Pope Francis Wednesday noted what he called the “sad anniversary” of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

Speaking during his weekly general audience, the pope called the conflict an “absurd and cruel war.” 

“Let us remain close to the martyred Ukrainian people and ask ourselves: has everything possible been done to stop the war?” the pope said.  “I appeal to those in authority over nations to make concrete efforts to end the conflict, to reach a cease-fire and to start peace negotiations.” 

Pope Francis has repeatedly called for peace since Russia sent its troops into Ukraine on February 24 last year.  The day before the invasion, he urged all parties to avoid any actions that would cause people more suffering and said the threat of war had brought “great pain in my heart.” 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Tuesday accused Russia of “mercilessly killing” civilians in the southern city of Kherson following a missile strike that left five people dead and 16 others injured.  

“A vehicle park, residential areas, a high-rise building, and a public transport stop were hit,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram social messaging app. “The Russian army is heavily shelling Kherson. Again, mercilessly killing the civilian population.”  

“The world has no right to forget for a single moment that Russian cruelty and aggression know no bounds,” the Ukrainian leader said. He posted photographs online showing corpses lying in the street.  

Russia has denied targeting civilians.  

Ukraine recaptured Kherson in November after eight months of Russian occupation, forcing Russian forces to abandon the only regional capital they had seized since invading Ukraine on February 24 of last year. But Moscow’s shelling of the city continues.  

Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, said Russian troops had targeted the city “probably by Grad” multiple rocket-launchers and that 20 explosions were heard.  

The attack came as Russian President Vladimir Putin was defending the invasion in a speech before the Russian parliament in Moscow, and a day after U.S. President Joe Biden made a historic visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, to assure Zelenskyy of the continued support of the United States and its Western allies.        

Some information for this story came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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U.S. President Joe Biden meets Wednesday with leaders from NATO’s eastern flank to show support for their security.

The so-called Bucharest Nine includes Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, and most are among the strongest supporters of military aid to Ukraine.

Biden Tuesday used a speech in Poland’s capital, Warsaw, to defend NATO’s year-long effort to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion and vowed it would not stop.

“One year ago, the world was bracing for the fall of Kyiv,” Biden told the over ten thousand Poles gathered outdoors at Poland’s Royal Castle complex. “Well, I’ve just come from a visit to Kyiv, and I can report Kyiv stands strong. It stands tall. And most important, it stands free.”

Biden promised that support for Ukraine will not waver, and NATO will not be divided. “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. Never,” he declared, saying the alliance is “more resolved than ever” in supplying munitions and humanitarian aid to non-NATO member Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia.

Fresh off his dramatic visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Monday, Biden assailed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invasion he launched a year ago this Friday and said the Russian leader could just as easily end the warfare. “The West is not plotting to attack Russia as Putin said today,” Biden declared.

“The democracies of the world have grown stronger” in their pushback against Russian aggression, Biden said, adding “The autocracies of the world have grown weaker.”

Biden used part of his speech in front of an applauding crowd to reiterate what Vice President Kamala Harris announced just days earlier at the Munich Security Conference, that the U.S. has determined Moscow has committed “crimes against humanity” and “atrocities” against the Ukrainian people.

“They’ve committed depravity, crimes against humanity without shame or compunction,” Biden said.

Specifically, he accused Russia of “targeting civilians with death,” using rape as “a weapon of war,” stealing Ukrainian children by forcibly removing them from their homeland and launching airstrikes against train stations, maternity wards, hospitals, schools and orphanages.

“No one, no one can turn away their eyes from the atrocities Russia is committing against the Ukrainian people. It’s abhorrent,” Biden said.

Russia has denied targeting civilians.

The administration pushed back against Moscow’s claim, made by Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev on his Telegram channel Monday, that “Biden, having previously received security guarantees, finally went to Kiev.”

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told VOA in a briefing to reporters Tuesday that the U.S. did not receive such guarantees. Sullivan said the U.S. informed Moscow of the security accompanying Biden to ensure they know “what they would be seeing and what President Biden would be doing.”

“Just to let them know he would be there in this time period and the means by which he was traveling and that he would be out on this timetable, the means by which he was traveling out,” he said. “We conveyed that information. They acknowledged receipt. End of story.”

US-Poland ties

Earlier Tuesday, Biden began his second trip to Poland in a year by meeting with President Andrzej Duda, thanking the Polish leader for his support for Ukraine and calling U.S.–Poland ties a “critical relationship.” He underscored Washington’s commitment to the principle of collective defense in Article 5 of the NATO charter and assured Duda that the alliance will respond if Russia expands its war beyond Ukraine and launches an attack on Poland.

“And we reaffirmed our ironclad commitment to NATO’s collective security, including guaranteeing that the command headquarters for our forces in Europe are going to be in Poland, period,” he said.

Biden said the two countries are launching “a new strategic partnership” with plans to build nuclear power plants and bolster Poland’s energy security.

Poland has been an unwavering ally of Ukraine, its neighbor, providing billions of dollars in weapons and humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government, welcoming Ukrainian refugees and providing a critical logistics hub for military assistance for Kyiv.

On Monday Biden announced $460 million in new military aid for Ukraine and said his administration will soon announce another new wave of sanctions against individuals and companies “that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine.”

Geopolitical symbolism

The speech in Warsaw delivered by the American president to mark the war anniversary carries significant geopolitical symbolism. During the Cold War, Poland was locked behind the Iron Curtain as a signee of the Warsaw Pact, a military treaty established in 1955 by the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries to counterbalance NATO, the Western military alliance. The Warsaw pact was dissolved on July 1,1991.

The backdrop of Biden’s speech was Warsaw’s Royal Castle, whose construction began in the 1300s and has witnessed many notable events in Poland’s history, including the drafting of the first constitution of a European state in 1791. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the castle was destroyed by Nazi Germany during World War II and later rebuilt.

Warsaw is an appropriate place to reiterate U.S. commitment to European security, said Ian Lesser, vice president of the German Marshall Fund.

“Poland is very much on the front line and will remain so whatever the course of the war in Ukraine. The country occupies a critical position in allied deterrence and defense and is the key logistical hub for assistance headed to Ukraine,” he told VOA. “The fact that the president’s speech takes place in the Cold War birthplace of the Warsaw Pact will not be lost on observers, not least Russians.”

A few hours before Biden’s speech, President Vladimir Putin delivered remarks to Russia’s Federal Assembly in which he blamed Western countries for provoking conflict and announced that Moscow will stop participating in the new START (Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty), the last major remaining nuclear arms control agreement with the U.S.

Putin also said Western economic sanctions against Russia had not “achieved anything and will not achieve anything.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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As Turkey continues to mourn the tragic loss of human life caused by two powerful back-to-back earthquakes two weeks ago, there are emerging assessments of the cost of rebuilding, plus the broader financial toll it has taken on the vulnerable economy. 

The Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation estimated the cost of reconstruction at more than $80 billion in its preliminary report issued four days after the quakes.

U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley put the housing costs alone at around $38 billion, while JPMorgan said the estimated cost of rebuilding houses and infrastructure would be around $25 billion.

Those tallies do not account for the economic damage to businesses in the disaster zone, where some 13.5 million people lived and worked, accounting for nearly 10% of the country’s economic activity. 

For comparison, in 1999, a massive tremor shook Izmit, Turkey’s industrial heartland, which at the time accounted for more than 30% of the country’s GDP.

Following that quake, the country’s economic growth shrank by 3.3%. 

World Bank economists tell VOA, while it’s too early to forecast the toll from the recent quakes, they are watching several key factors. 

Slower growth expected

The IMF had predicted the Turkish economy would grow at a rate of 3% this year. But many experts say the earthquakes, the most powerful to hit Turkey in almost a century, could reduce that by at least one-third.

Speaking to VOA from London, Timothy Ash, a Turkey analyst from BlueBay Asset Management, says the direct economic impacts are likely to be more moderate in comparison to the 1999 earthquake, because quakes mostly affected agricultural and rural areas this time.

Once the immediate aftermath of the disaster passes, he expects to see a growth boost in the medium term when reconstruction begins.

World Bank economists say that typically, reconstruction by the private and public sectors in the aftermath of a major disaster is recorded as investment in the economy. Thus, the rebuilding effort might limit the impact.

Problems rooted in economic policy

While initial analyses by financial institutions, including Morgan Stanley, indicate that financing the economic loss appears manageable, experts warn that the rooted problems in Turkey’s macro-economic policy framework can make things more difficult.

Turkey was already facing challenges with an annual inflation of more than 60% and a staggering depreciation in its currency. 

“While Turkey’s economy is estimated to have grown rapidly in real terms in 2022, and fiscal space remains, inflation climbed to a 24-year high, the lira depreciated, the current account deficit widened; banks’ capital buffers declined, Humberto Lopez, the World Bank country director for Turkey, told VOA.

Speaking to VOA last week, Selva Demiralp, professor of economics from Koc University in Istanbul, argued Turkey would have been better positioned to deal with the economic fallout from the earthquake if it had not already been suffering significant vulnerabilities largely blamed on the macro-economic policies of the government.

“If we were not facing such a high level of inflation and narrowed monetary policy, we would be better placed to provide extensive support and handle this more easily,” she told VOA.

Turkey is also confronted with growing external financing requirements. Ash says, depending on how much money would be needed to fund the reconstruction effort, Turkey might need some external financing in the form of loans.

Political uncertainty concerns

According to analysts, the bigger concern for the economy is the perceived political uncertainty.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced last month that the presidential and parliamentary elections were to be held May 14.

However, a recent statement posted on social media by Bulent Arınc, a former founder of the ruling AK Party and former speaker of the Turkish parliament, sparked a debate about a possible delaying of the elections in the wake of the massive devastation caused by the earthquakes. It was firmly dismissed by the opposition bloc.

International investors are monitoring Turkey’s economic and political situation. Most foreigners had exited local markets because of the government’s unorthodox economic policies.

“They are waiting to see the results of the elections scheduled for 14th May. We’ll have to wait and see if it will be held on that day. Foreigners want to see credible and orthodox policy whether it is with this administration or the next one,” Turkey analyst Ash argues.

The government was criticized for what many in the disaster zone described as a slow response and lack of coordination.

Ash says he believes the outcome of the elections depends on the quality of the disaster response and the recovery phase.

“The results of the elections and possible policy changes depending on the outcome are important for investors,” he says. 

“The earthquake will be a decisive factor in determining who wins.”

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
…

In December, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy summoned his ambassadors from around the world to discuss his foreign policy priorities for the new year.

Meeting in Kyiv, Zelenskyy gave the assembled diplomats “tasks and assignments” for the coming year, recalled Ukraine Ambassador-at-Large Anton Korynevych.

One of his main priorities for Ukrainian diplomacy, Zelenskyy told the group, was the creation of “an ad hoc special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine,” according to Korynevych, who is Ukraine’s point person on the issue.

This was not the first time Zelenskyy was demanding accountability for Russia’s aggressive war, without which, Ukrainian officials say, other crimes such as the atrocities in Bucha and Irpin would not have happened.

Going back to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in 2014, Kyiv has turned to every available international court to push legal claims against Moscow; the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

“We’re in all the courts, but we see that these mechanisms and tools are not enough,” Korynevych said during a recent panel discussion at the New York City Bar Association. “There is no international court or tribunal which can try … Russian political and military leadership for the commission of the crime of aggression against Ukraine.”

Considered a “leadership crime,” the crime of aggression is defined as the “planning, preparation, initiation or execution” of an act of aggression such as an armed invasion by a country’s top political and military leadership. In the case of the Ukraine conflict, as many as 20 officials could be implicated, according to Korynevych.

In contrast to the painstakingly difficult-to-prove war crimes and crimes against humanity, proving the crime of aggression is relatively straight-forward. The evidence, according to the State Department’s top war crimes adviser, can be seen “on our front pages every day.”

Prosecuting the crime of aggression

To show what a case against Russia would look like, the Open Society has drafted a 65-page “model indictment” that names Russian President Vladimir Putin and seven subordinates. Others have suggested including Belarusian officials since Belarus has allowed Russian forces to stage attacks on Ukraine from its soil.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), created in 2002 to deal with crimes of war, has the power to prosecute the crime of aggression but it can’t investigate Russian officials for aggression because of a legal quirk: Russia is not a “state party” to the Rome Statute that established the court. While the United States played a central role in the establishment of the Rome Statute that created the ICC, the U.S. isn’t a “state party” either.

Ukrainian courts face a legal hurdle of their own.

While the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office has been investigating senior Russian officials for their alleged complicity in the crime, prosecutors can’t bring charges in the case because under international law top Russian officials enjoy immunity in Ukrainian courts.

Hence, Ukraine’s call for a special court to prosecute the crime.

A special international tribunal is the “most feasible and efficient route for accountability,” Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said during a recent event at Georgetown Law Center. The center works closely with Kostin’s office.

Ukraine’s push for a special tribunal, like its plea for tanks and fighter jets, was once seen as a long shot.

But as Western nations amp up efforts to beat back the Russian invasion, Ukraine’s advocacy of “no peace without justice” is finding increasingly receptive ears among its international backers.

In recent months, the proposal for a special tribunal has been endorsed by the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, NATO, as well as several foreign governments such as Britain and Germany.

As a precursor to the tribunal, the European Commission this month announced plans to launch a prosecutor’s office in The Hague to investigate the crime of aggression and identify potential defendants.

All that has imbued Ukrainian officials with renewed optimism that their once seemingly elusive goal may be closer at hand.

“Now is the momentum for the international community to hold Russian aggressors accountable for the most flagrant act committed on European soil since 1945,” Kostin said.

Court models for a possible war tribunal

The last time the crime of aggression was prosecuted was in the 1940s when German and Japanese leaders were tried in Nuremberg and Tokyo for what the International Military Tribunal called the “supreme international crime.”

Western officials say the quest for Russian accountability is not just about Ukraine. At stake is the future of a rules-based international order that has largely held since the Second World War.

“No one in the 21st century,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in The Hague last month, “must be allowed to wage a war of aggression and go unpunished.”

Yet even as Germany and other Western nations have thrown their weight behind a tribunal, they remain split over the form it should take.

In recent discussions among Ukrainian and Western officials, two competing models have emerged, according to experts involved in the discussions.

A so-called “hybrid” model, proposed by Germany, envisions “a court that derives its jurisdiction from Ukrainian criminal law.”

To ensure its legitimacy, Baerbock said, the court would be located outside Ukraine, and include international prosecutors and judges. Rather than weaken it, it would strengthen the ICC, she said.

Another hybrid model, backed by the U.K. envisages a court “integrated into Ukraine’s national justice system with international elements.” It’s unclear where this court would be based.

Competing with the composite model is a proposal for a “fully international” tribunal established through negotiations between Ukraine and the United Nations and recommended by the U.N. General Assembly.

Modeled on U.N.-backed tribunals for Sierra Leone and Cambodia, the proposed court is being backed by a group of prominent international law experts and veterans of other international tribunals who say a hybrid structure would likely “immunize” Russian leaders and potentially run afoul of the Ukrainian Constitution.

“You need an international tribunal if you’re going to go at the highest level,” said Jennifer Trahan, a law professor at New York University and convener of the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression.

To get it up and running, Ukraine would make a formal request to the United Nations. Once the U.N. General Assembly makes a recommendation, the United Nations and Ukraine would engage in talks to create the tribunal through a mutual treaty.

Though no government has publicly endorsed this model, Trahan said it has the support of “a handful of countries,” with “more support growing.”

The U.S., which is part of a “core group” of more than 20 countries studying proposals for a tribunal, hasn’t taken a public stand.

Nor has Ukraine made a formal request to the United Nations. Although Kyiv hasn’t ruled out other options, Korynevych voiced support for involving the United Nations in the process.

Saying U.N. support is critical for the legitimacy of any tribunal, Korynevych added, “That is why we’ll use the possibilities of the United Nations, in particular the General Assembly, in order to sound this issue, and in order to get the support of the United Nations in relation to this endeavor.”

The proposed tribunal has been met with some skepticism. For one, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan has pushed back against the notion, warning about the potential for “fragmentation.”

An ICC spokesperson said the ICC as a court has “never made any statement about potential ad hoc tribunals.”

Other critics have raised concern that establishing a special tribunal could undercut efforts to end the Ukrainian conflict by making Russian leaders less amenable to peace.

“Someone who is fighting a war is less likely to prosecute a peace or to engage in peace talks if he thinks, ‘Hmmm, if there is peace, we’re going to The Hague,’” Senator Rand Paul, a frequent critic of U.S. foreign policy, said during a recent Senate hearing.

Responding to Paul, Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland said both goals — peace and justice — could be pursued simultaneously.

“I’d cite the precedent of Kosovo, of Bosnia, of Rwanda where we’ve successfully supported wars winding down through diplomatic means while also pursuing justice,” Nuland said.

Russia, which has sought to justify the invasion of Ukraine by accusing Ukraine of carrying out “genocide” in eastern Ukraine, has questioned the proposed tribunal’s legitimacy.

Ultimately, even if a fully international tribunal is created, it’s unclear if it would be able to conduct much of a trial while Putin holds power.

To other would-be aggressors, critics say, that failure would convey the message that they can commit aggression and get away with it.

But that’s not a reason not to pursue a mechanism for accountability, Trahan said, noting that the U.N. Security Council created an ad hoc tribunal for the former Yugoslavia not knowing that Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic would ever end up in The Hague.

But he did. In 2001, a new Serbian government arrested and handed Milosevic over to the Tribunal.

Though he died five years later before his trial was to conclude, the court eventually convicted a number of his co-conspirators, giving his victims a measure of justice.

“Never say never,” she said.
…

South Africa is under fire for hosting joint naval exercises with Russia during the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, with critics saying it will be a propaganda victory for Moscow. But what does the third participant in the drills, China, have to gain from the tripartite exercises taking place this week?

Some analysts told VOA that, in China’s case, Exercise Mosi II, off South Africa’s east coast, is less about a real exchange of military prowess and more about important political and diplomatic optics.

“China has a lot to gain from these exercises,” said Paul Nantulya, from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington. “It is sending a very powerful signal to other African countries that in-person military training is now back on the table. … China and [its] People’s Liberation Army are basically back” after years of closed borders during the pandemic.

He said the drills were also sending a message to China’s competitors, namely the U.S., that Beijing has military clout in the region. The South Africa war games are taking place at almost the same time as the U.S. Army’s Exercise Justified Accord in Kenya and just after U.S.-led maritime exercises off the Gulf of Guinea.

They also take place amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing in the wake of the U.S. shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon and after Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that China is considering supplying Russia with weapons for its war against Ukraine.

Priyal Singh, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, had a similar assessment.

“This assists Beijing in illustrating to the West [and the world in general] that it has a foothold in the South Indian Ocean through its strong relations with South Africa. I believe this may be important to China, given the geopolitical contestations being played out across the Indian Ocean region,” Singh said in an email to VOA.

“I believe that the decision to proceed with these exercises was primarily driven by political considerations. Navies play important diplomatic and symbolic roles,” Singh’s ISS colleague Denys Reva added.

Darren Olivier, director at the African Defense Review, pointed out this week’s naval exercises off South Africa are limited in nature and “focused mostly on basic maneuvers and light gunnery.”

“It’s important to note that South Africa has a NATO-oriented operational and tactical doctrine that’s dissimilar to that of Russia and China, which inherently limits what can be done jointly, and unsurprisingly as a result, the exercise as described will not feature in-depth exploration or testing of any serious combat capabilities or procedures,” he said.

Asked by VOA what China seeks to gain from the exercises, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. said “the joint maritime exercise held by the navies of the three countries in the southern waters of Africa is of great significance.”

“It will help deepen the exchanges and cooperation among the navies, improve their ability to jointly respond to maritime security threats, demonstrate their determination to maintain regional maritime peace and stability and their good will and strong capabilities to actively promote the building of an ocean community with a shared future.”

China, Russia and South Africa are all members of the BRICS grouping of emerging economies, which also includes India and Brazil.

Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London, said that for the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) to join their Russian counterparts “in an exercise far away from China is highly beneficial,” as the Russian navy is more modernized.

