List of All Articles with Tag 'europe'

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is considering diluting some of his green policies, according to a person familiar

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he was “confident” the US and other allies would continue to support

Ukraine has just four weeks to hold a "knife at Crimea's throat" and force Vladimir Putin into peace talks before Russia's army recoups over winter, experts have warned. Professor Mark Galeotti, academic and author of more than 20 books on Russia, said Volodymyr Zelensky’s troops need to move another 10 miles southwards to be in range of striking key Russian supply routes in Crimea. He claimed this is the only “serious” chance Ukraine has to force Mr Putin into negotiations before the Russian army has the opportunity to regroup over winter. “They’ve got about another month of campaign season. But if things slow down, the Russians will use the winter to regroup themselves and the whole thing will start up again in spring,” the professor, who teaches Slavonic and East European Studies at University College London, told The Independent. “If Ukraine can move another 10 miles southwards, Russian road and rail links used to resupply Crimea will be in range of their artillery. “The only serious chance Ukraine has of forcing Putin to the negotiating table is by holding a knife at Crimea’s throat. But I think that is going to be next year’s campaign.” It comes after President Zelensky admitted that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was progressing slowly, but insisted that more territory was being reclaimed every day. “The situation is tough,” he told CBS’s 60 Minutes. “We stopped the Russians in the east and started a counteroffensive. Yes, it is not that fast but we are going forward every day and de-occupying our land.” Ukrainian generals claimed they had recaptured the eastern villages of Klishchiivka and Andriivka near Bakhmut over the weekend. Earlier this month, Ukrainian forces also breached Russia’s first line of defence near Zaporizhzhia in the south of the country, taking the village of Robotyne. This Zaporizhzhia area is a “key” battlefield, as breaking through would allow Ukrainian forces to strike out towards the Sea of Azov, Professor Galeotti said. This would allow Ukrainian forces to disrupt and destroy supply lines linking Rostov-on-Don, in Russia, and the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed in 2014. But Dr Marina Miron, a postdoctoral researcher at King’s College London war studies department, it was "very unlikely" there would be a major breakthrough for Ukraine this year as its "window of opportunity" was now closing ahead of winter. “The rain is already starting,” she said. “The weather will get a lot worse.” Ukraine launched its counter-offensive in June to push Mr Putin’s forces out of land captured by Russia after the invasion began in February 2022, striking along the 600-mile frontline in areas including the Bakhmut, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions. But as the offensive slows it is now “touch and go” as to whether Ukraine can make a “real, pivotal difference” in the war by the end of this year, Dr Miron said. “The main effort will be to sustain troops throughout the winter. Ukraine will not be in a position to carry on the offensive,” Dr Miron added. She explained Ukraine had a “heavy logistical” footprint with German Leopard and British Challenger 2 tanks, but they would be harder to use in wetter, muddier conditions, to assist a full breakthrough. “They’re just not designed for those types of terrains,” she said. “They would risk losing more equipment getting bogged down in winter conditions than waiting it out until getting F-16 fighter jets.” In August, Denmark promised the delivery of 19 F-16 jets to Ukraine. Six will be delivered by the end of this year, followed by eight in 2024 and five in 2025, according to Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen. However, Ukraine admitted it could take up to six months to train its military to use the jets and they would not be in operation this winter. With fears growing around wavering Western support as the war draws on, Dr Miron said: “Neither side have an infinite supply of money or manpower. But Russia does have time. And that’s what they are betting on.” Read More Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin’s brigades ‘suffer heavy losses’ as counteroffensive advances around Bakhmut Kremlin says Russia and China must edge closer to counter Western efforts to contain them US defense chief urges nations to dig deep and give Ukraine more much-needed air defense systems

Azerbaijan has launched what it has called an “anti-terrorist operation” targeting Armenian military positions in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, as heavy artillery firing was reported around its capital. The Azerbaijani defence ministry announced the start of the operation hours after four soldiers and two civilians died in landmine explosions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. It raises concerns that a full-scale war over the region could resume between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which fought heavily for six weeks in 2020. The ministry did not immediately give details but said “positions on the front line and in-depth, long-term firing points of the formations of Armenia’s armed forces, as well as combat assets and military facilities, are incapacitated using high-precision weapons”. The Azerbaijani statement said: “Only legitimate military targets are being incapacitated.” But ethnic Armenian officials in Nagorno-Karabakh said the region’s capital Stepanakert and other villages are “under intense shelling”. Earlier on Tuesday, Azerbaijan said six people died in two separate explosions in the region, which is partly under the control of ethnic Armenian forces. A statement from Azerbaijan‘s interior ministry, state security service and prosecutor-general said two employees of the highways department died before dawn when their vehicle was blown up by a mine and that a truckload of soldiers responding to the incident hit another mine, killing four. Nagorno-Karabakh and sizeable surrounding territories had been under ethnic Armenian control since the 1994 end of a separatist war, but Azerbaijan regained the territories and parts of Nagorno-Karabakh itself in a six-week war in 2020. That war ended with an armistice which placed a Russian peacekeeper contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh. But Azerbaijan alleges that Armenia has smuggled in weapons since then. The claims led to a blockade of the road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, causing severe food and medicine shortages in the region. Red Cross shipments of flour and medical supplies reached Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday but local officials said road connections to the region were not fully open. The hostilities come amid high tensions between Armenia and its longtime ally Russia. Armenia has repeatedly complained that the 3,000-strong Russian peacekeeping force was unable or unwilling to keep the road to Armenia open even though that duty was stipulated in the agreement that ended the 2020 war. Armenia also angered Russia, which maintains a military base in the country, by holding military exercises with the United States this month and by moving toward ratifying the Rome Convention that created the International Criminal Court, which has indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Tuesday denied claims that Russia was informed in advance of Azerbaijan‘s intention to mount the operation, saying the peacekeepers were notified only “a few minutes” before it began. Reporting by Associated Press.

