List of All Articles with Tag 'europe'

Russia is deploying Ukrainian prisoners of war to fight on its behalf against their own country, according to state media reports. The move has attracted concern from experts, who have argued it could amount to a war crime. Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti aired a video purporting to show captured Ukrainian soldiers being voluntarily inducted into the Russian army. They were seen swearing allegiance to Russia, holding rifles and dressed in military fatigues. The authenticity of the report or videos aired by RIA Novosti could not be immediately confirmed. Human Rights Watch said this could be a violation of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war (POWs). Captured soldiers are exempt from being exposed to combat or unhealthy and dangerous conditions regardless of coercion, according to the convention. It is “hard” to confirm if these Ukrainian soldiers have genuinely switched allegiance to Russia out of their own free will, said Yulia Gorbunova, a senior researcher on Ukraine at Human Rights Watch. “Russian authorities might claim they are recruiting them on a voluntary basis but it is hard to imagine a scenario where a prisoner of war’s decision could be taken truly voluntarily, given the situation of coercive custody,” she said. The soldiers were reportedly made a part of a battalion that went into service last month. The battalion is named “Bogdan Khmelnitsky”, after a 15th century medieval nobleman and Russian fighter who brought parts of Ukraine under Moscow’s control. The report said Russian officials have completed training of the battalion and the POWs would soon be deployed into battle. The group comprises about 70 imprisoned Ukrainian fighters from various penal colonies. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said the Ukrainian troops will operate under the larger “Kaskad” formation of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the name for the Russia-backed breakaway region of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. This suggests the POWs will be fighting on the frontlines in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions where Kaskad has been active, the ISW said. The entire scenario is “laced with the potential for coercion”, said Nick Reynolds, research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute in London. A POW does not have a “huge amount of agency” and is in a “very difficult situation,” he said. According to the US-based think-tank ISW, this is not the first time Ukrainian POWs have been asked to “volunteer” for the battalion. They were housed in the Olenivka prison, which was blown up in July 2022. Russia said Ukraine had destroyed the prison in the country’s east with a rocket, but Kyiv blamed the blast on Moscow to cover up what it alleged was abuse and killings of the POWs. Russia is also trying to bolster its forces with a “conscription campaign in occupied Ukraine,” said the ISW’s Karolina Hird. Read More Blinken arrives in Seoul for talks focused on North Korea and its military cooperation with Russia Russia-Ukraine war: Putin’s ‘third wave’ advance stalls as Zelensky shows confidence Azerbaijan's president addresses a military parade in Karabakh and says 'we showed the whole world' Ukraine moves step closer to EU membership as European Commission backs talks Ukraine takes credit for the car bomb killing of a Russia-backed official in Luhansk Russia seeks an 8-year prison term for an artist and musician who protested the war in Ukraine

Airbus SE said it will significantly increase aircraft output next year as the European planemaker ramps up production

MTN Group Ltd. expects Nigeria to overcome the short-term “pain” of President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms by the

European shares opened flat on Thursday after ECB policymakers played down market optimism around rate cuts, while investors

London’s home rental cost showed signs of easing, with a drop in demand and evidence that tenants are

FanDuel owner Flutter Entertainment Plc said it expects to sell shares on the New York Stock Exchange in

The bad year that a lot of ESG investors are having may be about to get even worse.

ArcelorMittal SA’s third-quarter profit fell as steel prices declined in key markets due to weaker demand. The world’s

Merck KGaA reported earnings that topped estimates as strong demand for cancer drugs Bavencio and Erbitux helped cushion

Deutsche Telekom AG, Europe’s biggest telecommunications operator, raised its guidance for 2023 slightly after posting third quarter profit

A Russian missile hit a civilian ship in a Black Sea port, killing at least one person and injuring four others, according to Ukraine’s officials. A Ukrainian pilot on board was killed in the attack on the vessel in Odesa’s Pivdennyi port, said Yoruk Isik, head of the Bosphorus Observer consultancy. “A few” other crew members were either dead or injured, Mr Isik told Reuters. Of those injured, three were crew members from the Philippines. The other injured individual was identified as a port employee. The ship was loading iron ore in the port when it was hit, said Mr Isik. He identified the vessel as a Kmax Ruler 92,000 dwt – a Liberia-flagged bulk carrier. Ukrainian infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the vessel was supposed to transport iron ore to China. “The missile hit the superstructure of a civilian vessel under the flag of Liberia, at the moment of its entry into the port,” Ukraine’s southern military command said on Telegram. Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukrainian port infrastructure after pulling out of a UN-brokered deal promising safe transit of Ukrainian grain shipments via the Black Sea. Russia has carried out at least 21 such attacks on port infrastructure after pulling out from the deal in July this year. “During this time, the terrorist country damaged more than 160 infrastructure facilities and 122 vehicles,” said the minister Mr Kubrakov. Russia’s exit from the deal brokered by the UN and Turkey has brought an end to the safe export of Ukrainian grain. Moscow exited the deal because it said its demands for economic sanctions to be lifted from its grain and fertiliser exports have not been met. Ukraine is now operating a temporary humanitarian corridor to export grain as it looks to break Russia’s de facto blockade without compromising on the sanctions. Last month, war-time president Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian attacks have denied Russia’s naval fleet safe bases and secure maritime corridors in the western part of the Black Sea. Kyiv’s troops have looked to squeeze the Kremlin’s occupying forces out of the Crimean Peninsula that was illegally annexed in 2014. Read More Russia-Ukraine war: Zelensky ‘sure of’ battlefield success – live Ukraine fires drones over Black Sea and Crimea as Putin’s attacks fail in Bakhmut 2 more killed as Russian artillery keeps on battering southern Ukraine's Kherson region More than 900 of Putin’s soldiers killed in past 24 hours, claim Ukraine officials Zelensky says Ukraine’s Black Sea assault ‘will go down in history’ More than 40% of Ukrainians need humanitarian help under horrendous war conditions, UN says

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Ankur Banerjee An uneasy calm prevailed during Asian