Snow clogs transport in Europe as Parisians turn to skis
Snow and ice caused travel chaos in northwest Europe on Wednesday, while others were delighted by the snow-covered streets of Paris, venturing out on ...
Sweden announced its largest military aid package to Ukraine worth $1.6 billion to help Kyiv strengthen its position in peace talks. The package includes new equipment and financial donations for Ukraine's defense industry, with Sweden's total support since 2022 reaching 80 billion crowns.
Sweden announced a new military aid package to Ukraine worth 16 billion crowns ($1.59 billion) on Monday, the biggest package to date from the Nordic country, saying it wanted to help Kyiv strengthen its position in talks on ending the war.
The bulk of the package, nine billion crowns, will consist of new equipment that will be purchased in processes led by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, Defence Minister Pal Jonson told a press conference.
Around five billion crowns will be financial donations for Ukraine's defence industry.
"We are now at a critical stage of the war. Our focus is now on supporting Ukraine as much as possible so that they can get into a position of strength during these negotiations," he said.
Jonson said all European countries now need to increase their support to Ukraine. "More need to do more."
Since taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump has sought to broker a ceasefire to end fighting in the three-year-old war in Ukraine.
Jonson, asked at the press conference if Europe has the financial and production capacity to take on more of the responsibility if the United States scales down, said: "I'm slightly more concerned with the defence industrial production than the financial resources."
"The EU alone has an economy eight times as big as Russia, so if there is a will, there is a way for extensive support. The limitation has been the defence industrial production in Europe which has been adapted to peacetime," he said.
The government has said Sweden will ramp up aid to Ukraine this year, boosting the 2025 budget allocation to 40 billion crowns from 25 billion projected earlier, to aid Kyiv's fight against Russian invasion.
Including the new package, Sweden's military support since 2022 totals 80 billion crowns.
Germany’s foreign intelligence service secretly monitored the telephone communications of former U.S. President Barack Obama for several years, including calls made aboard Air Force One, according to an investigation by the German newspaper Die Zeit.
Diplomatic tensions between Tokyo and Beijing escalated as Japan slams China's export ban on dual-use goods. Markets have wobbled as fears grow over a potential rare earth embargo affecting global supply chains.
Iran’s chief justice has warned protesters there will be “no leniency for those who help the enemy against the Islamic Republic”, as rights groups reported a rising death toll during what observers describe as the country’s biggest wave of unrest in three years.
President Ilham Aliyev said 2025 has politically closed the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, as a Trump-era reset in U.S. ties, new transport corridors and a push into AI, renewables and defence production reshape Azerbaijan’s priorities.
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) sources reported a significant movement of U.S. military aircraft towards the Middle East in recent hours. Dozens of U.S. Air Force aerial refuelling tankers and heavy transport aircraft were observed heading eastwards, presumably to staging points in the region.
The U.S. has seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker that had been followed by a Russian submarine on Wednesday, following a more than two-week-long pursuit across the Atlantic as part of a U.S. "blockade" on Venezuelan oil exports, according to two U.S. officials speaking to Reuters.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought to advance EU membership discussions and secure stricter sanctions on Russia during a meeting on Wednesday as Cyprus took over the European Union's rotating presidency.
Two people have been killed after a private helicopter crashed at a recreation centre in Russia’s Perm region, Russian authorities and local media have said.
Türkiye is considering draft legislation that would prohibit children under the age of 15 from opening social-media accounts, Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş has said.
Türkiye is prepared to “assume responsibility” for the security of the Black Sea once a peace agreement is signed between Russia and Ukraine, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has said.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment