Serbia and Kosovo have settled an ethnic dispute over the movement of citizens across their border, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Saturday.

“We have a deal,” Borrell said in a tweet. “Kosovo Serbs, as well as all other citizens, will be able to travel freely between Kosovo & Serbia using their ID cards. The EU just received guarantees from PM [Albin] Kurti to this end.” 

The dispute stemmed from predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008, something Belgrade has refused to recognize.

Serbia and Kosovo still have to agree on the hotly contested use of Serbian car number plates issued in the north of Kosovo where Serbs defy the government in Pristina and see Belgrade as their capital.

Independent Kosovo is recognized by the United States, all but five EU members, but not by a number of other states including Serbia’s allies Russia and China.

The most recent flareup of tensions between Serbia and Kosovo has been triggered by a directive for Kosovo authorities for local Serbs to switch their car number plates from Serbian to Kosovo ones from September 1.

Serbs from northern Kosovo, responded by setting roadblocks and clashing sporadically with police before NATO peacekeepers oversaw their removal.

The talks between EU and U.S. envoys with the authorities in Serbia and Kosovo have so far failed to yield concrete results about the car number plates issue.

Earlier in the day, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said he was hoping the EU would provide guarantees for the personal documents agreement. He also said Serbia would be issuing a “a general disclaimer” in which it would be written that the use of identity cards issued by Pristina was allowed for practical reasons with an aim of facilitating the freedom of movement but not tantamount to the recognition of Kosovo’s independence.

“Under the EU-facilitated Dialogue, Serbia agreed to abolish entry/exit documents for Kosovo ID holders and Kosovo agreed to not introduce them for Serbian ID holders,” Borrell tweeted.

Belgrade and Kosovo’s Serb minority also claim entitlement under a 2013 EU-brokered agreement to an association of semi-autonomous majority-Serb municipalities, which Pristina has refused to implement.
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Greece’s main opposition leader has called on the country’s prime minister to resign after he admitted that the nation’s spy chief bugged the phone of a senior political leader. The scandal is being dubbed Greece’s Watergate.  

Speaking before Greece’s Parliament, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis took the stage, defending what he called “a mistake.”

The minute he found out, he said, he looked the Greek people in the eye and told them he knew nothing of what was going on. 

It was wrong, he said, adding, however, that it was legal on national security grounds.

Greek law allows eavesdropping on criminal suspects, terrorists, and pedophiles,

but the Greek constitution bars phone-tapping of political leaders except on national security grounds.

Mitsotakis was hammered with complaints, charges, and demands during the heated debate Friday for failing to explain why the phone of Nikos Androulakis, the head of Greece’s Socialist party, had been tapped.

Instead, Mitsotakis added to conspiracy theories whirling since the scandal broke earlier this month that suggest Androulakis’ phone was hacked at the behest of foreign spy agencies.

Forces outside the country can only benefit from seeing this slip-up cause instability and a political crisis, he said.

Mitsotakis refused to elaborate, but Alexis Tsipras, Greece’s main opposition leader and a former prime minister, insisted the nation had to know why Androulakis’ phone tapping was allowed on grounds of national security.

“Is he a foreign agent, a spy? Your refusal, to tell the truth, is in itself an answer,” Tsipras said.

Local media loyal to the government have suggested Androulakis’s phone was hacked at the request of spy agencies from China, Armenia and Ukraine – allegations that the three countries have categorically denied.

Still, the scandal adds to fears of widespread surveillance across Europe at a moment when democracies feel threatened by Russian aggression. The European Union has begun to regularly check phones and other devices for listening applications and espionage.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has also been a target recently, along with President Emmanuel Macron of France, the former prime minister of Belgium and top EU officials.

During the heated parliamentary debate, Tsipras urged the government to resign, accusing it of defying democratic practices and acting in a way that was a disgrace to the Greek people.

Parliamentary probes are set to begin in the coming weeks.
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Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced the decision to cancel the September 12-18 EuroPride celebration during a news conference where he also proposed extending the term of Serbia’s prime minister, who identifies as a lesbian.

Members of the European Pride Organizers Association chose Serbia’s capital three years ago to host the annual event. Vucic said a crisis with neighboring Kosovo and various economic problems were among the reasons why the Balkan nation’s authorities did not think they could handle EuroPride, which features a Pride parade.

“This is a violation of minority rights, but at this moment the state is pressured by numerous problems,” he said.

EuroPride organizers said Serbian authorities must provide security against “bullies” who threaten the march and seek to discredit it. European Pride Organizers President Kristine Garina urged Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic to honor a promise to support the event.

“President Vucic cannot cancel someone else’s event,” Garina said. “The right to hold Pride has been ruled by the European Court of Human Rights to be a fundamental human right.”

An organizer in Serbia, Goran Miletic, said police must formally ban the march to prevent it from happening. If they issue a ban, organizers would file a complaint at Serbia’s Constitutional Court. He insisted that indoor events planned as part of the week-long celebration can’t be banned.

“The only thing that can happen is for the police to ban the [pride] march,” Miletic said. “However, such a hypothetical decision would be contrary to the constitution.”

Serbia pledged to protect LGBTQ rights as it seeks EU membership, but increasingly vocal right-wing supporters harass and sometimes attack people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Serbia’s right-wing and pro-Russian groups have gained strength in the past several years and some secured parliament seats during the country’s April general election. Several thousand people recently joined a march in Belgrade against LGBTQ Pride.

“It’s not the question of whether they [extremists] are stronger, but you just can’t do it all at the same moment, and that’s it,” Vucic said. “I am not happy about it, but we can’t manage.”

Vucic won another five-year term in the first round of April’s vote, and his Serbian Progressive Party won the general election in a landslide. The president said Saturday that Brnabic, who has led the previous two governments in Serbia, should lead the new Cabinet that is expected to be formed in the coming weeks.

Brnabic first became Serbia’s prime minister in 2017, in what was seen as major change for the country that is predominantly conservative and male-dominated. Brnabic lives with her female partner, but LGBTQ groups have criticized the prime minister, saying she has done little to improve the position of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals in Serbian society.

After Belgrade’s 2010 pride march produced clashes, subsequent marches took place with strong police protection.

EuroPride was first celebrated in London in 1992, and Belgrade was set to be the first city in southeast Europe to host the event, according to organizers. Next month’s event was expected to attract thousands of people from throughout Europe.

Vucic said the celebration could be postponed for “happier times.” He insisted that state authorities must plan instead for energy problems anticipated for the winter, partly as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Serbian government has condemned the Russian invasion but has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia.

Vucic said tensions with Kosovo, a former Serbian province whose independence the government in Belgrade has refused to recognize, were another source of pressure on authorities.

