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Russia’s defense minister visited Russian soldiers in Ukraine on Saturday.

The ministry said in a statement on the messaging app Telegram that Sergei Shoigu “inspected the forward command post of one of the formations of the Eastern Military District in the South Donetsk direction.”

Shoigu has been criticized for Russia’s poor performance in its war against Ukraine. In a video released Saturday, the defense minister was seen handing out medals to Russian military forces.

Meanwhile, the British Defense Ministry said Saturday that “intense fighting” is underway in and around the Ukrainian Donbas town of Bakhmut.

Victory in Bakhmut would be a stepping stone to capturing the surrounding Donbas region, an important strategic goal. Ukraine says the city has little intrinsic strategic value but notes huge losses there could determine the course of the war.

The British intelligence update on Twitter said Bakhmut is vulnerable to Russian attacks on three sides, but Ukraine is reinforcing the areas with elite units.

Two key bridges in Bakhmut have been recently destroyed in the area, the report said, “including a vital bridge connecting the city to the last main supply route from Bakhmut to the city of Chasiv Yar.”

According to the Defense Ministry, Ukrainian-held resupply routes out of the town are “increasingly limited.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address that he was engaged in meetings and negotiations with a number of entities on Friday.

The president said the main focus of his meetings has been holding Russia accountable for its actions. “We are doing everything to ensure that the International Criminal Court is successful in punishing Russian war criminals,” the Ukrainian leader said.

The United States announced Friday a new package of military aid for Ukraine that totals about $400 million, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

“This military assistance package includes more ammunition for U.S.-provided HIMARS and howitzers, which Ukraine is using so effectively to defend itself, as well as ammunition for Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Armored Vehicle Launched Bridges, demolitions munitions and equipment, and other maintenance, training and support,” he said.

The package will be funded using the presidential drawdown authority, which authorizes the president to transfer articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval during an emergency, Blinken said in announcing the aid.

The Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge is a portable, 18-meter folding metal bridge that is carried on top of a tank body. Providing that system now could help Ukrainian troops as they launch an expected spring offensive, making it easier for them to cross rivers to battle Russian forces.

Including this latest package, the U.S. has now provided more than $32 billion in military aid to Ukraine. The vehicle bridges and ammunition in the package can be delivered quickly to the front lines because they will be taken from existing Pentagon stocks.

European Union countries also are working to deliver thousands of shells to Ukraine under a $1 billion program.

Particularly significant will be the delivery of 155 mm NATO-standard howitzer rounds that are urgently needed in advance of an intense spring campaign, according to the Financial Times, citing anonymous EU officials. This ammunition, according to the FT report, is critical to keep Ukraine in a fight in which Russia fires on average an estimated four shells for every Ukrainian shell fired.

“We need as much ammunition as possible. There are many more Russians here than we have ammunition to destroy them,” Volodymyr Nazarenko, a deputy commander in the national guard of Ukraine, told Ukrainian NV Radio.

Top US justice official

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Friday to attend a conference on justice and war crimes.

The U.S. Justice Department said Garland held several meetings at the conference in the western city of Lviv to reaffirm “our determination to hold Russia accountable for crimes committed in its unjust and unprovoked invasion against its sovereign neighbor.”

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
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Archaeologists say they have uncovered a “unique” cache of well-preserved spices, from strands of saffron to peppercorns and ginger, on the wreck of a royal ship that sank off Sweden’s Baltic coast more than 500 years ago.

The wreck of the Gribshund, owned by King Hans of Denmark and Norway, has lain off the coast off Ronneby since 1495, when it is thought to have caught fire and sank as the monarch attended a political meeting ashore in Sweden.

Rediscovered by sports divers in the 1960s, sporadic excavations of the ship have taken place in recent years. Previous dives recovered large items such as figureheads and timber. Now an excavation led by Brendan Foley, an archaeological scientist at Lund University, has found the spices buried in the silt of the boat.

“The Baltic is strange – it’s low oxygen, low temperature, low salinity, so many organic things are well preserved in the Baltic where they wouldn’t be well preserved elsewhere in the world ocean system,” said Foley. “But to find spices like this is quite extraordinary.”

The spices would have been a symbol of high status, as only the wealthy could afford goods such as saffron or cloves that were imported from outside Europe. They would have been travelling with King Hans as he attended the meeting in Sweden.

Lund University researcher Mikael Larsson, who has been studying the finds, said: “This is the only archaeological context where we’ve found saffron. So, it’s very unique and it’s very special.”
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Protests have intensified in Greece days after the country’s deadliest rail disaster, as thousands of students took to the streets in several cities and protesters clashed with police in Athens.

At least 57 people — including several university students — died when a passenger train slammed into a freight carrier just before midnight Tuesday. The government has blamed human error, and a railway official faces manslaughter charges.

Friday night’s violence was not extensive, and the protests were otherwise peaceful. Clashes also occurred in Greece’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki.

In Athens, riot police outside parliament fired tear gas and flash grenades to disperse a small number of protesters who hurled petrol bombs at them, set fire to garbage bins, and challenged police cordons. No arrests or injuries were reported.

The protests called by left-wing and student groups were fueled by anger at the perceived lack of safety measures in Greece’s rail network. The largest on Friday was in the central Greek city of Larissa, not far from the crash site, where several thousand people marched peacefully. Similar protests were held Wednesday and Thursday.

First funeral In northern Greece

The accident at Tempe, 380 kilometers north of Athens, shocked the nation and highlighted safety shortcomings in the small and dated rail network.

As recovery teams spent a third day scouring the wreckage Friday and families began receiving the remains of their loved ones, the funeral for the first of the victims was held in northern Greece.

Athina Katsara, a 34-year-old mother of an infant boy, was being buried in her hometown of Katerini. Her injured husband was hospitalized and unable to attend.

Harrowing identification process

The force of the head-on collision and resulting fire complicated the task of determining the death toll. Officials worked round the clock to match parts of dismembered and burned bodies with tissue samples to establish the number.

The bodies were returned to families in closed caskets following identification through next-of-kin DNA samples — a process followed for all the remains.

Relatives of passengers still listed as unaccounted for waited outside a Larissa hospital for test results. Among them was Mirella Ruci, whose 22-year-old son, Denis, remained missing.

“My son is not on any official list so far, and I have no information. I am pleading with anyone who may have seen him, in rail car 5, seat 22, to contact me if they may have seen him,” Ruci, who struggled to stop her voice from cracking, told reporters.

Flags at half-staff

Flags at the ancient Acropolis, parliament and other public buildings around Greece remained at half-staff on the third day of national mourning. National rail services were halted by a strike for a second day, with more strikes planned over the weekend.

Police early Friday searched a rail coordination office in Larissa, removing evidence as part of an ongoing investigation. The facility’s station manager was arrested and charged with multiple counts of negligent manslaughter.

Stelios Sourlas, a lawyer representing a 23-year-old victim of the collision, said responsibility for the deaths went beyond the station manager.

“The station manager may have the principal responsibility … but the responsibility is also broader: There are the rail operators and public officials whose job it was to ensure that safety measures and procedures were properly in place,” Sourlas said.

