Russia said Wednesday that it would recapture areas of annexed territory that fell back into Ukrainian control. Moscow’s warning came as Ukraine continued its counter-offensive, leaving thousands of Russian troops running for their lives.
The United Nations says more than 1.5 million people have now fled Ukraine into neighboring countries as the country faces mounting attacks by some 200,000 Russian troops. The refugee crisis comes as Russian forces respond to Ukraine’s resistance by targeting “populated areas” in several cities, witnesses say.
After two hours of talks on the crisis between presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, it was unclear Wednesday whether a feared Russian invasion in Ukraine had been averted.
Authorities in Sudan, where minority Christians face persecution, say dozens of military officers have been detained for an alleged coup.
Armenians began voting Sunday in early parliamentary elections amid mounting tensions over their country’s military defeat in fighting against Azerbaijan over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia’s acting prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, hopes the elections will restore trust in him.
Terrified residents have fled areas in northern Burkina Faso after suspected Islamist militants killed 15 Christian converts at a baptism service, authorities and Christians say.
Christian rights activists are concerned about tensions in Sudan, where at least 14 people were reportedly killed in recent violence in the disputed oil-rich region Abyei.
More than a century after one of the worst massacres of Christians, U.S. President Joe Biden formally declared the systemic killing and deportation of some 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces “genocide.”
Armenia’s leading cultural authority accuses neighboring Azerbaijan of demolishing an Armenian Church in a disputed area.
Israel is pursuing four more peace deals with countries in the region and elsewhere, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
Armenia’s political tensions escalated Monday, with protestors storming a government building in Yerevan, the capital, and opponents demonstrated nearby.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the Kremlin Monday, to discuss the reopening of transportation routes that were shut down amid the decades-long regional conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, the Associated Press reports. The meeting follows the November 10, 2020 peace deal brokered by Russia which ended 44 days of renewed hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Germany, France, and Jordan met in Cairo Monday to discuss reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks as US President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office on January 20, the Times of Israel reports.
Portugal’s Foreign Minister Santos Silva has stated his country will move its embassy to Jerusalem if the city becomes the capital of both Israel and a Palestinian state, All Israel News (AIN) reports. Silva made his statement in an interview with the Jerusalem Post Monday, during a two-day official visit to Israel.
Israel and Morocco agreed Thursday to normalize relations in a U.S. brokered accord that Israel’s prime minister described as “another great light of peace.”
The president of Azerbaijan has pledged that Christian churches will be protected when his strongly Muslim nation takes over control of areas in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Ilham Aliyev spoke as thousands of predominantly Christian Armenians fled several areas in the enclave leaving behind torched homes.
Hundreds of Russian peacekeeping troops have arrived in the contested enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, after Russia brokered a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Russia has brokered a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, ending a six-week war between the two former Soviet republics that has killed and displaced thousands.
“Lebanese citizens should know that Hezbollah is their problem, not Israel, because if Hezbollah acts against the State of Israel, Lebanon will pay the price. I hope it will not happen, and we’re here to be prepared for a moment I hope will not come,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Tuesday as he visited a military exercise in the north of the country.
Israel’s Cabinet has approved an agreement on normalizing relations with the United Arab Emirates, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan have agreed to meet soon.