VIENNA / ANKARA – The European Commission head will visit Kyiv this week to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. During her visit to the war-torn country, Ursula von der Leyen will be accompanied by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. The EU chief will meet with Zelenskyy “prior to the pledging event #StandUpForUkraine o...
SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina – The 1992 Bosnian War, which started with Serbian troops’ siege of Sarajevo and left over 100,000 people killed, has still its traces alive though decades have passed. Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia following the referendum on March 1, 1992. Shortly after the Balkan country beca...
ANKARA – According to the UN, more than 7.1 million people have been internally displaced in Ukraine since Russia began its war on Ukraine. “The main needs include cash, medicines & health services,” the International Organization for Migration said, adding that half of the displaced are women. The agency added they will ...
JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said that his government will continue settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. “We will continue to build in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and there will be no freeze of constructing the settlement. […] Things will happen in order,” Bennett said. Meanwhile, Bennett sai...
ANKARA – The European Union’s foreign policy chief has declared a number of Russian diplomats working in Brussels persona non grata. “Today, I decided to designate persona non grata a number of officials of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the EU for engaging in activities contrary to their diplomatic status,” Josep Bor...
ANKARA – The Latvian Foreign Ministry has said that it will close two Russian consulates and the staff has been asked to leave the country. The ministry said the consulates in Daugavpils and Liepaja will be closed and the diplomatic staff of the consulates general are declared personae non grata. It said the decision was […]
STOCKHOLM – Sweden has expelled three Russian diplomats in protest of Moscow’s alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde summoned Moscow’s ambassador to Sweden and informed him about the decision. Underlining that Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine, Linde said Sweden and the EU have strongly condemned Russ...
WASHINGTON (AA) – Russia could have been deterred from waging a war on Ukraine with US military forces’ presence in the country, a top American general said Tuesday. Testifying alongside Defense Chief Lloyd Austin at a hearing by the House Armed Services Committee, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Russi...
ANKARA (AA) – Improving Turkish-Israeli relations will strengthen regional stability, the Israeli foreign minister said on Tuesday. Yair Lapid’s remarks came during his visit to the Greek capital Athens, where he arrived on Tuesday for a meeting with foreign ministers of Greece, and the Greek Cypriot administration. Referring to the R...
WASHINGTON (AA) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken departed Tuesday for a key meeting of NATO foreign ministers, saying that recent visual evidence made it clear the mass atrocities in Ukraine were not the “random act of a rogue unit.” “It’s a deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities. T...
