Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out at Ukraine on Thursday for delivering weapons to Georgia, overshadowing talks with his Ukrainian counterpart that ended in a draft agreement on gas pricing.
Putin sharply criticized the ex-Soviet republic over what he said was weapons used by Georgia to fight Russia during a brief conflict in August.
“A more serious crime than arms deliveries in a conflict zone cannot be imagined,” Putin said.
“Several years ago, we could not have imagined Russians and Ukrainians making war against each other, but that has happened and it’s a crime,” he said.
The comments came amid tense relations between Moscow and Kiev over the conflict in Georgia, but the two prime ministers were able to reach a draft agreement that seeks to resolve the delicate issue of gas prices. Gas prices have been a sore point between the countries, and much of Europe also has a stake in whether the issue is put to rest.
Russia has cut supplies to both Ukraine, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy, and Western Europe before in disputes over gas prices.
“The parties have confirmed their good will in moving gradually, in three years, to market prices,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said after the meeting outside Moscow.
“We don’t need shock therapy in terms of prices,” she added at a joint press conference with Putin.
Ukraine eventually paying market prices for gas would mean a major increase on what it pays now.
Tymoshenko said last week she expected Ukraine to sign a deal with Russia by the end of next month on the delivery of gas from next year for a period of up to four years.
Tymoshenko later met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, his press service reported according to Interfax news agency.
Media reports had said Moscow was pressuring Tymoshenko to ally with pro-Russian forces in Kiev, but she denied any such links between the “price of gas and the composition of the future coalition” in Ukraine.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for