Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday left the door open to intervening in Ukraine in a thinly veiled threat that coincided with the opening of crunch Geneva talks on the escalating crisis.
Warning that the former Soviet republic was plunging into the “abyss,” Putin said he hoped not to have to use his “right” to send Russian troops into Ukraine, just hours after three pro-Moscow separatists were killed in an overnight gunbattle with Ukrainian troops.
The violence highlighted the urgency of talks in Geneva.
The meeting comes after scores of pro-Kremlin separatists Kiev says are backed by Moscow took over parts of the restive southeast of the former Soviet republic.
“I very much hope that I am not obliged to use this right and that through political and diplomatic means we can solve all the acute problems in Ukraine,” Putin said in his annual televised phone-in with the nation, in a signal the option was on the table.
The upper house of parliament on March 1 authorized the Russian leader to send troops into Ukrainian territory. Moscow went on to annex Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, and now has tens of thousands of troops stationed on the border with its western neighbor.
Putin issued a warning regarding Kiev’s untested new leaders.
“I hope that they [participants in talks] manage to understand towards what abyss the Kiev authorities are going, dragging with them the whole country,” Putin said.
In an ultimatum that puts pressure on Ukraine’s struggling economy, Putin set a one-month deadline for Kiev to settle its debt for gas imports from Russia.
In the meantime, the situation on the ground in Ukraine continued to deteriorate.
In Mariupol, where the three separatists were killed, a further 63 were detained out of about 300 reported insurgents who attacked an interior ministry base using guns and gasoline bombs.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique