Ukrainian officials say they have yet to find any casualties in the ruins of a theater hit by a Russian airstrike this week in the southern city of Mariupol as Russian forces continue to fire on Ukrainian cities and negotiators from both countries seek to find common ground.   

As of Friday, 130 people have been rescued from the theater’s basement, Ukrainian officials said, as the search continues for the hundreds more who could be trapped in the makeshift bomb shelter that was hit Wednesday.

Mariupol’s city council said on Telegram that “according to initial information, there are no dead. But there is information about one person gravely wounded.”  

The theater was bombed despite signs indicating that civilians, including children, were sheltering there. Russia denies striking the theater.  

Also Friday, Russia’s lead negotiator in talks with Ukraine said the sides have moved closer to agreement on the issue of Ukraine dropping its bid to join NATO.  

Vladimir Medinsky said Friday the two countries are also “halfway there” on the question of Ukraine adopting neutral status.  

Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter, “Our positions are unchanged. Cease-fire, withdrawal of troops & strong security guarantees with concrete formulas.”  

Meanwhile, Russia bombarded the outskirts of Kyiv on Friday, and Russian missiles launched from the Black Sea landed in western Ukraine, near Lviv’s airport, more than three weeks after Russia’s war on its neighbor began.  

The airport was not hit, according to Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy, but an aircraft repair facility and a bus repair facility were. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the attack near Lviv, about 80 kilometers from Ukraine’s border with Poland. Sadovy said work at the facilities had been stopped before the attack.  

Ukraine’s air force western command said on Facebook that two of six missiles launched from the Black Sea were intercepted.  

In the Podil neighborhood of Kyiv early Friday, a residential building was hit, killing at least one person, according to emergency services, which said 98 people were evacuated.  

Two people were also killed in attacks on residential and administrative buildings in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, according Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration.  

US-China talks  

On the diplomatic front, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a rare videoconference call Friday.  

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Biden conveyed “very directly, leader to leader, what the implications and consequences would be” if China provided material support to Russia.

“China has to make a decision for themselves about where they want to stand and how they want the history books to look at them and view their actions,” she added. 

China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the nearly two-hour discussion that “conflict and confrontation” is “not in anyone’s interest.”  

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, however, criticized the U.S. suggestion that China risks being on the wrong side of history, saying the U.S. administration is being “overbearing.”

China could play a critical role in the conflict depending on its response to Russia’s reported request for military assistance. The U.S. is providing the bulk of military assistance to Ukraine, with Biden announcing another $800 million defense package this week.  

Russia still stalled  

The latest British defense intelligence assessment of the conflict is that “Russian forces have made minimal progress this week.” 

As the invasion enters its fourth week, Russian troops have failed to seize control of the capital, Kyiv, a major objective of the Kremlin.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense tweeted Friday that “Ukrainian forces around Kyiv and Mykolaiv continue to frustrate Russian attempts to encircle the cities.” 

“The cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remain encircled and subject to heavy Russian shelling,” it said. 

U.S. defense officials have repeatedly described Russia’s military as facing stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces.  

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed tens of thousands of people at a stadium rally Friday, praising the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. 

“We have not had unity like this for a long time,” he said.

“We know what we need to do, how to do it and at what cost. And we will absolutely accomplish all of our plans,” he added. 

Russia’s claims against U.S.  

Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council met Friday at Russia’s request for the second time in one week to discuss its latest allegations that the U.S. was operating a secret biological weapons program in Ukraine.  

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia claimed that Russian forces had uncovered new documents during their military offensive, and that Ukraine was playing only a secondary role in the alleged project.

“The Ukrainian specialists were not informed about the potential risks of transfer of biological materials and were kept in the dark,” Nebenzia said of the allegedly secret military biological program. “They don’t have a real idea about the real objectives of the research being carried out.”  

U.S. envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield dismissed the earlier allegations as “bizarre conspiracy theories” and said the latest claims sounded like they came from “some dark corner of the internet.”  

She expressed Washington’s continued concern that Moscow may be planting the seeds for an attack it would then blame on Ukraine.  

“We continue to believe it is possible that Russia may be planning to use chemical or biological agents against the Ukrainian people,” Thomas-Greenfield said.  

The United Nations’ human rights office said Friday it has verified 816 civilian killings since the fighting began February 24 but believes the death toll is vastly understated. Ukrainian officials say thousands of civilians have been killed.  

Nearly 3.3 million people have fled the war in Ukraine, according to U.N. estimates.  

The U.N. migration agency said Friday that in addition to those who left the country, nearly 6.5 million people have been displaced inside Ukraine and that another 12 million people have been stranded or unable to leave parts of Ukraine because of heightened security risks or a lack of resources. 

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, “By these estimates, roughly half the country is either internally displaced, stranded in affected areas or unable to leave, or has already fled to neighboring countries.”  

VOA’s White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara, congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson and U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.  

Some information also came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.  

 
…

In just three weeks, amid Russia’s invasion, an estimated 3 million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, including Poland where herculean efforts are underway to feed and care for the new arrivals. VOA’s Myroslava Gongadze reports from Medyka, a Polish town along the border with Ukraine.
…

Russian internet regulator Roskomnadzor has accused Google’s YouTube of “spreading threats against citizens of the Russian Federation” in a statement released Friday.

“Earlier it became known that YouTube video hosting users are broadcasting commercials with calls to disable the railway communications of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus,” the statement added. “The actions of the YouTube administration are of a terrorist nature and threaten the life and health of Russian citizens.”

Roskomnadzor did not identify the users broadcasting the alleged threats.

While the statement did not mention blocking YouTube in Russia, an unnamed official told Russian state media outlet Sputnik that YouTube could be blocked “by the end of next week,” or as early as Friday.

If YouTube is blocked, it will be the latest salvo in a battle between Russia and American tech platforms following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Google officials did not provide Reuters with a comment on the latest developments.

The Russian government has already blocked or limited access to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The country has a Facebook alternative, VKontakte, and domestic photo and video sharing sites are reportedly in the works.

American big tech firms have also taken measures to block or limit access to Russian state media on their platforms. For example, YouTube, which is owned Google’s parent company Alphabet, blocked YouTube channels operated by RT and Sputnik.

Some information in this report comes from Reuters.
…

When Iraqi-born American entrepreneur Emad Ballack watched footage of war breaking out in Ukraine from his office in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, he decided he had to act.

As civilians started to pour out of the country, Ballack, who is an ethnic Kurd, began a four-day trip to Kyiv, a city he has called home for the last eight years.

“I was not scared but more worried about how I would manage to get into the country,” he said.

During his journey by plane and train, the 45-year-old started to think about how he could use his businesses, including restaurants and an e-commerce company, to help Ukrainians under fire.

“Fighting is not only about holding a gun. Because of who I am, I am more useful getting support, finances,” Ballack said. “Growing up during war times in Iraq gave me some sort of resilience. I grew up being able to adapt to tough situations.”

After a childhood in Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq war, Ballack and his family fled to the Netherlands. He later settled in the United States before coming back to Iraqi Kurdistan in 2012.

A couple of years later he decided to start investing in Ukraine, just before Islamic State took over large swathes of Iraqi territory and dragged the Kurdistan region into a prolonged economic crisis.

Until Russia’s invasion, Ballack considered Ukraine a safe and promising country to invest in.

Now, using his own ventures and political and business connections in Ukraine and abroad, he is mobilizing support to deliver food, basic necessities and clothing to civilians and security forces.

After arriving in Kyiv on March 8, the entrepreneur started preparing free meals for security forces and civilians in his restaurant, while raising donations mostly in the United States.

Using his e-commerce company Zibox as a tool to manage the relief support, Ballack is organizing the delivery of goods to the Polish border with Ukraine, where local authorities assist with logistics to deliver the aid to those in need.