Rail unions say the network was poorly maintained despite upgrades to provide faster trains in recent years.

Election plans delayed?

Greece’s center-right government had been widely expected Friday to call national elections for early April, but the announcement and likely date was likely to be delayed.

The passenger train involved in the crash was traveling along Greece’s busiest route, from Athens to Thessaloniki. The freight train was heading in the opposite direction, on the same track.

Two of the victims were identified Friday as Cypriot students Anastasia Adamidou and Kyprianos Papaioannou. Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides said the state would cover the cost of their repatriation and funerals.

Neighboring Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama announced that flags on public buildings will be lowered to half-staff Sunday as a mark of respect for the victims in Greece.
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U.S. President Joe Biden is focused on shoring up NATO unity in supporting Ukraine in his meeting Friday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House, said John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, in an interview with VOA on Friday.

Dismissing concerns about growing war fatigue on both sides of the Atlantic, Kirby said Biden was confident that Western allies’ unity remained “resilient, resolved and unified.”

He repeated calls from the administration urging Beijing not to supply weapons to help Russia, warning of a “blow to China’s standing in the international community” should it decide to do so.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: President Biden is meeting with Chancellor Scholz. Both met [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy recently; they’ll be comparing notes on their support for Ukraine. But will they also be speaking about pathways to peace?

John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications: I think both of these leaders share the Ukrainians’ desire for a peace that is just and fair and sustainable, a peace that supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and maintains their independence. Also, they both agree that it’s got to be a peace that President Zelenskyy can sign on to; it’s got to be done in full consultation, full coordination with the Ukrainians. Otherwise, there’s no way it’s going to ever really get off to start and it’s not going to be sustainable.

VOA: Just last week, there were 10,000 people in Germany protesting sending arms to Ukraine. So, there’s political pressure on Chancellor Scholz. Is the president concerned that this might create a crack in NATO unity?

Kirby: No, the president is not at all concerned about a crack in allied unity. If you just look back at the last year, the allies had been incredibly resilient, resolved and unified in terms of supporting Ukraine. And he’s convinced – especially after coming home now from meeting with the Bucharest Nine, meeting with his counterpart in Poland, and of course meeting with President Zelenskyy in Kyiv – he’s even more convinced that that allied unity will continue.

We’re not taking anything for granted. We know we have to continue to work on providing the kinds of support to Ukraine that they need most. But he’s confident that the allies are going to be able to stay together.

VOA: I understand that Ukraine will be the focus. But will the president also make the argument that it is strategically risky for Germany to be so trade-dependent on China, the same way it has proven to be risky for them to be so dependent on Russian gas? Will the president urge the chancellor to take a tougher stance against Beijing?

Kirby: Today’s visit is really about how we can stay coordinated in supporting Ukraine. And I would point you to what Chancellor Scholz said yesterday in terms of his concerns about the potential for China to provide lethal weaponry to Russia and his call that what China should be focusing on is convincing Russia to withdraw, to take their troops out of Ukraine. That’s an illegal invasion to begin with. But as for economic practices, those are sovereign decisions that Chancellor Scholz has to make on behalf of the German people.

VOA: On China potentially arming Russia, U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield recently said that should China do this, that’s a red line for the administration. Is the administration prepared to back up that threat?

Kirby: I don’t think it’d be helpful to get into hypotheticals at this point. You’ve heard Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken talk about this. He’s mentioned this privately with his counterpart, his Chinese counterpart, that clearly, we don’t want to see them move in this direction. They have not done so, though they haven’t taken it off the table. And we have been very honest about the fact that there will be ramifications for doing that. Clearly, at the very least one of them is a blow to China’s standing in [the] international community.

China has a choice to make. Does it really want to come down on the side of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin? Does it really want to assist Mr. Putin in killing innocent Ukrainians? Because that’s what this kind of a move would be. And if China cares about their international standing, one would think that they would find this not in their best interest.

VOA: Let’s talk more about this name-and-shame strategy. In the lead-up of the Russian invasion, you said that you had intelligence that Putin is going to do it, and then he did it. You’re doing the same thing with President Xi Jinping, saying that China could potentially arm Russia. But if the strategy did not work to deter Putin from invading Ukraine, why would you believe that the strategy would work to deter Xi from helping Putin? I don’t see either of these men being the type that could be easily shamed or intimidated.

Kirby: This isn’t about shaming. It’s about sharing our concerns privately with the Chinese and also sharing those concerns publicly about indications that we see potentially that China might move in this direction. China has a choice to make. President Xi has a choice to make. And we strongly urged him to make the right choice here, to not make it easier for Mr. Putin to kill innocent Ukrainian people.

VOA: And that kind of approach you believe will be an effective deterrent?

Kirby: That’s going to be up to President Xi and the Chinese.

VOA: We know now that Iran and North Korea have supplied arms to Russia. Other than Belarus, what other third country could potentially be a conduit to funnel Chinese arms to Russia?

Kirby: That’s a great question for Vladimir Putin. Who else is he reaching out to, to try to get weapons and capabilities to continue the slaughter in Ukraine? We know that the Iranians are part and parcel of that effort. We know the North Koreans have provided, at least in some cases, artillery ammunition to the Wagner Group. And I think President Putin should have to speak for who else [is he] reaching out to, to continue these murderous ways.

VOA: Surely you must be monitoring these countries. Our sources point to potentially Myanmar as one of those countries. Do you see any intelligence to support this?

Kirby: I don’t have any other third-party countries to speak to today.

VOA: We spoke yesterday about the $620 million arms sales to Taiwan. Is this how the administration is helping Taiwan prepare, to stock up munitions in case of a Chinese blockade?

Kirby: This is about helping Taiwan with their self-defense capabilities. Specifically, it’s about munitions for their F-16 fighter aircraft. We work in lockstep with them about their needs, but it’s very much in keeping with our commitment, both legally and from a moral perspective, to make sure that they have the sufficient self-defense capabilities that they need.

VOA: With this timing, could it also provide Beijing with an excuse to funnel arms to Russia?

Kirby: That’s a question for President Xi. There should be no reason for him to want to provide arms to Russia. There should be no reason for him to want to help Mr. Putin kill innocent Ukrainian people. And that’s what this would be if they moved on with that decision.

What’s going into President Xi’s calculus is really a question for him. The Taiwan arms sales are in keeping with our obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act, and our belief that we must continue to help Taiwan have sufficient self-defense capabilities. This is separate and distinct from what’s going on in Ukraine.

VOA: Moving on to Iran, is the administration now seeing Iran as a global threat rather than a regional one?

Kirby: Iran has remained certainly a regional threat for quite some time, and that continues. They are fomenting instability in the Levant throughout the Middle East, they continue to support terrorist networks, they continue to threaten maritime traffic in the Gulf and beyond. And now they are directly impacting a war in Europe. So certainly, they have stretched their malign impact well beyond the region.

VOA: Do you now consider them a global threat?

