Latest news with #AnastasiiaMalenko
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukrainian military says it hit Russian semiconductor device plant
KYIV (Reuters) -A Ukrainian drone attack hit a semiconductor devices plant in Russia's western Oryol region that supplies Russian fighter jet and missile producers, Ukraine's military said on Wednesday. Ten drones had reached the target area and a fire had broken out, the military said on the Telegram messaging app. It said the Bolkhovsky Semiconductor Devices Plant supplies various Russian enterprises, including some involved in the production of Iskander and Kinzhal missiles. "This is one of the leading enterprises in the Russian Federation in the field of development and production of semiconductor devices and components," the statement said. There was no immediate comment on the strike from Moscow, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine has increasingly hit back against regular Russian missile and drone attacks with a fleet of domestically produced drones. (Reporting and writing by Anastasiia Malenko and Max Hunder, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
The Star
21-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Russian missile attack killed 6 servicemen and injured 10, Ukraine national guard says
KYIV (Reuters) -A Russian missile attack killed six servicemen and injured at least 10 more during training on Tuesday, Ukraine's national guard said in a statement on Wednesday. The national guard said an internal investigation was underway and the commander of the military unit had been suspended. (Reporting by Anastasiia Malenko; Editing by Jamie Freed)
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Crimean Tatars safeguard traditions in Ukraine in hope of return to homeland
By Anastasiia Malenko and Felix Hoske KYIV (Reuters) - With their ancestral homeland at the heart of future peace talks with Russia, Crimean Tatars are fighting to keep their language and practices alive in Ukraine, teaching some children who have never, and may never, set foot in Crimea. At a privately-run school just outside Kyiv, acting head teacher Olha Kycha says every child in her care carries "great importance" for Crimea's future - a new generation she believes will be crucial in the struggle to preserve Tatar identity. Muslim Tatars, who have endured a history of persecution and forced relocation, regard Crimea, the focus of centuries of conquest and power struggles, as their rightful homeland. More recently, Russia's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula in 2014 led to another wave of displacement, with many Crimean Tatars fleeing to mainland Ukraine. The territory's future has been pushed to the forefront of future peace talks between Ukraine and Russia after U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff set out a proposal that Russia should be handed U.S. legal recognition of its control of Crimea - an idea rejected by Kyiv. In response, Ukrainian and European officials proposed deferring detailed discussions about territory until after a ceasefire is concluded to end Russia's war, with no mention of recognising Russian control over any Ukrainian territory. Crimean Tatars, who numbered around a quarter of a million in Ukraine's last official census in 2001, can do little more than watch, wait and hope. "For us, every child who is here has huge value," Kycha said of her school, with its manicured gardens that she describes as "the only island, a piece of Crimea in the Kyiv region". "Although there are not so many of them, each of them is really of great importance in the future after the de-occupation of Crimea." The school's brochure says it "promotes the preservation of the traditions and customs of the Crimean Tatar people, and the study of Crimean Tatar poets and writers". Sitting in the school's well-equipped, underground gym waiting for another air raid alert to end, six-year-old Rukhiye says she doesn't like being told to stay indoors. But her dream isn't to play outside, she says, it is "to go to Crimea". HARSH TREATMENT Sitting in his mosque in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Ayder Rustemov, a 45-year-old mufti, recounts how he has lived around half his life in Crimea, returning with his family from deportation to Uzbekistan in 1988, only to flee after Russia's 2014 annexation. "We live by faith," said Rustemov, elected mufti of Crimean Tatars after Russia seized the territory. "If we recognise Crimea as Russian ... I don't even know what the consequences could be. Just unimaginable consequences," he told Reuters, suggesting it would set a dangerous precedent for other land with disputed claims. Sunni Muslims of Turkic origin, Crimean Tatars were deported en masse to distant parts of Central Asia by Soviet forces during World War Two for alleged collaboration with the Nazis. Crimea became part of Russia within the Soviet Union until 1954, when it was handed to Ukraine, also then a Soviet Republic, by Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev, a Ukrainian. Crimea's Tatars only began to return from exile in the 1980s. Most Crimean Tatars boycotted a referendum in 2014 which posed the question of rejoining Russia or restoring Crimea's status as part of Ukraine - Crimea's Moscow-backed leaders said 97% of voters were in favour of seceding in a vote condemned as illegal by Kyiv and the West. Since then, Crimean Tatars say they have been the target of Russian persecution: harassed, intimidated with threats and enforced disappearances. Thousands have fled, representatives say, although there is no official data. The Kremlin could not be reached for immediate comment. Russian officials deny any modern-era persecution and say Russia has supported all peoples living in Crimea after years of neglect under Kyiv's rule. "The parallels are obvious," Rustemov said, drawing a direct line to the actions of the Soviets to what Russia was doing now. "The goal of Russia has not changed, only the form has changed." QUESTION CLOSED? Russia says the question of Crimea's status has been closed "forever", but President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Ukrainian sovereignty of the peninsula must be restored in efforts to end the war, triggered by Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. That stance has already put the Ukrainian leader at odds with Trump, who suggested on April 28 that Zelenskiy was ready to give up Crimea as the price of a peace deal with Russia. Zelenskiy has repeatedly said Crimea is Ukrainian territory and recognising the peninsula as part of Russia would violate Ukraine's constitution. For now, many Crimean Tatars can only hope for a return to their homeland. "Those (Crimean Tatars) who've stayed in Crimea probably have it harder," said Diliaver Saidakhmetov, 36, leaving a mosque in Kyiv. "Still, the majority of Crimean Tatars that live in Crimea continue dreaming about a free Crimea."
