Zelensky dismisses top aid Andriy Yermak as corruption investigation widens

'We need a coalition of the billing, not just of the willing': Belgian FM on Ukraine

The EU was caught off guard when US President Donald Trump unveiled his 28-point plan for peace in Ukraine on November 21 – a document that Brussels and Kyiv see as being heavily favourable to the Kremlin. The EU has since presented a counter-proposal, but the bloc has given the impression of rea...

Zelensky says his chief of staff Andriy Yermak has resigned after anti-graft raids

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Friday that his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has submitted his resignation amid a corruption scandal. Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies searched Yermak's home in the morning. Meanwhile, Kyiv hit Russia's Saratov oil refinery and the Saky air base in occupied Cr...

Damascus blasts Israeli war crime : At least 10 killed

At least 13 people, including two children, were killed and 25 injured as Israel carried out another incursion into Syrian territory in the Damascus countryside, according to state media, which also reported that several Israeli soldiers were wounded in the clashes. The dawn raid and accompanying s...

Living among landmines: Residents' risky return to villages on Syrian-Iraqi border

Since the fall of the Syrian regime in December 2024, the NGO Handicap International has recorded 725 accidents and nearly 1,400 victims of landmines and explosive ordnance throughout the country, compared to 933 victims in 2023. The increase in these figures in recent months is partly due to the r...

Massive corruption scandal embroils Kyiv: Andriy Yermak denies wrongdoing, vows full cooperation

Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies, NABU and SAP, said Friday they were conducting sanctioned searches at the office of President Zelensky’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, a powerful but divisive figure accused by critics of accumulating influence and sidelining opponents. Earlier this month, investi...

German president honours victims in Guernica, razed by Nazis

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier honoured Nazi war victims in Guernica on Friday, becoming the first German leader to visit the Spanish town where hundreds of civilians were killed in 1937....

Denmark sets up night watch so Trump doesn't seize Greenland while they sleep

PRESS REVIEW – Friday, November 28: The US press are talking about one story only: the death of a young National Guardswoman who was shot alongside another guardsman in Washington on Wednesday. The suspect, an Afghan native who came to the US in 2021, has sparked intense debate about the repercu...

Ukraine’s anti-graft agency searches top Zelensky aide’s offices

Ukraine’s anti-corruption investigators raided the home of one of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top aides on Friday, deepening a growing political crisis as Washington increases pressure on Kyiv to accept a peace deal to end the war with Russia. France24 International Affairs Editor Rochelle F...

Anti-graft officers search Zelensky's chief of staff's home

Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency said Friday it had launched searches targeting Andriy Yermak, the influential chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The raids follow a major corruption scandal shaking Kyiv. Earlier this month, investigators said they had uncovered a $100-million kickba...

Live: Ukraine hits Russia’s Saratov oil refinery in overnight attack, military says

Kyiv hit Russia's Saratov oil refinery and the Saky air base in occupied Crimea overnight, the Ukrainian military said Friday. This comes as the Russian defence ministry said its air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 136 Ukrainian drones overnight. More than half were shot down over the Ros...

Europe debates the future of Russia’s frozen assets

With Ukraine facing a yawning budget shortfall over the next two years, the European Commission has proposed using €185 billion in frozen Russian assets to back an interest-free loan to Kyiv guaranteed by the bloc's member states. But Belgium, the host state of the clearing house that holds the f...

Guinea-Bissau's ousted president leaves the country after coup

In tonight's edition: Ousted Guinea-Bissau president Umaro Sissoco Embalo has arrived in Senegal after General Horta N'Tam was appointed as the country's transitional leader. Also, many women in Africa had been promised jobs in hospitality and catering, but instead found themselves building drones...

Netanyahu government relies solely on force, with no clear strategy or diplomatic vision

Yossi Mekelberg, Senior Consulting Fellow at MENAP, Chatham House, offers in-depth analysis of Israel's latest military operation in the occupied West Bank. He warns that the operation isn't an isolated security raid, but as part of a broader objective: build on earlier operations in locations such...

Getting ready to fight back? France introduces military service as Russian threat looms

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that France is to reintroduce a national military service. Young people will be taken into the military, trained for a period of around a year and paid €800 a month. The programme will be open to all, and voluntary. ...