Unsure what the future holds, Ballack said he might bring more of his businesses to Iraqi Kurdistan.

“I am nervous about everything coming to a halt now,” he said. “But what I tell people to reassure them is that I myself am a war child. But look … I managed to rebuild my life.”
…

“I was thinking of a hashtag, ‘Even Switzerland,'” Ambassador Jacques Pitteloud said half jokingly, noting that U.S. President Joe Biden had uttered this phrase in his State of the Union address as he highlighted the international reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

On February 28, the Swiss Federal Council announced Switzerland was joining a growing list of countries that included the European Union and the United States in imposing unprecedented economic sanctions on Russia. The Swiss decision caught the world’s attention.

“Every time when sanctions are decided upon by the EU or the U.S., they approach their friends and allies and ask them to participate. Sometimes we say no, sometimes we say yes,” Bern’s top representative in Washington said in an interview at the ambassador’s residence. “This time we said yes.”

Switzerland remains neutral

Nonetheless, “Switzerland remains neutral and will remain neutral for the foreseeable future,” Pitteloud emphasized, brushing off global headlines that greeted the announcement from Bern with cries of “Switzerland ditches neutrality.”

“We’re still neutral. At the same time, we’re putting additional emphasis on something else that is very important to small countries like Switzerland – the respect of international law,” Pitteloud explained. “International law may not be that important for big countries, but for small countries, it is a matter of survival.”

He described his nation’s emphasis on international law as “another pillar” of Swiss foreign policy.

“We insist on international law because we know it is a matter of survival for us; so the moment we witnessed such a massive violation of international law, an aggression that we hadn’t seen in Europe since the Second World War, this is why this time the Swiss government decided to go further in terms of adopting sanctions,” Pitteloud said.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “a direct attack against everything we hold dear” and poses a threat to countries far beyond Ukraine’s borders, the ambassador said. “It’s also important to our own security.”

Switzerland’s long-held position of neutrality had meant that the country often sat out conflicts and disputes in “the big, outer world,” as Pitteloud put it. Other times it supported sanctions without directly participating, by making sure that sanctions were not undermined through the Swiss financial system, he said.

“Every time there was this leeway in the political interpretation in terms of how far we want to go or how restrictive we want to go in interpreting neutrality,” Pitteloud said.

In this case, he explained, Switzerland has adopted a very restrictive interpretation, which stipulates that a neutral country will not participate in a military conflict unless it is attacked itself, and would not facilitate arms delivery to parties involved in a conflict.

Swiss sanctions now fully mirror EU

On Wednesday, Switzerland announced further sanctions against more than 200 Russian individuals and entities, fully matching the sanctions imposed by the European Union, of which Switzerland is not a member. 

Pitteloud thinks the debate over EU membership could go on within his country for another few decades. “Ultimately, it’s for the people to decide. In Switzerland, we vote on everything,” he noted, with a sense of delight in his country’s democratic system.

Asked about media reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s domestic partner and their children are “hiding out in a Swiss chalet,” Pitteloud replied that the world’s rich and powerful often come to Switzerland for medical treatment.

“This has happened in the past, this might have happened with quite a few people, we’re very discreet about that, because there’s no reason to comment,” he said.

“Personally I have no indication whatsoever of members of the Russian president’s family or, let’s say, close friends, being in Switzerland, even less so with a Swiss passport as was argued in one of the articles; I would not be aware of that.”

Switzerland, an Alpine nation in the center of Europe, has been so determined to avoid international entanglements that it became a member of the United Nations only in 2002. Twenty years later, the country has put in a bid for a non-permanent seat at the U.N. Security Council for 2023-24. 

“The matter of joining the U.N. Security Council prompted a very heated debate in Switzerland,” Pitteloud said. “Because by being on the Security Council, it means you have to take even more positions than if you’re just in the General Assembly.”

But he said the bid is backed by both the Swiss government and parliament, and is seen in Bern as “an extraordinary opportunity to once again stress multilateralism, respect for international law, respect of procedures enshrined in the U.N. system. We think we can be an additional voice in stressing the importance of international values.”
…

Several Russian missiles were targeted at a western Ukrainian area near Lviv’s airport Friday.

The airport was not hit, according the Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy, but an aircraft repair facility was.  

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the attack near Lviv, which is about 80 kilometers from Ukraine’s border with Poland.  

A large cloud of smoke could be seen in the area surrounding the airport. 

Meanwhile, in Mariupol, survivors have begun to emerge from a theater in Mariupol that was hit by Russian missiles Wednesday. 

Hundreds of people, including children, are believed to have taken refuge in The Drama Theater.

Satellite images of the site released by the Maxar space technology company showed the word “children” written in Russian on the pavement outside the theater as recently as Monday.

It is not yet clear how many people survived the attack. 

Biden to speak with Xi

U.S. President Joe Biden has scheduled a rare telephone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping Friday, a high-stakes conversation as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asks the world for help fighting against a three-week Russian invasion. 

China has played an increasingly important role in the conflict amid reports that Russia asked China for military assistance. The United States is providing the bulk of military assistance to Ukraine, with Biden announcing another $800 million defense package this week. 

“We have made clear our deep concerns about China’s alignment with Russia and the potential implications and consequences of that,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. 

Friday’s call, she said, “is an opportunity for President Biden to assess where President Xi stands. There’s been, of course, rhetorical support — or the absence of clear rhetoric and denunciation, or the absence of denunciation — by China of what Russia is doing. This flies in the face, of course, of everything China stands for, including the basic principles of the U.N. Charter, including the basic principles of respect for sovereignty of nations. And so the fact that China has not denounced what Russia is doing in and of itself speaks volumes.”
…

Britain’s communications regulator has revoked the license of Russian-backed broadcaster RT amid investigations of its coverage of the Ukraine war.

The regulator, Ofcom, said it a statement that it did not consider RT’s licensee, ANO TV Novosti, to be “fit and proper to hold a U.K. broadcast license.”

Ofcom says Friday’s decision followed 29 ongoing investigations into the impartiality of RT’s news and current affairs coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The regulator says: “We have concluded that we cannot be satisfied that RT can be a responsible broadcaster in the current circumstances. Ofcom is therefore revoking RT’s license to broadcast with immediate effect.”
…

According to U.S. and Ukrainian officials, Moscow’s efforts to win over the world with its accounts of events in Ukraine are doing no better than Russia’s military forces inside Ukraine.

More often than not, they are meeting with stiff resistance.

“Outside of Russia, we have not seen their information operations really find purchase,” a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Thursday in response to a question from VOA.

“We have seen a continuation of Russian attempts to blame stuff they’re doing on the Ukrainians, to accuse Ukrainians of doing stuff that they (the Russians) haven’t done yet,” the official said, on condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence. “But outside of Russia, there’s little to no evidence that their information ops are working. In fact, we’ve seen quite the opposite.”

Despite such assessments, Russian officials and Russian-affiliated media continued to try to seed social media and the airwaves in places their broadcasts have not been blocked, with allegations of wrongdoing by Ukraine and its backers.

One of Russia’s perhaps most successful recent tropes has been its allegation that the United States has been funding bioweapon research in Ukraine.

A survey by the Washington-based Alliance for Securing Democracy, a national security advocacy group that tracks disinformation efforts online, found that Russian officials and Russian state-backed media tweeted the word “biological” almost 600 times in the past week.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense sought to push those claims further Thursday, publishing new allegations on its English-language Telegram feed.

“Russian specialists of nuclear, biological and chemical protection troops have studied original documents revealing details of the implementation of a secret project by the United States in Ukraine to study ways of transmitting diseases to humans through bats at a laboratory in Kharkov,” one post said.

