Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s president on Tuesday urged closer ties between the ex-Soviet nation and NATO and the European Union in a speech marking the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.

Ukraine celebrated its independence day on Tuesday with a military parade and massive festivities in the capital Kyiv. Opening the parade, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a strong Ukraine is “a country that dreams ambitiously and acts decisively.”

KYIV, Aug 22 (Reuters) - A Ukrainian military plane evacuated 83 people from Kabul on Sunday, including journalists, activists, and Afghan women and children, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

Thousands of people wanting to escape Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers have gathered at the airport as the United States and other nations attempt to evacuate thousands of their diplomats and civilians as well Afghans. 

KIEV, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The decision of the European Commission on the equal status of digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates between the European Union and Ukraine entered into force on Friday, Ukraine's Health Ministry reported on its official website Friday.

"Today is a historic moment ... because we became one of the first countries in the world to join the EU's single digital market regarding the COVID-19 certificates," said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov during a press briefing in Kiev.

KYIV, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Police clashed with protesters from a nationalist party near the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday when they tried to break through a police cordon.

Reuters TV footage from the scene showed members of Ukrainian police and protesters spraying tear gas at each other. The protesters attacked with long sticks and threw car tires and stones while the policemen barely fought back.

DONETSK, August 12. /TASS/: The Ukrainian armed forces sent combat groups to the disengagement line in the south of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the DPR people’s militia reported on Thursday.

KIEV, August 12. /TASS/: Ukrainian authorities have sent over 38 tonnes of barbed wire to Lithuania as humanitarian aid to help equip Lithuania’s state border amid an influx of illegal migrants from Belarus, the Ukrainian State Emergencies Service reported on Thursday.

"Over 38 tonnes of humanitarian aid has been dispatched today, August 12, from Ukraine to Lithuania. This is the first of three stages of aid, which Ukraine is sending in accordance with a decree by President Vladimir Zelensky and a resolution by the Cabinet of Ministers," it said.

KIEV, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Kiev on Aug. 22, Ukrainian president's press secretary said on his official Facebook page on Monday.

"Federal Chancellor of Germany, Mrs. Angela Merkel intends to visit Ukraine on August 22. The topics of the discussions: security, bilateral relations, and other pressing issues," Serhiy Nikiforov wrote.

On July 12, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Merkel in Berlin during an official visit to Germany.

KYIV/LONDON/WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - A defiant President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday a Belarusian sprinter defected at the Olympic Games only because she had been "manipulated" by outside forces and shrugged off a coordinated barrage of new Western sanctions.

At an hours-long news conference on the anniversary of an election which opponents said was rigged so that he could win, Lukashenko denied being a dictator and said he had defended Belarus against opponents plotting a coup.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarus’ authoritarian leader on Monday charged that the opposition was plotting a coup in the runup to last year’s presidential election that triggered a monthslong wave of mass protests demanding his resignation.

President Alexander Lukashenko held his annual press conference on Monday, the one-year anniversary of the vote that handed him a sixth term in office but was denounced by the opposition and the West as rigged.

In his opening remarks, Lukashenko defended the election and accused the opposition of preparing a coup.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarusian authorities long ago removed the makeshift memorial to a protester shot by police at the start of last year’s massive protests against the country’s autocratic president, replacing flowers and placards with a garbage can.

Alexander Taraikovsky died as protests swelled, a day after President Alexander Lukashenko’s reelection to a sixth term in the Aug. 9, 2020, presidential vote that the opposition denounced as rigged. Police dispersed the peaceful demonstrators with rubber bullets, stun grenades and clubs in a stunningly brutal crackdown.