Canadian Tammy Cecco was not a fan of cruising. “The thought of being on a ship with thousands of other people and not being able to get out,” she said, “I wanted to avoid.” That didn’t change when Cecco, a travel magazine publisher, boarded a surprise cruise her husband had booked to renew their vows … Read more
Prisoners recruited by the Russian Wagner Group to fight in Ukraine seem increasingly to realize that they have been duped and that no one ever counted on bringing them back alive. A prisoner recruited by the group in November has gone into hiding from his squad in Ukraine’s Luhansk region and fled by bus and … Read more
CNN — Russia is gearing up for a “maximum escalation” of the war in Ukraine, possibly as early as the next few weeks, a top Ukrainian national security official said. “These will be defining months in the war,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told Sky News in an interview broadcast … Read more
Near Bakhmut, Ukraine CNN — Southwest of the city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian soldiers Andriy and Borisych live in a candlelit bunker carved into the frozen earth. For several weeks they have been confronting hundreds of fighters from the Russian private military contractor Wagner who have thrown themselves against the Ukrainian defenses. Disguised in a balaclava, … Read more
Press play to listen to this article Voiced by artificial intelligence. PARIS — Vladimir Putin is a “radically rational” leader who is betting Western countries will get tired of supporting Ukraine and agree to a negotiated end to the conflict that will benefit Russia, former French president François Hollande told POLITICO. Hollande, who served from … Read more
The latest eurozone growth figures are out as the ECB considers what to do next. Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images The eurozone beat expectations on Tuesday by showing positive growth in the last quarter of 2022 and easing fears of a potential regional recession. Preliminary figures from Eurostat released on Tuesday showed that the … Read more
Near Kreminna, Ukraine CNN — The pine forests near the city of Kreminna have become one of the hottest combat zones in the war in eastern Ukraine. Almost every weapon seems to be at work here, artillery, howitzers, tanks and mortars. But perhaps the most important is the smallest: the reconnaissance drone. Ukrainian and Russian … Read more
Russia has begun its “great revenge” for Ukraine’s resistance to its invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as Russian troops claimed a series of mounting gains in the east of his country. Zelensky has been warning for weeks that Moscow wants to step up its attack on Ukraine after about two months of virtual stalemate … Read more
President Zoran Milanovic has repeatedly criticized Western policies towards Russia and the Balkans. The Croatian president on Monday criticized Western countries for supplying heavy tanks and other weapons to Ukraine in its campaign against invading Russian forces, saying those arms shipments will only prolong the war. Zoran Milanovic told reporters in the Croatian capital that … Read more
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warns of a race to arm Ukraine with powerful weapons as Ukraine ramps up its call for fighter jets and long-range missiles. Scholz made a breakthrough with President Biden earlier this month by sending modern tanks to Ukraine, but said fighter jets are a non-starter. “I can only advise against entering … Read more
