Latest news with #territory
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russian forces advance and take first village in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, state media say
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian forces have taken control of the first village in the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk, Russian state media and war bloggers said on Monday, after Russia took 950 square kms of territory in two months. There was no immediate confirmation from Ukrainian sources or from the Russian Defence Ministry. As Moscow and Kyiv talk of possible peace, the war has intensified with Russian forces carving out a 200 square kilometre (77.22 square miles) chunk of Ukraine's Sumy region and entering the Dnipropetrovsk region last month. The authoritative Ukrainian Deep State map shows that Russia now controls 113,588 square kms of Ukrainian territory, up 943 square km over the two months to June 28. Russia's state RIA news agency quoted a pro-Russian official, Vladimir Rogov, as saying that Russian forces had taken control of the village of Dachnoye just inside the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russia has said it is willing to make peace but that Ukraine must withdraw from the entirety of four regions which Russia mostly controls and which President Vladimir Putin says are now legally part of Russia. Ukraine and its European backers say those terms are tantamount to capitulation and that Russia is not interested in peace and that they will never accept Russian control of a fifth of Ukraine. The areas under Russian control include Crimea, more than 99% of the Luhansk region, over 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, all in the east or southeast, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Reuters
2 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Russian forces advance and take first village in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, state media say
MOSCOW, June 30 (Reuters) - Russian forces have taken control of the first village in the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk, Russian state media and war bloggers said on Monday, after Russia took 950 square kms of territory in two months. There was no immediate confirmation from Ukrainian sources or from the Russian Defence Ministry. As Moscow and Kyiv talk of possible peace, the war has intensified with Russian forces carving out a 200 square kilometre (77.22 square miles) chunk of Ukraine's Sumy region and entering the Dnipropetrovsk region last month. The authoritative Ukrainian Deep State map shows that Russia now controls 113,588 square kms of Ukrainian territory, up 943 square km over the two months to June 28. Russia's state RIA news agency quoted a pro-Russian official, Vladimir Rogov, as saying that Russian forces had taken control of the village of Dachnoye just inside the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russia has said it is willing to make peace but that Ukraine must withdraw from the entirety of four regions which Russia mostly controls and which President Vladimir Putin says are now legally part of Russia. Ukraine and its European backers say those terms are tantamount to capitulation and that Russia is not interested in peace and that they will never accept Russian control of a fifth of Ukraine. The areas under Russian control include Crimea, more than 99% of the Luhansk region, over 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, all in the east or southeast, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
News.com.au
7 days ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
China elbows its way into South Korean waters
ANALYSIS Satellite photos reveal China is using the cover of global turmoil to push its boundaries deeper into neighbouring territory. The world's eyes are focused on Ukraine, Gaza and Iran. South Korea has been contending with the fallout of a failed presidential coup. Meanwhile, Beijing has anchored an enormous deep-sea platform in the disputed waters of the Yellow Sea. And it won't let Seoul get a close look. China insists it is a service centre for surrounding caged aqua farms. South Korea, however, has its doubts. 'We are treating this issue with utmost seriousness from the standpoint of protecting our maritime territory,' Korean Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Kang Do-hyung told reporters shortly after an open-sea showdown in April. International security analysts understand why. 'While available information suggests that the platforms are genuinely focused on aquaculture, concerns that the platforms may be dual-use are not unfounded, given China's track record in the South China Sea,' a new report by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) states. Beijing insisted in 2015 that its massive building campaign in the Spratly Islands was to establish weather stations and air-sea rescue facilities to serve commercial shipping in the area. Why these humanitarian roles require missile launchers, anti-aircraft guns, military-grade piers and runways, hardened hangars, ammunition bunkers, and barracks remains unexplained. The new structure is in waters previously agreed to be shared until arbitration under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) decided who owned what. That agreement, however, now appears surplus to Beijing's needs. Megastructure manoeuvres The hulking steel rig is called Atlantic Amsterdam. It was built for the offshore oil industry. It's now supposed to be the front office of a Chinese fish farm complex. But it's not the only structure Beijing has deployed in the supposedly shared Provisional Measures Zone (PMZ). Two giant steel aquaculture cages are fattening and harvesting fish. 'Even without further expansion, the platforms are likely already collecting data that could have value for undersea navigation and detection,' Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) analysts Jennifer Jun and Victor Cha assess in the AMSTI report. The former offshore oil platform is certainly overkill for its new job. The 85m wide, six-storey high structure can accommodate more than 100 people. That's far beyond what's needed for its stated 'central integrated management' role – if limited to aquaculture. Chinese state-controlled media touts the facility as including a marine science laboratory, research centre, production management facilities, and tourist accommodations. 'With the platform as the landing point, more cages can be built around it …[and] the scale of deep-sea aquaculture can be continuously expanded,' it adds. Seoul isn't convinced. 