The tensions soared last month from a dispute over travel documents and license plates, and have raised concerns about instability in the Balkans, where multiple wars were fought amid the breakup of Yugoslavia. Serbia relies on support from Russia and China to continue claiming that Kosovo is part of its territory.

Washington and most EU countries have recognized Kosovo independence. U.S. and EU envoys visited Kosovo and Serbia earlier this week in an effort to ease the tensions.

 
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Tensions remain high in and around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as international investigators prepared to inspect the endangered facility. It comes as renewed shelling was reported Saturday around the facility.  

Both Russia and Ukraine have accused its forces of firing artillery shells at Europe’s largest nuclear plant. The state-run energy operator Energoatom said Saturday Russian troops had “repeatedly shelled” the site over the past day. 

In countering the claims, Russia’s defense ministry said Ukrainian forces “shelled the territory of the station three times” in the past day. “A total of 17 shells were fired,” the ministry said in a communique.  

A team from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, is expected to send a mission soon to inspect the power station. Officials are concerned about the potential risk of a radioactive leak if certain sections of the nuclear complex are hit by weapons fire.

The Zaporizhzhia facility was seized by Russian troops in the opening weeks of the February invasion and has remained on the front line ever since. The power plant is being operated by Ukrainian workers. The operator of the plant also accused Russian soldiers of torturing workers. Moscow said it supports the work of the IAEA but is refusing to withdraw its soldiers from the plant to create a demilitarized zone.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation around the Zaporizhzhia plant remains “very precarious and dangerous” after the plant resumed electricity supplies to Ukraine following an outage. The plant was disconnected from the electric grid for the first time in its history Thursday after a fire caused by shelling damaged a power line.

Zelenskyy said in his address, “Any actions by Russia that could trigger the shutdown of the reactors will once again put the station one step away from disaster.”

The plant needs power to run the reactors’ cooling system, and any extended power failure could put the plant in jeopardy of a meltdown.

The power outage at the plant heightened dread of a nuclear disaster in a country still haunted by the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl. 

An engineer working under Russian occupation since March 4 at the nuclear power plant has told VOA that Russian forces have placed artillery and missile installations within and around the property of the plant.  

The engineer, whose identity is being withheld for fear of retaliation by the occupying authorities, supports Ukrainian government claims that Russia itself is responsible for the explosions.

In other developments, fighting continues to rage in the south and eastern sections of Ukraine. Ukraine said its troops had repulsed Russian assaults on the towns of Bakhmut and Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region, and they also struck ammunition depots and enemy personnel in the southern Kherson region. Reports of the assault could not be independently confirmed. 

Meanwhile, Ukraine accused Russia of preparing to hold referendums in areas it occupies over whether to join Russia. Ukrainian officials have called the possible vote “a sham.” Ukraine’s security and defense council said anyone who helps to organize Russian referendums will be tried in court and could be sentenced to death.  

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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Authorities transferred some 400 asylum-seekers away from a makeshift camp outside an overcrowded migrant reception center in the northeastern Netherlands after a damning report called the site where hundreds of people were sleeping rough a health hazard.

Leon Veldt, a spokesperson for the government’s asylum-seeker accommodation organization, said Saturday that the migrants were moved overnight to alternative accommodations in other locations.

The move came after a team from the Inspectorate for Health Care and Youth visited the squalid, temporary camp in the village of Ter Apel and said there was “a serious risk of outbreaks of infectious diseases as a result of the total lack of hygiene.”

A day earlier, 150 people were transferred to two sports halls in a central city in a bid to alleviate the crisis that has seen some 700 people sleeping outside the packed center this week. Refugee advocates likened the situation to overcrowded camps in Greece and Italy, which are common first destinations of Europe-bound asylum-seekers.

A 3-month-old baby died this week in a sports hall at the Ter Apel center, and authorities are investigating the cause of death. Two men were taken to the hospital, one for a heart attack and another for diabetes that had gone untreated for weeks.

The conditions were so bad that the Dutch branch of Doctors Without Borders sent a team there on Thursday, the relief agency’s first deployment in the Netherlands.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Friday he was ashamed of the scenes in Ter Apel. On Friday night, Rutte’s government announced a raft of measures aimed at easing the country’s asylum-seeker accommodation crisis.

They include temporarily reining in refugee family reunions and the number of arriving migrants earmarked for the Netherlands under a 2016 deal between the European Union and Turkey.

The government said it also was working with local municipalities to create more homes for people who receive refugee status so they can more quickly move out of asylum-seeker centers, freeing up space for new arrivals.

The Dutch military was tasked with setting up a new camp to house people who are waiting to register asylum claims at the Ter Apel center.

Milo Schoenmaker, the board chairman of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers, welcomed the moves, saying: “With the measures that have been announced, the application center in Ter Apel can hopefully be relieved quickly. At the same time, there are still insufficient available places to accommodate everyone.”

While many Dutch towns and cities have offered places to stay to Ukrainians who fled the war in their country, the welcome has worn thin for asylum-seekers from other countries. Most people arriving in Ter Apel are Syrians fleeing their nation’s grinding civil war.
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As Friday’s end to a four-week conference to review the landmark U.N. treaty aimed at curbing the spread of nuclear weapons neared, delegates scrambled to reach agreement on a final document with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and takeover of Europe’s largest nuclear power a key obstacle.

Argentine Ambassador Gustavo Zlauvinen, president of the conference reviewing the 50-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which is considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament, circulated a revised 36-page draft final document that aimed to address some of China’s concerns. But it still made the same four references to Russia’s occupation of Europe’s biggest nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine — though without naming Russia.

Any document must be approved by all 191 countries that are parties to the treaty, and the closing plenary meeting to consider the revised draft was delayed while delegates met behind closed doors to try to get all countries on board.

Earlier this week, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council that the Biden administration is seeking a consensus final document that strengthens the nuclear treaty and acknowledges “the manner in which Russia’s war and irresponsible actions in Ukraine seriously undermine the NPT’s main purpose.”

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States and its allies at that council meeting of “politicizing the work on the final document, putting their geopolitical interests in punishing Russia above their collective needs in strengthening global security.”

“Against the backdrop of the actual sabotage by the collective West of the global security architecture, Russia continues to do everything possible to keep at least its key, vital elements afloat,” Nebenzia said.

The four references to Zaporizhzhia, where Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of shelling, would have the parties to the NPT express “grave concern for the military activities” at or near the facility and other nuclear plants, recognize Ukraine’s loss of control and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inability to ensure its nuclear material is safeguarded.

The parties would also support IAEA efforts to visit Zaporizhzhia to ensure there is no diversion of its nuclear materials, which the agency’s director is hoping to organize in the coming day. And it would express “grave concern” at the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, in particular Zaporizhzia, and stress “the paramount importance of ensuring control by Ukraine’s competent authorities.”