The Russian Telegram feed also began pushing claims that a theater in Mariupol where civilians had been sheltering was not hit by a Russian airstrike as claimed by the Mariupol city council, but blown up by the Azov Battalion, a pro-Ukrainian force that analysts say has embraced neo-Nazi views.

“A refugee from Mariupol said that militants from the Azov nationalist battalion, while retreating, blew up the city drama theater where there were civilians, whom they used as a ‘human shield,’” the Ministry of Defense said on Telegram.

Within hours, the allegations about the bioweapons and the theater were being echoed on official Russian government and media Twitter accounts and websites, in multiple languages.

The senior U.S. defense official declined Thursday to elaborate on the Russian accounts of how the theater in Mariupol was destroyed, saying only that none of the accounts could be confirmed at this time.

But U.S. officials have repeatedly denied Russia’s ongoing accusations about developing bioweapons in Ukraine.

“It’s a bunch of malarkey,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters last week. “We are not, not developing biological or chemical weapons inside Ukraine.”

U.S. intelligence officials also denied the charges, instead saying Moscow’s insistence on repeating the allegations might indicate it is planning a chemical or biological attack.

“This is something … that’s very much a part of Russia’s playbook,” CIA Director William Burns told a Senate panel last week. “They’ve used those weapons against their own citizens. They’ve at least encouraged the use in Syria and elsewhere, so it’s something that we take very seriously.”

Still, there are some concerns that even if Russia is failing to sway most people in the West, a small minority are repeating the Kremlin’s talking points on podcasts and even on some U.S. cable news networks.

U.S. Republican Senator Marco Rubio last week noted that the bioweapons allegations in particular have “got some people fired up.”

Others are more optimistic.

“The sharing of intelligence to shine a light on disinformation … I’ve never seen it better in the 35 years I’ve spent in uniform,” the head of the U.S. National Security Agency, General Paul Nakasone, told lawmakers late Thursday.

Ukrainian officials have likewise said their efforts are paying off.

“Ukraine is winning this information war and winning it massively” Heorhii Tykhy, an adviser to the spokesperson for Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said during a virtual forum last week.

“Defensive strategies are not enough. … What really helps fight the disinformation is proactive strategies,” he added.

The senior U.S. defense official on Thursday was complimentary of Kyiv’s efforts, saying the impact is being felt far beyond Ukraine.

“Ukrainians are doing a good job staying ahead of the information ops,” the official said. “They’re doing a good job communicating … using social media to great effect.”

“So, we just haven’t seen the Russians have much success.”
…

Ukrainian and Russian officials say they have made progress in negotiations toward a cease-fire in the 3-week war. Experts detect a shift in Russia’s demands as the war has gone on much longer than it planned. But U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he sees no evidence Russia is serious about diplomacy. VOA’s senior diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
Camera: Yan Boechat 
…

Speaking Thursday about the war in Ukraine, the head of the World Health Organization told the U.N. Security Council that “the lifesaving medicine we need now is peace.”

“Prolonged conflict is in nobody’s interests and will only prolong the suffering of the most vulnerable,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an emergency council session on the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Ukraine, which has been under Russian airstrikes and shelling for the past three weeks.

Tedros reported that WHO has verified 43 attacks on health care facilities, which have killed a dozen people and injured 34 others.

Attacks on hospitals can rise to the level of war crimes.

Tedros said WHO is working with Ukraine’s Ministry of Health and has so far sent about 100 metric tons of medical supplies to the country.

“We have now established supply lines from our warehouse in Lviv to many cities of Ukraine, but challenges with access remain,” Tedros said. Lviv is in western Ukraine, which has remained relatively safe.

He said WHO has critical supplies ready to enter difficult areas on joint U.N. convoys but has so far not been able to get them in.

Besieged cities

“Today, for example, the U.N. convoy to Sumy that included a WHO truck carrying critical medical supplies was unable to enter,” he said. Sumy, near the Russian border in the northeast, has come under heavy bombardment, making it difficult and dangerous for civilians to evacuate safely.

“Loads ready for Mariupol remain in staging areas and cannot proceed,” Tedros said of the besieged southern city. “Access to these and other areas is now critical.”

U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo said hundreds of residential buildings, as well as schools and hospitals, have been destroyed or damaged in three weeks of conflict.

Since Russia began its invasion on February 24, the U.N. has verified the killing of 726 civilians, including 52 children. More than 1,000 other civilians have been injured. The U.N. says the true numbers are likely much higher.

“It is the responsibility of all sides to fully abide by their obligations to protect the lives of all civilians everywhere,” DiCarlo said.

She expressed particular concern for residents trapped in Mariupol, where a maternity hospital was bombed on March 9 and a theater, where 1,000 people were sheltering, was hit on Wednesday. The city has been cut off from food, water, electricity and medical care, and bodies lie in the streets uncollected.

“The devastation in Mariupol and Kharkiv raises grave fears about the fate of millions of residents in Kyiv and other cities facing intensifying attacks,” DiCarlo said.

The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, says the conflict has sent more than 3.1 million people fleeing to neighboring European countries and has displaced 2 million more inside Ukraine.

Impact beyond Ukraine

“Russia will be held accountable for its atrocities,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. “There is only one way to end this madness. President [Vladimir] Putin: Stop the killings. Withdraw your forces. Leave Ukraine once and for all.”

Several council members echoed her disgust with Moscow’s war and the suffering it has caused.

“The main news is that Ukraine is holding on, that Ukraine is resisting and Ukraine is winning and Russia is deep in the mud: on the ground, morally, legally and internationally,” Albania’s ambassador, Ferit Hoxha, said.

There were also concerns about the broader humanitarian implications of the conflict.

Russia and Ukraine account for nearly one-third of the world’s wheat, and almost 50 nations are dependent on both countries for over 30% of their wheat import needs. War could disrupt food supplies to many countries already grappling with food insecurity.

“I find it a damning indictment that this council has to plead with the Russian Federation not to deprive civilian populations of food and water, not to deny them the basic infrastructure they need for daily existence, for survival,” Ireland’s envoy, Geraldine Byrne Nason, said.

China, which has not criticized Russia for its invasion, called for maximum restraint and the protection of civilians.

“The international community shares the common wish for a cease-fire at an early date to alleviate the situation on the ground and prevent civilian casualties,” Ambassador Zhang Jun said. “This is also the expectation of China.”

He said Beijing, which is not usually among the big international aid donors, has sent humanitarian supplies to Ukraine through its Red Cross Society, including milk powder and blankets for children.

Several council members also mentioned Wednesday’s decision by the International Court of Justice, which ruled Russia must “immediately suspend its military operations” in Ukraine. The decision is legally binding, but Russia is unlikely to comply with it.

Russia doubles down

For its part, Russia’s ambassador repeated the narrative of being the victim of a Western disinformation campaign about the offensive, saying it is “reaching new heights.”

“We note with regret that Ukraine has always [been] a pawn in the geopolitical struggle against Russia and remains such a pawn still,” Vassily Nebenzia told the council. “Western politicians could not care less about the suffering of the people in Donbas.”

Donbas is the region in eastern Ukraine that comprises Luhansk and Donetsk, the two breakaway republics that Putin recognized as independent days before he ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

On the humanitarian situation, Nebenzia said he was calling off his delegation’s planned vote Friday morning on a draft resolution. It was drawn up to counter a text from Western council members deploring the humanitarian consequences of Russia’s invasion and seeking a cease-fire for humanitarian access.

Moscow was certain to be isolated again in the council if it brought its doomed resolution to a vote. Council members repeatedly noted Thursday that Russia putting forward such a draft was cynical and hypocritical, and that if Moscow really wanted to solve the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, it could start by ending its war.

“But we are not withdrawing the draft resolution,” Nebenzia insisted. “Instead, tomorrow morning we will ask for an emergency meeting to discuss again the issue of U.S. biolaboratories in Ukraine, using the new documents we obtained in the course of the special military operation.”

Last Friday, the Russians called for a meeting on the same subject. Nebenzia spoke for nearly 20 minutes, alleging without evidence that Ukraine, funded by the U.S. military, was developing biological weapons in at least 30 laboratories across the country.

U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu told council members that the U.N. “is not aware of any biological weapons programs.”

The United States and Ukraine have both dismissed Moscow’s accusations.

U.S. officials have expressed concerns that Moscow is making such accusations because it may be laying the groundwork for a false flag operation in Ukraine involving biological or chemical weapons.
…

While the United States and European Union are enforcing powerful financial and trade sanctions on Moscow and closing their airspace to Russian airplanes, Turkey strongly opposes such measures, arguing they are counterproductive.

As a result, concerns are growing that Turkey is helping Russians to circumvent the sanctions, said Timothy Ash, an emerging-markets analyst with London-based Bluebay Asset Management.

“There [has] been some focus on reflagging of Russian aircraft as Turkish aircraft. There are strong trading, banking relationships between Russia and Turkey. [There has been] some media attention on a lot of Russians trying to set up new bank accounts in Turkey, presumably to try to get around some of the problems they are probably encountering. There has also been concern that Russian companies, entities trying to export or trade with Russia, are repackaging themselves as Turkish entities.”

VOA reached out to Turkish government officials for comment but did not receive a response at the time of reporting.

Ankara insists it abides by its international legal responsibilities. But analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners said it’s not the first time Turkey has been suspected of international sanctions-busting.

“A lot of people [hoped] that Turkey would become a proxy financial center or intermediary for Russia,” Yesilada said. “I wouldn’t put it past the current regime to try to repeat the Reza Zarrab incident – 40 billion dollars of money whitewashed to Iran.”

Reza Zarrab is a Turkish-Iranian businessman who pleaded guilty in 2017 in a New York court to massive charges of violating sanctions against Iran. A senior executive of the Turkish state-owned Halkbank was also convicted. Halkbank itself is facing trial as part of the same investigation.

Turkish private and state banks are also likely to face scrutiny and severe penalties for violating Russian sanctions, said analyst Yesilada. He warned that sanctions-busting is highly risky, especially as any penalties could affect Turkey’s ability to borrow from international markets.

“The next 12 months, including the estimated current account deficit, Turkey will have to roll over $200 billion of debt, and any reason for these to seize up is going to cause massive pain not only to the banks but to the exchange rate market and inevitably to the Turkish economy,” Yesilada said.

However, Ankara’s strong military backing for Kyiv has generated international goodwill and recognition of the high economic price Turkey is paying, said Ash.

“It’s carrot and stick, right?” said Ash. The stick is the penalty for ignoring Western governments’ request on sanctions against Russia, “but at the same time, I think there will be an effort to help the Turks and encourage them — perhaps financially with more assistance, perhaps to make sure they comply with the regime as is.”

With many of Turkey’s economic woes blamed on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s unorthodox financial policies, some analysts warn any international assistance could well be tied to changes in policy.
…

One man’s loss may be another’s unfortunate gain, and the Ukraine conflict is proving a boon to some energy-producing nations as oil prices soar.

The war has given an unexpected boost to Norway’s oil revenues and now the country, concerned it will be seen as a war profiteer, is mulling what to do with its sudden windfall.

Fueled by the sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, the surge in oil and natural gas prices could see Norway racking up almost $170 billion in extra oil and gas revenue this year, according to Nordea bank.

Western Europe’s biggest oil and gas exporter and one of the richest countries in the world, Norway could pocket nearly $5,680 more than expected every second of the day without lifting a finger.

But the boon is giving it a guilty conscience.

“There are times when it’s not fun to make money, and this is one of them, given the situation,” said Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland in an interview with television channel TV2.

Most of Norway’s oil revenue ends up in the state’s coffers, through taxes, dividends and direct holdings in oil and gas fields, which it then places in its sovereign wealth fund, already the world’s biggest.

The fund has suffered from the global stock market falls in recent weeks but is still worth around $227,000 for each of Norway’s 5.4 million inhabitants.

“Norway cannot escape the unpleasant fact: This is a form of war profit,” the daily Dagbladet wrote in an editorial.

“While Ukraine is being destroyed, and most other countries are mainly feeling the negative effects of the war, such as higher energy prices, higher food prices and general inflation, we are making a gain,” it said.

“This must be reflected in the way we think about the use of money,” it added.

Multiuse Marshall Plan?

Many want to see a redistribution of all or part of the war gains.

Norway’s Green Party has called for the billions of additional petrodollars to be placed in a solidarity fund to be used as a sort of Marshall Plan for various needs.

It could be used to finance both humanitarian aid and the reconstruction of Ukraine, help Europe reduce its dependence on Russian gas and help the poorest countries counter soaring costs for energy and food, the party suggested.

“The extra oil revenue from the war should go to Ukraine, not us,” it said.

The center-left government has so far pledged up to $227 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

‘Display leadership’

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store has insisted that Norway can help most by supplying as much gas as possible to Europe to help reduce its dependency on Russia.

Norway covers between 20% and 25% of the European Union’s and Britain’s needs via a vast network of gas pipelines, compared with between 45% and 50% for Russia.

European Climate Pact ambassador Paal Frisvold meanwhile suggested that Norway should forgo the profits and cap the price of gas sold to European countries, which are just emerging from the pandemic, some with heavy debts.

“Our profits are the invoices of others,” he told AFP.

“The most important thing is to show solidarity, to display leadership at a historic moment. My kids are going to ask me, ‘Dad, what did Norway do during the Ukraine war?’ I don’t want to tell them that we made a killing,” he said.

Norway’s government, which is currently drawing up its spring budget, said there was currently no plan for such a cap.
…

Two British-Iranian nationals who had been jailed in Iran arrived Thursday in Britain to emotional homecomings. 

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was met by her husband Richard Ratcliffe, and their daughter, Gabriella, 7, at the Brize Norton air force base west of London in the early hours of Thursday morning. It was the first time the family had been together in six years. 

Also on the flight was British-Iranian businessman Anoosheh Ashoori, 67, who was jailed in 2017 for espionage.

Few details have emerged on the negotiations for the pair’s freedom, but London confirmed that it had repaid a long-standing debt to Tehran ahead of the detainees’ release. Critics say Iran is increasingly engaging in “hostage diplomacy” in its dealings with the West.

Speaking hours before his wife’s arrival home, Richard Ratcliffe described their emotions.

“We can stop being a moment in history and start being a normal family again,” he told reporters in London. “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? We were just saying, you know, last night, Gabriella was asking us, ‘Is Mummy really coming back tomorrow?’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t, I don’t know for sure. I think we’re closer.’ I now know pretty surely she is coming home.” 

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in 2016 while returning from a holiday seeing family and was convicted of plotting to overthrow the government. She was repeatedly held in solitary confinement.

Ashoori was detained while visiting his mother in Tehran in August 2017 and jailed for espionage. His family said he had been tortured. 

‘Hostage diplomacy’ 

Both Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori have consistently denied the charges and believe they were victims of “hostage diplomacy” by Tehran.

Negotiations between London and Tehran for their release had been going on for several months.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss gave few details as she spoke Thursday to reporters at Brize Norton. 

“I thank the families for how stoical they’ve been during this really, really difficult period,” Truss said. “We talked about the process that we’ve been through, the difficult last part of making sure that they were able to leave Iran. But it’s so fantastic to welcome them back safe and well here in Britain.” 

