Ukraine

OVRUCH, Ukraine, Nov 10 (Reuters) - "As soon as I recover, I will have to be vaccinated," says Halyna, one of 75 COVID patients in a Ukrainian city hospital whose doctors are pushing the message that vaccination is the best way to keep local people out of the wards.

Mistrust in vaccines is widespread in Ukraine. Several years ago it led to an outbreak of measles and today it puts thousands in hospital with COVID.

KYIV, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Poland accused Belarus of trying to spark a major confrontation on Monday as video clips showed hundreds of migrants walking towards the Polish border and some trying to breach the fence using spades and other implements.

Warsaw said it had deployed additional soldiers, border guards and police, while neighbouring Lithuania said it might introduce a state of emergency on its border with Belarus.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has filed charges of espionage and attempted state overthrow against five people who allegedly were part of a hackers group controlled by Russia.

The Security Service of Ukraine said Friday that the hackers group known as “Armagedon” was responsible for some 5,000 cyberattacks on Ukrainian state agencies since 2014.

The service said it had intercepted and recorded conversations of two group members it claims are agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main descendant of the Soviet KGB, working in Russia-annexed Crimea.

KIEV, November 3. /TASS/: The Verkhovna Rada approved Ukrainian Defense Minister Andrei Taran’s letter of resignation on Wednesday. The decision was upheld by the majority of lawmakers at a meeting.

Taran’s letter of resignation was received in the Rada the day before. Earlier, the legislators of the ruling Servant of the People party had already approved the nomination of Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Reznikov.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — More than a thousand people blocked several streets in the center of the Ukrainian capital Wednesday, protesting against COVID-19 vaccine certificates and state-imposed restrictions aimed at halting the spread of the coronavirus.

The protesters, mostly women and young people, didn’t wear masks and held up signs reading “Say No to COVID Passports”, “Say No to COVID Genocide” in front of the Ukrainian parliament building in Kyiv.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Truck driver Andriy Melnik never took the coronavirus seriously. With a friend, he bought a fake vaccination certificate so his travel documents would appear in order when he hauled cargo to other parts of Europe.

His view changed after the friend caught COVID-19 and ended up in an intensive care unit on a ventilator.

DONETSK, October 27. /TASS/: The head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin said on Wednesday the Ukrainian forces had seized the village of Staromaryevka in the "grey zone" in the south of the disengagement line between the Ukraine-controlled territory and the Donetsk Republic.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Coronavirus infections and deaths in Ukraine surged to all-time highs Thursday amid a laggard pace of vaccination, with overall inoculations among the lowest in Europe.

Ukrainian authorities reported 22,415 new confirmed infections and 546 deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest numbers since the start of the pandemic.

KIEV, Oct 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky and visiting U.S. Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin, met here yesterday, to discuss ways to deepen practical cooperation between Kiev and Washington, in the field of security and defence, the Ukrainian presidential press service said.

The two sides exchanged views on the security situation in eastern Ukraine, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, as well as, on the topical issues of Ukraine’s cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

KYIV, Oct 19 (Reuters) - No third country has a veto on Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO, U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told a briefing on a visit to Kyiv on Tuesday, when asked about Russian objections to Ukraine's entry into the military alliance.

Austin said "no third country has a veto over NATO's membership decisions. Ukraine, as you heard me say earlier, has a right to decide its own future foreign policy and we expect that they will be able to do that without any outside interference."