Russian spy network exploits Ukrainian teenagers in Europe

One hundred dollars for torching a van, a few hundred more for planting a bomb or quick cash for snapping a photo of a strategic location: Russian intelligence services have found a new, cheap – and increasingly effective – way to conduct sabotage operations across Europe. They are recruiting U...

aja monet: The Grammy-nominated poet taking on power and the culture wars

In this arts24 interview, Grammy-nominated poet aja monet joins us in Paris to talk about her new collection "Florida Water" and what it means to make art in a moment of political turmoil. She opens up about living through the new wave of American culture-war battles – from book bans to attacks...

Judo brings Russian athletes in from the cold despite ongoing war

The International Judo Federation on Thursday restored Russia’s right to compete under its flag, a move hailed in Moscow as "historic" but condemned by Ukraine as a betrayal of peace as the war continues....

France: Macron unveils voluntary military service in face of Russia threat

After conscription was abolished in 1997, French President Macron unveiled a new voluntary programme aimed at young people aged 18–19, with a target of 10,000 recruits by 2030. Macron’s announcement comes over three and a half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, amid growing t...

Should ultra-Orthodox Jews have to do military service? Israeli society divided

Israeli society is split over the issue of compulsory military service for the ultra-Orthodox community. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who represent 15 percent of the population, have historically been exempt from service. But a bill has now been proposed to lift this exemption, in response to growing needs...

Live: France's Macron unveils voluntary military service in face of Russia threat

Energy infrastructure under fire amid Ukraine peace talks

Russia continues to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, reducing electricity production by 50% and forcing residents and businesses to cope with rolling blackouts. Despite recent peace talks, attacks like the drone strike on Zaporizhzhia highlight the ongoing threat and looming difficulties f...

Euroclear warns EU that Russian frozen asset plan could lead to higher borrowing costs

The Financial Times is reporting that a depositary firm that holds frozen Russian state assets in the EU has warned that the bloc's plan to use these assets to back €140 billion in loans to Ukraine could lead to higher borrowing costs for member states. Also in this edition, Japanese beer giant A...

Ukraine turns to land drones to survive the drone-saturated frontline

Ukrainian troops in the Kharkiv region rely on slow, unmanned ground buggies to move supplies and evacuate the wounded through a drone-saturated frontline. Highly vulnerable to airborne attacks, these land drones have become essential as soldiers stay in exposed positions for months and traditional...

Witkoff's art of the deal? Trump aide coaches Kremlin on Ukraine deal response

The peace plan that read like it had been written by the Kremlin and that called for Ukraine to surrender land, cut back its military and give up any notion of NATO membership was already raising worried eyebrows. Now, in light of a recorded phone call between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian pre...

Live: Russia says its forces downed 118 Ukrainian drones overnight

Russian air defences shot down 118 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 52 over the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday. Moscow earlier warned it would make no big concessions on a peace plan for Ukraine after a leaked recording of a call involving US env...

France wary of MAGA influence as far right sets sights on 2027 elections

The US conservative MAGA movement's influence over European politics is raising concern in France in the run-up to high-stakes elections in 2027. The movement appears to be cultivating ties with far-right European parties more overtly than in President Donald Trump's first term....

'Nigeria needs structural reforms that will offer an alternative to organised criminal networks'

As Nigeria’s evolving security crisis pivots from ideological terrorism to organised crime, Mark Owen welcomes Dr Douglas Yates, Author, Political Scientist and Professor specialising in Africa at the American Graduate School of International Relations and Diplomacy (AGSIRD) and CY Cergy Paris ...

Russian nationals among 4 people arrested in France over espionage probe

French authorities have detained members of a pro-Russia support group and accused them of intelligence-gathering for a foreign power. The SOS Donbass group was set up in France in 2022. Its founder, a dual French-Russian national, was among four people taken into custody. FRANCE 24's Yinka Oyetade...

Two National Guard members shot near White House, suspect in custody

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that an Afghan man who fled the Taliban was the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard soldiers near the White House, calling it an “act of terror,” linking the incident to immigration, his domestic troop deployments and the Afghanistan war legacy...

'For a very long time, Ukrainians have suspected that Steve Witkoff was working for the Russians'

Russia will make no big concessions on a peace plan for Ukraine, a senior Russian diplomat said on Wednesday, after a leaked recording of a call involving U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff showed he had advised Moscow on how to pitch to Donald Trump. FRANCE 24's Kyiv correspondent Gulliver Cragg says the le...