$530 million debt 

Britain confirmed that in recent days it had paid a $530 million debt owed to Iran for an unfulfilled order of tanks and other weapons, dating back more than 40 years.

The order was placed in the 1970s by then-Iranian leader Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. When he was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Britain refused to deliver the tanks or repay the money. The British government cited concerns about human rights abuses, alleged support for terrorism and proxy militias in the region, and global sanctions against Iran.

Britain said it had received guarantees that the repaid debt would be used only for humanitarian purposes.

Both Britain and Iran denied Wednesday’s prisoner release was related to the debt. Tehran, however, will see this as a victory, said analyst Allan Hassaniyan of the University of Exeter.

“Most importantly for Iran, it is a kind of victory, seeing that they can, through untraditional means and mechanisms, blackmail and extort the international community,” he said.

Many other dual nationality citizens are still being detained in Iran, including American, Australian, Canadian and European nationals. 

“I don’t think it will be the final one and we will see the repetition of this pattern … both as a measure of leverage to access financial resources but also when it comes to negotiating on different matters, among them the nuclear deal and so on,” Hassaniyan told VOA. 

Geopolitics 

Iran and six world powers are negotiating the resurrection of the 2015 nuclear deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, which saw a lifting of some Western sanctions in return for limits on Iran’s nuclear program. Then-U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions, citing Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for proxy militias in the region. Tehran resumed its nuclear enrichment program in 2019. 

Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Other geopolitical forces are at play, said Hassaniyan.

“Iran is negotiating a new nuclear deal with the West, including Russia,” he said. “And then we have a very deteriorated Iranian economy, resulting in different kinds of internal issues. We have the Ukrainian-Russian war, which has really provided [Iran] with a kind of opportunity, but also very big difficulties for the West, especially when it comes to the access to energy sources.” 

A lifting of sanctions on Iran under a new nuclear deal could boost global oil supplies. Prices were high on the agenda as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates this week. 

Prime minister’s role

Johnson’s role in Iran’s detention of Zaghari-Ratcliffe is under scrutiny. In 2017 — as then-British foreign secretary — he wrongly claimed that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in Iran to train journalists.

Richard Ratcliffe campaigned tirelessly for his wife’s release. Last year he went on a hunger strike outside Britain’s Foreign Office. Speaking Wednesday, he said lessons must be learned. 

“I’m relieved that the problem’s been solved,” he said. “I think the government has two jobs: protect people in situations like this, to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Part of that is to do what you need to do to get people home, and part of that is making sure those who took part learn the lesson not to continue doing that. That second part is for another day, but for today, I’m really glad about the way things went.”

For the freed prisoners and their families, debate over the shifting geopolitics that may have led to their release is for another day. Writing on Twitter beneath a picture of the reunited family, Ratcliffe’s sister Rebecca said, “A little girl has finally got her mummy and daddy back.”
…

President Joe Biden’s plans to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day were scrambled Thursday after Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin tested positive for COVID-19.

Biden was supposed to host Martin for a day of festivities, but those events have been reimagined as the Irish leader isolates at Blair House across the street from the White House. The two leaders will hold a virtual bilateral meeting and Martin will sit out the annual “Friends of Ireland Luncheon” at the Capitol that Biden will attend. Biden will go ahead with a White House reception planned for Thursday evening, but Martin will not attend.

Martin learned he had tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday evening while attending an event with Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but the White House said the president was not considered a close-contact of Martin — also referred to as Ireland’s taoiseach.

This year marks the Irish-American Biden’s second St. Patrick’s Day in office, but his first with substantial in-person events after last year’s celebrations were suspended by the pandemic.
…

Using the same kind of rough street language he used 22 years ago when talking about rubbing out Chechen rebels even when they’re in their “outhouses,” Russian President Vladimir Putin midweek took aim at Russians who oppose his invasion of Ukraine, saying Russia should undergo “self-cleansing” and get rid of “bastards and traitors.”

“The Russian people will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and will simply spit them out like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouths, spit them out on the sidewalk,” he said.

An estimated 200,000 Russians have not waited to be spat out and have left Russia already. Thousands more are planning to leave. Most Russians who have already exited have gone to Armenia, Georgia and Turkey, the easiest countries to reach as airline bans were imposed. Russians also don’t need visas to enter any of the three.

Many of the new Russian exiles contacted by VOA say they chose exile because they felt they had to demonstrate opposition to Russia’s invasion of its neighbor; others feared remaining in a Russia isolated from most of the rest of the world. Still others said they fled because they feared if they stayed, they would fall afoul of the Kremlin’s intensifying crackdown on dissent and end up in jail.

“I realized I could not stay in Russia. I knew I couldn’t be silent,” says Katya, a 27-year-old, who worked in Russia as a PR manager and game blogger. “So, there were two ways: stay in Russia and be imprisoned, or express myself abroad. I also think I can do more in other countries than in prison,” she added.

Untouchables

The new exiles classify themselves as political refugees, but even so — despite being critics of the invasion of Ukraine and deeply opposed to Putin — many say they’re encountering hostility abroad. And they say not enough media attention is being given to their plight. They complain Russia’s pariah status has turned them into untouchables, too.

“Now the whole world hates us,” says Alexandra, 39, a Russian who was born in Tajikistan and whose family fled to Moscow in the 1990s because of the Tajik civil war. She was 7 years old then, and she remembers “how my parents tried not to panic, but my mother could not hold back her tears when we had to leave her books. My library was much more modest, but it was hard to leave my books. I sobbed and remembered my mother,” she said.

Now in Tbilisi, Alexandra says: “I did not choose this [Putin] government, I went to all the rallies, donated to human rights organizations, and attended court trials of political prisoners. But for the whole world now, I am a representative of fascists who, to my great regret, ended up in power in my country.”

Some Russian refugees say they feel guilty complaining about their plight — after all despite what they have lost, from the physical proximity of family, homes and jobs and a settled way of life, they acknowledge they are citizens of a country that invaded a neighbor where people are losing their lives. Even so, they remain shocked at the hostility openly expressed towards them.

Nadya, who was the head of marketing team in Kaluga, a town in western Russia, says she was surprised by the Russophobia she’s encountered in Georgia since arriving in Tbilisi. She says she and her husband know Georgia well, having vacationed in the country every year for the past half-decade. “Never before have we encountered discrimination against Russians — on the contrary we have always been welcome guests here. But we have been deeply struck by how quickly a wave of Russophobia rose among the Georgians,” she says.

“Many Georgians have this logic: if you are against Putin, you should be in Russia now and fighting him there; and they are also afraid that since we have arrived, Russian troops will come to ‘save us’. They blame us for the aggression of the Russian authorities, but we are also victims of this war, just on the other side of the front,” she added.

She notes Ukrainians are “now living through events thousand times more monstrous” than what the Russian refuseniks are suffering, and she stressed it right for everyone to try to help the embattled Ukrainians. “But we did not vote for Putin; we fought against him in every possible way the last 10 years,” she adds.

Aside from anti-Russian hostility in Tbilisi, Istanbul and Yerevan, Russian refugees say they are facing practical challenges. Their Russian bank cards don’t work; it is difficult to find accommodation to rent; jobs are in short supply; and their savings have halved in value thanks to the collapse of the ruble. Dozens of chat channels have sprung up on social-media platforms, such as Telegram, for the new political exiles to swap tips and information.

Activists are also organizing meetings. “It’s important now to be together,” says Alexey. “It helps to overcome all this nightmare, I feel this unity,” he adds.

As they try to get their footing and adjust to their new lives and attenuated circumstances, the refuseniks also appear to be struggling with guilt for what Russia has unleashed on Ukraine and grief for what they have lost.

