The United Nation’s chief nuclear energy official met on Monday with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to discuss what he describes as increasingly dire fears about a battle-scarred nuclear plant on the front line of the war, ahead of his first visit to the plant in almost seven months. The official, Rafael Mariano Grossi, director […]
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President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said he would be able to position tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by the summer, a move that threatened to increase tensions with the United States and Europe while his forces wage war in Ukraine. The Russian leader has repeatedly raised the specter of using nuclear weapons since ordering […]
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China’s leader, Xi Jinping, flew into Moscow this week cast by Beijing as its emissary for peace in Ukraine. His summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, however, demonstrated that his priority remains shoring up ties with Moscow to gird against what he sees as a long campaign by the United States to hobble […]
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When Mr. Putin visited Mr. Xi in Beijing right before the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022, their governments proclaimed a “no-limits” partnership in a 5,000-word statement. The two men saw each other again last September at a security conference in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Mr. Xi has not talked to Volodymyr Zelensky, the president […]
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Global dividing lines over Russia’s war in Ukraine hardened on Friday with the announcement that China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, would personally meet with President Vladimir V. Putin in Russia next week — and that he would do so under the shadow of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court that accuses Mr. […]
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BRUSSELS — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey gave the go-ahead on Friday for Finland’s application to join NATO, removing a significant hurdle for the Nordic nation’s bid to join the alliance but leaving its neighbor, Sweden, on the sidelines for now. “We decided to start the ratification process in our Parliament for Finland’s membership,” […]
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WARSAW — Poland’s president said on Thursday that his country would transfer four Soviet-designed MIG fighters to Ukraine “literally in the next few days,” potentially pushing Western military aid to the embattled country over a significant threshold. The warplanes would be the first sent to Ukraine by a NATO country since Russia invaded last year. […]
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On March 8, 1983, Ronald Reagan gave one of the most famous speeches of his presidency, an address that would go down in history as the “evil empire speech.” If you watch it today — and you remember the Reagan presidency — you can see that it was vintage Reagan, full of confidence in the […]
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ISTANBUL — If you had to rank the spots around the globe where the militaries of the United States and Russia could physically run into each other, the Black Sea would probably be near the top of the list. The giant body of water on Europe’s southeastern flank has long been a theater of international […]
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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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TBILISI, Georgia — Tensions in the Caucasian republic of Georgia subsided on Thursday as quickly as they had flared, but opposition leaders and others who had flooded the central avenue in the capital, Tbilisi, for two consecutive nights warned that their fight was far from over. Calm returned to the capital city and others throughout […]
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BRUSSELS — So desperate is Ukraine for ammunition, it is firing considerably fewer artillery shells than it otherwise would, its defense minister says. But it is still going through shells faster than the West can produce or supply them, and making more shells is expensive. If arms manufacturers are to increase production and build new […]
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At times during their short but eventful alliance, Mr. Biden has appeared keen to let Mr. Scholz and other Western leaders take a public lead on decisions related to penalizing Russia or aiding Ukraine, a strategy designed to bolster the idea that Europe is acting in concert with — instead of at the direction of — […]
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The three espionage suspects — two Russians and one Ukrainian — were hardly discreet. They arrived at the derelict Albanian weapons factory in a bright orange Chevrolet Camaro in broad daylight. After they clambered over a back wall in full view of nearby houses, one of them was spotted by military guards and asked what […]
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BRUSSELS — When the European Union offered Ukraine a path to membership last year, it was in many ways an emotional response to the Russian invasion. Leaders were under pressure to show solidarity with the victims of aggression, even though many opposed the idea. Since then, preoccupied with passing sanctions, scrounging up aid and scouring […]
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The greatest blunder President Vladimir Putin may have made so far in Ukraine is giving the West the impression that Russia could lose the war. The early Russian strike on Kyiv stumbled and failed. The Russian behemoth seemed not nearly as formidable as it had been made out to be. The war suddenly appeared as […]
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Mate Kocsis, the head of the Fidesz caucus in Parliament, said last week that the legislative body would send a delegation to Finland and Sweden to gain “information” so that lawmakers could make an informed decision. He later acknowledged that there is “very little chance” that they would vote to keep Finland and Sweden out […]
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BERLIN — Nearly a month after Berlin gave European allies permission to send German-made tanks to Ukraine, the flow of tanks so many leaders vowed would follow seems more like a trickle. Some nations have discovered that the tanks in their armory don’t actually work or lack spare parts. Political leaders have encountered unanticipated resistance […]
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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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TIRANA, Albania — Customers at one of Albania’s biggest banks got a shock shortly before Christmas when a curt text popped up on their cellphones: “Your account has been blocked. The balance of your account is zero. Thank you.” The messages, which turned out be fake, signaled the opening of a disruptive new front in […]
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WARSAW — In a day of dueling efforts to shore up allegiances, President Biden wrapped up a three-day trip to Europe Wednesday with a promise of America’s commitment to its allies as President Vladimir V. Putin warmly welcomed China’s top diplomat to Moscow and rallied pro-war Russians. With the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine […]
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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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Bashing Germany is popular with the Polish governing party’s conservative political base but has sometimes disrupted diplomatic and military cooperation between the two countries. When Germany offered Poland Patriot air defense systems in November, the defense minister in Warsaw swiftly accepted the offer with thanks. A few days later, however, the Polish governing party’s cantankerous […]
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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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SLAVHOROD, Ukraine — Out in the snowy fields and birch and oak forests along the far northeastern border with Russia, the war on the Ukrainian side is mostly one of watching and listening. Working in shifts in the town of Slavhorod, just a mile or two from the border with Russia, Ukrainian soldiers were recently […]
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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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MUNICH — Nearly one year into the brutal and costly war in Ukraine, Western leaders pledged to remain steadfast in their support for Kyiv amid worries about whether their unity can survive what France’s president called “a prolonged conflict.” As dozens of leaders convened in Germany, Ukraine’s president opened the annual Munich Security Conference with […]
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MUNICH — President Emmanuel Macron of France called on Friday for an “intensification” of Western support for Ukraine, but, unlike other leaders addressing the Munich Security Conference, he also underscored that peace negotiations were the ultimate goal. Mr. Macron declared that the “neocolonialist and imperialist” aggression against Ukraine unleashed by President Vladimir V. Putin of […]
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LUXEMBOURG — Luxembourg’s military consists of fewer than 1,000 troops, one cargo plane, two helicopters shared with police forces and fewer than 200 trucks, ranging from Humvees to about 10 state-of-the-art Dingo combat reconnaissance vehicles. There are no tanks, warplanes or Patriot air defense missiles to contribute to the Western push to arm Ukraine. The […]
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As Ukraine urged its citizens to flee a hotly contested city in the east, the country’s allies worked on Tuesday to come up with ways to provide Kyiv with the basic supplies it will need for the larger battles looming ahead — especially artillery shells. The allies, meeting in Brussels, discussed ways to ramp up […]
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KYIV, Ukraine — Russia targeted Ukraine’s already battered infrastructure with more than 100 drones, rockets and missiles on Friday, raining explosives on cities around the country as President Volodymyr Zelensky returned from a three-day trip across Europe to ask Ukraine’s allies to send more weapons, and faster. The strikes, the first heavy aerial barrage in […]
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