Asked whether such exercises could act as preparation for an invasion of Taiwan, Tsang said they were too different, but added that “enhancing the capacity of the PLAN to operate long-distance will be beneficial in general terms to enhancing its capacity in a Taiwan Strait crisis in the future.”

The PLAN “need to train for long-distance deployments, particularly off Africa, where China is building up its interest,” he said. China has invested heavily in the continent through President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Infrastructure Initiative and is Africa’s biggest trade partner.

But there are more than economic reasons for China to join the exercises, according to Nantulya. They include having the ability to protect the many Chinese nationals working in Africa — the Chinese have been engaged in anti-piracy operations off Africa’s East coast for years — and maintain stability in countries that host Chinese peacekeepers or strategic investments.

Also, Nantulya said, it’s possible Beijing — which has only one military base in Africa, in Djibouti — is looking to establish additional bases on the continent in the next decade.

The U.S. has raised concerns about a possible Chinese base in Equatorial Guinea on the Atlantic coast.

“In terms of Russia, I think it’s quite obvious that what China has been doing is trying to provide Russia some form of platform to be able to continue conducting international relations despite the fact that it’s been heavily sanctioned,” Nantulya said. The war games that have been heavily criticized for taking place amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. State Department has told VOA by email, “We note with concern South Africa’s plan to hold joint naval exercises with Russia and the PRC. … We encourage South Africa to cooperate militarily with fellow democracies that share our mutual commitment to human rights and the rule of law.”

According to Chinese state media, China has sent a destroyer, a frigate and a defense ship to the exercises in South Africa, which run until February 27.
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Securing the skies has been a primary concern in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began, and for NATO countries bordering Ukraine and Russia, it is a job that is shared. Fighter pilots from Italy, Germany, the United States and others rotate through countries on the alliance’s eastern flank to keep constant watch for any threat crossing into NATO air space. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb caught up with members of the Italian Air Force as they practiced how to intercept threats entering Romania. Videographer: Mary Cieslak.
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Another earthquake struck the border region of Turkey and Syria on Monday, killing at least three people and coming two weeks after the area was devastated by a massive quake that left nearly 45,000 people dead.

Monday’s earthquake had a magnitude of 6.4 and centered in the town of Defne, in Turkey’s Hatay province, an area that was severely damaged by the February 6 quake.

The new quake was felt in multiple countries, including Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, and was followed by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said three people were killed and more than 200 others were injured.

“All of a sudden, the building shook. I immediately ran downstairs from the second floor. It shook terribly. It’s very sad,” Gaziantep resident Ahmet Kilic told VOA’s Turkish Service.

He said he was afraid to return to his house because he lives alone.

Another Gaziantep resident, Zeynep Deveci, told VOA he had just returned to his home following the February 6 quake.

“Yesterday I came back, and today we are on the street again. We don’t know what our end will be.”

Rescue workers were searching in several collapsed buildings in Hatay where people were believed to be trapped.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that six people were injured in Aleppo.

Also Monday, a U.N. convoy carrying relief supplies made its way through a newly opened border crossing into Syria at Al-Ra’ee.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said there are now three fully operating border crossings for the United Nations to enter Syria.

He said the U.N. has now dispatched 227 trucks to rebel-held areas in northwest Syria and said preparations are underway to send more trucks through all three border crossings.

In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Hatay earlier on Monday and said his government would begin next month to construct nearly 200,000 new homes in the province.

Also Monday, Erdogan met in Ankara with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who a day earlier announced U.S. pledges of $100 million in additional aid for Turkey and Syria.

The new aid brings the total U.S. assistance to $185 million and will be provided to international and nongovernmental groups that have been involved in the rescue and recovery efforts.

“The United States is here to support you in your time of need, and we will be by your side as long as it takes to recover and rebuild,” Blinken told reporters Monday during a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. VOA’s Turkish Service and United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet with the Chinese Communist Party’s top diplomat in Moscow, the Kremlin said Monday. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “we don’t rule out” Putin’s meeting with Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, who is visiting the Russian capital. 

Peskov hailed Russia-China ties as “multidimensional and allied in nature.” 

Wang’s visit to Moscow comes as President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and show U.S. support for Kyiv on the eve of the Russian military operation’s one-year anniversary. 

Wang’s trip to Russia follows talks Saturday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of an international security conference in Munich. 

Blinken said in a tweet after the meeting that he reiterated a warning to China on providing assistance to Russia in Ukraine, including assisting Moscow with evading sanctions the West has imposed on Moscow. 

China, which has declared a “no limits” friendship with Russia, has pointedly refused to criticize Moscow’s actions, blaming the U.S. and NATO for provoking the Kremlin, and has blasted the punishing sanctions imposed on Russia. 

Russia, in turn, has strongly backed China amid the tensions with the U.S. over Taiwan. 

The two nations have held a series of military drills that showcased increasingly close defense ties amid tensions with the United States. 
…

Russia showed up in force Monday at an arms fair in the United Arab Emirates, displaying combat-tested weapons up for export, including rifles and air defense systems. 

At an isolated pavilion at the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi, Moscow’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said it had more than 200 full-scale models of armament, ammunition and military gear. 

Russian armored vehicles, attack helicopters and anti-aircraft missile systems were also on display at IDEX, which opened Monday, as crippling Western sanctions push President Vladimir Putin to seek new markets for arms exports. 

The UAE has maintained a neutral stance toward Russia’s war in Ukraine, which is nearing its one-year anniversary. 

The oil-rich Gulf nation has also emerged as a top destination for rich Russian emigres fleeing the impact of Western sanctions. 

Russia is one of 65 countries participating in the biennial arms fair in the UAE capital, which runs until the end of the week and is considered the region’s largest.  

Russian Deputy Premier Denis Manturov, who is under sanctions, visited IDEX on Monday, according to Russian state news agency TASS 

“The UAE has retained its first place among the countries of the Arab world in terms of trade with the Russian Federation,” TASS quoted him as saying. 

“In 2022, trade between Russia and the UAE increased by 68% and reached $9 billion,” he said. 

‘Highly competitive’  

Russia is the second-largest arms exporter in the world after the United States, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. 

In a statement ahead of IDEX, Rosoboronexport head Alexander Mikheev called Middle Eastern states “important partners” and said his firm was “working out proposals … that could be of immediate interest” to countries in the region. 

He told TASS at IDEX on Monday that Rosoboronexport was preparing to offer reconnaissance and strike drones to foreign partners. 

Russia supplied 20% of the Middle East’s arms imports between 2000-2019, but the Arab Gulf’s arms market has been firmly dominated by American and European firms, said Albert Vidal, a Fulbright scholar at Georgetown University. 

“While Russian firms may be trying to take advantage of the UAE’s search for a more diversified pool of suppliers, they will not have an easy time locking defense contracts with Abu Dhabi,” he told AFP. 

“In addition to traditional Western suppliers, they now face highly competitive arms exporters like South Korea, Israel and Turkey, all of which are already cooperating closely with the Emirati defense industry.”