Kirby: I’m not going to characterize them one way or the other, other than saying they are a malign actor in the region, and they are now stretching that influence beyond the Middle East. The other part about this that is concerning — and we’ve talked about this — is that they seek Russian capabilities in return. So, if that all comes to pass, then Iran would have the benefit of Russian capabilities, which makes them even more of a threat to [Western] friends and partners in the Middle East.

VOA: Any update on the poisoning of the Iranian schoolgirls? You said yesterday that you don’t know what the cause is. Do you know more at this point? UNICEF has offered to help. Is the U.S. prepared to offer the same?

Kirby: I’m afraid we don’t have more information about these reports of poisonings. They are deeply disturbing. We want the Iranian government – they say they’re going to investigate. We want that investigation to be thorough, complete and transparent with the Iranian people as well as the rest of the world. Little girls should not have to worry about their safety when they go to school. They should only have to worry about their grades.
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Belgium’s Constitutional Court on Friday upheld a prisoner exchange treaty with Iran that could lead to the swap of a convicted Iranian diplomat for a jailed Belgian aid worker. 

Belgian lawmakers cleared the treaty in July, but it has been held up by legal challenges from an exiled Iranian opposition group. 

“The court rejects the action for annulment,” the Constitutional Court said in a press release. 

However, the judges also specified that the victims of any detainee being proposed for transfer must have the right to contest the specific case in court. 

“Thus, when the government takes a decision to transfer, it must inform the victims of the relevant convicted person in such a way that they can effectively seek a review of the legality [of the transfer],” it said.  

Aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, arrested while on a visit to Iran in February 2022, was sentenced in January to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes on charges including spying. Brussels has said the charges are fake.  

His distraught family has appealed to the government to do its utmost to get him released. 

Following Friday’s judgment, campaigners for Vandecasteele’s release tweeted there was “still a [long] way to see Olivier free but tonight there might finally be a light at the end of the tunnel!” 

Convicted in bomb plot

Iran has called for the release of Assadollah Assadi, sentenced to 20 years in prison in Belgium in 2021 over a foiled 2018 bomb plot. His was the first trial of an Iranian official for suspected terrorism in Europe since Iran’s 1979 revolution. 

The exiled National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), whose rally near Paris had been the bomb plot’s target, has insisted that Assadi remain in jail. 

The NCRI said it would make use of the Constitutional Court’s stipulation that any proposed transfer must be open to legal challenge. 

“While the court did not annul the transfer agreement between Belgium and Iran, it has provided the plaintiffs with the opportunity to seek legal redress,” Shahin Gobadi, a member of the group’s foreign affairs committee, said in a statement. 

“The National Council of Resistance and the plaintiffs are exercising this right to prevent the release of this terrorist.”  

Iran has called the Paris attack allegations a “false flag” stunt by the NCRI, which it in turn considers a terrorist group. 

Some Belgian lawmakers have voiced concern that the treaty might lead to “hostage diplomacy” and put other Belgians at risk of detention. 

It is not clear when a prisoner exchange might happen. 
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The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on six Russians it said were involved in the arrest, prosecution or abuse of Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was detained last year after speaking out against the war in Ukraine.

Kara-Murza was arrested by Russia in April and declared a “foreign agent.” He is currently being held on suspicion of spreading false information about the armed forces under new laws passed eight days after the February 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine began.

“The United States reiterates its call for Kara-Murza’s immediate and unconditional release, and is committed to ensuring that Vladimir Putin’s attempts to silence critics will not succeed,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

The sanctions, announced by the Treasury and State departments, target Russians Elena Anatolievna Lenskaya, Andrei Andreevich Zadachin and Danila Yurievich Mikheev for serious human rights abuses under the U.S. Global Magnitsky Act.

The Treasury Department said Zadachin, a Russian special investigator, ordered that a criminal case be filed against Kara-Murza over a speech he made to the Arizona House of Representatives.

It further said that Lenskaya, a judge in Moscow, ordered that Kara-Murza be detained, and that Mikheev had appeared as an expert witness for the Russian government, reviewing video of the speech and providing a report that led to charges against the opposition leader.

Kara-Murza, who holds both British and Russian citizenship and was a pallbearer at the 2018 funeral of U.S. Senator John McCain, was a close aide to opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead in central Moscow in 2015.

Twice, in 2015 and 2017, Kara-Murza became suddenly ill in what he said were poisonings by the Russian security services, on both occasions falling into a coma before eventually recovering. Moscow denied involvement.

Kara-Murza has pushed for the United States, Canada, the European Union and Britain to use Magnitsky-style sanctions to target human rights abusers and corrupt actors in Russia, the Treasury Department said.

The U.S. State Department also imposed visa restrictions on Lenskaya and Zadachin, denying them and their immediate families entry into the United States.

In a related action, the State Department imposed sanctions on Russia’s Deputy Minister of Justice Oleg Mikhailovich Sviridenko, Diana Igorevna Mishchenko, who is the judge who ruled that Kara-Murza be arrested, and Ilya Pavlovich Kozlov, the judge who denied Kara-Murza’s appeal of the arrest ruling, the department said.
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Many journalists, academics and analysts expressed regret after the Slovenian Constitutional Court late last month put on hold parts of a new law on Slovenia’s public broadcaster RTV that the center-left government contends would limit direct political influence in the broadcaster’s work.

The court said parts of the law, prepared by the center-left government, could not be enforced until the court ruled whether they were in line with the Constitution. It did not say when it would rule on the matter, but such rulings often take months.

Meanwhile, the viewership of RTV’s television unit, TV Slovenia, has been falling, and many journalists report continuous pressure on their work by RTV management, which was put in place while the previous center-right government was in power.

There is less and less room for independent reporting at TV Slovenia, while a fall in viewership last year is worrisome, a senior anchor of the evening news, Tanja Staric, told VOA.

She is one of 38 staffers who in October received warnings that they faced dismissal if they breached their contract again. They had entered a studio during a live broadcast to show support for two colleagues they said were under pressure from the director of the TV unit.

Although Staric still has her job, she said the number of news slots she anchors had about halved since October.

Although none of the 38 staffers has been dismissed so far, the warnings, issued by RTV CEO Andrej Grah Whatmough, are still in place. Whatmough was in the group of managers who asked the Constitutional Court to rule on the new law, saying that the law should not change the managers before their mandates expire.

If the law is enforced, it would end the practice of parliament nominating members of the RTV program council.

At present, parliament nominates 21 out of 29 members of the program council, a body that names the broadcaster’s chief executive and approves production plans. The council is not allowed to directly influence editorial decision-making.

The law got the support of 62% of voters in a November referendum, which was demanded by the opposition center-right Slovenian Democratic Party of former Prime Minister Janez Jansa. The party contended that the changes would impact RTV’s independence because they were aimed solely at replacing the current management.

The Constitutional Court did not say what its final ruling could be, but stated that the position of RTV “demands as fast a decision of the Constitutional Court as possible so the Court will immediately proceed” in dealing with the matter.

The European Center for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) expressed concern regarding the fact that the law was put on hold and might not be enforced.

