Death toll rises to 8 from new Turkiye-Syria earthquake

and suffered repeated setbacks. Much of the speech covered old ground, as Putin offered his own version of recent history, discounting arguments by the Ukrainian government that it needed Western help to thwart a Russian military takeover.

“Western elites aren’t trying to conceal their goals, to inflict a strategic defeat’ to Russia,” Putin said in the speech broadcast by all state TV channels. “They intend to transform the local conflict into a global confrontation.”

He added that Russia was prepared to respond since “it will be a matter of our country’s existence.” He has repeatedly depicted NATO’s expansion to include countries close to Russia as an existential threat to his country.

Putin denied any wrongdoing, even as the Kremlin’s forces in Ukraine strike civilian targets, including hospitals, and are widely accused of war crimes. On the ground in Ukraine on Tuesday, grinding battles and shelling attacks continued in the east and the south of the country. At least six people were killed over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s presidential office reported in the morning.

ISTANBUL, FEB 21 (AP):

The death toll in Turkiye and Syria rose to eight in a new and powerful earthquake that struck two weeks after a devastating temblor killed nearly 45,000 people, authorities and media said Tuesday.

Turkiye’s disaster management authority said six people were killed and 294 others were injured with 18 in critical condition after Monday’s 6.4-magnitude quake.

In Syria, a woman and a girl died as a result of panic during the earthquake in the provinces of Hama and Tartus, pro-government media outlets said.

The earthquake’s epicentre was in the town of Defne, in Turkiye’s Hatay province, which borders

Syria. It was also felt in Jordan, Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon and as far away as Egypt, and followed by a second, magnitude 5.8 temblor, and dozens of aftershocks.

Hatay was one of the worst-hit provinces in Turkey in the magnitude 7.8 quake that struck on Feb. 6.

Thousands of buildings were destroyed in the province and Monday’s quake further damaged buildings.

The governor’s office in Antakya, Hatay’s historic heart, was also damaged.

Officials have warned quake victims to not go into the remains of their homes, but people have done so to retrieve what they can. They were caught up in the new quake.