Lost world

“I had established a comfortable life in Moscow,” says Alexandra, the Tajikistan-born Russian. “All this changed on February 24. The main fear is of never being able to return home to Russia. I also worry about loved ones who cannot or don’t want to leave. It is obvious that the standard of living will fall sharply. Russia is becoming a cross between North Korea, Venezuela and Germany in the 1930s. Understanding this is completely unbearable,” she adds.

But for her the strongest emotion is one of dread. “I can’t believe there’s a war going on. That my country unleashed this war. That we are at war with close neighbors,” she says.

Anton, a 42-year-old Muscovite and father of a four-year-old boy, shares the same sense of overwhelming horror. “My wife and I left Russia because it became impossible to stay in a country that sends people to kill other people, officially claiming creepy and terrible and nonsense grounds for doing so,” he told VOA from the Armenian capital of Yerevan.

“Of course, I was concerned about what work I could do outside Russia. I’m not ready for unskilled labor. I have to support my family. But I cannot be with people who do not admit aggression anymore. For me, it’s clear now we, like Germans, will repent for generations. It is Fascism 2.0,” he said.

Anton said he was nervous they would not get out of Russia. “I was not sure until our plane took off,” he says. He had heard FSB intelligence officers were searching people’s phones and laptops and were stopping people from leaving. “For us, it went easily, but I was still pretty nervous,” he says. He says he has no future plans, and they will have to live off savings when he loses a remote job he has with a European firm, which will happen soon. “I cannot predict what might happen next, so we will take this time to lie low, watch what comes and try to figure out what to do with our torn lives,” he says.

Anastasia, a 23-year-old Muscovite, who has launched one of the most popular Telegram channels for Russian expats in Georgia, says she didn’t have time to think about what exile would mean as she rushed to flee. “Standing finally under a warm shower, I slowly begin to realize my position,” she said. “I am a political refugee [not officially, but actually]. In Moscow, before the war, I had everything, now I have arrived with one suitcase and a backpack in a country where initially I knew no one,” she added.

“I huddle like a stray cat,” she says.

The mass exodus of Russians has now slowed thanks to travel obstacles. But the impact of devastating Western sanctions, along with the ever intensifying crackdown on freedom of speech and the criminalization of opposition to the war, as well as the prospects of job losses and poverty, is prompting thousands of others to plan an escape.

Western diplomats say their consulates in Russia are being inundated with visa requests. Wait times for visa appointments at Israel’s consulates are now running at eight months.

“For many Russians who do not support the war, it’s not safe to stay in Russia anymore,” says a Russian political activist. He worries, though, that the exodus of so many Putin opponents will weaken the opposition to the Kremlin.
…

In the weeks before he ordered the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to China for a meeting with President Xi Jinping in which they signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement aligning their countries in the ongoing struggle for global influence between Western democracies and rising authoritarian states.

Now, it’s not completely clear that China knew what it was getting into.

Three weeks after Xi put his name on the document declaring that friendship between Russia and China “has no limits” and “no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation,” Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has turned Russia into an international pariah, facing devastating sanctions and condemnations from around the globe.

Diplomatic tightrope

For their part, Chinese diplomats have been attempting to walk a tightrope, making high-minded statements about the importance of peace and respect for other countries’ territorial integrity, while studiously avoiding any mention of the fact that it was China’s close ally that launched the bloody war raging in Ukraine.

Writing in The Washington Post on Tuesday, China’s ambassador to the U.S., Qin Gang, insisted that his country had been taken by surprise by the invasion. He sidestepped the question of whether Russia has requested weapons and other supplies from China, as a number of news outlets have reported.

China’s position on Ukraine, he wrote, is that “the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter must be fully observed; the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, including Ukraine, must be respected; the legitimate security concerns of all countries must be taken seriously; and all efforts that are conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis must be supported.”

Slight distancing

While China can’t be said to have distanced itself from Russia over the invasion, the comments by its senior leaders have also fallen short of an endorsement of Putin’s actions. This may reflect a desire to maintain relations with Moscow without damaging China’s reputation with the rest of the world, according to analysts.

“This new partnership agreement that Putin and Xi signed on February 4 certainly raised the possibility as this war rages that China could be judged guilty by association,” Stephen Roach,  a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, told VOA.

Timothy Heath, a senior international defense researcher at the California-based RAND Corporation, told VOA in an email that a desire to maintain good relations with the West may affect China’s willingness to provide assistance to Russia as the conflict continues.  

“I do not think China will change its pro-Russia stance any time soon, but it is likely to continue limiting how much help it provides Russia due to Beijing’s desire to maintain good relations with the West, which is far more important to China’s economic development than Russia,” he wrote.

Unexpected results

Experts say whether or not China knew what was coming in Ukraine, its leaders probably hoped Russia’s invasion would be over quickly.

“Perhaps Beijing was hoping for a short, sharp action through which the Russian military would roll over Ukrainian forces and annex the eastern part of Ukraine in the same manner as it did in the Crimea in 2014,” said Anthony Saich, a professor of international affairs and director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

“In that scenario, Western outrage would have soon died down, and China would have continued undisturbed in its attempts to present a united front with Russia against a declining and divided West,” he told VOA. “The resistance of Ukrainian forces and its people has put an end to that illusion, and the West’s united and relatively strong response has changed the calculus.”

China’s leverage

Roach said China may have a better chance than any Western government at persuading Russia to change course.

“China is in a unique position because of its partnership agreement with Russia to exercise leverage over Vladimir Putin,” he said. “That is considerably greater than the sanctions that have been imposed by the U.S. and the West.

“Putin has not changed his military posture in response to unprecedented sanctions, and that’s a source of enormous frustration in the West. But China has something that the West does not have, and that is the partnership and the support that comes from that partnership. Russia is a tiny economy, it cannot possibly support a massive conventional war against a country like Ukraine, and it doesn’t have the wherewithal to do it.”

Robert Ross, a professor of political science at Boston College and an associate of Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, said the United States could make the prospect of limiting support for Russia more attractive to China.

“There needs to be some way for America to signal China that there will be some appreciation for Chinese restraint and that the Americans would take this into account as we go forward, because they (China) want to be sure that there is a value in cooperating with America,” he said. “This is the price Americans pay because now, we’re asking for China’s cooperation in the ongoing crisis.”

VOA Mandarin Service reporters Si Yang and Lin Yang contributed to this story.
…

Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine    
…

U.S. President Joe Biden announced $800 million in new security assistance to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian invasion, in addition to the $200 million he allocated last week. This followed an address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the U.S. Congress earlier Wednesday. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
…

Announcing tough sanctions against Russian oligarchs over the war in Ukraine was step one.

Now the U.S. and its allies are creating new teams to act on their vow to “seize and freeze” the giant boats, estates and other pricey assets of Russian elites.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday for the first time convened a multilateral task force known as REPO, one of several new efforts dedicated to enforcing sanctions.

REPO — short for Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs — will work with other countries to investigate and prosecute oligarchs and individuals allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The group is now looking into 50 individuals, with 28 names publicly announced.

The effort faces several challenges, including varying laws across countries that could make legal discovery difficult and the risk of penalizing innocent people whose property may be tied up in an oligarch’s seized assets.

And time presents a problem: Investigations can drag on for months and years.

Germany, the U.K., France, Italy and other counties are involved in trying to collect and share information against Russians targeted for sanctions, the White House said when it announced the formation of the task force.

It will work alongside another group called KleptoCapture, led by the Justice Department to enforce the economic restrictions within the U.S. imposed on Russia and its billionaires, working with the FBI, Treasury and other federal agencies.

The government says the sanctions imposed already have had a biting effect on the Russian economy.

Russia lost access to vital imports for its military gear and more than $600 billion in assets held by its central bank and faces ongoing rounds of targeted sanctions against companies and the wealthy elite who are tied to Putin.