'China's method of installing the (Atlantic Amsterdam) structure is similar to its tactic of creating artificial islands in the South China Sea,' People Power Party MP Kweon Seong-dong told Korea Herald. A Stanford University's SeaLight maritime security research project satellite photo assessment found the Atlantic Amsterdam was anchored in the disputed territory in October 2022. It replaced a much smaller rig placed there two years earlier. For Chinese eyes only South Korea has, until recently, kept its concerns about China's expanding infrastructure to itself. News of the increasing tensions only emerged in April. That was when details of a February high seas clash between South Korean and Chinese Coast Guard vessels became public. The South Korean fisheries research vessel Onnuri was sent into the PMZ to verify Chinese accounts of its new fish farm. But it sits within a treaty 'grey zone'. 'While ships from both sides are allowed to fish within the PMZ, aquaculture is entirely unmentioned by the 2001 fisheries agreement,' AMTI states. '(This leaves) an ambiguity that will make it difficult for Seoul to convince Beijing to remove the platforms.' It appears Beijing believes the structure falls outside the scope of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) definitions, and its PMZ compromise with Seoul. 'South Korean requests for China to relocate the structures outside of the PMZ have not only been repeatedly rejected, but the Chinese government has also unilaterally declared 'no-sail' zones within the PMZ and has deployed at least 13 additional buoys in the Yellow Sea since 2018,' AMTI adds. In February, South Korea's Onnuri fisheries research vessel was challenged by Chinese Coast Guard vessels within the shared waters. It was then forcefully redirected away from the steel platform. South Korean sources claim plain-clothed Chinese officials approached the Onnuri in inflatable dinghies while waving knives in the air. AMTI says 'multiple' similar attempts to approach the area, 'often accompanied by South Korean coast guard escorts', had been blocked since 2022. Beijing has not said why a fish farm is so politically sensitive. '(Seoul) may suspect there is more happening there than just aquaculture, such as signals intelligence operations,' Stanford University SeaLight director Ray Powell told US media. International lawfare South Korea has protested to China that anchoring the structures inside the Yellow Sea PMZ presents potential navigation hazards for South Korean fishing vessels. It adds that the lack of consultation over their presence breached its treaty rights. China rejects the allegations. It insists the structures have nothing to do with the PMZ treaty, are 'located in China's coastal waters' (which UNCLOS is yet to determine) and are a reasonable use of its offshore resources. China calls it the Yellow Sea. South Korea calls it the West Sea. Their dispute arises from the UNCLOS definition (which Beijing is a signatory to) that an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extends 370km from a nation's shores – unless it overlaps with that of another. The EEZ gives commercial access to the owner state to the zone's fishing and natural resources. But international vessels are free to travel over it. Beijing and Seoul formalised their competing claim in 2001. The Provisional Measures Zone (PMZ) requires approval from both states before any commercial activities can take place there. 'The agreement allows fishing activities from both sides but does not authorise other actions such as the installation of fixed structures, which could impact future maritime boundary negotiations,' AMTI states. Beijing says no. 'The aquaculture facilities set up by Chinese company in the PMZ do not contravene the agreement between China and the ROK,' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a press briefing. Last month, Seoul decided to test Beijing's argument. It has deployed its own large floating structure in the PMZ. Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Kang Do-hyung said the platform was for 'environmental investigation'. Surveillance staging post South Korea's parliament has been too busy for the past 18 months to address the growing tensions. It had to contend with the impeachment and removal of former President Yoon Suk-yeol after he declared martial law in an effort to sideline opposition parties. 'China has not allowed a good crisis to go to waste,' Korea Institute for Maritime Strategy Jun Kajee told Newsweek. 'Beijing insists these are private-sector projects for economic development, dismissing sovereignty concerns as overreactions. 'However, China's refusal to halt construction – even as South Korean survey vessels face coast guard blockades – reveals a strategic intent to normalise its presence.' South Korea has reported a steady increase in the activity of Chinese naval vessels in the PMZ in recent years. It's also ramped up the frequency of declaring 'no-sail zones' for war games. The Korea JoongAng Daily news service reports China deployed warships within 'South Korean controlled waters' some 170 times between January and May. Chinese surveillance ships had also been regularly entering the vicinity of Kunsan Air Base – the United States Air Force's Eighth Fighter Wing headquarters. 'The presence of these sensor-equipped ships suggests that China is likely engaged in some level of intelligence-gathering,' a South Korean defence official told the news service. 'While it is difficult to officially assess the intent of another country's military activities, it is presumed that China is seeking to expand its regional influence.' South Korea carried out a crisis-resolution national election on June 3. On June 4, Seoul finally had a constitutionally acceptable President – Lee Jae-myung. China's Chairman, Xi Jinping, quickly put him in his place. Xi wants South Korea to 'inject more certainty into the chaotic regional and international situation.' 'Respecting each other's core interests and major concerns will help maintain the right course of bilateral relations and ensure steady progress,' he said in a statement. 'A healthy, stable, and continuously deepening China-South Korea relationship aligns with the trends of the times, serves the fundamental interests of both peoples, and contributes to regional and global peace, stability, and prosperity.' President Lee has indicated compliance, stating he sought 'pragmatic diplomacy' after years of Seoul 'unnecessarily antagonising' Beijing.
