President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine traveled to the southern region of Kherson on Thursday in his second trip near the front line in two straight days, visiting areas ravaged by Russia’s campaign to destroy energy infrastructure. Mr. Zelensky’s visit, which he chronicled on the Telegram messaging app, came a day after his trip to the contested eastern city […]
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MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, declared an enduring economic partnership on Tuesday, promising to bring more Russian energy to China and more Chinese companies to Russia as the two leaders sought to insulate their countries from Western sanctions and other consequences of the war in Ukraine. […]
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Xi Jinping, China’s leader, is scheduled to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Moscow this week in the most high-profile visit by any world leader to Russia since before the pandemic. Coming more than a year after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the meeting will be watched closely by Western officials […]
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Hundreds of thousands of North Korean troops are mobilizing to help plant and harvest crops. The country’s military is rejiggering some of its munitions factories to produce tractors and threshing machines, while also converting some airfields into greenhouses. Soldiers are reportedly being asked to extend their service by three years and spend them on farms. […]
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WASHINGTON — Unable to fly through Russian airspace because of the war in Ukraine, U.S. airlines are stepping up a lobbying campaign on Capitol Hill and at the White House to address what they say is a growing problem: They are losing business to foreign competitors who can take passengers between the United States and […]
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In Eastern Europe, Ukrainians are in the trenches. Farther west, European capitals are grappling with a new order in which war is no longer theoretical. Yet, tucked away in the heart of the continent, the Swiss are fretting over loftier ideals. In Switzerland’s capital, nestled beneath snow-capped mountains, inside parliamentary chambers of stained glass and […]
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As he heads into an expected third term as president, China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, is signaling that he will take a harder stance against what he perceives as an effort by the United States to block China’s rise. And he’s doing so in uncommonly blunt terms. Mr. Xi has hailed China’s success as proof […]
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When a catastrophic earthquake struck Syria last month, President Bashar al-Assad did not declare a state of emergency nor a day of mourning for the victims. It was days before he visited the stricken areas. But from Day 1, his authoritarian government called for the lifting of Western sanctions. The United States initially pushed back, […]
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Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and his Russian counterpart on Thursday held the first private, face-to-face exchange between a U.S. cabinet member and a top Kremlin official since the invasion, and Mr. Blinken said he used the encounter to demand that Russia end its war on Ukraine. The unscheduled encounter with Sergey V. Lavrov, […]
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A week after President Biden traveled to Ukraine to pledge American support in the fight to repel Russia, he has dispatched two senior cabinet members to redouble efforts to prop up the Ukrainian economy and to try to curb the Kremlin’s ability to skirt Western sanctions. The visits, by Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen to […]
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KYIV, Ukraine — A year ago, the capital where I am now was under siege by Russian forces. Sounds of gunfire and explosions filled the streets; missiles rained down on this and other cities across Ukraine. Many people, including Vladimir Putin, expected that Ukraine would quickly collapse. One year later, Russia’s barbaric attacks continue — […]
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HELSINKI — A year ago, the day Russia invaded Ukraine and set in motion a devastating European ground war, President Sauli Niinisto of Finland declared: “Now the masks are off. Only the cold face of war is visible.” The Finnish head of state, in office for more than a decade, had met with President Vladimir […]
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WASHINGTON — President Biden marked the start of a second year of war in Europe on Friday by announcing billions of dollars in additional military aid for Ukraine, imposing more sanctions on those helping Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and delivering a grim warning about an alliance between Russia and Iran. Just days after making […]
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KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine marked the anniversary of the Russian invasion on Friday with a show of defiance, as anti-Kremlin protests took place around the world and the United States made a significant commitment of new weaponry to the country. Even as he and his allies braced for a prolonged war, Mr. […]
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WASHINGTON — A year ago, the United States did something extraordinary — it released previously classified intelligence that exposed Russia’s plans to invade Ukraine. Last week, Antony J. Blinken, the secretary of state, made a similar move when he warned China’s top foreign policy official, Wang Yi, against providing weapons to Russia. In a previous […]
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“A walk in the park.” That was the assurance skeptical members of the Russian military said they were given by superiors as it appeared increasingly clear that President Vladimir V. Putin truly did mean to wage an unprovoked war on neighboring Ukraine. And it seemed to make sense. Ukraine was a vastly outgunned nation led […]
