Category: Vox Europ News

EU ministers on Friday agreed cuts to peak-hour power consumption and windfall levies on energy companies in an urgent effort to bring down sky-high energy prices. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed treaties to formally incorporate four Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia – at a grand ceremony in the Kremlin. The ceremony followed discredited referendums in the Russian-occupied regions, which have been slammed as a “sham” by the international community.

As Vladimir Putin annexes four Ukrainian provinces, representing 15 percent of Ukraine’s territory, the Czech Republic’s Minister for European Affairs Mikulas Bek told FRANCE 24 that this is “totally unacceptable… the EU cannot step down from our support for Ukraine”. After former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared earlier this week that Russia had the right to defend itself […]

“Serious damage” caused by “substantial explosions – not done by an amateur”. That’s the assessment of the EU’s Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni after gas leaks were discovered in the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany earlier this week. The former Italian prime minister tells FRANCE 24 that currently there is insufficient evidence regarding who may […]

In an interview with FRANCE 24 from Kyiv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba struck a defiant tone, saying that the planned annexation this Friday by Russia of four Ukrainian regions following so-called referendums changes “nothing” for Ukraine and the world. The top Ukrainian diplomat said that the annexations and the recent partial mobilisation in Russia were a “sign of weakness” of Russian President […]

Tiny and insidious, microalgae are multiplying along our coastlines. Although vital to our survival, some 200 out of 5,000 species studied are harmful to people and ecosystems. As global warming intensifies the problem, our oceans may be growing ever more toxic. The Down to Earth team investigates.

Russia is seeing a wave of demonstrations in areas with high ethnic minority populations against President Vladimir Putin’s call for “partial mobilisation”. Analysts say this approach is undermining the Kremlin’s legitimacy among these groups and is likely to give Russia poorly motivated soldiers for its war against Ukraine.

Russian men have been fleeing in large numbers since the Kremlin announced a partial military draft to sustain its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Turkey, where some 50,000 Russian nationals have applied for residency since February, is one of their destinations of choice. Our correspondents in Istanbul bring you this report.

Major developments in current affairs are rarely isolated events, but often the result of decades of history in the making. Historians and international affairs experts have argued that Russia’s war in Ukraine is no exception, though they don’t all agree about the cause. So what can recent history tell us? Peter Conradi’s prescient 2017 book “Who Lost Russia? How […]

All summer, we asked if Europe was ready for winter. Now, is Europe ready for hybrid warfare? Swedish authorities reporting a fourth leak on the Nord Stream pipelines that connect Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. The EU calls Monday’s explosions sabotage, with Poland and Ukraine blaming Russia. Moscow asks: why would we do billions in damage […]