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cash bonus for a year fighting Russia? Inside Ukraine's youth recruitment drive
By Anastasiia Malenko KYIV (Reuters) - You'll receive a generous salary, a bumper bonus and an interest-free loan to buy a home. The challenge? You'll have to fight on the frontlines of Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II. It's a tough sell to young people with their whole lives ahead of them. Two months after Ukraine launched a national drive to recruit young people to fight in its tired and aged armed forces for a year, fewer than 500 have signed contracts, according to Pavlo Palisa, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's military adviser. Palisa stressed it was early days for the scheme, which was initially confined to six brigades before expansion to 24. The numbers so far provide scant respite for Ukraine's defence forces, which are outnumbered by Russia after three years of war that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands. Pavlo Broshkov, among the few hundred young people to take up the offer so far, said he viewed military service as his duty and wanted to help spare his six-month-old daughter Polina the horrors he had faced growing up during the conflict. "I don't want my child to even hear the word 'war' in the future," said the 20-year-old, among seven young recruits interviewed by Reuters who are being sent to fight with frontline units in about two months. "I simply don't want her to know what it means." As a new father dreaming of buying an apartment for his family, Broshkov was also attracted by the financial terms of the recruitment scheme, which was launched in February targeting 18 to 24-year-olds who are prepared to fill fighting roles. On top of the mortgage deal, the package includes a monthly salary of up to $2,900, way above the national average wage of about $520, a cash bonus of 1 million hryvnia ($24,000) and a one-year exemption from mobilization after a year of service. Broshkov's 18-year-old wife understands the need to defend the country but can't stop agonizing over the danger. "Death is chasing my husband now and it can catch up with him at any time," said Kristina Broshkova, who moved back with her parents. "Money is a motivation, but dying for money is not really worth it." 'THEY ARE STILL BIG CHILDREN' The young recruits are preparing to head to the front at a time when Russian forces continue assaults along multiple fronts even as the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump seeks a negotiated ceasefire. Zelenskiy said in January that Ukraine had 980,000 people in arms, while last year the Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the size of the Russian armed forces to be increased by 180,000 to 1.5 million active service personnel. A Ukrainian draft has been in place for most adult men after the full-scale Russian invasion of 2022, and Kyiv reduced the age of those required by law to join up from 27 to 25 last year in a bid to invigorate their forces. The youth recruitment scheme marks a departure from the forced mobilization, which was hampered by public mistrust, and is part of a broader drive to make the military more professional and sustainable, officials say. The average age of Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield is 45, a senior diplomat source with knowledge of the country's defence capabilities told Reuters. Serhii Filimonov, commander of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion serving on the eastern Pokrovsk front, said many motivated young people had joined up even before the recruitment drive. So he didn't expect many 18 to 24-year-olds to sign up to the scheme, adding that money alone wasn't sufficient motivation to fight a war. "You have to fight for your friends, for your family, for the future, not for a million hryvnias." Nonetheless, Oleksandr Moroz, military instructor at one of the brigades, said most of the young men he had trained were attracted by the financial benefits, though described the recruitment to date as "a drop in the ocean" in attempts to lower the average age on the frontline. "At this stage, they are still children, big children," he added as the new recruits learned tactical medicine at a training site. TIKTOK V REAL LIFE As well as being enticed by the money, the recruits interviewed by Reuters variously said they joined to defend their homeland, have greater control of their fate than simply being drafted and to potentially forge a military career. While they still have multiple weeks of training left before deploying, their first experience of simulated artillery and drone attacks came as a shock to some. "It's like TikTok and real life: there is a big difference. In the video, it looks so cool, so easy, but in reality it's not," said Zakhariy Shatko, a 24-year-old who joined the scheme together with his friend Broshkov. As instructors practiced drone assaults, one of the main battlefield threats, the two friends got a smoking break in. When instructors learn of such infractions, 100 push-ups are assigned for the entire unit to drill in shared responsibility. For 18-year-old Yuriy Bobryshev - the first person to join the programme - the motivation to fight was personal. After escaping the Russian occupation of Volnovakha in the Donetsk region at the age of 15, he is haunted by memories of the violence as well as by the loss of his brother, who was killed there. "I saw too many bodies," Bobryshev said. "As soon as I left, I wanted to go fight."