The NPT review conference is supposed to be held every five years but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The last one in 2015 ended without an agreement because of serious differences over establishing a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

Those differences haven’t gone away but are being discussed, and both draft documents obtained by The Associated Press would reaffirm the importance of establishing a nuclear-free Mideast zone. So, this is not viewed as a major stumbling block this year.

The issue that has changed the dynamics of the conference is Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning that Russia is a “potent” nuclear power and any attempt to interfere would lead to “consequences you have never seen,” and his decision soon after to put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert.

Putin has since rolled back, saying that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” a message reiterated by a senior Russian official on the opening day of the NPT conference on Aug. 2. But the Russian leader’s initial threat and the occupation of Zaporizhzhia by Russian forces soon after the invasion as well as their takeover of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, renewed global fears of another nuclear emergency.

Under the NPT’s provisions, the five original nuclear powers — the United States, China, Russia (then the Soviet Union), Britain and France — agreed to negotiate toward eliminating their arsenals someday and nations without nuclear weapons promised not to acquire nuclear weapons in exchange for a guarantee to be able to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

India and Pakistan, which didn’t join the NPT, went on to get the bomb. So did North Korea, which ratified the pact but later announced it was withdrawing. Non-signatory Israel, which is believed to have a nuclear arsenal but neither confirms nor denies it, has been an obstacle in discussions of a Mideast zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

Nonetheless, the treaty has been credited with limiting the number of nuclear newcomers (U.S. President John F. Kennedy once foresaw as many as 20 nuclear-armed nations) as a framework for international cooperation on disarmament.

The draft final document would express deep concern “that the threat of nuclear weapons use today is higher than at any time since the heights of the Cold War and at the deteriorated international security environment.” It would also commit the 191 parties to the treaty “to making every effort to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again.”

The parties would call on India, Israel and Pakistan to join the NPT “as non-nuclear-weapon states” and on South Sudan to become a party as soon as possible. It would call on North Korea to return to the treaty at an early date and immediately cease its nuclear activities.

Diplomats and nuclear experts monitoring the closed-door negotiations cited differences between China and the West that could have blocked agreement on a final document but appear to have been resolved in the final draft.

China wanted the document to mention the U.S.-UK-Australia deal to provide Australia with a nuclear-powered submarine, and the final draft notes that parties to the NPT are interested in “the topic of naval nuclear propulsion” and the importance of a transparent and open dialogue on it.

Of the five nuclear powers, China is the only one still producing fissile material — either uranium or plutonium — needed to produce nuclear weapons, and several Western nations wanted to pressure Beijing to halt production.

The original draft included a call to the five nuclear weapon states “to declare or maintain existing moratoria on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and other explosive devices.” This was eliminated in the final draft which calls for the immediate start of negotiations on a treaty banning production of fissile material.

The final draft document barely mentions the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, saying only that it was adopted in July 2017, entered into force in January 2021, and held its first meeting of states parties in June 2022. Some Western countries maintain that calls for immediate nuclear disarmament are totally unrealistic in the current highly polarized and chaotic world.
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The Ocean Viking, a humanitarian ship of SOS Mediterranee, has rescued 268 people since Thursday during five rescues of migrants mostly found in overcrowded wooden boats between Libya and Malta, the NGO announced Friday.

“Many have high levels of exhaustion and dehydration” and “severe sunburn,” said the NGO, whose headquarters are in Marseille.

Several minors, including unaccompanied minors, pregnant women and even a 3-week-old baby are now cared for by SOS Mediterranee and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent on the Viking Ocean.

On Tuesday, the ship said it had spotted four empty boats in this area, including one without a motor. But “without communication from the maritime authorities, the fate of the people on board remains unknown,” the ship communicated.

Since the beginning of the year, 1,161 migrants have disappeared in the Mediterranean, including 918 in the central Mediterranean, the most dangerous migratory route in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The U.N. agency estimated the number of dead and missing in 2021 at 2,048 in the Mediterranean, including 1,553 for the central Mediterranean alone.

Every year, thousands of people fleeing conflict or poverty attempt to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean from Libya, whose coasts are 300 kilometers from Italy.
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Turkish pop star Gulsen has been arrested on charges of “inciting hatred and enmity” with a joke she made about Turkey’s religious schools, the country’s state-run news agency reported.

The 46-year-old singer and songwriter, whose full name is Gulsen Colakoglu, was taken away from her home in Istanbul for questioning and formally arrested late Thursday. She was then taken to a prison pending trial.

The arrest sparked outrage on social media. Government critics said the move was an effort by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to consolidate support from his religious and conservative base ahead of elections in 10 months.

The charges were based on a joke Gulsen made during an April concert in Istanbul, where she quipped that one of her musicians’ “perversion” stemmed from attending a religious school. A video of the singer’s comment began circulating on social media recently, with a hashtag calling for her arrest.

Gulsen — who previously became a target in Islamic circles due to her revealing stage outfits and for unfurling an LGBTQ flag at a concert — apologized for the offense the joke caused but said her comments were seized on by those wanting to deepen polarization in the country.

During her questioning by court authorities, Gulsen rejected accusations that she incited hatred and enmity, and said she had “endless respect for the values and sensitivities of my country,” the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Her request to be released from custody pending the outcome of a trial was rejected.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey’s main opposition party, called on Turkey’s judges and prosecutors to release Gulsen.

“Don’t betray the law and justice; release the artist now!” he wrote on Twitter.

The spokesperson for Erdogan’s Justice and Development party, known by its Turkish acronym AKP, appeared however, to defend the decision to arrest the singer, saying “inciting hatred is not an art form.”

“Targeting a segment of society with the allegation of “perversion” and trying to polarize Turkey is a hate crime and a disgrace to humanity,” AKP spokesperson Omer Celik tweeted.

Erdogan and many members of his Islam-based ruling party are graduates of religious schools, which were originally established to train imams. The number of religious schools in Turkey has increased under Erdogan, who has promised to raise a “pious generation.”

Among those calling for Gulsen’s release was Turkish pop star, Tarkan, best known internationally for the song Kiss Kiss.

“Our legal system, which turns a blind eye to corruption, thieves, those who break the law and massacre nature, those who kill animals and those who use religion to polarize society through their bigoted ideas — has arrested Gulsen in one whack,” Tarkan said in a statement posted on Twitter.  
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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Friday about Russia’s military buildup in the Arctic and China’s increasing interest in that part of the world.

During a visit to Canada’s north, Stoltenberg said the shortest path to North America for Russian missiles and bombers is over the North Pole. He said Russia has set up a new Arctic Command and has opened hundreds of new and former Soviet-era Arctic military sites, including airfields and deep-water ports.

“We see a significant Russian military buildup with new bases, new weapons systems, and also using the High North as a test bed for their most advanced weapons, including hypersonic missiles,” Stoltenberg said at a Canadian military base in Cold Lake, Alberta.