“It is critical that the disproportionate influence of all forms of politics on the RTV governance structures and editorial line is curtailed sooner rather than later and, in that sense, this latest development is worrisome indeed,” Laurens C. Hueting, senior advocacy officer of ECPMF, told VOA.

“The current directors and management at RTV have been accused by staff of unduly pressuring journalists and attempting to engineer a political shift in news and current affairs programming,” he added. “These clashes have already damaged both credibility and viewership, jeopardizing the public broadcaster’s journalistic mission.”

Several popular TV programs have been canceled, shortened or moved to a less prominent channel since the program council appointed Whatmough CEO in 2021.

New TV unit director

In July, Whatmough named Uros Urbanija as director of the broadcaster’s TV unit, a move that sparked protests from staffers and the Slovenia Association of Journalists. Urbanija was director of the government communication office under Jansa until June 2022, when the new center-left government took over after the general election.

Whatmough and Urbanija both deny pressuring journalists and say they are acting in line with professional standards.

However, on March 1, TV Slovenia for the first time broadcast a public street protest live, a change from its tradition of providing only basic news reports about such demonstrations.

The thousands of protesters demanding a 20% increase in pensions had been organized by the Voice of Pensioners initiative led by Pavel Rupar, a former parliamentarian aligned with Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS). Rupar told reporters, however, that the protest was in no way connected to the SDS.

RTV did not reply to VOA’s question about why it opted for a live broadcast of the protest. It also did not reply to VOA’s request for the latest viewership ratings.

Most analysts say that ruling parties from both sides have pressured the public broadcaster since Slovenia gained independence in 1991, but that interference has never been as intense as when the SDS was in power from 2020 to 2022.

Although Prime Minister Robert Golob, who took office June 1, 2022, had said that enabling the independence of RTV would be one of the main goals of his government, nothing has changed so far.

“The law on RTV was poorly prepared, so I was not surprised by the Constitutional Court’s decision [to put it on hold],” Dejan Vercic, a professor in the University of Ljubljana’s faculty of social sciences, told VOA.

“Maybe the government wants this conflict at RTV to continue in order to keep the attention of the public away from important matters, which include the health, tax and pension reforms,” he added. “The fact is that the position of media and journalists in Slovenia is rapidly worsening.”

Meanwhile, nominations of RTV’s new program council continue in line with the new law, although the new council cannot take over until the Constitutional Court approves the law.

Looking for a solution

Culture Minister Asta Vrecko, who oversees the media, told reporters that the ministry was “intensively working” on how to resolve the situation at RTV and that she hoped the court would soon approve the new law.

The 8th of March Institute, a civil society group that actively supported the new law in a referendum campaign, said people were asking the institute what could be done to improve the situation at the RTV.

“We are looking into what we … can do for our public medium at this moment. We are in contact with other organizations and are looking for options,” the institute told its supporters in a statement.

Staric said that RTV would survive the present limbo but added that its role in society would be reduced because it might lose even more viewers.

TV Slovenia runs a 24/7 operation and is one of the most popular TV channels in the country. The public broadcaster is financed predominantly by subscriptions that most households in Slovenia are obliged to pay.
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U.S. President Joe Biden will welcome German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the White House Friday for discussions on continued support for Ukraine and bilateral cooperation on a range of global security and economic issues. 

The leaders first met in February of last year shortly after Scholz took office, and the visit comes after marking the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

“We’ve closely coordinated our support to Ukraine throughout this conflict, including through joint announcements in January to provide infantry fighting vehicles and tanks,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters during a Thursday briefing.

“Germany has provided significant air defense support to Ukraine, including a Patriot battery; the IRIS-T air defense system, which is an infrared seeking system; and five multiple — multiple launch rocket systems,” he said.

Kirby said discussing additional support for Ukraine is high on the agenda for the Friday’s meeting. He also said the United States would be announcing a new package of military aid for Ukraine later in the day.

Scholz addressed the German parliament Thursday, calling on China to use its influence with Russia to convince that nation to withdraw its troops from Ukraine and not to provide Moscow with additional weapons. 

Thursday, Kirby said the U.S. has communicated privately and publicly with China about providing weapons to Russia. 

“We believe it’s not in China’s best interest to move forward in that regard and they should see it the same way,” he said.

Speaking to reporters in Berlin ahead of his departure for Washington, Scholz was asked why he is traveling to Washington to meet with Biden in person when they could have the same conversation via video link. 

He said the two leaders talk on the phone regularly but meeting face to face “is part of the quality of our relationship,” as it should be “in a good life.” He said he sees it as a necessity in a world “where a lot of things have become very complicated.” 

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison by a Belarus court.

Bialiatski is the founder of Viasna, a prominent human rights group in Belarus that has provided legal and financial support to protesters, following a wave of unrest in 2020, following disputed election results that returned Belarus strongman President Alexander Lukashenko back into office, a position he has held  for over 30 years.

Lukashenko, a frequent ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is often called Europe’s “last dictator.”   

Bialiatski has said he is being persecuted for political reasons.  

Bialiatski was among the three co-recipients of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, alongside a Russian and Ukrainian human rights group.
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Anger is mounting in Greece over lax railway safety with the search for survivors in the nation’s deadliest train crash having ended Friday and the death toll having risen to at least 57 people.

Protests were called for Friday in the capital, Athens, and several major cities across Greece. Rail unions also urged workers to strike for a second day to protest working conditions and a lack of government action to address rail system safety standards.

Firefighters and volunteers say final inspection of mangled cars would be completed by midday before fleets of cranes and heavy machinery moved into the site of the crash in northern Greece to clear out the wreckage and restore the operation of Greece’s faulty railway network.

A Greek government spokesperson said the stationmaster on duty near the site of Tuesday’s train collision has admitted to being guilty of negligence.

The stationmaster for the Larissa station, who has not been publicly identified, appeared before prosecutors Thursday as investigators examine why a passenger train and a freight train traveling toward each other were allowed on the same track.

A police official said Wednesday the stationmaster faced misdemeanor charges of mass deaths through negligence and causing grievous bodily harm through negligence, Reuters reported.

The collision occurred late Tuesday near the city of Tempe, about 380 kilometers north of Athens.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a televised address Wednesday after visiting the crash site that it appeared the cause was a “tragic human error.” He promised a full investigation.

Transportation Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned Wednesday, accepting responsibility for the accident.

Karamanlis said the Greek railway system was “not up to 21st century standards” when he took office. “In these 3.5 years we have made every effort to improve this reality,” he said. “Unfortunately, our efforts have not been sufficient to prevent such a bad incident. And this is very heavy for all of us and me personally.”

He said resigning was “the minimum sign of respect to the memory of the people who died so unjustly.”

The government declared three days of mourning beginning Wednesday, while in Brussels, flags were lowered to half-staff outside buildings of the European Union.

The cargo train was traveling south from Thessaloniki to Larissa with a crew of two, while the other train, with about 350 passengers, was headed north from Athens to Thessaloniki.

