Day: September 15, 2022

YEREVAN, Armenia -- Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiated a cease-fire to end a flare-up of fighting that has killed 155 soldiers from both sides, a senior Armenian official said early Thursday. Armen Grigoryan, the secretary of Armenia's Security Council, announced the truce in televised remarks, saying it took effect hours earlier, at 8 p.m. (1600 GMT) Wednesday. A previous cease-fire that Russia brokered Tuesday quickly failed. Several hours before Grigoryan's announcement, Armenia's Defense Ministry reported that shelling had ceased but it didn't mention the cease-fire deal. There was no immediate comment from Azerbaijan's government. The cease-fire declaration followed two days of heavy fighting that marked the largest outbreak of hostilities between the two longtime adversaries in ne...

KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's car collided with another vehicle early Thursday after a battlefield visit, but he was not seriously injured, his spokesman said. Zelenskyy was returning to Kyiv from the Kharkiv region, where he visited troops in the recaptured city of Izium. A passenger vehicle collided with the president’s motorcade in the Ukrainian capital, his spokesman, Sergii Nikiforov, said in a Facebook post. The driver of the other vehicle received first aid Taos Sandals from Zelenskyy’s medical team and was taken away by ambulance, he said. Medics examined the president, who suffered no serious injuries, Nikiforov wrote. He did not specify what injuries Zelenskyy might have suffered. The spokesman added that the circumstances of the accident are unde...

IZIUM, Ukraine -- Hand on heart, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy watched his country’s flag rise Wednesday above the recaptured city of Izium, making a rare foray outside the capital that highlights Moscow’s embarrassing retreat from a Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russian forces left the war-scarred city last week as Kyiv's soldiers pressed a stunning advance that has reclaimed large swaths of territory in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. As Zelenskyy looked on and sang the national anthem, the Ukrainian flag was raised in front of the burned-out city hall. After almost six months under Russian occupation, Izium was left largely devastated, with apartment buildings blackened by fire and pockmarked by artillery strikes. A gaping hole and piles of rubble stood where one build...