Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan surprised just about everyone at the NATO summit by sending world leaders home with a gift nobody saw coming: vintage .357 Magnums, complete with live ammunition. Yep, you read that right.
The president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Abu Mazen, has exhausted much of the credit he still had among Israelis after he accused Israel of committing "50 holocausts" in Berlin on Tuesday during the press conference before a surprised Olaf Scholz, who hours later, strongly condemned his words.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Moscow today that Russia's military intervention in Ukraine was necessary because the West was "preparing for the invasion of our land, including Crimea."
Speaking at the annual Victory Day parade, Putin first addressed the soldiers: " You are fighting for our people in Donbas and for the security of Russia."
Last night, Russia admitted that its Black Sea Fleet flagship, the Moskva, had sunk. For Russia, the ship of the Black Sea Fleet has a military, but also a great symbolic importance. We clarify the most important questions and answers about the destroyed guided missile cruiser.
Why did the ship sink?
There are different statements about the cause. The Russian side says the ship went down during a storm while trying to tow it to its destination. Towing had become necessary because the ship had been damaged by a "fire caused by the detonation of ammunition" . The Russian side did not provide any information about the cause of the detonation.
According to media reports from Russia, the Russian warship Moskva was severely damaged in an ammunition explosion. "As a result of a fire, ammunition detonated on the Moskva missile cruiser, the ship was severely damaged," the Russian Defense Ministry said, according to the Russian news agencies Tass and Ria Novosti.
According to the ministry, the fire has been contained. The ammunition explosions have stopped, "the cruiser Moskva remains afloat," reports the Russian Defense Ministry. According to the ministry, the warship is now being towed back to port, and the crew has been accommodated on other ships. The 11,500 ton ship normally has a crew of around 500 people on board.
As Russia prepares a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that his "special military operation" will achieve its objectives no matter who weighs and that the West will not be able to isolate Russia. "There is no doubt that it will be so," Putin said, calling his plans "absolutely clear" and "noble." The Russian president has accused the West of having been feeding ultra-nationalism in Ukraine, where he acknowledged that "a tragedy" is taking place in a world that is "more complex than during the Cold War."
Putin believes that Ukraine has deviated from the agreements reached in the peace talks in Istanbul and that the negotiations are at a "dead end" . In his view, the end of his "military operation" now depends on the intensity of the fighting.
The units of the Ukrainian armed forces in besieged Mariupol expect their defeat tonight. This was announced by the 36th Marine Brigade on Facebook. She reported in the early morning of total isolation from the rest of the country and other military units and supply routes. "Today will probably be the last battle as we are running out of ammunition," they write in the statement, which is addressed "to the dear Ukrainian people."
"We have been defending Mariupol for 47 days. We have been bombed from planes, shelled by artillery, tanks and other firearms," the marines wrote. "We stood our ground with dignity and achieved the impossible. But all resources tend to run out."
"We've been written off"
"The Europe that we knew six weeks ago no longer exists," Boris Johnson certified in the presence of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and in the face of cracks between the allies at the critical moment of the war in Ukraine.
"Olaf and I agree that our two countries and all our allies must do more to help Ukraine," said the "premier", who hours before had received Polish President Andrzej Duda in Downing Street.
There is one thing you can rely on in this country: that even the most fundamental issues can be reduced to a level that Germans are used to. Even the war thus becomes material for German routines and sensitivities. The way the Bundestag dealt with the historic speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Thursday morning was a low point in parliamentarian.
At around 6 a.m., several explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, while emergency sirens were sounded in various cities across the country in anticipation of a possible air strike.
Ukraine says safe evacuation of citizens from northeastern city of Somi has been completed. The Russian army has laid siege to the city of Somi and has been shelling it for the past several days.
In a historic speech to the British Parliament, Ukrainian President Zelensky reiterated his commitment to "fight to the last."
He quoted Winston Churchill as warning Russia that "we will fight in the forests, on the plains, on the beaches and in the streets."
The US Department of Defense has described a proposal by Poland to hand over MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine with an intermediate stop at a base in Germany as "unsustainable".
