https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiTWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNubi5jb20vMjAxOS8xMi8zMC9jaGluYS9nZW5lLXNjaWVudGlzdC1jaGluYS1pbnRsLWhuay9pbmRleC5odG1s0gEA?oc=5
2019-12-30 07:30:00Z
52780528733591
The Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatist forces held a prisoner swap in the country's war-ravaged east Sunday in the latest sign of efforts to ease tensions between the two warring sides.
The exchange was agreed upon by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin during peace talks in Paris earlier this month.
The negotiations did not result in a peace deal to end the deadly five-year military conflict, but the two parties committed to further talks and a prisoner exchange before the year is out.
Ukraine said 76 of its prisoners were returned, while media reports suggested Kyiv released 123 prisoners to the rebels.
SBU, Ukraine’s security service, said after the swap that 12 of those returned were servicemen, while the other 64 were civilians.
"This exchange is proof of how important it is for Ukraine's president to protect every Ukrainian who is in difficult circumstances because of Russian aggression," said SBU chief Ivan Bakanov in a statement.
Armed troops from both sides looked on as buses arrived at the swap site Sunday morning, a checkpoint near the industrial town of Horlivka in the Donetsk region.
Photos shared in Ukrainian media showed prisoners being loaded on and off buses, with some being greeted by their loved ones.
Others were handed hot drinks and slices of cake to celebrate their release.
Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.
The last major prisoner exchange between separatist rebels and Ukrainian forces took place in December 2017, with 233 rebels exchanged for 73 Ukrainians.
Sunday’s swap comes several months after a direct prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia in September. That saw 24 Ukrainian sailors detained by Russia in a naval confrontation in late 2018 freed, among others.
The swap was considered a major victory for Zelenskiy, who made the return of the sailors one of his election promises.
The Ukrainian leader, who was a comedian without any political experience before he took office earlier this year, was thrust into the international spotlight following a phone conversation with President Donald Trump in July.
The call has become the focal point of an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. that will see Trump face a Senate trial after being impeached by the House earlier this month.
The saga has dominated Washington politics, and been a distraction for Zelenskiy as he juggles peace negotiations with efforts to revive the country’s struggling economy and tackle rampant corruption.
Eastern Ukraine has been ravaged by years of war between government forces and separatists backed by Russia, sparked in the aftermath of the 2014 mass protests in Kyiv.
The talks in Paris earlier this month renewed hopes for a resolution to the conflict, which has claimed more than 13,000 lives.
The United States has backed Ukraine throughout the conflict, fearing Putin’s efforts to extend Moscow’s geopolitical influence.
It has also heavily sanctioned Russia for its military intervention and the annexation of Crimea.
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv welcomed the prisoner swap.
"Recognizing that Russia's ongoing aggression confronts Ukraine's leadership with difficult choices, we stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian partners and the many Ukrainians who remain in captivity in Russia and Crimean," the embassy said in a statement.
Trump's decision to put a temporary hold on U.S. military aid, a central issue in the impeachment process, has raised concerns it could undermine Ukraine's efforts to contain Russian aggression.
Zelenskiy campaigned on ending the conflict, which is ongoing despite a ceasefire signed in 2015. He has taken a number of steps toward peace since coming into power, culminating in his face-to-face talks with Putin in Paris.
He has faced some opposition at home for what some have dubbed a “capitulation” to Russia. However, a recent poll showed 75 percent of Ukrainians support his talks with Putin to resolve the conflict.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States would be very disappointed if North Korea tested a long-range or nuclear missile and would take appropriate action as a leading military and economic power, White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien said on Sunday.
FILE PHOTO: North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un sits in his vehicle after arriving at a railway station in Dong Dang, Vietnam, at the border with China, February 26, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Washington has many “tools in its tool kit” to respond to any such test, O’Brien said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.”
“We’ll reserve judgment but the United States will take action as we do in these situations,” he said. “If Kim Jong Un takes that approach we’ll be extraordinarily disappointed and we’ll demonstrate that disappointment.”
North Korea has asked Washington to offer a new initiative to iron out differences over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. It warned Washington this month that failure to meet its expectations could result in an unwanted “Christmas gift.”
U.S. military commanders have said the North Korean move could involve the testing of a long-range missile - something North Korea has suspended, along with nuclear bomb tests, since 2017.
O’Brien said the United States and North Korea had open channels of communication but did not elaborate. He said Washington hoped North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would live up to his commitments to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
The United States was still the leading military power in the world and had tremendous economic power, said O’Brien. “There’s a lot of pressure that we can bring to bear,” he said.
North Korea threatened a Christmas surprise, despite the fact that Trump and Kim have engaged in personal diplomacy over the years and have a good personal relationship, O’Brien said.
“So perhaps he’s reconsidered that,” O’Brien added. “But we will have to wait and see. We’re going to monitor it closely. It’s a situation that concerns us, of course.”
Kim convened a meeting of top ruling party officials on Saturday to discuss important policy matters ahead of the year-end deadline set by Kim for the United States, the state news agency said on Sunday.
Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said meetings between the two leaders have produced “very little” on denuclearization.
“So what I want to see, I want to see is the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, make a full declaration of his nuclear weapons program and make a real commitment to start to dismantle that,” he said. “We haven’t seen any of that during the Trump administration.”
Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Tom Brown
A prisoner swap between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatist forces in the country's east was underway Sunday in the latest sign of efforts to ease tensions between the two warring sides.
