NATO yesterday told Russia to halt its “illegal” military actions in Ukraine after the West accused Moscow of direct involvement in the escalating conflict.
Western fears of wider confrontation have spiraled after NATO said Russia had sent troops to fight in Ukraine and funneled huge amounts of heavy weaponry to the pro-Kremlin rebels.
“We condemn in the strongest terms Russia’s continued disregard of its international obligations,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after an emergency meeting of the alliance on the crisis.
Photo: AFP
“We urge Russia to cease its illegal military actions, stop its support to armed separatists, and take immediate and verifiable steps towards de-escalation of this grave crisis,” he said.
Kiev and the West have accused Russian troops of being behind a lightning counteroffensive that has seen the rebels seize swathes of territory from Ukrainian government forces, dramatically turning the tide in the four-month conflict.
And in a move certain to anger Kiev’s former masters in Moscow, Rasmussen also said NATO was not closing the door to Ukraine’s possible membership of the transatlantic alliance after the government said it wanted to join.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly denied Moscow is fueling the conflict or having any troops on the ground in the former Soviet state.
Putin yesterday demanded that the Ukrainian government hold “substantial” talks with the separatists who took up arms against Kiev in April, apparently emboldened by Russia’s annexation of Crimea the month before.
“I believe that what is happening in Ukraine right now is in principle our common colossal tragedy and it is necessary to do everything for it to stop as soon as possible,” he said.
The new rebel advance has raised fears that the Kremlin could be seeking to create a land corridor between Russia and Crimea, the strategic Black Sea peninsula.
NATO on Thursday said Russia had sent at least 1,000 troops to fight alongside the rebels, along with air defense systems, artillery, tanks and armored vehicles, and had massed 20,000 troops near the border.
However, Putin dismissed the Western pressure, symbolically describing the insurgents as the defenders of New Russia, a czarist-era term for Moscow’s former imperial holdings in the region that the strongman has revived since annexing Crimea.
He praised rebel successes in halting Kiev’s advances in a counteroffensive in the southeast that has left government troops battling for survival in the town of Ilovaysk. He called on rebel forces to open a “humanitarian corridor” for the besieged Ukrainian troops.
Top rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko — who has said the Russian troops in Ukraine were “on holiday” — told Russian television that his men would be willing to let government troops withdraw if they give up their weapons.
Ukrainian security chiefs lashed out at the Russian proposal, saying in a statement it proved rebels were “controlled directly from the Kremlin.”
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
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
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
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