Yiannis Ditsas, head of the Greek rail workers’ union, told Greek television that the two trains barreled toward one another for 12 minutes before colliding. At least three passenger cars derailed and burst into flames.

By Wednesday morning, authorities reported that at least 66 of those injured were still hospitalized, with six of them in intensive care.

Rescue workers continued to search through the crash site, where an overturned blue passenger car remained in an open field. Other cars were flattened.

Before his resignation, Karamanlis said, “It’s a difficult search and rescue operation and we still don’t know the exact number of victims. We will investigate with full seriousness and with full transparency the causes of this tragic incident.”

Greece’s health minister, Thanos Plevris, said many of the passengers on the northbound train were college students and other young people. Greek media reported that many of them had been returning from carnival celebrations in Athens.

Authorities say about 250 passengers who survived the crash unharmed or with minor injuries were transported by bus to Thessaloniki.

Greece has struggled with rail safety in recent years, with the EU saying the country had the highest railway fatality rate per kilometer traveled in the 27-nation bloc between 2018 and 2020.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Russian defense companies are showcasing their products at major international arms fairs, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Friday in its daily update about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The companies are promoting the Arena-E active protection system or APS which the ministry said is designed to improve the survivability of armored vehicles.

The APS promotional material at a recent show stated that APS “defeats the threats that are most dangerous for armored vehicles.”

There is no evidence, however, that the system has been installed on Russian vehicles in Ukraine, where it has lost over 5,000 armored vehicles, according to the ministry. That incongruity is likely due to Russian companies’ inability “to manufacture high-tech systems at scale,” the defense ministry said, “a problem which is exacerbated by the effect of international sanctions.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his address Thursday that a ‘brutal Russian missile attack “on Zaporizhzia will face our military and legal response.” He said, “The occupier will inevitably feel our strength.”

Ukrainian authorities said a Russian missile struck an apartment building in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing at least three people.

Zelenskyy posted on Telegram that the missile destroyed three floors of the building.
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French President Emmanuel Macron promised $52.9 million (50 million euros) to a new global scheme to reward countries for protecting their forests and biodiversity on Thursday as he called for more concrete action on global climate commitments.

The pledge was announced at the end of the two-day One Forest Summit in Gabon that aimed to assess progress made since last year’s COP27 climate conference and renew targets for the preservation and sustainable management of the world’s forests.

“We understood the need to have cash on the table and concrete actions,” Macron said in a speech on the first full day of a four-nation Africa tour.

The funding from France is part of a joint $106 million (100 million euro) commitment to kickstart a mechanism that aims to reward countries that are scientifically proven to have protected their forests or restored them.

Macron said the scheme would be underpinned by research to improve the understanding of forests’ value by mapping carbon reserves, biodiversity and levels of carbon sequestration in the Amazon, Africa and Asia.

How Central African countries such as Gabon manage their share of the world’s second-largest rainforest is critical. The so-called lungs of Africa store more carbon per hectare than the Amazon, help regulate temperatures, and generate rain for millions in the arid Sahel and distant Ethiopian highlands.

Macron said the new mechanism would address a current issue with carbon credit schemes where countries like Gabon with relatively untouched forests are not compensated as well as deforested countries that are planting new trees.

“It’s a bit absurd,” he said.

Macron earlier visited a rainforest on the outskirts of the Gabonese capital, where he strolled among towering trees and sampled a kola nut. He has said he wants to avoid politics during the Africa tour, which includes his first-time visits as president to Angola, Congo and Republic of Congo.

Closing the summit, Gabonese President Ali Bongo expressed satisfaction with its outcome and the outlook for the next climate conference.

“We have put in place a sound plan that will make COP28 the success we wanted it to be.”
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Local journalists in southern Turkey have been torn between mourning their loved ones and reporting the scope of destruction in their cities.

On the night of the earthquake on February 6, Sinasi Inan, a reporter based in Sanliurfa for the Ihlas News Agency, rushed outside with his wife and children and went to an area with collapsed buildings to report the damage.

After finding a safe place to leave his immediate family — an expansive lot across from his father-in-law’s house — Inan went to his hometown of Adiyaman, where he discovered about 40 of his own relatives among the dead.

“We came to the region without fully experiencing the pain of losing our relatives, and we continue to do our job,” Inan told VOA, noting that the importance of reporting the story is a journalistic reflex.

Kadir Gunes, who is based in Gaziantep for the Demiroren News Agency, described the hardship in the first days of the earthquake as he and his family used their car for shelter like other survivors.

“I produced my stories in the car and slept in the car,” Gunes told VOA. “We usually hear about an incident first and go to the scene. This time, we experienced the incident ourselves.”

Gunes’ wife and 2-year-old son later went to stay with her family.

The 7.8- and 7.6-magnitude earthquakes that jolted Turkey and Syria killed nearly 50,000 people. At least 26 local journalists in 10 Turkish provinces were among the victims.

Survival

As the reporters mourn their personal losses, they also think of the physical and mental impact the earthquake may have on Turkey’s media.

“It will be a long process for Hatay and its local media to recover from this, and it might take three or five years,” said Abdullah Temizyurek, owner of Hatay and Hatay Soz newspapers.” I do not know if those who live with this fear will return. But they must return. This is our homeland.”

Temizyurek noted that four people on his staff lost family members in the earthquake.

Since thousands of people have left Hatay, one of the worst-hit provinces in Turkey, Temizyurek believes local media must report on the aftermath, given that national and international media will eventually leave.

“I think we should continue to talk about Hatay. But everyone is in shock. I think we need to do our job and cover the news as much as possible,” Temizyurek said.

Challenges

According to a 2021 Media Research Association report, local newspapers in Turkey have struggled through an economic crisis, rising printing costs and a decline in ad revenue and subscriptions. The earthquakes provided new challenges to their survival.

Mustafa Gonuleri, owner of Kent Media in Hatay’s Iskenderun district, said he lost all of his video and audio equipment in the earthquake, destroying his business. He now worries about how he will support his family and keep his media outlet running.

“Even after a few months, if [local media outlets] ask for subscription or advertisement support from the shopkeepers, they would kick us out. Your shop is gone, maybe your employees are dead. A local journalist comes … and asks for your support. You would kick them out,” Gonuleri said.

There is no public data on the number of Turkish media outlets impacted by the earthquake. On February 23, Cavit Erkilinc, head of Turkey’s state-run Press Advertising Agency (BIK), announced that 130 local newspapers had been affected.

BIK offered a $42,370 relief package to local newspapers in the damaged provinces. The agency has also exempted the newspapers from having to meet minimum circulation numbers to receive public ad revenues. That exemption remains in effect until January 2024.

The earthquakes also silenced Diyarbakir-based Can Radio and TV for 24 days — the longest interruption Turkey’s first Kurdish-language media outlet experienced in 28 years. Twelve employees are now unemployed.

“There have been short interruptions because of the [government limitations on] Kurdish broadcasts [in the past], but this is the first time we have experienced such a long interruption,” Ahmet Dalgic, editor-in-chief of Can Radio and TV, told VOA.