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China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, has been on a high-stakes tour of Europe, defending his country’s interests in a clash with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and reaffirming Beijing’s friendship with Russia with a visit to Moscow. But China is also trying to woo European nations in an urgent bid to revive its economy […]
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ANKARA — When Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken first planned a trip to Turkey, it promised to be a difficult, even contentious diplomatic visit. Washington and Ankara have been at odds on several important issues, including Turkey’s ties to Russia, its refusal to allow Sweden and Finland to join NATO and the authoritarian drift […]
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A nationwide campaign urging children to make candles for soldiers has become so popular, he said, that anyone questioning it in a school chat group might be called a “Nazi and an accomplice of the West.” At the same time, he argued, daily life has changed little for Russians without a family member fighting in […]
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China accused the United States on Wednesday of flying high-altitude balloons over the western Chinese regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, pointing the finger at Washington amid growing scrutiny over Beijing’s global surveillance efforts. China’s claim comes two days after it first accused the United States of illegally flying balloons in its airspace, saying American airships […]
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Oil prices rose sharply on Friday after Russia’s deputy prime minister, Alexander Novak, said that his country would cut production in March by 500,000 barrels a day — or about 5 percent of its output. Russia is the world’s third-largest producer of oil, and the announcement by Mr. Novak, who is the Kremlin’s point person […]
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The United Nations humanitarian chief said early Friday that he was on his way to visit parts of Turkey and Syria stricken by a powerful earthquake earlier this week, hours after the death toll climbed past 20,000. The official, Martin Griffiths, will visit Aleppo and Damascus in Syria, along with Gaziantep in Turkey, over the […]
Read More The United Nations humanitarian chief said early Friday that he was on his way to visit parts of Turkey and Syria stricken by a powerful earthquake earlier this week, hours after the death toll climbed past 20,000. The official, Martin Griffiths, will visit Aleppo and Damascus in Syria, along with Gaziantep in Turkey, over the […]
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The first shipment of international aid reached the exhausted residents of opposition-held northwestern Syria on Thursday, a small triumph for the hundreds of thousands who had waited days for help to dig out people buried in the rubble, find secure lodging and obtain food. But survivors, rescuers and doctors expressed frustration that it was too […]
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KYIV, Ukraine — As Russia makes slow, bloody gains in a renewed push to capture more of eastern Ukraine, it is pouring ever more conscripts and military supplies into the battle, Ukrainian officials say. Still it remains far from clear that Moscow can mobilize enough forces to sustain a prolonged offensive. The Ukrainian military said […]
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Using customs data from India, Mr. Vakulenko, the Russian oil expert, showed that local importers of Russian crude paid almost the same price as Brent crude. A New York Times analysis of the same data produced similar results. The explanation, Mr. Vakulenko suggested, is that at least part of the large discount on the quoted […]
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KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces attacked dozens of Ukrainian positions across the eastern front, the Ukrainian military said on Monday, as Moscow’s assaults widened and intensified ahead of what Kyiv has warned could be the Kremlin’s largest offensive since the first weeks of the war. The Ukrainian General Staff, which is responsible for military strategy, […]
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The next phase of the Ukraine War, a new Russian offensive and a potential Ukrainian counteroffensive, seems all but inevitable for late winter or early spring. The logic of escalation is prevailing, the mutual belief that no peace deal is possible until the other side understands that it can’t win. The Ukrainian hope for how […]
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The United States is stepping up efforts to persuade partner nations that have not joined Western sanctions on Russia to crack down on commercial activities in their countries that could be helping Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, U.S. officials said. Those efforts include pointing out to foreign governments transactions that the United States suspects are helping […]
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Rheinmetall, a German arms manufacturer, makes the Leopard tank and has about 200 in storage, and it says it needs up to a year to refurbish them for Ukraine. But Germany could have easily paid the company to get the tanks ready 12 months ago, even for its own military. “Germany already wasted a year,” […]
Read MoreThere are signs that this shift is already underway, with countries like France and Germany reducing their purchases of Russian diesel, Mr. Grati said. “Those countries are preparing for the divorce,” he added. This rebalancing, which is only just beginning, will almost certainly cause strains that force prices higher, analysts say. For one thing, longer […]
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