Stoltenberg also noted China has declared itself a “near Arctic” state. He said Beijing plans to build the world’s largest icebreaker and is spending tens of billions of dollars on energy, infrastructure and research projects in the north.

“Beijing and Moscow have also pledged to intensify practical cooperation in the Arctic. This forms part of a deepening strategic partnership that challenges our values and interests,” Stoltenberg said.

He also noted climate change is making the Arctic more accessible for militaries and welcomed Canada’s recent announcement that it will bolster its spending on defense.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who accompanied Stoltenberg, showcased some of Canada’s spending and activities in the north. It is promising to allocate billions of dollars for new military equipment and capabilities, including plans to purchase new fighter jets and modernize North America’s aging NORAD early-warning system with Washington.

“The ill-fated, unjustifiable decision of Russia to upend nearly 70 years of peace and stability of a rules-based order by invading a peaceful neighbor has changed the way we need to look at the Arctic,” Trudeau said, alluding to the Russian attack on Ukraine.
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The Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant resumed electricity supplies to Ukraine on Friday after one of its six reactors was reconnected to the Ukrainian grid, state nuclear company Energoatom said.

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which is located in southern Ukraine, was disconnected from the Ukrainian grid for the first time in its history on Thursday after a fire caused by shelling damaged a power line, Kyiv said earlier.

“The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station is connected to the grid and is producing electricity for the needs of Ukraine,” Energoatom said in a statement on Friday.

Authorities began providing iodine tablets Friday to residents who live around the nuclear power plant in the event of a radiation leak, as fears grow that the fighting around the plant could spark a catastrophe.

Iodine tablets help block the absorption of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland, and they were handed out to people in the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is about 45 kilometers from the plant.  

The move came a day after the plant was temporarily knocked offline because of what officials said was fire damage to a transmission line. The incident heightened dread of a nuclear disaster in a country still haunted by the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl.

Continued shelling was reported in the area overnight, and satellite images from Planet Labs showed fires burning around the complex over the last several days.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February and took control of the nuclear plant in March, though it is still operated by Ukrainian technicians working for Energoatom.

The nuclear plant remains near the frontline and repeatedly has come under fire in recent weeks. Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the facility.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a nuclear radiation disaster was narrowly avoided after Russian shelling in the area caused the electricity to be cut for hours.

“Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans in a situation one step away from a radiation disaster,” he said.

Russian bombardment triggered fires in the ash pits of a nearby coal power station that disconnected the Russian-controlled plant from the power grid, Zelenskyy said, but backup diesel generators provided the electricity supply vital for cooling and safety systems at the plant.

An engineer working under Russian occupation since March 4 at the nuclear power plant has told VOA that Russian forces have placed artillery and missile installations within and around the property of the plant.

The engineer, whose identity is being withheld for fear of retaliation by the occupying authorities, supports Ukrainian government claims that Russia itself is responsible for the explosions.

Western leaders have demanded that Russia hand the plant back to Ukraine, while U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for it to be “demilitarized.”

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron warned against the use of civilian nuclear facilities as an instrument of war.

“War in any case must not undermine the nuclear safety of the country, the region, and all of us. Civil nuclear power must be fully protected,” Macron said during a visit to Algeria.

A team from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to send a mission soon to inspect the power station.

In Washington, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday that “Russia should agree to the demilitarized zone around the plant and agree to allow an International Atomic Energy Agency visit as soon as possible to check on the safety and security of the system.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday its forces had destroyed a U.S.-made M777 howitzer, which it claimed Ukraine had used to shell the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Reuters reported.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the howitzer had been destroyed west of the town of Marganets, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.

On the battlefield, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said its troops had repulsed Russian assaults on the towns of Bakhmut and Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region, and they also struck ammunition depots and enemy personnel in the southern Kherson region.

In Geneva on Thursday, Michelle Bachelet, the outgoing United Nations human rights chief, described Russia’s continuing attacks on Ukraine as “unimaginably horrifying.” She called on Russian President Vladimir Putin “to halt armed attacks against Ukraine.”

In other news, Ukraine summoned the papal ambassador on Thursday to complain about latest comments about the war by Pope Francis.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters in Kyiv that “the Ukrainian heart is torn apart by the pope’s words.”

Kuleba was responding to the pope’s comments about last weekend’s car bomb slaying in Moscow of Darya Dugina, a nationalist Russian TV commentator and daughter of a right-wing political theorist who ardently supports the war.

Francis referred to her as the “poor girl” among the “innocents” who have been victimized by the “insanity of war.”

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press and Reuters.  
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Officials from Turkey, Finland and Sweden agreed on Friday to keep meeting in the coming months to discuss security concerns that Turkey raised as a precondition for allowing the two Nordic countries to join the NATO military alliance. 

Officials from the three countries held their first such meeting on Friday in the southern Finnish city of Vantaa. 

Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said the meeting aimed to establish contacts and set goals for cooperation that the countries agreed to by signing a memorandum of understanding at NATO’s Madrid summit in June. 

“The participants discussed the concrete steps to implement the Trilateral Memorandum and agreed that the mechanism will continue to meet at the expert level during the autumn,” the Finnish foreign ministry said in a statement after the meeting. 

The two Nordic countries applied for NATO membership in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but faced opposition from Turkey which accused them of imposing arms embargoes on Ankara and supporting groups it deems terrorists. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office said the sides had agreed to intensify their cooperation and fight terrorism. 

“Finland and Sweden will show full solidarity and cooperation with Turkey in the fight against all forms and manifestations of terrorism… [and] they reiterated their commitment not to provide support to these organizations,” it said. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has demanded Sweden and Finland extradite suspects Turkey seeks over terrorism-related charges, while the Nordic countries say they have not agreed to specific extraditions. 

Finland’s foreign ministry had been tight-lipped about Friday’s meeting, refusing to give its location or timing, but later said it had taken place in the city of Vantaa near the capital Helsinki. 
…

A U.S. charity based in Jersey City, New Jersey, is collecting donations and raising funds not only to support Ukraine’s armed forces but also to help build a special bomb shelter at a boarding school for deaf and hearing-impaired children in Lviv, Ukraine. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Aleksandr Barash.
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While the world has taken notice that the war in Ukraine has passed its six months mark, it’s been more than 90 days since the Mariupol and Azovstal defenders have entered into Russian and pro-Russian forces’ captivity, their loved ones point out.

On May 20, Denys Prokopenko, commander of Azov Regiment since 2017, posted his last video message before walking out of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where his unit had stood off massive Russian forces for nearly three months.

From the start of surrender negotiations with the Russians, the Azovstal defenders had insisted on three conditions, Prokopenko said: safe passage of civilians, assistance for the seriously wounded soldiers and an honorable treatment of the bodies of those who had died.

