Europe news

Europe news

Every time Nikita Filippov races, it's an uphill struggle. At the Olympics, even more so. The 23-year-old from Russia's far eastern Kamchatka peninsula is a medal contender in the rugged new Olympic sport of ski mountaineering sprinting up a slope and then skiing back down. At the Milan Cortina Olympics, he'll be one of the few Russians competing as Individual Neutral Athletes. They cannot wear any Russian symbols and won't hear the Russian national anthem if they win a gold medal.

Dozens are dead, and more than 100 are injured after a deadly fire at a ski resort in the Swiss Alps. Many of the dead are believed to be young men and women. They were celebrating the new year at a bar that caught fire. Switzerland's President Guy Parmelin has called the incident one of the worst tragedies in the country's history.

Investigators said Friday that they believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited a fatal fire at a Swiss ski resort when they came too close to the ceiling of a bar crowded with New Year's Eve revelers. Authorities planned to look into whether sound-dampening material on the ceiling conformed with regulations and whether the candles, which give off a stream of upward-shooting sparks, were permitted for use in the bar.

POBUZKE, Ukraine In the middle of vast farm fields in southern Ukraine, you'll find what was once a secret Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile launch site. Today it's the Museum of Strategic Missile Forces. Aside from chronicling the Cold War arms race between the Soviet Union and United States, the museum tells the story of how Ukraine dismantled its nuclear weapons arsenal with assurances from the U.S., Britain and Russia that its sovereignty would be respected shortly after becoming an independent country in 1991.

KYIV, Ukraine Russia attacked Ukraine's capital with missiles and drones early Saturday morning, killing one and wounding over 20 people a day before talks between Ukraine and the U.S., local authorities said. Explosions boomed across the capital for hours as ballistic missiles and drones hit the city. The attack began in the early morning hours Saturday and was continuing as day broke.

Reuters noted that erlier this month, the two agencies unveiled a sweeping investigation into an alleged $100m kickback scheme at the stage atomic energy company, involving Zelenskyy's ex-business partner. While Yermak has not been named a suspect in the investigation, but opposition lawmakers and some members of Zelenskyy's own party had called for his dismissal as part of Ukraine's worst wartime political crisis, the agency said.

US and Russian officials have both described Poseidon as a new category of retaliatory weapon, with a nuclear warhead capable of triggering a radioactive tsunami to render coastal cities uninhabitable. Arms control experts say the weapon breaks most of the traditional nuclear deterrence and classification rules. It is launched from a submarine like a torpedo, but is claimed to be able to loiter as an underwater drone before attacking with its nuclear warhead.