He said the outlet would have to cease broadcasting if he could not retrieve equipment and archives from the heavily damaged complex where the radio and TV station is located.
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American Cindy McCain will take over as executive director of the United Nations World Food Program when current director David Beasley steps down next month.

“Ms. McCain, a champion for human rights, has a long history of giving a voice to the voiceless through her humanitarian and philanthropic work,” said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Qu Dongyu in a statement announcing the appointment.

McCain is a prominent Republican Party member who is currently U.S. ambassador to United Nations agencies in Rome, which include the FAO, the WFP, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

She has been active in U.S. politics for decades as the wife of Arizona Senator John McCain, who died of brain cancer in August 2018. Since then, she has forged her own political profile, including backing Democrat Joe Biden in his presidential bid against then-incumbent Republican president Donald Trump in 2020.

Biden appointed McCain to the Rome post in November 2021. Typically, the White House is involved in nominating the U.S. candidate to head the WFP, which is often a U.S.-held post.

McCain has worked in philanthropy, starting the American Voluntary Medical Team in 1988, which provides emergency medical and surgical care to poor children across the world. She has also traveled in her personal capacity on behalf of the WFP, visiting mother and child feeding programs in Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mammoth challenges

McCain, 68, takes over the agency at a time of unprecedented global need. The WFP says 349 million people across 79 countries are acutely food insecure. The agency is attempting to raise $23 billion this year to reach almost 150 million people worldwide.

In 2022, the WFP reached 160 million people with humanitarian assistance.

“McCain takes over as head of the World Food Program at a moment when the world confronts the most serious food security crisis in modern history and this leadership role has never been more important,” the president of the WFP’s executive board, Polish Ambassador Artur Andrzej Pollok, said in a statement. “We wish her well and can assure her she will have the full support of the Executive Board.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered his congratulations and said Washington is “deeply invested” in the WFP’s continuing success.

“I am confident that she will bring renewed energy, optimism, and success to the World Food Program,” Blinken said of McCain.

The Republican chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, and the highest-ranking Democrat, Gregory Meeks, welcomed McCain’s appointment saying she is “an exceptionally qualified leader.”

“At a time when food insecurity and fuel costs are at an all-time high and there is soaring global hunger, the task of leading the World Food Program is more significant and consequential than ever,” they said in a joint statement.

Former leader warns against partisanship

The United States is the WFP’s largest contributor, providing about 40% of its budget or $7 billion in 2022, so McCain’s political clout will be an asset in securing funding.

But former U.S. ambassador Ertharin Cousin, who headed the WFP from 2012-2017 and is now CEO of the Chicago-based Food Systems for the Future, cautioned that McCain is serving as an international civil servant, not as member of the Republican Party.

“She must serve on a non-partisan basis in order to effectively support the work of the organization,” Cousin told VOA. “But having said that, of course, I am not naive that she will need to continue to work with both sides of the aisle in order to secure the commitment from the U.S. for the level of contribution that is required to meet the global food insecurity needs.”

Cousin also said it will be important for McCain to keep the organization fit for its purpose.

“You are stewards of taxpayers’ dollars from across the globe, and as a result you have a responsibility to make sure the organization remains the efficient behemoth that the world needs,” Cousin said.

Outgoing chief Beasley offered his congratulations on Twitter Wednesday, a day ahead of the official announcement.

Outgoing WFP leader praised

Beasley said in mid-December that he would be leaving in April. He has served as the food agency’s chief since 2017. In 2020, the World Food Program was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.”

Guterres and the FAO Director-General expressed deep appreciation for Beasley’s leadership.

“He has led WFP with a deep compassion for the world’s hungry and most vulnerable during what can only be described as unprecedented crises that severely impacted global food security,” Guterres and Qu said. “He has humanized for the world the women and children most affected by hunger and has used his powerful voice to bring awareness and substantial resources to one crisis after another.”

Beasley’s tenure has coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedented droughts and floods in several developing countries, as well as a steady stream of conflicts, including Russia’s invasion last year of Ukraine.

Despite tremendous levels of fundraising, a number of the agency’s programs are hurting for cash and facing cutbacks as needs continue to rise.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov talked briefly Thursday at a meeting of top diplomats from the Group of 20 nations in the first high-level meeting in months between the two countries.

U.S. officials said Blinken and Lavrov chatted for roughly 10 minutes on the sidelines of the G-20 conference in New Delhi. The short encounter came as relations between Washington and Moscow have plummeted while tensions over Russia’s war with Ukraine have soared.

A senior U.S. official said Blinken used the discussion to make three points to Lavrov: that the U.S. would support Ukraine in the conflict for as long as it takes to bring the war to an end, that Russia should reverse its decision to suspend participation in the New START nuclear treaty and that Moscow should release detained American Paul Whelan.

The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation, said Blinken had “disabused” Lavrov of any idea they might have that U.S. support for Ukraine is wavering.

The official declined to characterize Lavrov’s response but said Blinken did not get the impression that there would be any change in Russia’s behavior in the near term.

Russia had no immediate comment on the substance of the conversation, but Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Blinken had asked to speak to Lavrov.

It was their first contact since last summer, when Blinken called Lavrov by phone about a U.S. proposal for Russia to release Whelan and formerly detained WNBA star Brittney Griner. Griner was later released in a swap for imprisoned Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout but Whelan remains detained in Russia after being accused of spying.

The last time Blinken and Lavrov met in person was in Geneva, Switzerland, in January 2022 on the eve of Russia’s invasion. At that meeting, Blinken warned Lavrov about consequences Russia would face if it went ahead with its planned military operation but also sought to address some complaints that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made about the U.S. and NATO.

Those talks proved to be inconclusive as Russia moved ahead with its plans to invade and Blinken then canceled a scheduled followup meeting with Lavrov that was set for just two days before Moscow eventually invaded on Feb. 24, 2022.

The two men have attended several international conferences together since the war began, notably the last G-20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia, last year, but had not come face-to-face until Thursday.
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Authorities in Ukraine said Thursday a Russian missile struck an apartment building in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing at least three people.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on Telegram that the missile destroyed three floors of the building, and that search efforts were ongoing.

“The terrorist state wants to turn every day for our people into a day of terror. But evil will not reign in our land,” Zelenskyy said.  “We will drive all the occupiers out and they will definitely be held accountable for everything.”

Ukraine’s military reported Thursday that Russian forces “continue to advance and storm” the city of Bakhmut, which has been the site of fierce fighting for months.

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, said Wednesday that Kyiv has sent reinforcements to Bakhmut, even as Russian forces have gradually strengthened their position there. But she did not say how many troops were being deployed or how they would be used — whether as fighters to defend the city or possibly as logistical support if Ukraine decides to retreat.

The death toll at Bakhmut has been staggering for both sides. Ukraine has held on, but Russia’s troop reinforcements have allowed it to seize villages and towns around the city and surround it on three sides.

Much of the Russian fighting in and around Bakhmut has been conducted by troops from the Wagner Group, a mercenary paramilitary force whose leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has close ties to Putin.

