Wet ground holding Russians back for now, says Ukrainian official; private abortion clinics in illegally occupied Crimea ‘voluntarily’ close
The Czech and Taiwanese governments signed an agreement on Friday to work together to help reconstruction work in Ukraine, with a senior Czech envoy praising Taipei as a “great ally” despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties.
Reuters reports:
Ukraine has won broad sympathy in Taiwan after Russia’s invasion, with many Taiwanese seeing parallels between Ukraine’s situation and the threat Taipei’s government says it faces from China, which claims the island as its own territory.
Taiwan has donated more than $100 million for humanitarian relief, and joined in Western-led sanctions against Russia. Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine “a special military operation”.
There was no immediate comment by Russia, which seized and annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and whose Black Sea Fleet is headquartered in the Crimean city of Sevastopol.
“As a result of a night operation on the territory of temporarily occupied Crimea, small amphibious ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet were hit by soldiers,” the intelligence agency said on the Telegram messaging app.