The Russian stock market has yet to reopen since the sanctions began, while the ratings company Fitch said Russia would likely default if it used rubles to repay dollar-denominated debt due this week. The Institute of International Finance estimates that the Russian economy will shrink by 15% this year, instead of the 3% growth that was expected pre-invasion.

Andrew Adams, a federal prosecutor who is leading the KleptoCapture task force, stressed property seizures must be conducted within the law.

“You cannot just walk up and grab somebody’s yacht. You have to walk through the facts that link the property to a crime,” he told MSNBC in an interview this week. “You have to be able to describe not only what crime was committed with a degree of probable cause, but you have to trace the property to the condition of the crime.”

Ryan Fayhee, a former Justice Department prosecutor and current sanctions attorney at Hughes Hubbard & Reed in Washington, said “the challenge and the time involved with it is going to be demonstrating probable cause to actually justify a seizure.”

“This isn’t like a bank robbery,” Fayhee said, adding that the U.S. government is going to have to tie any potential actions to a U.S. criminal offense. “That’s going to be the challenge and it will take months or years — not days.”

On top of this, the complicated financial instruments that oligarchs invest in will inevitably draw everyday people into seizure actions, says Jonathan C. Poling, a former Justice Department prosecutor who works on sanctions and international trade issues for Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in D.C.

The concern is how do governments impose sanctions “in a way that doesn’t punish innocent people” Poling said.

Both the REPO and KleptoCapture groups will use data analytics, cryptocurrency tracing, intelligence, and data from financial regulators to track sanctions evasion, money laundering and other criminal acts.

Dariya Golubkova, an international trade attorney at Holland & Knight, said cooperation between countries will be a benefit to sanctions enforcement, but there are countries that may be “missing from the international cooperation.”

Golubkova said countries that serve as havens to oligarch’s property will have to cooperate in REPO’s effort, or else sanctions will be less impactful.

The EU Tax Observatory think tank, associated with the Paris School of Economics, has called for a European Asset Registry to assist in sanctions efforts.

Golubkova also predicted that because countries have different search and seizure laws “some of these requirements may so mounting that you can’t get over them.” 
…

Engineers have linked Ukraine to an electricity grid spanning much of continental Europe, allowing the country to decouple its power system from hostile Russia, officials said Wednesday. 

Belgium-based ENTSO-E, which represents dozens of transmission system operators in Europe, said the electricity grids of Ukraine and its smaller neighbor Moldova were successfully synchronized with the Continental European Power System on a trial basis. 

“This is a significant milestone,” the group said. 

Grid operators had been preparing such a move after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, but the large-scale Russian military assault on Ukraine last month prompted an emergency request by Kyiv to speed up a process that was expected to take years more to complete. 

ENTSO-E, whose 39 members operate the world’s largest interconnected electrical grid, said the move means they will be able to help maintain the stability of the Ukrainian and Moldovan power systems. 

The two countries were previously part of the Integrated Power System that also includes Russia and Belarus. This made Ukraine dependent on Russia’s grid operator despite having had no electricity trade between the two countries for years. 

“This step will give Ukraine the opportunity to receive electricity if [Russia] continues to destroy our power infrastructure, and thus to save our power system,” said Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, who chairs the management board of Ukraine’s grid operator, Ukrenergo. “We are sincerely grateful to our European partners for their great support and assistance during these difficult times.”

Portugal to Poland 

Georg Zachmann, an expert with the Brussels think tank Bruegel, said the switch would allow energy suppliers in the continental grid that stretches from Portugal to Poland to supply electricity to Ukraine if necessary. 

This could allow Ukraine to turn off some of the coal-fired power plants it currently keeps running to ensure grid stability, saving precious fuel in wartime, he said. 

In the long term, Ukraine could export surplus electricity generated by its nuclear power plants to the rest of Europe. 

“It’s a nice win-win situation,” Zachmann said. “It might even be good for the climate.”
…

Amid shelling and gunfire from the Russian invasion, more than 3 million people have fled Ukraine as of mid-March. At this rate, UNHCR officials warn, the exodus could surpass the 2015 Syrian crisis. Aline Barros and VOA Graphics have this report.
…

Here’s a look at what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top diplomats have been doing this week:

US-Russia-Ukraine

The United States continues to support Ukraine in fending off Russian aggression and provides assistance to refugees fleeing the country in search of safety.

Wednesday (March 16,) President Joe Biden described the latest U.S. package of security assistance to Ukraine – valued at nearly $1 billion – shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to the U.S. Congress for more help in a virtual address. On Tuesday, Biden signed a spending bill that includes around $13.6 billion for Ukraine.

This week, the State Department announced sanctions on key members of Russia’s defense enterprise and individuals.

In a statement on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced more sanctions on Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko for his role as an ally of Russia during the invasion of Ukraine, blocking Lukashenko and his family from accessing U.S. property and limiting the ability of Americans to conduct business with them.

Biden Announces New Assistance After Zelenskyy Asks for More US Help 

US Announces More Sanctions on Belarus Leader, Russian Officials

Biden Administration Considers Expediting Resettlement of Ukrainian Refugees with US Connections  

US-North and South Korea 

Two recent North Korean missile launches were tests of a new intercontinental ballistic missile system, according to U.S. officials, who announced fresh sanctions on Pyongyang and warned of a “serious escalation” in tensions. The launches on Feb. 26 and March 4 did not demonstrate ICBM range but were likely meant to evaluate the new system before conducting a future test at full range, potentially disguised as a space launch.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price called the launches “a clear violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions” and said they demonstrated “the threat that is posed by the DPRK’s illicit weapons” and missile programs.

South Korea elected main opposition People Power Party candidate and ex-prosecutor Yoon Seok-youl as the country’s next leader. Yoon, a conservative, is expected to take a hardline approach toward North Korea. The State Department congratulated President-elect Yoon and said Washington looked forward to expanding its “ironclad” alliance with Seoul.

North Korea Tested ICBM System, US Says, Warning of ‘Serious Escalation’ 

US Congratulates South Korea’s President-Elect on Win 

US-Iran-Iraq

Iran has claimed responsibility for a missile barrage that struck early Sunday (March 13) near a sprawling U.S. consulate complex in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, saying it was retaliation for an Israeli strike in Syria that killed two members of its Revolutionary Guard.

No injuries were reported in the attack, which marked a significant escalation between the U.S. and Iran. Hostility between the longtime foes has often played out in Iraq, whose government is allied with both countries. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he spoke with both Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi and Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq Masrour Barzani to “express solidarity and condemn the recent Iranian attack that violated Iraq’s sovereignty.” Blinken also discussed Iraqi national unity and Kurdish unity, as well as the need to form a government that protects Iraqis and their territory.

Iran Claims Missile Barrage Near US Consulate in Iraq   

US-Afghan

The Afghan embassy and two consulates in the United States will cease operations at noon March 23. Officials from the U.S. State Department met Afghan diplomats on Monday (March 14) to inform them about what they call an “orderly shutdown of operation” of the three Afghan missions.

The move comes seven months after the fall of the former Afghan government in Kabul and several months of administrative and diplomatic wrangling in Washington.

Under the shutdown plan, the State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions will take over the protection and preservation of the embassy in Washington and the consulates in New York and Los Angeles.

Afghan Diplomatic Missions in US Close, Remain Open Elsewhere

Meanwhile, the U.S. special envoy for Afghan women, Rina Amiri, says women’s rights in Afghanistan “suffered a tremendous setback” after the Taliban seized power in August, but that supporting Afghan women is “one area where there is solidarity” in the United States and international community.

US Envoy Appeals for International Support for Afghan Women

Women of Courage 

The United States honored 12 women from Colombia, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, Vietnam and other countries, with the State Department saying they have demonstrated leadership and a willingness to sacrifice for others at an “International Women of Courage Award” ceremony Monday (March 14) in Washington.