On Wednesday, Prigozhin said in an audio message on social media that there was no sign that Ukrainian forces were retreating from the city.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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The British navy said Thursday its forces seized Iranian anti-tank missiles and fins for ballistic missiles from a small boat in the Gulf of Oman.

Britain did not identify a destination for the arms, but the U.S. military, which said it provided “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support” for the operation, said the seizure took place “along a route historically used to traffic weapons unlawfully to Yemen.”

It is the latest in a series of shipments intercepted by Western forces who say Iran has armed Yemen’s Houthi rebels, a charge which Iran denies.

“This seizure by HMS Lancaster and the permanent presence of the Royal Navy in the Gulf region supports our commitment to uphold international law and tackle activity that threatens peace and security around the world,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in a statement.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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The second-biggest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv, is 30 kilometers from the Russian border. Under siege by Russian troops for more than six months, the city suffered major damage but never fell. Russians are amassing troops across the border once more. Ballistic missiles hit the city more often, and Kharkiv is reinforcing its defense lines. Residents say they’re prepared for a new invasion, but the past haunts the future of its residents.
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NATO is made up of 30 members and each country’s military has its own technical systems on the battlefield. Some work together better than others. At the US Army’s easternmost European headquarters in Poznan, Poland, soldiers are working to integrate NATO systems. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb is there.
Camera: Mary Cieslak Video editor: Mary Cieslak
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Burned-out Russian tanks seized by Ukrainian forces last year have gone on display in recent days in the capitals of the three Baltics states, where Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians are turning out to view them and snap photos in sympathy with the Ukrainians defending their homeland.

But among those visiting the tanks are also members of the countries’ sizeable ethnic Russian minorities, some of whom placed flowers and lit candles to commemorate the fallen Russian soldiers and express support for Moscow.

The Russian gestures of support for Russia’s side in the war have set off some arguments, and at least one fist fight in Vilnius — underscoring the tensions that are simmering in the Baltic nations.

On Wednesday, supporters and opponents of the war argued in front of a burned-out Russian T-72 tank struck by Ukrainian forces near Kyiv on March 31. It stands on Freedom Square in the center of the Estonian capital, a space adorned with Ukrainian and Estonian flags and where the Ukrainian anthem could be heard from nearby St. John’s Church.

The Estonian Defense Ministry on Saturday called the tank “a symbol of Russia’s brutal invasion. It also shows that the aggressor can be defeated. Let’s help Ukraine defend freedom.”

Last week, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov announced that the tanks were going on display in the three Baltic capitals, and to Berlin as museum exhibits, following similar displays in Poland and the Czech Republic last year.

“It is a powerful reminder to all of us how well and peacefully we live when people die in Ukraine,” Vilnius resident Darius Klimka said. “Yesterday my kids were at the tank, we watched the evening news together. They kept on asking me why the world is still putting up with Russian aggression, and why Putin is not yet on trial.”

In Estonia, Anatoly Yarkov, a 78-year-old Soviet army veteran who showed up to see the tank in Tallinn, said that he feels bitter about Ukraine fighting against Russia in a war that he said had been rooted in the 1991 collapse of the U.S.S.R.

“Russian tanks are burning again like it happened during the war with the Nazis,” Yarkov said. “The Russian people always stood against the Nazis, no matter what flag they used. And I’m very sorry to see that the Ukrainians aren’t on our side today.”

Russian government officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have promoted a false narrative that Moscow’s military is fighting against neo-Nazis even though Ukraine has a Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust and who heads a Western-backed, democratically elected government.

As some Russians placed flowers on the tank in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, the city authorities put a garbage container in the vicinity with a sign saying it’s “for flowers, candles & Soviet nostalgia.”

One person placed a toilet bowl near the tank as a reminder of looting by Russian forces.

Lithuanian police launched several investigations related to incidents, including one in which a man was beaten for removing flowers. Another incident was reported Tuesday when a man sprayed it with red color.

Not all Russians are taking Moscow’s side.

Marina, a 60-year-old Russian citizen who didn’t give her last name for reasons of personal security, said she condemned the invasion of Ukraine and hailed Ukrainians for fighting back.

“This Russian tank could have rolled into the Estonian city of Narva, which Putin might have declared a Russian city,” she said, adding that her children and grandchildren have Estonian citizenship. “And I understand very well that only heroic resistance of the Ukrainians saved my children from that bloody scenario unfolding in Estonia.”

In Berlin, the tank also became a site of homage. Pro-Russia sympathizers placed red roses on a destroyed tank that was displayed in front of the Russian Embassy. The roses were eventually removed. The Russian Embassy denied that it had organized the placement of the flowers but said that it welcomed the “heartfelt gesture by German citizens and our compatriots in Germany.”

Nerijus Maliukevicius, an analyst at Institute of International Relations and Political Science in Vilnius, said he believes the placement of pro-Russia tributes at the tanks are part of an organized Kremlin tactic, noting that the images of them have ended up on social media and state television.

“This is how an alternative reality of a Europe that supports Putin is created,” he told The Associated Press.
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South Korea should more explicitly support Ukraine’s fight against Russia, the Ukrainian ambassador to Seoul told VOA, renewing a push for South Korean weapons that could play a pivotal role in helping Ukraine regain lost territory. 

In a written exchange with VOA, Ambassador Dmytro Ponomarenko expressed gratitude for the humanitarian aid South Korea has provided but stressed that Ukraine remains in “dire need” of heavy weapons that Seoul could offer.

“Regrettably, South Korea is still reluctant to provide our military with the weapons they need on the frontline,” Ponomarenko said. 

Since Russia’s invasion a year ago, Ukraine has regularly made public pleas for South Korea to provide weapons. But the situation has grown more urgent as Russia pushes its offensive in eastern Ukraine, where both sides are seeing ammunition shortages.

“We need uninterrupted and timely deliveries of heavily armored vehicles, artillery and air defense systems, ammunition and equipment of NATO standards to be able to continue counter-offensive operations,” Ponomarenko said.

South Korea is among the world’s largest weapons exporters and has recently aligned itself closer with the West. But Seoul has not approved the sale or donation of weapons to Ukraine, citing domestic laws that strictly regulate sending arms to war zones. 

Instead, South Korea has sent Ukraine several batches of non-lethal military aid, such as bulletproof vests, helmets and medical supplies. It recently announced plans to send Ukraine $130 million in humanitarian assistance on top of the $100 million it sent last year. 

Ponomarenko urged South Korea to go much further, saying the provision of weapons would be consistent with South Korea’s democratic ideals and status as a “global pivotal state.” 

“Sitting on the fence and pretending to be neutral does not help either the one who chooses such a ‘path’ or the cause of peace as a whole,” Ponomarenko said. 

South Korea urged to ‘step up’ 

Pressure on South Korea to do more has intensified as Western countries struggle to produce enough artillery for Ukraine. South Korea is seen as an ideal arms supplier, given its reputation for quickly delivering weapons that are high quality and relatively inexpensive.

During a January visit to Seoul, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg pressed South Korea to “step up” its military aid to Ukraine, noting several European countries had changed their weapons export policies following Russia’s invasion. 