“As for the dead heroes, the process is ongoing, but I hope that in the near future, relatives and all of Ukraine will be able to bury their soldiers with honor,” he said. Then the video ended while shuffling sounds were heard in the background.

Three days later, Prokopenko’s wife, Kateryna, was able to reach him and tell him she was OK. Before he could respond, the line was cut off. She hasn’t heard from him since.

“They delivered on their promise to us, now we must deliver our promise to them,” Kateryna said at a July press conference along with the wife and sister of two other Azovstal defenders.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cited media reports that Russia was preparing to put on trial Ukrainian fighters taken during the siege of Mariupol.

The U.S. State Department and the U.N. Human Rights Office condemned what they described as “show trials.” Russia, which said it would hold “tribunals” for Ukraine fighters, called the U.S. accusations “groundless.”

The women, along with others, formed an organization, the Association of the Azovstal Defenders’ Families, to advocate for the return home of their loved ones shortly after the surviving defenders, led by the Azov Regiment, were taken into Russian captivity between May 16 and May 20.

The Russian supreme court designated the Azov Regiment a “terrorist” organization in early August, raising concern among family members about the implications for their treatment while in captivity and the prospect of their being included in any prisoner exchange.

Marianna Homerike, a former commander with the Azov Regiment in charge of press services who now works with the defenders’ families, offered some hope in a written interview with VOA from Kyiv.

She said the Ukrainian defenders’ families hope that the designation will be applied only for domestic propaganda inside Russia and won’t preclude Azov Regiment soldiers from being included in future prisoner exchanges. She pointed out that neither Ukraine nor the international community had accepted Moscow’s designation.

To date, the largest prisoner exchange took place on June 29, when 144 Ukrainian fighters returned home. Of those, 95 had defended Azovstal and 43 were from the Azov Regiment.

Tetyana Kharko was there to greet them as a representative of the newly formed Association of Azovstal Defenders’ Families when the soldiers got off the buses and ambulances. Kharko is a sister of Serhiy Volynski, acting commander of the 36th Marine Brigade, whose members joined the Azov Regiment in the steel plant.

“All the boys were exhausted and emaciated. But you can see they were happy because they’re home,” Kharko said at a July press conference following the prisoner exchange. A vast majority of the soldiers that came back to Ukraine had suffered “heavy wounds,” she said.

“Some of them won’t be able to embrace a loved one because they have no arms; others won’t be able to run with their kids because they have no legs; others won’t be able to see the peaceful sky after our victory because, while defending us, they gave their eyes,” she said.

Even so, they may be counted among the lucky ones. Of the estimated 2,400 Azovstal defenders who are still held by Russia, little is known. Most are believed to be held at a prison camp in Olenivka, in Russian-occupied territory, where a July 29 explosion killed at least 50 and injured scores more. Russian authorities listed names and birth dates for 48 of them, ranging in age from 21 to 62.

“I believe and I hope that our authorities and all of us” will never forget what the Azovstal defenders did for the country, “and thus make sure that we save them all,” Kharko said.

A particularly moving tribute to the memory of the participants in Mariupol’s last stand exists in a stunning series of photos taken inside the steel plant by one of the soldiers, Dmytro Kozatsky, and posted to the internet shortly before the surrender. The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington arranged an exhibition of the photos in July to coincide with the celebration of Ukraine’s Constitution Day.

Reflecting on the significance of Mariupol and Ukraine’s defense, David M. Glantz, a retired U.S. Army colonel and an award-winning military historian, looked to Greece in the 5th century B.C. for a comparison to the achievement of the Mariupol defenders, who, he said, stood their ground in spite of being outnumbered “10 to 1, if not more.”

“They were kind of like the old defense by the Spartans in Thermopylae; they took over the city and they wouldn’t let it fall,” he said.

“And as long as it didn’t fall, the Russians couldn’t use the supply line along the northern coast of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, so it basically screwed up the entire Russian plan for conquering the northern coast of the Black Sea and cutting off Ukraine from its water lines of communication.”

The families’ call for help was answered – once again – by one of Ukraine’s most famous bands, the Kalush Orchestra. Back on May 14, when the group won this year’s Eurovision song content, they cried out when taking the stage in Turin, Italy: “We ask all of you: please, help save Ukraine! Help save Mariupol! Help save Azovstal, RIGHT NOW!!”

This week, marking Ukraine’s Independence Day, the group posted a video urging their fellow countrymen to remember those who fought for their freedom and help sustain the soldiers, whether in captivity or on the battlefield, and their loved ones.
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Inside the Azovstal steel plant, before Ukraine surrendered it to Russian forces
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Dutch aid agencies tended Thursday to hundreds of migrants camped in sweltering heat outside an overcrowded center for asylum-seekers as Dutch authorities investigated the death of a baby in the center a day earlier.

The Dutch arm of Doctors Without Borders deployed medics to the tiny village of Ter Apel in the northeastern Netherlands to give first aid and other assistance. A mobile hospital was expected to arrive Friday, said the organization’s national director, Judith Sargentini. It is the first time the humanitarian group was called in to assist with a Dutch crisis.

For two nights running, some 700 people have slept outdoors because the asylum reception center with an official capacity of 2,000 does not have space for them and the Dutch government is scrambling to find emergency accommodation.

With temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius on Thursday, migrants lay listlessly on blankets under four canvas shades held up by wooden poles. Some sheltered in the shadow of a Red Cross station that had Wi-Fi and power for charging their phones.

Others squabbled as they tried to board a bus to a nearby town. Inside a tent, a medic checked people who wanted care. Blue plastic children’s paddling pools were set up as washing stations, and a small row of portable toilets stood near the covered areas.

Sargentini compared the situation to overcrowded migrant camps in Greece.

“These are 700 people sleeping rough: no showers, very bad facilities, no health care from the institutions,” Sargentini told The Associated Press. “And it might not be as crowded as on the Greek isles, but if you come here after a long journey as a refugee, you think you find safety, but you find neglect. And you sleep like this. Even if you are healthy, you’ll get sick here.”

She said two people were hospitalized Thursday — a man who had a heart attack and another who did not have medication for his diabetes.

State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Eric van der Burg told reporters he was “deeply shocked” by the death of the 3-month-old baby. The cause of death was under investigation, he said.

Mohammad Ali, a 34-year-old Syrian who crisscrossed Europe to reach the Netherlands and has been in Ter Apel for about a month, said he was shocked at the conditions there.

“I’m surprised from the bad conditions here because I didn’t hear about it,” he said.

A number of factors have created the crisis in Ter Apel. It can take months or more to process the asylum applications of migrants arriving from so-called safe countries who ultimately are not entitled to stay. A housing crisis means refugees often have nowhere to go once they have been granted a residency permit and therefore stay on at asylum-seeker centers.

