied peninsula this week. Footage shared on social media earlier this week showed beachgoers running for cover after the blasts at the Saki base, an attack that has been credited to Ukrainian special forces. …

Reuters reports: Dozens of people gathered in the Crimean city of Sevastopol on Friday to mourn the sinking of the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, a symbol, the crowd heard, of hope, revival and power until its demise. Some embraced and others laid flowers in memory of the Moskva missile cruiser at a monument to the 1696 foundation of …

The Winston-Salem Journal reports: A Forsyth County minister has been arrested on a child-pornography charge, according to a news release from the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office. T. Elliott Welch, 34, of Stonewell Lane in Tobaccoville was charged with one count of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. An arrest warrant alleges that Welch copied material showing a nude girl, who …

The Berkshire Eagle reports: Last month, a year in jail sounded like too much to Lonnie Durfee, the man who set fire last fall to a Dalton farm’s campaign endorsement, a crime covered around the world. On Thursday, he accepted it. Durfee, 50, pleaded guilty to one count of burning personal property during a Central Berkshire District Court hearing, accepting …

Reuters reports: Russia has concentrated more than 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s border and in annexed Crimea, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Monday after EU foreign ministers were briefed by Ukraine’s foreign minister. Tensions between Moscow and Kyiv have been rising amid the military build-up and clashes in eastern Ukraine between the army and pro-Russian separatists. The Associated …

The Washington Post reports: Russian officials said Sunday that the U.S. decision to supply Ukraine with lethal weapons to combat Russian-backed separatists will cause new bloodshed, as long-standing tensions between Washington and Moscow escalated over the four-year-old conflict. Moscow’s admonition came shortly after the State Department announced Friday evening that the United States will provide heavy armaments to Ukraine for …

The New York Times reports: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis vowed on Thursday to help Ukraine stand up to Russian violations of its sovereignty and signaled that the Trump administration was considering providing defensive weapons to the Ukrainian military. President Barack Obama had resisted such a step, fearing it would be seen as a provocation by Russia. In the first visit …

The Guardian reports: Few rules have been bent, manipulated and outright broken quite like the Eurovision song contest’s ban on “lyrics, speeches [or] gestures of a political or similar nature”. Over the six decades of the competition there have been peace, war and the fall of the Berlin Wall – but this year politics has gripped Eurovision in a more …

The Guardian reports: Russia has said it is formally withdrawing its signature from the founding statute of the international criminal court, a day after the court published a report classifying the Russian annexation of Crimea as an occupation. The Russian foreign ministry made the announcement on Wednesday on the orders of president Vladimir Putin, saying the tribunal had failed to …

Ukraine’s Jamala won Eurovision 2016 tonight after the final result in the controversial new voting system failed to put Russia over the top. Ukraine’s win is arguably the most politically-charged result in Eurovision history. From the BBC: Jamala is the first ever Crimean Tatar to perform at the contest and caused controversy ahead of the show over her political song, …

Via the Independent: Russia has said that it has the right to deploy nuclear weapons to Crimea, a year after Vladimir Putin seized the territory from Ukraine following a referendum. Home to the strategic Black Sea port city of Sevastopol, which already housed Russia’s fleet before the Ukrainian crisis erupted at the start of 2014, Crimea is significantly nearer central …

Via the Associated Press: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, on Friday warned the West against trying to topple President Vladimir Putin and said that Russians are ready to sacrifice their wealth in Putin’s support. Russia has for the past year been sliding into recession amid a slump in its energy export …

Crimea’s top politician today said that gay people “have no chance” now that Russia has taken over the region. Via the Guardian: Speaking about gay people during a Crimean government session on Tuesday, the region’s de facto leader Sergei Aksyonov said “we in Crimea do not need such people.” In comments reported by the Russian news agencies Interfax and Itar-Tass, …

Geography can be tough. Here’s a guide for Russian soldiers who keep getting lost & ‘accidentally’ entering #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/RF3H4IXGSp— Canada at NATO (@CanadaNATO) August 27, 2014 Helping our Canadian colleagues to catch up with contemporary geography of #Europe @CanadaNATO pic.twitter.com/MjzRxpFFfN— Russians at NATO (@natomission_ru) August 28, 2014

Via the Voice Of Russia: Copenhagen saw the first semi-finals of the Eurovision-2014 Song Contest on May 6. Anastasia and Maria Tolmachevy, who represent Russia, made it to the final round that will be held on May 10. Besides Russia, nine other countries including Montenegro, Hungary, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, San Marino, Sweden, the Netherlands and Iceland reached the finals. Singers …

The virulently anti-gay World Congress of Families, an international coalition of hate groups that includes NOM and C-FAM, whose head Austin Ruse has endorsed the gay death penalty, has suspended their plans to hold this year’s convention in Moscow. They love love love Russia’s crackdown on LGBT people, but this Crimea thing has them worried. Via press release: Planning on …

Via Reuters: Russian President Vladimir Putin, defying Ukrainian protests and Western sanctions, on Tuesday signed a treaty making Crimea part Russia but said he did not plan to seize any other regions of Ukraine. In a fiercely patriotic address to a joint session of the Russian parliament in the Kremlin, punctuated by standing ovations, cheering and tears, Putin lambasted the …

Via Reuters: Russia said it had successfully test-fired an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) on Tuesday, with tensions high over its seizure of control in the Crimea and its threat to send more forces to its neighbour Ukraine. The Strategic Rocket Forces launched an RS-12M Topol missile from the southerly Astrakhan region near the Caspian Sea and the dummy warhead hit …