The proposal entails "difficult logistical challenges" and there are "serious concerns" about the geopolitical dimension, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday evening (local time). At a Senate hearing, a top State Department diplomat, Victoria Nuland, described Poland's offer, which had apparently not previously been agreed with Washington, as a "surprising move".
Ukrainian government expects "battle for Kiev" in the next few days. According to the Ukrainian army, Russia has begun to pool resources for an attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. This emerges from the report of the General Staff, which was published on Facebook.
At the same time, Russian troops tried to gain control of the cities of Irpin and Bucha, which were just outside of Kiev. From there it is only a few kilometers to the northwestern city limits.
As the West feared and was unable to avoid, Russia took another territory from Ukraine on Monday night. Vladimir Putin decided to break the deck and recognize the breakaway territories of Donetsk and Lugansk. He thus puts an end to a peace process in Ukraine that, although it had notably managed to contain the bloodletting of deaths, was not offering Moscow the desired returns.
The Russian leader gave instructions to deploy the Russian army in these rebel territories of Ukraine. He ordered the Russian Defense Ministry to send forces "on a mission of peace"to these areas of Donbas and also asked his Foreign Minister to establish diplomatic relations with the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. The measures took effect immediately, the Kremlin said.
This Monday was a day entirely to Putin's taste, orchestrated down to the last detail. In the morning, the Russian state media unleashed a whole avalanche of largely unsubstantiated allegations against Ukraine: the Ukrainian army was about to invade the areas in the east of the country controlled by pro-Russian fighters.
Ukrainian soldiers have planned terrorist attacks and are taking the civilian population under artillery fire. The Russian secret service FSB also provided footage of an alleged Ukrainian attack on a Russian border post in the Rostov region.
According to the Elysée Palace in Paris, US President Joe Biden and his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin have "in principle" agreed to a summit meeting proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The meeting "can only take place if Russia does not invade Ukraine," said the Elysée on Monday night after Macron had previously telephoned the two heads of state. Shortly thereafter, Biden's press secretary, Jen Psaki, declared that the US was "obligated to continue diplomacy until the commencement of an invasion." Biden has "agreed in principle to meet with President Putin ... if there is no invasion."
In the long-standing dispute over Iran's nuclear program, according to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a solution is within reach. "All the elements for concluding the negotiations are on the table," Scholz said at the Munich Security Conference.
The Iranian leadership now has a choice - the "moment of truth" has come. A breakthrough could soon be achieved in the negotiations, or they could still fail, emphasized Scholz.
In the midst of the Ukraine conflict, Russia has started a large-scale military exercise with nuclear-capable missiles, according to Russian news agencies. According to the Kremlin, the aim of the maneuver is to test the reliability of strategic nuclear weapons.
One exercise was held at a test site in the Astrakhan region in the south of the country, another on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the east. In addition, warships of the Black Sea Fleet and the Northern Fleet were involved.
According to US President Joe Biden , he expects a Russian attack on Ukraine in the "coming days". "I am convinced that he made the decision," Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the White House on Friday. "We have reason to believe so." But Russia still has the choice between a "catastrophic and senseless war" and "diplomacy".
"We have reasons to believe that the Russian military is planning and planning to attack Ukraine in the coming week, in the coming days," Biden said. He added: "We believe they will attack the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, a city of 2.8 million innocent people."
The US government classifies the partial withdrawal of Russian troops announced by the government in Moscow to ease the Ukraine conflict as false information and instead assumes that the military presence will continue to expand.
In "the past few days," Russia has brought about 7,000 additional troops near the Ukrainian border, "and some of them just arrived today," a senior White House official said. Findings from the US government meanwhile show that Russia's announcement of a partial withdrawal was wrong, he said.
Military districts in the South and West of Russia have begun to return their troops to their places of origin after completing their military exercises, the Russian Defense Ministry announced. The Russian-Belarusian military exercises Allied Resolution 2022 continue until February 20.
In recent months, concern has grown about the large accumulation of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine and the preparation of a possible military invasion. The Russian military concentration continues at the moment.
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