While many Dutch towns and cities offered places for Ukrainians who fled the war in their country, the welcome mat has worn thin for asylum-seekers from other countries. The majority of people arriving in Ter Apel are Syrians fleeing their nation’s grinding civil war.

“There’s about 60,000 Ukrainians in municipalities that are being housed there, and there you can see it was possible. But when it comes to non-Ukrainian refugees — people here are mostly from Syria, from Turkey, Afghanistan — municipalities still look the other way,” said Sander Schaap of refugee aid group VluchtelingenWerk.

In a sign of growing anger at the situation among residents, a group protested Thursday night near the asylum-seeker center, carrying banners that said “Real Refugees OK, Troublemakers Go Away” and “Enough of the Nuisance.”

The situation in Dutch asylum-seeker centers has gotten so bad that VluchtelingenWerk last week took the government and its asylum agency to court to produce improvements. Nobody from the agency was available for comment Thursday.

Sargentini wants to see change even sooner but is not optimistic.

“If we can leave tomorrow because of the government taking its responsibility, we will,” she said. “But currently, together with the Red Cross, we are here to give that needed help.”
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At the start of a three-day visit to Algeria, President Emmanuel Macron indicated Thursday that France and the North African country should move beyond their “painful” shared history and look to the future.

The trauma of French colonial rule in Algeria and the bitter war for independence that ended it in 1962 has haunted relations between the two countries for decades and played into a diplomatic dispute that erupted last year.

“We have a complex, painful common past. And it has at times prevented us from looking at the future,” Macron said after meeting Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

Standing alongside Macron in front of the intricate North African tilework of the palace where they met, Tebboune said, “We hope the visit will open up new perspectives for partnership and cooperation with France.”

Ties with Algeria have become more important for France because the war in Ukraine has increased demand in Europe for North African gas and because migration has been surging across the Mediterranean.

Algeria is meanwhile seeking to capitalize on higher energy prices to lock in European investment.

Macron has long wanted to turn the page with Algeria, and in 2017, he described French actions during the 1954-62 war that killed hundreds of thousands of Algerians as a “crime against humanity.”

That declaration, politically controversial in France, won him popularity in Algeria when he last visited five years ago, and he was celebrated by young Algerians.

Macron will again reach out to Algerian youth on this visit, with scheduled stops focused breakdancing and North African “Rai” pop music. France is home to more than 4 million people of Algerian origin.

However, Macron’s hopes of moving beyond the fraught history of the colonial era have proved premature.

Last year he was quoted as suggesting that Algerian national identity did not exist before French rule, and he reportedly accused Algeria’s leaders of rewriting the history of the independence struggle based on a hatred of France.

The comments provoked a storm in Algeria, where the generation that fought for independence still dominates the ruling elite and where that struggle occupies a central place in national identity.

Algeria withdrew its ambassador for consultations and closed its airspace to French planes, complicating the French military mission in the Sahel.

Before his meeting with Tebboune, Macron visited a monument to Algerians killed in the war, placing a wreath there. He said the two governments would establish a joint committee of historians to study archives of the colonial era.
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Turkey is deepening trade relations with Russia in the face of Western sanctions against Moscow. Political observers say Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could be relying on Russian support to help ease Turkey’s growing economic woes as he faces reelection next year. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Bulgaria’s interior ministry and local police say two police officers were killed Thursday when a bus carrying at least 47 migrants that had entered the country illegally rammed their vehicle as they tried to stop it.

Police say the incident occurred about 5 a.m. local time in Burgas, a port city on the Black Sea. Burgas Police Chief Kaloyan Kaloyanov told reporters at the scene that police had tried to pull over the bus after it drove through two border checkpoints.

The chief said the bus had entered a residential area when police officers stopped their car in its path to block it. The bus allegedly rammed the police vehicle and drove over the top of it before smashing into a bus stop. Two officers inside the car were killed instantly.

No other injuries were reported and an investigation into the case has been launched.

Police said the migrants on the bus were from Syria.

It is unclear what charges may be filed, but local prosecutor Georgi Chinev called the ramming of the police car a “conscious, purposeful, intentional act.”

The news website BalkanInsight reports five people were arrested at the scene on human trafficking charges.

On Twitter, BNN Bulgaria — an affiliate of Bloomberg news — reports citing local police that the bus was a deregistered vehicle that had been sold for scrap with phony license plates.

Bulgarian media reports there was a similar incident Sunday in the western Bulgarian town of Godech. In that case, a bus carrying illegal migrants crashed into a tree, killing the driver.

Bulgaria, a Balkan country of 7 million people, is located on a major route for migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan to Europe.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press.
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Sweden’s immigration policies are a big factor heading into elections next month on September 11th, when Swedes head to the polls to pick a new parliament, perhaps resulting in a new prime minister. The hard right Sweden Democrats party admits to having a neo-Nazi past and polls just ahead of the election show the party gaining political ground. Some observers say public concerns about Sweden’s immigration policies could mean a previously unthinkable coalition between the far right and moderate forces is on the verge of forming.

Erik Hedtjärn is a political editor at Stockholm’s Svenska Dagbladet newspaper. He tells VOA that a new political landscape is taking shape in Sweden ahead of the upcoming election and it’s unclear which coalition will take power. The Sweden Democrats, a populist party with ties to right wing extremism in the 1990s, gained parliamentary seats in the 2010 election. It appears to be growing further in popularity, according to polls, and could result in an unlikely coalition.

“A number of parties in Sweden still says that it’s actually unthinkable to cooperate or form an alliance with the Sweden Democrats because of their past. Another way of looking at it is we’ve made some polls where we’ve asked: Which party could you accept as part of the government? Interestingly enough. Sweden Democrats. More people can accept them as part of the government than the Green Party,” he said.

Hedtjärn says the Liberals/Moderates and other centrists to the right are likely to join forces with the Sweden Democrats party.

“So, we have two new coalitions that are the main alternatives in this election which makes it different in many ways. One of the interesting things now is that those coalitions joined a wide-range of parties. On the left, you have the left, far-left and centrists. The other side you have the Liberals party and the Sweden Democrats. Two kind of disparate coalitions which have in themselves a lot of tensions. It’s not really clear how a government would function that emanates from such a wide coalition,” he said. 

Part of the Sweden Democrats’ appeal, observers say, plays on people’s fears about migration. Sweden took in the largest number of refugees per capita in the 2015 wave that hit Europe. Unlike the United States, there are no background checks on arrivals.

However, other Swedes find a Sweden Democrats’ campaign ad abhorrent. Posting a picture of a train car with the party logo, spokesman Tobias Andersson, tweeted: 

“Welcome to the repatriation train. You have a one-way ticket. Next stop, Kabul.”  Observers say Afghans are unfairly targeted, especially given the Taliban takeover last year, where ethnic and religious minorities could face death, if returned.