Israel cooperation

Beyond Russia, Israel also made waves at the Naval Defense and Maritime Security Exhibition (NAVDEX) which opened alongside IDEX.

The UAE and Israel revealed off the coast of Abu Dhabi their first jointly created unmanned vessel. 

The craft, which has advanced sensors and imaging systems and can be used for surveillance, reconnaissance and detecting mines, was created by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Emirati defense consortium EDGE. 

Oren Guter, a former navy captain who leads IAI’s naval program, said the joint project would counter “threats here in the area” but that the aim was also to deploy vessels abroad. 

The UAE and Israel have steadily deepened their military partnership, including defense procurement, since they normalized relations in 2020 as part of the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords. 

In January 2022, Israel’s defense electronics company Elbit Systems said its subsidiary in the UAE was awarded an approximately $53 million contract to supply systems to the UAE air force. 

Emirati and Israeli defense firms are also working to develop an autonomous counter-drone system. 

Countering maritime threats from Iran is “a natural area” of focus for the UAE-Israel partnership, said Torbjorn Soltvedt of the risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft. 

“Countering the growing threat to shipping in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman will be a priority, as both Israeli and Emirati ships have been targeted in Iran-backed drone and missile attacks,” Soltvedt told AFP. 

On Sunday, Israel accused Iran of attacking an Israeli-linked tanker off the coast of Oman in a strike that caused minor damage. It was the second such accusation this year. 
…

In civilian life, Dmytro was a bicycle repairman in western Ukraine. Now he fixes tanks and other armored vehicles, making them fit for the battlefield.

“The way both work is basically the same,” he insists at a secret military repair yard behind the eastern front line.  

“But of course, there are differences.”

Dmytro, 45, and his younger brother, Roman, 34, both work as mechanics in the 14th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Army.

Their expertise is called in for the bigger problems that can’t be dealt with immediately by soldiers on the ground.

At the yard, mechanics are working on a BMP-3 infantry combat vehicle seized from the Russians during last year’s Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region.

“The Ukrainian Army doesn’t have one,” says Ruslan, 47, who has been a soldier for 30 years and is in charge of the repair shop soldiers.

“To fix it we’ve had to take apart another vehicle for its parts,” he adds over the sound of metal bashing.

In a corner, a BMP-1 — used by both sides in the conflict — is gradually being cannibalized in a flash of grinding sparks.

Elsewhere four mechanics with head torches pore over the pistons, pipes and wires of a giant extracted engine, like transplant surgeons in an operating theater.

Others grease and oil parts or disappear inside the heavy armor of the fighting vehicles, brandishing giant spanners and ratchets purposefully.

“Fixing one can take from one day to one month,” says Ruslan, unperturbed at the prospect of getting the Russian BMP-3 up and running without an instruction manual.

“Everything is on the internet,” he shrugs, as if it was as simple as downloading a “how to” guide to put up a flatpack bookshelf or kitchen cabinet.

“It’s all about the parts really.”

Fixed up 

In the yard, abandoned Russian towed artillery guns and even a giant T-80 tank wait to be seen, their letter “Z” markings still clearly visible.

The T-80, with the Donbas mud caked and dried on its heavy caterpillar tracks, will be transported elsewhere in Ukraine for engineers to look at its electronics.

But most of the appropriated Russian equipment doesn’t need much work, says Ruslan.

“This isn’t really badly damaged,” he says of the 19-tonne BMP-3.

“The Russians don’t care about their own armored vehicles. Sometimes you can fix it. Maybe they left it because they don’t know how to?” he suggests.

Since the start of the war February 24 last year, the commander estimates that they have dealt with up to 100 abandoned and appropriated Russian armored vehicles at the workshop.

Once they have been fixed and repainted with the white cross of the Ukrainian Army or its trident emblem, they can be redeployed — but against the Russians.

New Western equipment that Ukraine hopes can turn the conflict decisively in its favor is expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

It includes 31 U.S. Abrams battle tanks, 14 Challenger 2s from the U.K. and the same number of Leopard 2s from Germany.

Ruslan refuses to say whether they’ll be providing any mechanical back-up for the new arrivals but insists they have the expertise if needed.

“We already have staff who are trained to repair and understand tanks,” he says.
…

Myanmar officials and entities were placed under a sixth round of European Union sanctions on Monday over the 2021 military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and sparked global outrage. 

The latest sanctions include restrictions on nine people and seven entities whom the EU says have contributed to the escalating violence and human rights violations in the Southeast Asian country.  

The sanctioned individuals include the energy minister, high-ranking officers, politicians, and prominent businesspeople who have supported the regime. 

Sanctions were also placed on departments in the Ministry of Defense, along with a state-owned enterprise under its jurisdiction, and private companies that supply funds and arms to the military.  

The EU has restrictive measures on 93 individuals and 18 entities. Those who are sanctioned are subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban in EU territory.  

Additionally, export restrictions are being placed on equipment for “monitoring communications which might be used for internal repression,” along with EU prohibition of military training and cooperation with the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military.  

The Feb. 1, 2021, coup happened after the military rejected the outcome of November 2020 elections, in which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won in a landslide. The junta claimed widespread electoral fraud, allegations the civilian electoral commission denied before it was disbanded. 

Human Rights Watch says that since the coup, military forces have “committed numerous crimes against humanity and war crimes across the country,” documented by the organization and other groups.

Earlier this month, the ruling council declared martial law in more than three dozen of the country’s 330 townships and extended a six-month state of emergency. The military has also been conducting airstrikes targeting a resistance movement that emerged following the coup. 

As of February 20, nearly 20,000 political prisoners have been detained and more than 3,000 people have been killed by the military, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights monitoring organization. 

In a press release Monday, the EU said that it condemns “in the strongest possible terms the grave human rights violations, including sexual and gender-based violence, the persecution of civil society, human rights defenders and journalists, attacks on the civilian population, targeting also children and persons belonging to ethnic and religious minorities across the country, and recent deadly air strikes on civilian targets, including on schools and hospitals, by the Myanmar armed forces.”

VOA’s Burmese Service contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.  
…

Weeks of dry winter weather have raised concerns that Italy could face another drought after last summer’s emergency, with the Alps having received less than half of their normal snowfall, according to scientists and environmental groups.

Italian rivers and lakes are suffering from severe lack of water, the Legambiente environmental group said on Monday, with attention focused on the north of the country.

The Po, Italy’s longest river which runs from the Alps in the northwest to the Adriatic has 61% less water than normal at this time of year, it added in a statement.

Last July Italy declared a state of emergency for areas surrounding the Po, which accounts for roughly a third of the country’s agricultural production and suffered its worst drought for 70 years.

“We are in a water deficit situation that has been building up since the winter of 2020-2021,” climate expert Massimiliano Pasqui from Italian scientific research institute CNR was quoted as saying by daily Corriere della Sera.

