A landmine clearance charity will be given £7m to continue its “life-saving” work in Ukraine and Afghanistan.
The UK Government cash for the Hazardous Area Life-support Organisation (Halo) Trust will enable the charity to make land safe for agriculture in Ukraine, and to restore basic services affected by the threat of explosives in Afghanistan.
Development minister Anneliese Dodds also announced an additional £250,000 for one Halo project, which aims to dispose of 165 tons of unusable, unsafe ammunition and explosives from Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, Africa.
Andy Gregory23 January 2025 06:00
UK defence secretary John Healey has told the Commons that Russia is the biggest external threat to Britain, warning that aggression from Vladimir Putin “will not be tolerated at home or in Ukraine”.
The defence secretary said Russia was “dangerous but fundamentally weak”, as he referenced the casualties the country had suffered during the war in Ukraine and its decision to draft in troops from North Korea.
Andy Gregory23 January 2025 05:30
President Donald Trump has called on Russian president Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the nearly three-year-old war Russia launched against Ukraine, and is threatening to impose further sanctions on Moscow if the Russian leader does not acquiesce.
In a statement posted to his Truth Social platform, Trump said he was “not looking to hurt Russia” and expressed “love” for the Russian people while boasting of his “very good relationship” with Putin – who in 2016 ordered what the Department of Justice called a “sweeping and systematic” effort to interfere in the presidential election on Trump’s behalf.
Trump is threatening unspecified sanctions on Moscow if Russian president Vladimir Putin doesn’t come to the negotiating table ‘soon’
Arpan Rai23 January 2025 05:00
UK defence secretary John Healey has told MPs that P8 Poseidon and Rivet Joint aircraft will join the Nato operation to protect undersea cabling in the Baltic Sea.
RFA Proteus has also been deployed to monitor “offshore infrastructure”.
Andy Gregory23 January 2025 05:00
Britain said it monitored a Russian spy ship in the English Channel in recent days and would strengthen its response to secret operations by Russian ships and aircraft in an effort to protect undersea cables.
Defence minister John Healey said Yantar, a Russian spy vessel used for intelligence and mapping critical infrastructure on the sea floor, entered British waters on Monday and the Royal Navy tracked it for two days until it entered Dutch waters. Russia’s embassy in London did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
“We will not shy away from robust action to protect Britain,” Mr Healey said yesterday. “We are strengthening our response to ensure that Russian ships and aircraft cannot operate in secrecy near UK or Nato territory.”
Worries over the potential sabotage of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines have been growing after a string of outages in the Baltic Sea following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Britain decided to send maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft to help Nato’s efforts to protect cables in the Baltic Sea, Sir John announced, adding that it would also deploy an advanced AI system to help safeguard undersea infrastructure.
Arpan Rai23 January 2025 04:51
Ukrainians are using recordings of cat noises to lure Vladimir Putin’s forces into explosive-rigged traps, a Russian soldier has claimed.
With the grit and ingenuity of the Ukrainian army frequently evidenced in its success in defending against Russia’s vast invading force, it has now been claimed that they are turning to an unusual tactic in appealing to the Russians’ reported fondness for cats.
Russian sapper claims Ukrainians are using cat noises to draw invaders into booby traps in Donetsk
Arpan Rai23 January 2025 04:39
A North Korean soldier captured by Ukraine has said he did not know who he would be fighting against or where he would fight.
In the recording of the interview, posted by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on X, the soldier says he arrived with Russia along with 100 fellow North Koreans on a ship, before being later transported by train.
The soldier, who had joined the army aged 17 as a conscript, said some of his compatriots were trained on heavy Russian military equipment – but that he did not go through this training.
“I didn’t know before coming to Russia that I would be fighting here, in Russia and I didn’t even know who we were fighting against,” the soldier told Ukrainian investigators.
“There were a lot of casualties when I was there alone, starting from the battle on Jan. 3. Overall, it’s hard to answer about such large-scale numbers.”
When asked what he knew about the world outside of North Korea, he said: “Not much.” Asked what he knows about South Korea, he said: “I only know that South Korea has fewer mountains than North Korea.”
Andy Gregory23 January 2025 04:30
Donald Trump urged Russian president Vladimir Putin to “settle now and stop this ridiculous war” in a post to his Truth Social site yesterday.
He said he had no desire to hurt Russia — which he noted had played a major role in securing victory for the Allies against Nazi Germany in the Second World War — and has a good relationship with Mr Putin, but warned of penalties if the war isn’t stopped soon.
“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Trump has been sceptical of the billions of dollars the Biden administration provided Ukraine in weapons and other materiel to defend itself. He has often spoken of his desire to end the war and said on the campaign trail that he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office. That has not happened.
Arpan Rai23 January 2025 04:28
A pro-Russian candidate currently leads the Romanian polls four months before a crucial election in May.
Calin Georgescu, the far-right candidate who opposes Romanian support for Ukraine in its defense against Putin’s invasion, is the voters’ top choice ahead of a re-run of a presidential election.
The European Union state’s top court annulled the initial presidential election two days before the second round of voting, due to allegations of Russian interference.
The election of Georgescu would be a critical blow for Ukraine, which has relied on Romania to export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta, trained Ukrainian fighter pilots and donated a Patriot air defence battery to Kyiv.
Georgescu is critical of NATO and has praised Romania’s fascist leaders of the 1930s. The EU court said he had benefited from a social media campaign likely orchestrated by Russia – Moscow denied the accusations.
But the latest polls for the first round show Georgescu set to gain 38 percent of the vote, with Crin Antonescu, leader of the pro-European governing coalition, sitting at just 25 percent.
Andy Gregory23 January 2025 04:00
British troops are looking after each other on a “massive road trip” to Romania as part of a major Nato training exercise.
More than 2,500 British personnel are moving across Europe by land, air and sea to take part in Steadfast Dart, Nato’s largest planned exercise of the year.
The exercise is intended to showcase the alliance’s readiness, capability and commitment to defend Nato territories.
It comes ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday, with much of the exercise taking place in Romania, which borders Ukraine.
Captain Zakariah Ajjane, 29, from Molesey, Surrey, said British troops are looking after each other mammoth 1,400mile trip for Nato exercise.
Arpan Rai23 January 2025 03:54