European stocks edged slightly higher after Monday’s drop, with investors wary of making bets ahead of this week’s

Ukraine could take time to “kick out” over 200,000 of Vladimir Putin’s troops from its soil even if its military counteroffensive achieves all its goals, a soon-to-retire US military general has claimed in a new interview. The comments come as Ukraine has stepped up its counteroffensive against Russia in the last few days by retaking a couple of key villages near battle-worn Bakhmut and launched joint intelligence ops in Crimea, the territory Moscow illegally annexed in 2014. “There’s well over 200,000 Russian troops in Russian-occupied Ukraine,” General Mark A Milley, who is set to retire as the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an “exit interview” to CNN. “This offensive, although significant has operational and tactical objectives that are limited in the sense that they do not – even if they are fully achieved – they do not completely kick out all the Russians, which is the broader strategic objective that president Zelensky has,” he said. Ejecting Russian soldiers from the entirety of Ukraine is going to take a long time and will be “a very significant effort over a considerable amount of time”, Mr Milley said. The general said he doesn’t want to “put a time on it because a lot of things can happen in a war”. “You could see a general collapse, you can see escalation, you could see a lot of different things happen in the future, but I can tell you that it will take a considerable length of time to militarily eject all 200,000 plus Russian troops out of Russian-occupied Ukraine. That’s a very high bar, that’s gonna take a long time to do it,” he said. Earlier this month, Mr Milley said Ukraine only has around 45 days left before poor weather conditions hinder its continuing counteroffensive. It will become “very difficult to manoeuvre” once it starts raining, according to the head of the US military. “That offensive kicked off about 90 days ago,” he said, referring to recent criticism about the counteroffensive. “It has gone slower than the planners anticipated. But that is a difference between what (Prussian general and military theorist Carl von) Clausewitz called war on paper and real war,” he said. “So these are real people in real vehicles that are fighting through real minefields, and there’s real death and destruction, and there’s real friction. “And there’s still a reasonable amount of time – probably about 30 to 45 days’ worth of fighting weather left. So the Ukrainians aren’t done,” he said. “This battle is not done. They haven’t finished the fighting part of what they’re trying to accomplish. So, we’ll see… It’s too early to say how this is going to end. They at least have achieved partial success in what they set out to do, and that’s important. And then the rains will come in. It’ll become very muddy,” he said. “It’ll be very difficult to manoeuvre at that point, and then you’ll get the deep winter, and then, at that point, we’ll see where things go. “But right now it is way too early to say that this offensive has failed or not failed.” In the same interview, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the UK’s Chief of the Defence Staff, said Ukraine is “winning” because Russia failed to bring the country under its control. The Ukrainian counteroffensive is now in its fourth month and its forces have now had a series of territorial successes against Russian forces, including closing in on the country’s eastern areas from multiple directions. Russia had invaded Ukraine in February last year. Ukraine’s pushback, backed by its Western allies who have poured help through modern machinery and funds, has so far been marked by small victories and is awaiting more major breakthroughs. Read More Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin launches attack on Lviv as Russian defences breached near Bakhmut villages Ukraine’s Zelensky questions why Russia still has place at UN ahead of New York address Explosions shake Lviv as western Ukraine under air raid alerts for Russian drone strikes Ukrainian troops claim to have liberated Bakhmut village from Russia UNGA Briefing: Biden, Zelenskyy and what else is going on at the United Nations

A Financial Conduct Authority review has found no evidence that politicians are being denied bank accounts due to

Watch live as US secretary of defense Lloyd J. Austin makes opening remarks before he hosts an in-person Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting at Ramstein US Air Base in Germany on Tuesday 19 September. The meeting of allies assisting Kyiv has been highly anticipated and comes as the United States explores the shipment of ATACMS longer-range missiles packed with cluster bombs to Ukraine. Ukraine has also been pushing Germany to send similar Taurus missiles that could give them the ability to cause significant damage deeper within Russian-occupied territory, but Berlin has repeatedly said it will only act in concert with Washington on arms deliveries. Ahead of the meeting, it was confirmed that German defence minister Boris Pistorius will not take part at the UDCG meeting due to Covid-19 infection.

As Turkey’s leader addresses the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, his finance minister, Mehmet Simsek, will meet

YouTube has stopped making payments to Russell Brand’s channel on the site for breaking its creator rules, following

The first grain ship left Ukraine’s port of Chornomorsk, as Kyiv seeks to defy Russia’s effective blockade of

European shares slipped on Tuesday in choppy trading, as industrial stocks extended losses for a second straight session,