“We need to recover 500 millimeters in the north-western regions: we need 50 days of rain,” he added.

Water levels on Lake Garda in northern Italy have fallen to record lows, making it possible to reach the small island of San Biagio on the lake via an exposed pathway.

An anticyclone has been dominating the weather in western Europe for 15 days, bringing mild temperatures more normally seen in late spring.

Latest weather forecasts do however signal the arrival of much-needed precipitation and snow in the Alps in coming days.
…

The BBC said Monday it has uncovered evidence of sexual exploitation on Kenyan tea plantations that supply some of Britain’s most popular brands.

In a video posted on the BBC World website, a supervisor on a Kenyan tea farm is seen with an undercover reporter and he asks her to touch him and undress.

He did not know he was being taped and a BBC crew was nearby for the reporter’s protection.

More than 70 women told the BBC that that they had been sexually exploited by their supervisors on farms owned by Unilever, Lipton and James Finlay & Co. The companies supply some of Britain’s most popular brands, including PG Tips and Lipton.

Some women told the BBC that work is scarce and they felt that they did not have any options.

On another plantation, the same undercover reporter attended an induction day for new recruits where a manager gave a speech saying the company had a zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy.

Afterwards, the manager invited her to meet him in a hotel bar that evening and suggested later that they go to his compound, the BBC reports.

Finley told the BBC that it has decided to investigate to determine if their Kenyan operation has “an endemic issue with sexual violence.”

Lipton, which bought one of the plantations from Unilever while the BBC investigation was underway, has also launched an investigation.
…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting Monday with Turkish leaders in Ankara, with Turkey’s recovery from a devastating earthquake and its position as a necessary vote for expanding NATO among the top agenda items. 

Blinken’s schedule includes talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which this week reaches its one-year anniversary, prompted Sweden and Finland to seek entry to the NATO defensive alliance, a process that requires unanimous consent of the existing members. Hungary and Turkey are the only ones yet to approve the new candidates. 

Turkey has expressed security concerns regarding Sweden, saying it has been too lenient toward groups that Turkey considers terror organizations. 

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last week during his own visit to Turkey that “the time is now” for Turkey to ratify both countries as new NATO members.   

Cavusolgu and Erdogan have each said Turkey may evaluate the two bids separately and could approve Finland’s on its own.  

Earthquake aid 

Blinken arrived Sunday in Turkey, his first visit to the country since becoming the top U.S. diplomat two years ago. 

He brought pledges of $100 million in additional U.S. aid for Turkey and Syria after the February 6 earthquake that has killed more than 44,000 people. 

“I look forward to learning as much as I can from our Turkish partners about what the needs are going forward, how we can best help, how we can best rally resources in support of people here,” Blinken said on his arrival. 

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters 
…

Antiwar German movie “All Quiet on the Western Front” won seven prizes, including best picture, at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, building the somber drama’s momentum as awards season rolls toward its climax at next month’s Oscars. 

Irish tragicomedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” and rock biopic “Elvis” took four prizes each. 

“All Quiet,” a visceral depiction of life and death in the World War I trenches, based on Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel, won Edward Berger the best director award. Its other trophies included adapted screenplay, cinematography, best score, best sound and best film not in English. 

Austin Butler was a surprise best actor winner for “Elvis.” Baz Lurhmann’s flamboyant musical also won for casting, costume design and hair and makeup. Cate Blanchett won the best actress prize for orchestral drama “Tár.” 

Martin McDonagh’s “Banshees,” the bleakly comic story of a friendship gone sour, was named best British film. 

“Best what award?” joked McDonagh of the film, which was shot in Ireland with a largely Irish cast and crew. It has British funding, and McDonagh was born in Britain to Irish parents. 

“Banshees” also won for McDonagh’s original screenplay, and awards for Kerry Condon as best supporting actress and Barry Keoghan for best supporting actor. 

The prizes — officially the EE BAFTA Film Awards — are Britain’s equivalent of Hollywood’s Academy Awards and are watched closely for hints of who may win at the Oscars on March 12. 

Madcap metaverse romp “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the Academy Awards front-runner, was the night’s big loser, winning just one prize from its 10 BAFTA nominations, for editing. 

Actor Richard E. Grant was a suave and self-deprecating host — with support from TV presenter Alison Hammond — for the ceremony at London’s Royal Festival Hall, where the U.K.’s movie academy heralded its strides to become more diverse but said there was more to be done. 

Grant joked in his opening monologue about the infamous altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock at last year’s Oscars. 

“Nobody on my watch gets slapped tonight,” he said. “Except on the back.” 

Guests and presenters walking the red carpet on the south bank of the River Thames included Colin Farrell, Ana de Armas, Eddie Redmayne, Brian Cox, Florence Pugh, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Cynthia Erivo, Julianne Moore and Lily James. 

Heir to the throne Prince William, who is president of Britain’s film and television academy, was in the audience alongside his wife, Kate.  

Helen Mirren paid tribute to William’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September. Mirren, who portrayed the late monarch onscreen in “The Queen” and onstage in “The Audience,” called Elizabeth “the nation’s leading lady.” 

Britain’s film academy introduced changes to increase the awards’ diversity in 2020, when no women were nominated as best director for the seventh year running and all 20 nominees in the lead and supporting performer categories were white. 

This year there were 11 female directors up for awards across all categories, including documentary and animated films. But just one of the main best-director nominees was female: Gina Prince-Bythewood for “The Woman King.” 

BAFTA chair Krishnendu Majumdar said the “vital work of levelling the playing field” would continue. 

Writer-director Charlotte Wells won the prize for best British debut for the affecting father-daughter drama “Aftersun.” Three-time Oscar winner Sandy Powell became the first costume designer to be awarded the academy’s top honor, the BAFTA fellowship. 

The harsh world outside showbiz intruded on the awards when Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev, who works for investigative website Bellingcat, said he was not allowed to attend the awards because of a risk to public security. He features in “Navalny,” a film about jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny that won the best documentary BAFTA. 

“Navalny” producer Odessa Rae dedicated the award to Grozev, “our Bulgarian nerd with a laptop, who could not be with us tonight because his life is under threat by the Russian government and Vladimir Putin.” 
…

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Sunday it was in discussions with Iran about the results of recent verification work there soon after a Bloomberg News report that it had detected uranium enriched to 84% purity, which is close to weapons grade.

Iran has been enriching uranium to up to 60% purity since April 2021. Three months ago, it started enriching to that level at a second site, Fordow, which is dug into a mountain. Weapons grade is around 90%.

“The IAEA is aware of recent media reports relating to uranium enrichment levels in Iran,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Twitter. “The IAEA is discussing with Iran the results of recent Agency verification activities and will inform the IAEA Board of Governors as appropriate.”

The IAEA declined to comment to Reuters before issuing the tweet.