The exchange was agreed upon by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin during peace talks in Paris earlier this month.
The negotiations did not result in a peace deal to end the deadly five-year military conflict, but the two parties committed to further talks and a prisoner exchange before the year is out.
The swap was expected see Ukraine hand over 87 separatists in exchange for 55 pro-government Ukrainians.
Armed troops from both sides looked on as buses arrived at the swap site, a checkpoint near the industrial town of Horlivka in the Donetsk region.
The last major prisoner exchange between separatist rebels and Ukrainian forces took place in December 2017, with 233 rebels exchanged for 73 Ukrainians.
Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.
Sunday’s swap comes several months after a direct prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia in September. That saw 24 Ukrainian sailors detained by Russia in a naval confrontation in late 2018 freed, among others.
The swap was considered a major victory for Zelenskiy, who made the return of the sailors one of his election promises.
The Ukrainian leader, who was a comedian without any political experience before he took office earlier this year, was thrust into the international spotlight following a phone conversation with President Donald Trump in July.
The call has become the focal point of an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. that will see Trump face a Senate trial after being impeached by the House earlier this month.
The saga has dominated Washington politics, and been a distraction for Zelenskiy as he juggles peace negotiations with efforts to revive the country’s struggling economy and tackle rampant corruption.
Eastern Ukraine has been ravaged by years of war between government forces and separatists backed by Russia, sparked in the aftermath of the 2014 mass protests in Kyiv.
The talks in Paris earlier this month renewed hopes for a resolution to the conflict, which has claimed more than 13,000 lives.
The United States has backed Ukraine throughout the conflict, fearing Putin’s efforts to extend Moscow’s geopolitical influence.
It has also heavily sanctioned Russia for its military intervention and the annexation of Crimea.
Trump's decision to put a temporary hold on U.S. military aid, a central issue in the impeachment process, has raised concerns it could undermine Ukraine's efforts to contain Russian aggression.
Zelenskiy campaigned on ending the conflict, which is ongoing despite a ceasefire signed in 2015. He has taken a number of steps toward peace since coming into power, culminating in his face-to-face talks with Putin in Paris.
He has faced some opposition at home for what some have dubbed a “capitulation” to Russia. However, a recent poll showed 75 percent of Ukrainians support his talks with Putin to resolve the conflict.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed.
Russia and Ukraine have begun the final phase of a long-awaited prisoner exchange, the office of the Ukrainian president said on Sunday.
Authorities agreed to the swap - aimed at improving relations between the two countries - at talks in December.
Ukraine is expected to hand over 87 separatists, while Russia will return 55 pro-Ukrainian fighters.
Relations between the two countries deteriorated in 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.
Russian-backed rebels then began an insurgency in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine. More than 13,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
This is the second prisoner exchange between the nations. In September, 24 sailors seized by Russia in the Kerch Strait off Crimea in November 2018 were released and - controversially - a "person of interest" over the downing of flight MH17 which killed 298 people was handed to Russia.
Media playback is unsupported on your device
Sunday's swap is taking place at a check point near the industrial town of Horlivka in the Donetsk region.
"At the Mayorske checkpoint the process of releasing detained persons has begun," the official Twitter account of the Ukrainian president said on Sunday.
Ukrainian activists opposed to the swap blockaded the exit to the prison in the capital where some of the pro-Russian prisoners were being held.
They objected to the release of former members of the Berkut - the Ukrainian riot police accused of killing forty-eight people during pro-democracy demonstrations in February 2014.
In a statement on Saturday, Ukraine's prosecutor-general's office said that defendants facing trial would still have to appear in court.
CNN's Alla Eshchenko contributed to this report from Atlanta.
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong police arrested about a dozen protesters and used pepper spray on Saturday to break up a protest in a shopping mall aimed at disrupting retail businesses near the border with mainland China.
Demonstrators have been targeting malls across Hong Kong since earlier this week and more than a hundred protesters, many dressed in black with face masks, marched through a mall in Sheung Shui on Saturday, chanting “Go back to China”.
Sheung Shui, which is just over the border from the Chinese city of Shenzhen, is popular with so-called parallel traders who buy large volumes of duty-free goods in Hong Kong and then sell them on the mainland.
The Chinese traders have become a target for protesters in Hong Kong, who are blame them for overcrowding and pushing up prices and rents.
“Our intention is to make shops close their gates. There are many parallel traders, we want to cast them out,” said Kelly, a 17-year-old protester wearing mask.
Police wrestled one protester to the ground and pepper sprayed his face before handcuffing him. Many shops closed early and shoppers hurried out of the mall.
The protests in Hong Kong began more than six months ago in response to a now-withdrawn bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, where courts are controlled by the Communist Party.
The demonstrations have since evolved into a broader pro-democracy movement and became more confrontational over the festive season.
More protests are planned in the next few days, including a countdown to New Year’s Day and a march on Jan. 1 organized by the civil human rights front that could attract thousands.
Many protesters have been angered by what they see as the use of unnecessary force by police and have demanded an independent inquiry into the force’s behavior.
Hong Kong police have earned a total of $17.3 million in meal and work-related allowances during the past six months of anti-government protests, government figures showed on Friday.
Demonstrators are also angry at what they perceive as increased meddling by Beijing in freedoms promised to the former British colony when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
China denies interfering, saying it is committed to the “one country, two systems” formula put in place at that time, and blames foreign forces for fomenting unrest.
Writing by Clare Jim; Editing by David Clarke