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ukraine says aiming to wrap up mineral deal talks within a week
By Anastasiia Malenko and Christian Lowe KYIV (Reuters) -Kyiv said on Friday it aims to complete talks by the end of next week about a deal with Washington on jointly exploiting Ukrainian mineral resources, an agreement Ukrainian officials hope will go some way to firming up softening U.S. support for them in their war with Russia. Though the terms of the eventual deal are not finalised, Washington has signalled it expects to have privileged access to Ukraine's natural resources by way of repayment for U.S. military support for the country over the past three years. Late on Thursday, the U.S. and Ukrainian governments signed a memorandum of intent, signalling their intent to finalise the minerals deal. The memorandum represented a step towards repairing ties between Kyiv and Washington that appeared to be hanging by a thread in February, when an Oval Office meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy turned into a shouting match. According to the text of the memorandum, published by the Ukrainian government on Friday, the aim of both sides is to complete discussions on the final deal by April 26, and to sign it soon after. The memorandum said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal will travel to Washington at the start of next week to meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and work on the deal together. "We are happy to announce the signing with our American partners," Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine's first deputy prime minister and economy minister, said on social media on Thursday, referring to the memorandum of intent. She said the document "testifies to the constructive joint work of our teams and the intention to finalise and conclude an agreement that will be beneficial to both our peoples." According to the text of the memorandum, it paves the way for an economic partnership deal and the setting up of an investment fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine. The text did not give any details about the terms of the eventual deal, including what access the United States would have, and how much revenue it would stand to gain. In Washington, Trump told reporters: "We have a minerals deal, which I guess is going to be signed on Thursday." Trump has been critical of the billions of dollars of aid that his predecessor, Joe Biden, gave to Ukraine, saying it was a bad deal for the United States. He has also indicated he wants closer ties with Moscow, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The White House did not respond to a request for further details on the timing and contents of the agreement. PRIZED RESOURCES A draft of the minerals deal that was under discussion earlier this month would give the U.S. privileged access to Ukraine's mineral deposits and require Kyiv to place in a joint investment fund all income from the exploitation of natural resources by Ukrainian state and private firms, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. The draft deal included mineral deposits in Ukraine and also infrastructure for the transit of natural gas, the source said. The proposed deal, however, would not provide U.S. security guarantees to Ukraine - a top priority of Kyiv's - for its fight against Russian forces occupying some 20% of its territory. Inna Sovsun, a member of Ukraine's parliament, said she was grateful to Washington for the aid it has given, but said of a proposed minerals deal: 'I do think that for us as Ukrainians, it feels a little bit like another country is using our vulnerability, which was not created by us.' "It's also critically important when we are designing the future to keep in mind that people will live here in the future,' she told Reuters, speaking before the memorandum was signed. Ukraine has sizable deposits of natural resources, including rare earths that are prized for use in electronics. It has deposits of graphite, lithium, titanium and uranium, among other minerals. The path to a deal on minerals has been bumpy. A previous iteration of the deal was ready for signing in February, when Zelenskiy came to the White House to meet Trump. That though was shelved after their meeting turned acrimonious - and Washington also briefly paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine, which is vital in its effort to resist the Russian invasion. Later, Kyiv launched an effort to salvage the relationship, and began talking to U.S. officials again about cooperation on natural resources. (Additional reporting by Yulia Dysa in Kyiv, Angelo Amante and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Kirsten Donovan) Sign in to access your portfolio