The IAEA, which inspects Iran’s nuclear facilities, flags significant developments in Iran’s activities either in ad hoc reports to the 35-nation Board of Governors or regular quarterly ones issued before board meetings.

Diplomats said on Sunday evening that the IAEA so far had not issued any such report.

Bloomberg reported earlier Sunday that the IAEA was trying to clarify how Iran enriched uranium to 84%, citing two senior diplomats.

Reuters was not able to independently confirm the report.

“Inspectors need to determine whether Iran intentionally produced the material, or whether the concentration was an unintended accumulation within the network of pipes connecting the hundreds of fast-spinning centrifuges used to separate the isotopes,” Bloomberg reported.

It added that the detected material could have been “mistakenly accumulated because of technical difficulties in operating the centrifuge cascades — something that has happened before,” citing one of the diplomats.
…

The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern Sunday that China may be contemplating sending lethal assistance to support Russia’s war in Ukraine. He made the comments before landing in Turkey, where he toured the damage caused by the recent earthquakes. U.S.-China tensions have spiked after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this month. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. Ezel Sahinkaya of VOA’s Turkish Service contributed.
…

The United States is sending another $100 million in humanitarian assistance to Turkey and Syria to help the two countries cope with the devastating earthquake that has killed more than 46,000 people and left millions homeless.

The new aid brings the total U.S. assistance to $185 million and will be provided to international and nongovernmental groups that have been involved in the rescue and recovery efforts.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was visiting Turkey on Sunday to observe firsthand the devastating aftermath of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, said the new assistance would help in the purchase of such items as blankets, mattresses, food packs, warm clothing, tents, and shelter materials.

The aid will also support medicine and health services, clean water and sanitation efforts, and programs supporting the education of children and youth impacted by the earthquake.

Blinken took a helicopter tour of some of the earthquake devastation Sunday with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu. Blinken is expected to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday.

The top U.S. diplomat’s meetings in Turkey follow a visit to Washington by Cavusoglu last month. The two NATO allies have tried to mend fences over disagreements on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, plus Sweden and Finland’s bids to join the alliance.

Against all odds, rescue workers have continued to recover people from the rubble of the February 6 earthquake, but the head of the country’s disaster response agency has said their efforts would end Sunday.

VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report.

 
…

Russia is not happy with the comments the French president made in a newspaper interview.

Emmanuel Macron told Le Journal du Dimanche that France wanted to see Russia defeated in Ukraine, but not crushed.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the French leader’s comments were “priceless” and showed that the West was talking about regime change in Russia.

Macron also told the newspaper that he did not see an alternative to Russia’s current leader.

“All the options other than Vladimir Putin in the current system seem worse to me,” the French leader told the newspaper.

Russia, led by Putin, invaded Ukraine a year ago.
…

Andrew Lloyd Webber, the English composer who created the scores for blockbuster musicals such as “Cats,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Evita,” has written the anthem for King Charles III’s coronation, adapting a piece of church music that encourages singers to make a “joyful noise.”

The work by Webber is one of a dozen new pieces Charles commissioned for the grand occasion taking place May 6 at Westminster Abbey. It includes words adapted from Psalm 98 and is scored specifically for the abbey’s choir and organ.

“I hope my anthem reflects this joyful occasion,” Webber said in a statement distributed by Buckingham Palace. 

The program for the king’s coronation ceremony includes older music and new compositions as the palace seeks to blend traditional and modern elements that reflect the realities of modern Britain. New pieces were composed by artists with roots in all four of the United Kingdom’s constituent nations, as well as in the Commonwealth and foreign countries that have sent so many people to its shores.

The service will include works by William Byrd (1543–1623), George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), Edward Elgar (1857–1934), Henry Walford Davies (1869–1941), William Walton (1902–1983), Hubert Parry (1848–1918) and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), whose music has featured in previous coronations, along with a piece from the contemporary Welsh composer Karl Jenkins.

There will also be new works by Sarah Class, Nigel Hess, Paul Mealor, Tarik O’Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Shirley J. Thompson, Judith Weir, Roderick Williams and Debbie Wiseman.

“The decision to combine old and new reflects the cultural breadth of the age in which we live,” said Andrew Nethsingha, the organist and master of choristers at Westminster Abbey.

“Coronations have taken place in Westminster Abbey since 1066. It has been a privilege to collaborate with his majesty in choosing fine musicians and accessible, communicative music for this great occasion,” Nethsingha said.

In all, six orchestral commissions, five choral commissions and one organ commission — spanning the classical, sacred, film, television and musical theater genres — were created for the coronation.

The program will also include personal touches, including a musical tribute to Charles’ late father, Prince Philip, who was born a Greek prince. The new monarch requested Greek Orthodox music, which will be performed by the Byzantine Chant Ensemble.

Though specifics on some of the material are being kept under wraps, one hymn will definitely be part of the service: Handel’s “Zadok the Priest.”

The hymn, with its robust chorus of “God Save the King,” has been played at every coronation since it was commissioned for the coronation of King George II in 1727. 
…

Ukraine shot down at least six balloons over Kyiv on Wednesday, according to the British Defense Ministry’s daily intelligence update on Ukraine posted on Twitter.

The report said the Ukrainian armed forces spotted the balloons with radar reflectors suspended from them over Kyiv.

On Feb. 12, Ukraine’s air force said it spotted balloons over eastern Dnipropetrovsk, according to the report.

“It is likely that the balloons were Russian,” the ministry said, adding that the aircraft “likely represent” a new Russian information-gathering tactic to gain information about Ukrainian air defense systems that could “compel the Ukrainians to expend valuable stocks of surface to air missiles and ammunition.”

The British Defense Ministry said Moldovan airspace was closed Tuesday for several hours because of a balloon-shaped object. “There is a realistic possibility that this was a Russian balloon that had drifted from Ukrainian airspace,” the ministry said.

The Defense Ministry did not say whether the balloons resembled the balloons recently spotted and shot down over North America.

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Saturday that almost all of Ukraine ended the day with power which he said was “another confirmation of our resilience.”
…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Turkey on Sunday to observe firsthand the devastating aftermath of of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 46,000 and left millions homeless in Turkey and neighboring Syria.

While in Turkey, he is expected to meet with Turkey President Tayyip Erdogan and Mevlut Cavusoglu, Blinken’s Turkish counterpart.

The top U.S. diplomat’s meetings in Turkey follow a visit to Washington by Cavusoglu last month. The two NATO allies have tried to mend fences over disagreements on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, plus Sweden’s and Finland’s bids to enter NATO.

Against all odds, rescue workers have continued to recover people from the rubble of the February 6 earthquake, but the head of the country’s disaster response agency has said their efforts would end Sunday.
…

In a dusty workshop in northern Lithuania, a dozen men are transforming hundreds of wheel rims into potbelly stoves to warm Ukrainians huddled in trenches and bomb shelters. As the sparks subside, one welder marks the countertop: 36 made that day. Hours later, they’ve reached 60.

