Tag - russia-ukraine-war

 
 

RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR

A Ukrainian serviceman holds a anti-aircraft weapon as they scan for possible air targets, onboard a boat as it patrols the northwestern part of the Black Sea.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 27, 2023
Stalled on land, Ukraine scores 'victory' against Russia in Black Sea
Despite Russia's threats of strikes and its supposed naval superiority, Ukraine's efforts have managed to keep a maritime corridor for food exports open.
Former Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2023
Japan must further ease arms export rules, ex-defense chief says
Itsunori Onodera said he would press ahead with ruling coalition discussions on broadening the scope of allowable exports.
Ukraine passed a law in July to move the celebration of Christmas to Dec. 25 — the day when most of the Christian world marks the birth of Jesus.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 24, 2023
Ukrainians defy Moscow with first Dec. 25 Christmas
The move to celebrate the birth of Jesus on the day most Christians do deviates from the Orthodox Church observance of Jan. 7, seen as Russian heritage.
Russian conscripts watch a tank demonstration in Moscow in August 2022. Despite its bravado in public, the Kremlin has indicated its interest in striking a deal to halt the war so long as it could still declare victory.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 24, 2023
Putin quietly signals he is open to a ceasefire in Ukraine
The repeated interest in cutting a deal exemplifies how opportunism and improvisation have defined his approach to the war behind closed doors.
Shoppers at a market in Kyiv on Tuesday
WORLD / Politics
Dec 21, 2023
With Ukraine’s aid in doubt, companies say they’re the Plan B
Ukrainian companies making products are ensuring their survival while contributing to the war effort.
Tokyo-based Bridgestone decided in March 2022 to suspend all manufacturing activities and freeze new investments in the Russia following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 20, 2023
Bridgestone exits Russia with asset sale to serial buyer S8 Capital
Bridgestone, present in Russia since 1998, decided in March 2022 to suspend all manufacturing activities and freeze new investments in the country.
Ukrainian refugees who were flown to Japan by the Foreign Ministry arrive at Haneda Airport in Tokyo in April 2022. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 20, 2023
Moving beyond ‘checkbook diplomacy’: Japan’s changing refugee policy
Japan's stance on admitting refugees appears to be changing amid greater global engagement by Tokyo.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting near Moscow on Dec. 12.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 20, 2023
U.S. allies brace for high cost of defeat as Ukraine aid stalls
Russian victory in Ukraine would be felt around the world as U.S. partners and allies questioned Washington’s promises of defense.
A Russian Air Force Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber
WORLD / Politics
Dec 20, 2023
Putin says Russia’s nuclear arsenal is near fully modernized
The proportion of modern weaponry in its nuclear forces this year "has been brought to 95% and in the naval component almost 100%,” he said.
Earlier this month, the International Olympic Committee said that Russians and Belarusians who qualify in their sport for the Paris 2024 Games can take part as neutrals without flags, emblems or anthems.
OLYMPICS
Dec 19, 2023
Russian athletes still banned, but 'things change,' says Coe
"We made a judgement which we believe was in the best interest of our sport," said Coe, president of World Athletics.
Today in Russia, a robust consumer world carries on, helping Russian President Vladimir Putin maintain a sense of normalcy despite a war that has proved longer, deadlier and costlier than he predicted.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 19, 2023
How Putin turned a Western boycott into a bonanza
If companies want to leave Russia, the president is setting the terms — in ways that benefit his government, his elites and his war.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (right), Finland's Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen (left) and Finland's Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen sign a defense cooperation agreement in the Treaty Room of the U.S. State Department in Washington on Dec. 18.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 19, 2023
Finland bolsters military ties with U.S. after Putin warning
The Defense Cooperation Agreement formalizes greater ties with the United States, including joint training of forces and military interoperability.
F-16s will help Kyiv address a problem that has persisted from the start of the invasion in February 2022: Russia’s more modern combat aircraft have been difficult for Ukraine’s military to counter with its own aging fighters.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 18, 2023
How F-16 fighter jets could reshape Ukraine's aerial battlefield
Russia’s more modern combat aircraft have been difficult for Ukraine’s military to counter with its own aging fighters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he was against banning abortion, but that terminations were against state interests.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 18, 2023
'Give birth to more soldiers': hard-line Russia turns on abortions
Over the last few months a flurry of regions have rushed to restrict abortions in private clinics, yielding to demands from the Russian Orthodox church.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pays his respects at the graves of Ukrainian soldiers in Lviv on Friday.
WORLD
Dec 16, 2023
Zelenskyy returns to Ukraine with little aid and a raft of needs
Political infighting in Washington and the European Union has blocked further aid to Ukraine.
People take shelter in the Khreshchatyk metro station during an air strike alarm in Kyiv on Thursday amid the Russia invasion of Ukraine.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2023
Japan expands sanctions over Russia's Ukraine invasion
Tokyo added to its sanctions list 57 organizations in Russia and six others in countries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel during an EU summit in Kyiv on Feb. 3.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 15, 2023
EU grants Ukraine membership talks but can't agree on financial aid
The move comes at a critical time for Ukraine, with its counteroffensive against Russian forces having failed to make major gains.
Russian President Vladimir Putin holding his year-end news conference at Gostiny Dvor exhibition hall in central Moscow on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 15, 2023
Vladimir Putin exudes confidence that war in Ukraine is going his way
Russian president referenced Kyiv's struggle in securing more aid from allies in his first year-end news conference after the invasion.
Natalia Yermakova is a volunteer in the 'Family Battalion' organization producing camouflage netting and assembling food parcels for Russian army needs.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 14, 2023
In Moscow, soldiers' wives make camouflage nets and minefield signs
Believer's in Moscow's "special military operation" against Ukraine provide Russian President Vladimir Putin with a strong support base.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak during a news conference in Washington on Tuesday. Zelenskyy came to the U.S. Congress to appeal for more aid to resist Russia's invasion, and Republican leaders told him to first wait for an elusive U.S. deal on immigration.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 13, 2023
Zelenskyy meets U.S. Republicans in push for aid to fight Russia
Some Republicans oppose more aid, saying any further money must be paired with changes to immigration policy at home.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.