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Biden, allies hold 'emergency' talks after missile strikes Poland: White House by AFP Staff Writers Nusa Dua, Indonesia (AFP) Nov 16, 2022
US President Joe Biden and leaders of key allies held "emergency" talks Wednesday after a missile hit Polish territory near the border with Ukraine, the White House said. Leaders of the European Union and all G7 countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- were among those at the hastily arranged meeting in Bali, where they have been taking part in a G20 summit of major economies. The White House website called the session an "emergency roundtable." It took place behind closed doors after journalists were asked to leave. To a shouted question from a reporter on whether he could provide an update on the missile, which killed two people in a Polish village, Biden simply answered: "No". The explosion in Poland, a NATO member, immediately sparked concerns that the alliance might be drawn into Russia's nearly nine-month war against Western-backed Ukraine. The White House has been cautious in its initial response and has not attributed blame for the missile. Polish President Andrzej Duda also sought to calm tensions, saying there was no "unequivocal evidence" for where the missile came from and that he saw it as an "isolated" incident. "Nothing indicates to us that there will be more," he said. In an early morning phone call from Bali, Biden told Duda that "they and their teams should remain in close touch to determine appropriate next steps as the investigation proceeds," the White House said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had reached out to his Polish and Ukrainian counterparts. "We pledged to remain closely coordinated in the days ahead as the investigation proceeds and we determine appropriate next steps," Blinken said. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a tweet that he had called for a "stiff and principled" response during the call with Blinken. Biden, pictured in a White House photograph huddling with Blinken and his national security advisor Jake Sullivan early Wednesday, was due to leave Bali for Washington, DC later. The war in Ukraine has overshadowed the G20 meeting, with President Vladimir Putin missing the international conference and Biden leading efforts to build unity on condemnation of the Kremlin.
Ukraine says power being restored after Russian strikes Some ten million Ukrainians were left without electricity when dozens of Russian missiles hit power stations in the biggest aerial attack since the Russian invasion began in February. On Wednesday fresh air raid alerts were sounding again across the country, raising concerns over new attacks, but the warnings were lifted in the capital Kyiv minutes after. "After yesterday's rocket strikes, I was informed in the morning that most of the subscribers were reconnected," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media. "Our engineers and rescuers worked all night in different regions," he said, vowing to "defeat all enemies". The deputy head of Zelensky's office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, specified that energy supplies have been fully restored in eight regions, mostly in western and central Ukraine. In Kyiv, city military administration head, Sergiy Popko, said on Telegram that "thanks to the well-coordinated work of engineers and employees of all public utilities ... the power supply for critical infrastructure facilities has been restored." The mayor of the western city of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, also reported that "power has been restored throughout almost the entire city". "There are isolated reports of houses where there is no electricity yet. We are working on it," he said on social media. On Tuesday, the Russian strikes also triggered automatic shutdowns of several reactors at two nuclear power plants as Moscow and Kyiv have traded blame for attacks near several nuclear plants in Ukraine.
CIA chief visits Kyiv after warning Moscow over nuclear use Burns traveled to Kyiv Tuesday, one day after holding talks in Ankara with Russia's spy chief Sergei Naryshkin on the war and Moscow's threat to use tactical nuclear weapons to defend its interests. That was the highest level face-to-face meeting of US and Russian officials since the beginning of the war, and Burns delivered a firm warning to Naryshkin "on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, and the risks of escalation to strategic stability," according to a White House Statement Monday. Then Burns traveled to Ukraine to inform Zelensky and his Ukraine counterparts on the talks with Naryshkin, and to reiterate US support for Kyiv's war effort, the official told AFP on the basis of anonymity. The statement Monday stressed that in his talks with Naryshkin, who heads Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, Burns was "not conducting negotiations of any kind." "He is not discussing settlement of the war in Ukraine," the statement said. Burns was in Kyiv on a day when Russian forces launched a barrage of missiles striking targets across Ukraine, including the capital city. But the official said Burns was safely inside the US embassy at the time, and has now departed.
France to conduct biggest ever war games in 2023 Paris (AFP) Nov 15, 2022 France is planning its biggest ever military exercise involving 12,000 troops, including NATO allies, in the first half of next year, a commander at the chiefs of staff said Tuesday. The scenario calls for a major conflict with an unspecified foreign state to be played out, said Yves Metayer, commander of the troop deployment division at the French chiefs of staff. The exercise will come against the background of Russia's war in Ukraine launched in February this year. "The geopolitical conte ... read more
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