Jailed Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang did not attend the virtual award ceremony, since she is currently in prison.  “We condemn her unjust imprisonment. We call for her immediate release,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.  

Ei Thinzar Maung, a pro-democracy leader from Myanmar, was honored for her commitment to democracy and work for a strong, inclusive and democratic Myanmar that respects human rights.

“We are not going to ever give up. Democracy must be restored,” said Ei Thinzar Maung in a pre-taped message. While being forced into hiding due to torture and death threats, Ei Thinzar Maung continues to speak out against a military coup that toppled the democratically elected government of Myanmar on Feb. 1, 2021.

Pro-democracy Leaders, Jailed Journalist Among US ‘Women of Courage’ Honorees
…

Taiwanese citizens and their government are sending donations to war-torn Ukraine as a show of extra sympathy, analysts say. They argue that many on the Asian Pacific island fear they could become the next place to be targeted by a major military power.

China claims the island as part of its territory and has not renounced use of force, if needed, to bring it under the Chinese flag. Most Taiwanese oppose any formal unification with China. Their dispute goes back to the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists lost to Communists and rebased in Taiwan.

Since mid-2020, the more militarily powerful China has flown air force planes almost daily over a corner of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. Taiwan has followed up with orders for modern weaponry, both built onshore and sourced from the United States.

“To be attacked this way and through rather unfair means makes people feel a sense of compassion and empathy (toward Ukraine). So, Taiwanese are quite willing to donate aid,” said Ku Chung-hua, a standing board member in Taipei with the advocacy group Citizens’ Congress Watch.

On February 28, the Taiwan government sent 27 tons of medical supplies to Ukraine.

As of March 7, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taiwan had massed donations of $10.5 million through a special account. A Taiwan government office in Poland and Poland’s reciprocal office in Taipei will coordinate delivery of the funds to a refugee agency approved by the Polish government, the ministry says.

Some 1,730 Taiwanese donors have, so far, marshaled cookies, blankets, masks, diapers and feminine hygiene products for Ukrainian war refugees, the ministry in Taipei said on its website. The ministry is taking in-kind donations through March 18.

Taiwan’s super-wealthy, church groups and overseas advocacy organizations have collected additional donations, according to the island’s media outlets as well as individual donors.

Joanna Lei, CEO of the Chunghua 21st Century Think Tank in Taiwan, donated through her Taipei-based Protestant church, which happens to follow humanitarian causes. She said the church decided on day three of the Ukraine invasion to donate several million Taiwan dollars. Taiwanese have a record of donating to humanitarian causes, Lei said. Among them were the March 2011 tsunami in Japan and the 2008 earthquake in southwestern China.

Some Taiwanese have kicked in support because of “so many discussions in the international media about Ukraine today and Taiwan tomorrow,” she added. “If we say solidarity, it makes Russia and China allies,” Lei said. “It’s not solidarity, but humanitarian concerns.”

Taiwan political activist Koo Kwang-ming donated $1 million to humanitarian relief, Taiwan-based Liberty Times said. He told the Chinese-language news outlet that Russia had attacked without a “legitimate reason.”

Among the vibrant Taiwanese population of Los Angeles, four advocacy groups are recruiting donations. Ken Wu, vice president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, pitched in $100 on February 26 and is considering whether to make another donation. Taiwanese donors throughout North America interpret Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as being “about the free world versus China and Russia,” he said.

“Now the Taiwanese people, I think, they have moved beyond the fright of China,” said Wu, whose organization lobbies Congress to take pro-Taiwan action.

“They’re feeling a bit more confident that if they stand behind Ukraine now and save Ukraine, they will be able to stop the aggression once and for all,” he said. “This is a really good lesson for the Chinese to see the cost of an aggressor.”

Ukrainian and Russian delegations opened their fourth round of peace talks Monday after Russia ordered a deadly missile attack on a western Ukraine military base 25 kilometers from NATO-member Poland. At least 35 people were killed and 134 were hurt.

“No doubt people in Taiwan feel a special sympathy for Ukrainians, whose situation has many similarities with that of Taiwan’s people,” said Denny Roy, senior fellow at the East-West Center think tank in Honolulu. “In the background, Taiwan also wants to show that it did what it could to help another invaded people free, in case Taiwan ever finds itself similarly pleading for the international community’s help against an aggressor.”

Taiwanese are backing Ukraine now for the same reasons they sympathized with Hong Kong during the Chinese territory’s 2019 anti-government protests, Ku said. He said they wanted then to protect freedoms that they enjoy in Taiwan and felt were under fire in Hong Kong.

Hardly anyone in Taiwan backs Russia and many Taiwanese feel respect for Ukrainians for fighting back against Moscow’s forces, Ku said. “They feel Ukrainians’ courage is respectable and of value,” he said.

China has rejected parallels between its intentions for Taiwan and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a news conference earlier this month that the situations are “not at all comparable” because Taiwan is a “domestic matter,” according to the state-run China Daily news website.
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Novak Djokovic will be allowed to play at the French Open even if he is not vaccinated against COVID-19 as long as the coronavirus situation in France remains stable, organizers said Wednesday.

Russian tennis players, including top-ranked Daniil Medvedev, will also be admitted to play in the tournament but as neutral athletes because of the war started by their country in neighboring Ukraine.

Organizers said there is nothing at the moment preventing Djokovic from defending his title at the clay-court Grand Slam. France this week lifted measures requiring the need to wear face masks in most settings and allowing people who aren’t vaccinated back into restaurants, sports arenas and other venues.

“At this stage there is nothing to stop him returning to the courts,” French Open director Amelie Mauresmo said at a news conference.

Djokovic was deported from Australia in January after a legal battle over whether he should be allowed to enter the country, forcing him to miss the Australian Open. He told the BBC last month that he was willing to miss upcoming Grand Slam tournaments as well if they required him to get vaccinated.

Djokovic has won the French Open twice and has a total of 20 major titles, one short of the record held by Rafael Nadal after the Spaniard won this year’s Australian Open.

French tennis federation president Gilles Moretton said that although Djokovic is now free to play, French authorities might be forced to introduce new restrictions if the virus situation deteriorates before the tournament starts on May 22.

“It is not up to us,” Moretton said. “Today there is a little virus that is going around. We are quite confident that the lights are green, but we are all cautious about what has happened over the last two years.”

Asked whether Russian tennis players will be allowed to compete at the tournament in the light of the war in Ukraine, organizers said they plan to stick to decisions suspending Russia and ally Belarus but allowing their players to compete as neutral athletes.

The seven groups that run the sport around the world have condemned the war; canceled events in Russia and Belarus; kicked those two nations out of the Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup team competitions; and announced on March 1 that players from those countries will be allowed to compete in WTA, ATP and Grand Slam tournaments but not under the name or flag of Russia or Belarus.

“We are holding this line,” said Amelie Oudea-Castera, the French tennis federation director general.

Other sports, including track and field, soccer and figure skating, have barred Russian and Belarusian athletes from competition.

Wimbledon organizers are having conversations with the British government about whether Russian players should be allowed to compete at the grass-court tournament this year if they don’t distance themselves from President Vladimir Putin.

Oudea-Castera said French organizers don’t plan to start a detailed and individualized analysis of players’ individual situations, which “can be extraordinarily dependent on the family situations experienced by each of them.”

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the day Medvedev was assured of moving atop the ATP rankings for the first time while competing at the Mexico Open.

“Watching the news from home, waking up here in Mexico, was not easy,” Medvedev said then. “By being a tennis player, I want to promote peace all over the world. We play in so many different countries; I’ve been in so many countries as a junior and as a pro. It’s just not easy to hear all this news. … I’m all for peace.”
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