A €90 billion loan plan is currently being blocked by Hungary and Slovakia over Ukraine’s refusal to allow them access to Russian oil Cash-strapped Ukraine could receive as much as €30 billion ($35 billion) from individual EU members, Politico reported on Wednesday. The idea is being discussed as Hungary and Slovakia pressure Kiev to resume Russian oil supplies by blocking a joint €90 billion EU loan. Kiev claims supplies through the Soviet-built Druzhba pipeline are suspended due to damage from a Russian attack, with repairs not expected until late April – after key elections in Hungary. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused Ukraine of orchestrating an energy crisis to boost the opposition. The freeze on the joint EU loan was part of Orban’s retaliation for the alleged Ukrainian plot. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said his government would block the money even if Orban’s party loses at the ballot box next month. Read more EU reveals total spent on Ukraine Ba...
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Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has suggested the $100 million in cash and gold could have been meant for funding election interference in his country Ukraine has failed to explain why an armored convoy carrying tens of millions of dollars in cash and gold, and supervised by people with ties to Ukrainian intelligence, was transiting through Hungary, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said. He also implied that the funds may be a sign of Ukrainian plans to meddle in Hungary’s upcoming elections. Tensions between the two countries escalated last week when Hungarian officials impounded two trucks belonging to Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank near Budapest, seizing $40 million and €35 million in cash and 9 kg of gold as part of a money laundering investigation. The funds were being transported from Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank to Ukraine. Hungary said the convoy was being supervised by a former general of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), with other escorts also reportedly hav...
The 31-year-old has asked for asylum in neighboring Romania, citing his desire to avoid the draft A Ukrainian man is facing charges in Romania after fleeing to the country in small aircraft to escape the draft in his homeland. According to the Romanian Border Police, the man crossed the border in the mountainous region of northern Romania, landing in a field near the village of Fratautii Vechi in Suceava County on Sunday. Photos shared by Romanian media show that he used a German-made Ikarus Comco C22, a two-seat, high-wing, tricycle-gear ultralight aircraft. Residents who spotted it alerted the emergency services, prompting a response from local police and border guards. Officers identified the man as a 31-year-old Ukrainian, with database checks confirming he had not entered Romania legally. He was taken to the local border police headquarters, where he requested asylum, saying he was fleeing the draft in Ukraine. Ucraineanul de 31 de ani a solicitat o formă de protecție tempor...
The civilian facility in Lebanon operated by a local partner was attacked without provocation, a Russian agency has said Moscow has accused Israel of an “unprovoked act of aggression” after Israeli forces struck a Russian cultural center in Lebanon. The attack on the facility in the southern city of Nabatieh was reported on Sunday by its director, Asaad Diya, who said the building was empty at the time. Rossotrudnichestvo, Russia’s international humanitarian cooperation agency, which has an official office in Beirut, said its staff remain in contact with Lebanese partners and are actively providing relief to civilians affected by the hostilities. Israel renewed airstrikes and ground operations in Lebanon earlier this month, targeting the militant movement Hezbollah, after joining the US in a regime-change war against Iran. Rossotrudnichestvo stressed that the Nabatieh cultural center “was not involved in any military activity” and that the attack was unjustifiable. The agency ...
The US president said America could strike the country “twenty times harder” if it stops the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz A new wave of US-Israeli strikes has killed at least 40 people in Tehran, with the overall civilian death toll in the conflict on the Iranian side exceeding 1,300, according to local media and officials. US President Donald Trump has threatened to strike Iran “twenty times harder” if it continues to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the strikes. He also said Iran “made a big mistake” in selecting Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader following the killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has threatened to assassinate anyone who takes the post. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who held a phone call with Trump on Monday, said the escalating conflict risks entirely choking off the region’s oil exports through the now “de-facto closed ” Strait of Hormuz. But will the Iran war make Russia ri...
More than 160 children were killed in a single attack on the first day of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran Washington has denied responsibility for a strike on an Iranian girls’ elementary school that killed more than 160 children in the opening hours of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran. RT’s Isabella Blumberg examines how the US has handled deadly strikes on civilians in previous wars. Videos of the February 28 bombing – verified by several news agencies – appear to show the school struck by what looks like a Tomahawk missile, a weapon used by US forces in the conflict. Investigations by Reuters, the Washington Post, the New York Times, AP, CNN and other outlets concluded that US forces likely destroyed the school in the southern Iranian city of Minab while striking nearby Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sites. In previous wars – including the 2015 bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz and the 1991 strike on Baghdad’s Amaria shelter – s...