People from across Lithuania send old wheel rims to the volunteers gathering weekly in Siauliai, the Baltic country’s fourth-largest city. Two cars loaded with wood stoves wait outside the workshop ahead of the long night drive south.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine last February, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — three states on NATO’s eastern flank scarred by decades of Soviet-era occupation — have been among the top donors to Kyiv.

Linas Kojala, director of the Europe Studies Center in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius, said Ukraine’s successful resistance “is a matter of existential importance” to the Baltic countries, which share its experience of Russian rule.

“Not only political elites, but entire societies are involved in supporting Ukraine,” Kojala told the AP.

In Siauliai, Edgaras Liakavicius said his team has sent about 600 stoves to Ukraine.

“Everybody here … understands the situation of every man, every soldier, the conditions they live in now in Ukraine,” Liakavicius, who works for a local metal processing plant, told the AP.

Jaana Ratas, who heads an effort in Tallinn, Estonia, to make camouflage nets for Ukrainian soldiers, echoed his words.

“My family and most Estonians, they still remember (the Soviet occupation),” she said.

Ratas chose a symbolic location for her project. Five days a week, Estonian and Ukrainian women gather at Tallinn’s Museum of Occupations and Freedom to weave the nets from donated fabrics.

Lyudmila Likhopud, a 76-year-old refugee from Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, said the work has lifted her out of depression.

“I started feeling that I can be useful,” she told the AP.

In Latvia’s capital of Riga, Anzhela Kazakova — who ran a furniture store in the Black Sea port of Odesa — is one of 30 Ukrainian refugees working for Atlas Aerospace, a drone manufacturer that has supplied more than 300 kits to the Ukrainian army.

Ivan Tolchinsky, Atlas Aerospace’s founder and CEO, grew up in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, held by Kremlin-backed separatists since 2014. He had long petitioned both the EU and Ukraine to supply drones to Kyiv’s forces fighting the separatists. Final permission arrived a day before Moscow’s full-scale invasion, he said.

Atlas Aerospace has since increased production 20-fold, Tolchinsky said, and is planning to open a site in Ukraine despite withering Russian strikes on infrastructure.

Tolchinsky’s drones are just some of the weapons flowing to Kyiv from its Baltic allies. Together with their southern neighbor Poland — another NATO and European Union member with a history of Soviet oppression — the three small states rank among the biggest donors per gross domestic product helping Ukraine.

Lithuania, with a mere 2.8 million inhabitants, was the first country to send Stinger air defense missiles, according to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.

One of the latest Lithuanian initiatives is a crowdfunding drive to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian drones and missiles. Launched in late January, it initially aimed to raise 5 million euros by the Feb. 24 anniversary of the invasion. That goal was reached within weeks, and organizers have since doubled it as donations keep flowing.

One fundraising group has grown into a major player that participates in international trading, purchasing military equipment for Kyiv.

“We have expanded 10 times in less than a year. (We used to supply) five drones in one batch, but now it’s 50 or more,” said Jonas Ohman, founder of the nongovernmental organization Blue/Yellow. The group recently won a bid for military optics, edging out rivals including the Indian military, and clinched a contract with an Israeli company for multipurpose high sensitivity radars for Kyiv.

“It’s entirely another level now,” Ohman said.

In Poland, millions of zlotys have been raised to fund everything from advanced weapons to treating the wounded. Backed by over 220,000 contributors, journalist Slawomir Sierakowski was able to gather almost 25 million zlotys ($5.6 million) to buy an advanced Bayraktar drone for Ukraine.

Ohman, the head of the Lithuanian NGO, drew parallels between his compatriots’ readiness to help Kyiv and local partisan movements fighting Soviet rule after World War II.

“It is about personal responsibility in tough times,” he said. “Just like in 1945 when (the) Soviets returned, the government was gone, but the struggle for freedom continued in the woods for years.”
…

On the deserted edge of a town near the front line in eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian soldier kneels in a firing position, a gloved finger on the trigger of his high-powered rifle.

“The Russians want to control this road,” says his commander, who goes by the call sign “Virus,” looking up and down a snow-covered residential street.

Dogs bark behind the garden walls and beyond as small-arms fire crackles in the near distance, in between the muffled sound of artillery shelling.

As the anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches Friday, expectations are high that the fighting will intensify in Ukraine.

But for Virus and his “Witcher” unit, who have been deployed across the disputed eastern region of Donetsk, there has been no letup in Russian attacks for the last 12 months.

Up and down the front line, particularly in the city of Bakhmut, Russian forces have put Ukrainian troops under constant pressure, he said.

He insists that the Ukrainian line is holding — and that they are ready if the conflict escalates.

“If you ask me, for our unit the situation hasn’t changed,” he said before heading out into a blizzard, hoping to take advantage of the cover of gray skies and snow drifts to scout out positions.

“Some people can talk about a new offensive, but the Russians attack every day,” he told AFP.

‘Meat grinder’

The latest Western battle tanks are on their way to Ukraine, after weeks of hesitation by its allies for fear of escalating the conflict into a direct fight between NATO and Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s shopping list of urgently needed materiel now includes fighter jets, which has again given the alliance pause.

Virus, with a helmet-mounted camera, AR-15 assault rifle and warm, waterproof camouflage clothing to keep out the stinging cold, certainly does not appear to lack the latest kit.

But he agrees that on the ground, “aviation technology” would help defend against Russian airstrikes in his sector and stem the flow of attacks from waves of enemy troops.

Russian tactics, particularly the use of the Wagner mercenary group in Bakhmut, bolstered by inexperienced convicts, have come under scrutiny.

The heavy losses and monthslong war of attrition for control of the city has seen it dubbed graphically as “the meat grinder.”

But Virus says Russia is using similar tactics elsewhere on the eastern front, sending five groups of 10 men in quick succession to attack Ukrainian positions.

Ukrainian troops pick off the initial waves, he said.

But he added: “By the time we get to the fifth, they capture the trench because we don’t have time to reload our weapons, just because we have no time to kill them.”

“They don’t care about their soldiers’ lives.”

House for headquarters

The men from Witcher, fueled by dried noodles, biscuits, sweets and sugary tea, busy themselves at their base in a small, abandoned house that appears to have belonged to an elderly resident.

Open ammunition boxes lie on the floor, with semiautomatic weapons propped up against a living room cabinet of crockery and china ornaments, in a floral flock wallpapered room.

Nearly a year into the conflict, and with little sign of an end in sight, Virus and his men said high morale and a sense of common purpose had sustained the Ukrainian resistance.

One member of the unit, radio operator “Spider,” said he is prepared to turn his hand to anything to push Russia out of Ukraine to secure peace.

“If I’m needed to shoot a machine gun, I’ll do it,” he said. “If I’m needed to operate an anti-tank system, I’ll do that too.”
…