At a press conference last week marking the one-year anniversary of the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy echoed Stoltenberg’s call for South Korea to provide arms. 

The same day, Zelenskyy’s senior aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, told South Korea’s Hankook Ilbo newspaper that negotiations are underway for South Korea to provide Ukraine with weapons, though he did not elaborate. 

The report has not been confirmed by either side. A spokesperson for South Korea’s defense ministry said Monday that Seoul’s policy on providing lethal aid to Ukraine has not changed.

Finding workarounds

South Korea has instead found indirect ways to help Ukraine’s military, including by approving the sale of massive quantities of South Korean-made weapons to countries that are arming Ukraine.

The most notable example came last year, when Poland, a major arms supplier for Ukraine, agreed to purchase $5.8 billion in South Korean weapons, including tanks, howitzers, and ammunition.

In November, the United States announced plans to purchase 100,000 artillery shells from South Korean arms makers. South Korea’s military insisted the deal was reached “under the premise that the United States was the end user,” but several U.S. media reported the shells were to be delivered to Ukraine.

“It’s becoming difficult for South Korea to argue that its weapons aren’t getting to Ukraine, or that they won’t get there,” said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a Korea specialist at King’s College London. 

In recent months, South Korea has also begun providing Ukraine with direct forms of non-lethal aid that have raised suspicions in Moscow. 

In December, South Korea sent Ukraine 100 civilian pickup trucks made by SsangYong, a South Korean carmaker, as part of a humanitarian donation. 

Following the donation, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), a research group affiliated with Moscow’s foreign ministry, suggested Ukraine’s military intended to mount rocket launchers on the vehicles for use as what it called “jihad-mobiles.” 

Ponomarenko denied those allegations, saying the trucks were given to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, a non-military agency that focuses on rescue services. “The trucks will be used for demining works but not for carrying rockets or any other lethal weaponry,” he added.

Asked about the possibility of other indirect forms of military aid, Ponomarenko said Ukraine was open to “different forms of cooperation with Korean partners” but declined to elaborate. 

Moscow’s response

Even with indirect South Korean support for Ukraine, Russia still is not happy. Last March, Moscow placed Seoul on a list of “unfriendly” nations. In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned South Korea that providing arms to Ukraine “will destroy our relations.”

Russia has also condemned South Korea’s decision to join Western-led sanctions on Moscow, saying such moves will hurt bilateral ties and may impact Russia’s involvement in peace efforts with North Korea.

Moscow, though, may lack leverage on those fronts, since it is not one of South Korea’s major trading partners and Pyongyang has already repeatedly ruled out talks with Seoul. 

However RIAC, the Kremlin-linked research organization, warned in January that Russia may retaliate by providing arms to North Korea under the guise of humanitarian aid. It specifically mentioned the possibility of Russia exporting large logging trucks, which North Korea could convert into missile-launching vehicles.

Domestic skepticism

But one of the biggest obstacles to South Korea providing weapons to Ukraine is at home. 

Only 15% of South Koreans support sending weapons to Ukraine, according to a poll conducted last June by Gallup Korea. 

Many of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s loudest critics in the National Assembly, the country’s legislature, worry about South Korean involvement in Ukraine. 

When Zelenskyy last April delivered a virtual speech to the National Assembly to ask for more South Korean help, only around 60 out of 300 lawmakers attended, with some leaving the room during the event. 

A Seoul-based diplomat from a NATO country last month told VOA he did not expect a major shift from South Korea anytime soon.

“I hope I’m wrong,” said the diplomat, who asked his name not be used as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
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Russia said Wednesday it would only agree to extend the Black Sea grain deal, which allows grain to be safely exported from Ukrainian ports, if the interests of its own agricultural producers are considered.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last year, expires on March 18 and cannot be extended unless all parties agree. Russia has already signaled it is unhappy with aspects of the deal.

Russia’s agricultural exports have not been explicitly targeted by Western sanctions, but Moscow says restrictions on its payments, logistics and insurance industries are a “barrier” to it being able to export its own grains and fertilizers.

Moscow’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had discussed the prospects for renewing the deal at a meeting with his Turkish counterpart on the sidelines of the G-20 in New Delhi.

“[The] Russian side stressed that continuing the package agreement on grain is possible only if the interests of Russian agricultural and fertilizer producers in terms of unhindered access to world markets are taken into account,” the ministry said in a statement.
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French President Emmanuel Macron begins a four-nation tour of Africa today amid rising anti-French sentiment that saw French troops recently leave Mali and Burkina Faso. Macron will visit Gabon, Angola, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo amid a growing regional opposition to French involvement and support for closer ties with Russia.

Days before his departure, Macron announced France would be taking on a more deferential relationship with Africa that would require France to assume a “profound humility” in its dealings with the continent. As part of the new strategy, French military bases in Africa will transform into military academies while others will eventually be co-run with African partners.

Two of the countries Macron plans to visit — Gabon and the Republic of Congo — are former French colonies.

“For a long time France has been the object of criticism and rejection because its position has always been one of dominance,” said Mahamoudou Savadogo, a security expert with Granada Consulting in Burkina Faso. “But there is a new opportunity to be had. There are youth who have never known colonization and there’s a new paradigm that France must consider in order to improve their relationship with other states.”

France’s military withdrawal from Africa will allow its former colonies to finally assume full statehood, he added.

But as France has distanced itself from the continent, other parties have moved in. Private Russian military group Wagner has established a presence in Mali and the Central African Republic, where it has been accused of atrocities such as torture, rape and executions.

Aguibou Bouare is president of the National Human Rights Commission of Mali. He acknowledged the accusations against the Wagner Group but said it was up to the state to carry out an independent investigation to evaluate the allegations.

“For me, a country does not have friends — it has interests,” he said. “And any partner that can help us fight terrorism is encouraged. I’m not concerned about who that partner is.”

Deaths linked to Islamist militants on the continent skyrocketed by nearly 50 percent in the last year to more than 19,000 people, much of it in the western Sahel region, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

“Wagner’s arrival in Francophone Africa is the result of France’s failed Africa policies,” said Ahmat Yacoub Dabio, president of the Center for Development and Prevention of Extremism in Chad. “France has always supported African dictatorships. It has always turned a blind eye to human rights violations. And France hasn’t made the effort to radically change its policies.”

France would do better to support Africa via health, infrastructure and education projects, Dabio added.

In his speech, Macron said he did not accept responsibility for the worsening security crisis in Mali and that he would not let France become a scapegoat.
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Iran Wednesday ordered two German diplomats to leave the country in response to a similar move by Germany last week.

The German expulsion of two Iranian diplomats came in protest of Iran’s sentencing German national Jamshid Sharmahd to death.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Wednesday that Germany was interfering in Iran’s “internal and judicial affairs.”

Iran accused Sharmahd of leading the armed wing of a pro-monarchist group, which his family denied.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said after the sentencing last week that Sharmahd was arrested under “highly questionable circumstances” and that he “never had even the semblance of a fair trial.”

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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