Swedish economist and blogger Julia Wiklander of Girls’ Globe and others warn that giving wider political berth to the Sweden Democrats undermines cherished values fundamental in Swedish society, like providing safety to people escaping conflict.

“Sweden has a reputation of being a leader for human rights globally, a leader in terms of our responsibility, our engagement with issues around the world. But a lot of things in the past decade have either stood still in Sweden or have really stagnated. A lot of issues are also at risk. At the same time, a lot of people still look up to Sweden. When we don’t reflect on history, and we don’t reflect on where Sweden is actually failing to stand up for human rights, we risk losing them,” said Wiklander.

The “whole political debate has shifted from human rights and environment issues, now with a strong polarization” on each side of the political spectrum gaining ground in communities and families, Wiklander says, adding that in her view, the rhetoric is growing “very charged and worrying.”
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Authorities in Myanmar have detained Britain’s former ambassador to the Southeast Asian nation, where a military junta seized power last year, three people with knowledge of the situation said Thursday. 

Vicky Bowman, who currently runs the Myanmar Center for Responsible Business (MCRB), and her husband, Htein Lin, a Burmese artist and former political prisoner, were detained on Wednesday, the sources said, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue. 

A source with knowledge of the situation said Bowman and her husband had been charged with immigration offenses. 

The arrest comes as Britain announces it is imposing fresh sanctions to target military-linked businesses in Myanmar and joining the case against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice. 

Britain is the fourth country after the Maldives, Netherlands and Canada, to vow formal support for the case brought by the Gambia against Myanmar to determine whether its military conducted genocidal operations against Rohingya Muslims in 2016 and 2017. 

Three companies are being penalized with sanctions “in an effort to limit the military’s access to arms and revenue,” the British government said in a statement on Wednesday. 

A spokesperson for the Myanmar junta did not answer repeated calls seeking comment. 

Myanmar has been in political and economic chaos since the military overthrew an elected government in early 2021. 

More than 15,000 people have been arrested and 12,119 remain in detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an activist group. The junta claims that figure is exaggerated. 

A British embassy spokesperson in Yangon said: “We are concerned by the arrest of a British woman in Myanmar. We are in contact with the local authorities and are providing consular assistance.” The spokesperson did not name the individual. 

Bowman, 56, served as ambassador to Myanmar from 2002 to 2006 and has more than three decades’ experience in the country. 

Her husband Htein Lin, 55, is one of Myanmar’s most famous artists and a veteran activist who spent 6 1/2 years, between 1998 and 2004, in prison for his opposition to an earlier junta. 

The couple had been remanded in custody and were being sent to Insein prison, a source said, the notorious jail on the outskirts of the commercial capital of Yangon where many political prisoners are held. 

The source added their young daughter remained “safe and well.” 

Bowman is the latest foreigner to be detained in Myanmar. 

Sean Turnell, an Australian economist and longtime adviser to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and Japanese freelance filmmaker Toru Kubota also remain in detention. 

Their governments have called for them to be released. 

 
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U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Thursday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to “halt armed attack against Ukraine.”

Speaking a day after the conflict reached its six-month mark, Bachelet highlighted the situation regarding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, saying fighting in the area is posing “unthinkable risks” to civilians and the environment.

Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for attacks near the plant, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has said it is ready to send teams to the site to ensure its safety.

Bachelet also said Thursday that both Russian and Ukrainian forces must respect international humanitarian rights law, while the international community must ensure accountability for violations.

Ukrainian officials said Thursday the death toll from a Russian missile strike on a railway stay in eastern Ukraine rose to 25 after several more bodies were found in the rubble in the town of Chaplyne.

“Russia’s missile strike on a train station full of civilians in Ukraine fits a pattern of atrocities,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted. “We will continue, together with partners from around the world, to stand with Ukraine and seek accountability for Russian officials.”

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday praised the “extraordinary courage and dedication to freedom” of the Ukrainian people in fending off Russian fighters, while announcing nearly $3 billion in new military aid.

On Ukraine’s Independence Day, marking 31 years since escaping Soviet rule in 1991, Biden said the day “is not only a celebration of the past, but a resounding affirmation that Ukraine proudly remains — and will remain — a sovereign and independent nation.”

Biden said the new tranche of military assistance was designed to help Ukraine defend itself over the long term, with U.S. officials saying some of the weaponry might not be used for a year or two. The U.S. leader said the package would include air defense systems, artillery systems and munitions, counter-unmanned aerial systems, and radars.

The new aid comes on top of about $10.6 billion in military assistance the U.S. has already sent to Ukraine in the last year and a half.

Biden said he knows that this year’s Independence Day “is bittersweet for many Ukrainians as thousands have been killed or wounded, millions have been displaced from their homes, and so many others have fallen victim to Russian atrocities and attacks.”

He added, “Today and every day, we stand with the Ukrainian people to proclaim that the darkness that drives autocracy is no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere.”

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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The US is sending a new tranche of military assistance to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invading force, a package valued at $3 billion dollars. This aid comes on top of the more than $10 billion in military assistance the U.S. has already sent to Ukraine in the past year and a half. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has the details.
Video Editor: Kimberlyn Weeks
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The White House announced its largest-ever security assistance package for Ukraine on Wednesday — six months to the day since Russia invaded — with a $3 billion commitment that brings the U.S. price tag for this 184-day conflict to $13.6 billion.

Unlike previous aid packages that addressed immediate military needs, this new package focuses on medium- and long-term military assistance that will take months or even years to land.

“This is a long-term commitment to Ukraine to continue to fight for their freedom, and bravely, as they have been doing for the past six months,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

She added that President Joe Biden will speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday. When asked if or when Biden might visit Zelenskyy in Kyiv, John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator of strategic communications, told reporters there currently are no plans for such a trip.

In late June at a NATO summit, Biden said U.S. support for Ukraine would continue “as long as it takes.” On Wednesday, the White House said that remains true.

“President Biden has been clear that we will continue to hold Russia accountable and support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” Kirby said Wednesday. “… And we’re going to continue to rally the free world, galvanize allies and partners to support Ukraine as they again defend their sovereignty against this further invasion by Russia.”

The Pentagon emphasized this large new commitment doesn’t presuppose an outcome to the grueling conflict, which technically started in 2014 with Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

“This type of package does not presume any particular outcome of a conflict in Ukraine,” Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters on Wednesday. ”So, for example, if the war continues for years, this package is relevant. If there is a cease-fire or a peace settlement, this package is still relevant, because Ukraine needs the ability to defend itself and deter future aggression.

There are signs that European interest in funding Ukraine has waned, with European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warning the continent in July against what he called “democratic fatigue” that Russia would try to exploit.

That does not seem to be the case in the U.S., where large aid packages have sailed almost effortlessly through Congress, and where a July poll saw seven out of 10 Americans support continued assistance.

