World

Sri Lanka is to receive $3bn (£2.44bn) as part of a bailout plan to help the bankrupt nation which is also facing a humanitarian crisis. The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board will give the country $333m (£272m) immediately to help it rein in its debt to sustainable levels. However, the IMF funding will not

Vladimir Putin has welcomed his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to Moscow, just days after a warrant was issued for the Russian president’s arrest over alleged war crimes in Ukraine. The two leaders, who called each other “dear friend” and exchanged compliments during the meeting at the Kremlin, were locked in talks for more than four

Vladimir Putin has said Russia and China are fighting “common threats” as he welcomes President Xi Jinping for a three-day trip to Moscow. Writing in an article in the People’s Daily Newspaper, the Russian president described Mr Xi‘s visit as a “landmark event” that “reaffirms the special nature of the Russia-China partnership”. The outlet is

For months, rising food and energy costs have brought protesters on to Moldova’s streets but while the cost-of-living crisis is biting, the government claims outside forces are fuelling the unrest. The pro-Western leaders have accused Russia of deliberately stoking the anger by reducing gas supplies to push up prices, spreading propaganda and backing a plot

Vladimir Putin’s visit to Mariupol comes in the week that he was indicted by the International Criminal Court for the trafficking of children to all intents and purposes – and comes off the back of his visit to Crimea on Saturday for the ninth anniversary of its illegal annexation. This appears to be a show

Putin ‘unruffled and unapologetic’, despite war crimes charge John Sparks International correspondent @sparkomat The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is now liable to arrest in 123 countries – but he knows that no one is going to detain him in Crimea. The peninsula was seized from Ukraine in 2014 and Russia’s long-time leader has returned to

Ukraine has been telling anyone who would listen for months that Russia had a formal state-sponsored plan to effectively steal Ukrainian children, take them to Russia and turn them against their own country. The Ukrainian government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) say the number of missing children in the last year alone is more than 16,000.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of abducting children from Ukraine. It also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia‘s commissioner for children, on similar allegations of war crimes. The Kremlin said Russia found the questions raised by the ICC

We’re racing across town in battle-torn eastern Ukraine, trying to keep up with a battered BMW driven by an 18-year-old with his 21-year-old mate urging him on; but they aren’t joyriding youngsters. They’re soldiers in the military and part of a special unit, and they’re taking us to their headquarters. We had met an hour

On the edge of Europe is a pocket of pro-Russian support which has been under close watch since the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Transnistria is a breakaway region in eastern Moldova which is politically, economically and militarily supported by Moscow. Neither Moldova nor the wider international community recognise its independence. In Transnistria’s capital, Tiraspol,

There have been rare chaotic scenes in the French parliament as President Emmanuel Macron used special powers to push through an unpopular pensions bill which aims to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Boos and chants from opposition politicians were heard in the national assembly (the lower house) as left-wing MPs sung lines

Poland is to send Ukraine four MiG-29 fighter jets in the coming days, it has been announced, with more to follow later. “Firstly, literally within the next few days, we will hand over, as far as I remember, four aircraft to Ukraine in full working order,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Thursday. “The rest

The US says the drone which crashed into the Black Sea after encountering two Russian fighter jets will not provide intelligence of any value should Moscow attempt to recover its wreckage. Russian officials have said they will seek to find whatever is left of the MQ-9 Reaper, which was downed on Tuesday. Sergei Naryshkin, head

A Russian aircraft has been intercepted by British RAF and German fighter jets after it was identified near NATO airspace. Two Typhoon jets – one British and one German – reacted to the Russian aircraft after it failed to communicate with Estonian air traffic control close to the NATO nation’s airspace. The Ministry of Defence

A diplomatic row has erupted between Washington and Moscow after US forces accused a Russian jet of “recklessly” colliding with one of its drones, causing it to crash into the Black Sea. Russia denied involvement, with a senior figure describing the episode as a “provocation”. The incident has demonstrated the increasing risk of a direct

China has hit out at the US, UK and Australia over their pact to create new nuclear-powered submarines, saying they have “gone further down a dangerous road”. It follows Rishi Sunak meeting US President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in San Diego to announce the next stage of the AUKUS partnership plan.

Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s aggression over Taiwan threaten to create a world “defined by danger, disorder and division”, the UK prime minister has warned. Rishi Sunak predicted a “difficult and dangerous decade” as his government published a long-awaited update to a major defence, security and foreign policy review on Monday. The 63-page document

China must modernise its military to make it a “Great Wall of Steel”, President Xi Jinping has said. Speaking for the first time in his precedent-breaking third term as head of state, Mr Xi called for China to step up its ability to safeguard national security and manage public security. “Security is the foundation for

The former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili has told Sky News he is approaching death in the hospital he has been moved to from jail. In a moment of rare media access, the former leader also delivered a warning to the people of Georgia after days of protests had swept through the country. An appeal

Azad Safarov is a Ukrainian producer working with Sky News journalists in Ukraine. He is also the assistant director and line producer for the Oscar-nominated documentary film ‘A House Made Of Splinters’. Here he writes about going from the frontline to the red carpet. Do you like movies? I do, but sometimes real life is