Japan Times
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Putin says 'the whole of Ukraine is ours' — in theory
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that in his view the whole of Ukraine was "ours" and cautioned that advancing Russian forces could take the Ukrainian city of Sumy as part of a bid to carve out a buffer zone along the border. Ukraine's foreign minister denounced the statements as evidence of Russian "disdain" for U.S. peace efforts and said Moscow was bent on seizing more territory and killing more Ukrainians. Russia currently controls about a fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, more than 99% of the Luhansk region, over 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Asked about fresh Russian advances, Putin told the S.t Petersburg International Economic Forum that he considered Russians and Ukrainians to be one people and "in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours." Kyiv and its Western allies say Moscow's claims to four Ukrainian regions and Crimea are illegal, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected the notion that Russians and Ukrainians are one people. He has also said that Putin's terms for peace are akin to capitulation. Putin, who ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, said on Friday he was not questioning Ukraine's independence or its people's striving for sovereignty, but he underscored that when Ukraine declared independence as the Soviet Union fell in 1991 it had also declared its neutrality. Putin said Moscow wanted Ukraine to accept the reality on the ground if there was to be a chance of peace — Russia's shorthand for the reality of Russia's control over a chunk of Ukrainian territory bigger than the U.S. state of Virginia. "We have a saying, or a parable," Putin said. "Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that is ours." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, writing in English on the X social media platform, said: "Putin's cynical statements demonstrate complete disdain for U.S. peace efforts." "While the United States and the rest of the world have called for an immediate end to the killing, Russia's top war criminal discusses plans to seize more Ukrainian territory and kill more Ukrainians." Wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, "he brings along only death, destruction, and devastation," Sybiha said. Zelenskyy, in his nightly video address, said Russia had shown "openly and utterly cynically that they 'don't feel like' agreeing to a ceasefire. Russia wants to continue the war." Zelenskyy said commanders had discussed action in Ukraine's northern Sumy region and that Russia had "various plans and intentions, completely mad as always. We are holding them back and eliminating these killers, defending our Sumy region." Putin said Russian forces were carving out a buffer zone in the Sumy region in order to protect Russian territory. "Next is the city of Sumy, the regional center. We don't have the task of taking it, but in principle I don't rule it out," he said.
Reuters
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Russia advances to east-central Ukrainian region amid row over dead soldiers
MOSCOW, June 8 (Reuters) - Russia said on Sunday its forces had advanced to the edge of the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk amid a public row between Moscow and Kyiv over peace negotiations and the return of thousands of bodies of soldiers who fell in the war. Amid talk of peace, the war is stepping up with Russian forces grabbing more territory in Ukraine and Kyiv unfurling high-profile drone and sabotage attacks on Russia's nuclear-capable bomber fleet and, according to Moscow, on railways. Russia, which controls a little under one fifth of Ukrainian territory, has taken more than 190 square km (73 square miles) of the Sumy region of eastern Ukraine in less than a month, according to pro-Ukrainian open source maps. Now, according to the Russian defence ministry, units of the 90th Tank Division of the Central Grouping of Russian forces have reached the western frontier of Ukraine's Donetsk region and are attacking the adjacent Dnipropetrovsk region. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv on the Russian advance, though the pro-Ukrainian Deep State map showed Russian forces very close to the Dnipropetrovsk region, which had a population of more than 3 million before the war. Russia on Saturday accused Ukraine of delaying the swap of prisoners of war and return the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers, though Ukraine denied those claims. Russia said on Sunday it was moving bodies towards the border. U.S. President Donald Trump, who says he wants an end to the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, on Thursday likened it to a fight between young children and indicated that he might have to simply let the conflict play out. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he did not think Ukraine's leaders wanted peace, after accusing them of ordering a bombing in Bryansk, western Russia that killed seven people and injured 115 a day before talks in Turkey. Ukraine, which has not commented on the attack on a Bryansk bridge, has similarly accused Moscow of not seriously seeking peace, citing as evidence Russian resistance to an immediate ceasefire. Russia is demanding international recognition of Crimea, a peninsula annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, and four other regions of Ukraine that Moscow has claimed as its own territory. Ukraine would have to withdraw its forces from all of them. Russia controlled 113,273 square km, or 18.8%, of Ukrainian territory as of June 7, according to the Deep State map. That is an area bigger than the U.S. state of Virginia. The areas under Russian control include Crimea, more than 99% of the Luhansk region, over 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, all in the east or southeast, and fragments of the Kharkiv and Sumy regions in the northeast Putin told Trump on Wednesday that he would have to respond to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's bomber fleet and the bombings of the railways. The United States believes that Putin's threatened retaliation against Ukraine over its attacks has not happened yet in earnest and is likely to be a significant, multi-pronged strike, U.S. officials told Reuters. Russia also hit the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Friday evening and overnight with drones, missiles and guided bombs, killing at least four people and injuring more than 60, including a baby, local officials said on Saturday. Russia also said it had downed 61 Ukrainian drones overnight on Sunday in the Moscow region. Two major airports serving Moscow were closed temporarily.