But Elias Yousif, a research analyst with the Stimson Center’s Conventional Defense Program, said the administration has an obligation to continue to sell this expenditure to American taxpayers.

“It really is incumbent upon the administration to make the case to the American people as to why this investment is important,” he said via Zoom. “You know, the United States is clearly spending a great amount of time and effort on this problem. And it’ll be very important for government officials and for public policy to be pitching to the American people why this is more than just about Ukraine, why this speaks to their interests and to a certain vision for the world, and a certain world order that has their best interest at heart.”

More bullets than Ukrainians

In the last six months alone, the U.S. has doled out nearly $10 billion worth of support, comprising thousands of anti-missile and anti-armor systems, hundreds of vehicles, and nearly 60 million rounds of small-arms ammunition — more bullets, in fact, than there are Ukrainians.

“I absolutely think that it’s been worth it,” Ivana Stradner, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA via Zoom. “This war is also our war. So, it is in American interest to help Ukraine to win as fast as possible so we actually do not allow [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to wage this war in the way that he wants, and to put him actually on defense, rather than to allow Russia to dictate how long this war is going to last.”

But Yousif also warned the administration to be vigilant about where this assistance ends up.

“One of the main risks that we are all looking at is the risk of diversion of military hardware onto the black market,” he said. “This is something that we’ve seen time and time again from U.S. military aid programs, especially the very large ones. The United States, unfortunately, has a history of losing track of some of the arms that it provides in these large-scale military aid efforts, whether that’s been in Iraq or Afghanistan.

“And Ukraine also has a history of being a nexus of the illicit arms market — really, since the end of the Cold War. So, taken all together, the potential for losing some of these arms or having them leak into the black market could be quite high,” Yousif said.

Uncertain end, but certain determination

Now, six months and $13.6 billion later, how does this end? While no one knows the answer, the Biden administration has been clear on who holds the key to ending the war.

“It could end now,” Kirby said, “if President Putin did the right thing and pulled his troops out of Ukraine. There’s no reason for them to be there in the first place. … Sadly, we haven’t seen any indications by the Russian side that they’re willing to do that — quite the contrary.”

Zelenskyy, for his part, approached the six-month mark — which this year happened to fall on the day Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union 31 years ago — with determination and a hint of optimism.

“For 180 days, almost six months, the absolute majority of our people have no doubts that we will achieve the victory of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “We are united. We are more confident now in ourselves than we have been in many decades.”

VOA’s Carla Babb contributed to this report.
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Russian forces Wednesday launched a rocket attack on a Ukrainian train station on the embattled country’s Independence Day, killing 22 people, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after warning for days that Moscow might attempt “something particularly cruel” this week. 

The lethal attack took place in Chaplyne, a town of about 3,500 people in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukrainian news agencies quoted Zelenskyy as telling the U.N. Security Council via video. The president’s office also reported that an 11-year-old child was killed by rocket fire earlier in the day in the settlement. 

“Chaplyne is our pain today,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation. 

At one point, Zelenskyy put the number of wounded at about 50. The deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office later said 22 people were wounded in the attack, which hit five passenger rail cars. 

Ukraine had been bracing for especially heavy attacks around the national holiday that commemorates Ukraine’s declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Wednesday also marked the six-month point in the war. 

Days ahead of Independence Day, Kyiv authorities banned large gatherings in the capital through Thursday for fear of missile strikes. 

Residents of Kyiv, which has been largely spared in recent months, woke up Wednesday to air raid sirens, but no immediate strikes followed. As the day wore on, Russian bombardments were reported in the country’s east, west and center, with the most serious attack apparently at the train station. 

Outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson marked the holiday with a visit to Kyiv — his third since the war broke out — and other European leaders used the occasion to pledge unwavering support for Ukraine, locked in a battle that was widely expected to be a lightning conquest by Moscow but has turned into a grinding war of attrition. U.S. President Joe Biden announced a new military aid package of nearly $3 billion to help Ukrainian forces fight for years to come. 

Over the weekend, Zelenskyy cautioned that Russia “may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel” this week. He repeated the warnings ahead of the train station attack, saying, “Russian provocations and brutal strikes are a possibility.” 

Nevertheless, a festive atmosphere prevailed during the day at Kyiv’s Maidan square as thousands of residents posed for pictures next to burned-out Russian tanks put on display. Folk singers set up, and many revelers — ignoring the sirens — were out and about in traditionally embroidered dresses and shirts. 

Others were fearful. 

“I can’t sleep at night because of what I see and hear about what is being done in Ukraine,” said a retiree who gave only her first name, Tetyana, her voice shaking with emotion. “This is not a war. It is the destruction of the Ukrainian people.” 

In a holiday message to the country, Zelenskyy exulted over Ukraine’s success in fending off Moscow’s forces since the invasion, saying: “On February 24, we were told: You have no chance. On August 24, we say: Happy Independence Day, Ukraine!” 

Britain’s Johnson urged Western allies to stand by Ukraine through the winter. 

“This is not the time to put forward flimsy negotiating proposals,” he said. “You can’t negotiate with a bear when it’s eating your leg or with a street robber when he has you pinned to the floor.” 

A car bombing outside Moscow that killed the 29-year-old daughter of right-wing Russian political theorist Alexander Dugin on Saturday also heightened fears that Russia might intensify attacks on Ukraine this week. Russian officials have blamed Ukraine for the death of Darya Dugina, a pro-Kremlin TV commentator. Ukraine has denied any involvement. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces have encountered unexpectedly stiff Ukrainian resistance in their invasion and abandoned their effort to storm the capital in the spring. The fighting has turned into a slog that has reduced neighborhoods to rubble and sent shock waves through the world economy. 

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, speaking Wednesday at a meeting of his counterparts from a security organization dominated by Russia and China, claimed the slow pace of Moscow’s military action was due to what he said was an effort to spare civilians. 

Russian forces have repeatedly targeted civilian areas in cities, including hospitals and a Mariupol theater where hundreds of people were taking shelter. 

But Shoigu said Russia is carrying out strikes with precision weapons against Ukrainian military targets, and “everything is done to avoid civilian casualties.” 

“Undoubtedly, it slows down the pace of the offensive, but we do it deliberately,” he said. 

On the battlefield, Russian forces struck several towns and villages in Donetsk province in the east over 24 hours, killing one person, authorities said. A building materials superstore in the city of Donetsk was hit by a shell and erupted in flames, the mayor said. There were no immediate reports of injuries. 

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the Russians again shelled the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets, damaging several buildings and wounding people, authorities said. Russian troops also shelled the city of Zaporizhzhia, but no casualties were reported. 

In addition, Russian rockets struck unspecified targets in the Khmelnytskyi region, about 300 kilometers west of Kyiv, the regional governor said. Attacks there have been infrequent.
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