Risk of infection from the disease, which causes paralysis in children in under 1% of cases, was low because of high vaccination rates
…

European Union leaders hold a key summit Thursday and Friday with a top item on their agenda — okaying Ukraine’s bid to be a candidate for the bloc — appearing to be on track. The meeting comes amid heightened tensions between Europe and Moscow as the war drags on in Ukraine.

Hours before the European Union summit, France — which currently holds the presidency of the Council of the EU — offered a confident assessment of Kyiv’s candidacy application.

France’s Europe Minister Clement Beaune said there is a “total consensus” in favor, following discussions among EU country representatives. Now, he said, it’s up to their leaders to formally vote on the candidate status Thursday, along with those of Moldova and Georgia.

Kyiv has been pushing hard to join the 27-member bloc as soon as possible. Some EU countries like Portugal and Denmark earlier expressed reservations. But last week, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen offered a strong endorsement.

“Ukrainians are ready to die for the European perspective. We want them to live with us the European dream,” der Leyen said.

But it seems unlikely EU leaders will agree to Ukraine’s call for fast-tracking its application. Being admitted into the bloc can take years, or decades.

‘I think if there were a fast track [for Ukraine], then it would provoke some uproar from the western Balkan countries, who have been in the anti-chamber of this candidate status for a while now,” said Tara Varma who heads the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations policy institute.

“I think the Europeans need to be quite careful about how they deal with this,” Varma said. “Honestly, granting candidate status in such a short period would already be quite a revolution.”

France is pushing for an intermediary association for Ukraine and other non-EU members in the meantime.

This week’s summit follows a visit to Ukraine by leaders of France, Germany and Italy — the EU’s three most powerful members — along with Romania. Beyond the symbolism, they promised to deliver more weapons — a source of tension with Ukraine, among other issues.

But while EU leaders have displayed remarkable unity in agreeing to ever-stronger sanctions against Russia over the war, European citizens are feeling its economic backlash.

“Europeans will also have to think about how they deal with the situation at home as well. Because we’re seeing an increasing sense of worry from the European population side and also the beginning of a war fatigue,” said Varma.

Also up for discussion this summit will be the bloc’s deteriorating relationship with Moscow. Over the past week, Russia has cut off natural gas exports to more EU countries, notably heavyweights France and Germany. It’s also threatened EU and NATO member Lithuania over its rail transit blockade of some goods to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called Russia’s own blockade of Ukraine’s grain exports — which are critical for some of the world’s poorest countries — a war crime.
…

A United Nations study finds 222 million children and adolescents worldwide have had their education disrupted by multiple crises.

Education Cannot Wait, the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, produced the study. When the organization was created in 2016, the number of crisis-affected children whose education had been disrupted stood at around 75 million.

ECW Director Yasmine Sherif says multiple crises over the past six years have boosted the number to 222 million among more than 40 countries.  

“Conflicts are raging around the world — we know that, but they also are more and more protracted. But the growing record high number of refugees and internally displaced, as a result of conflicts and climate-induced disasters, have also contributed to this number, as have, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sherif said. 

The study finds 78.2 million children worldwide have dropped out of school entirely.  Education experts say those children are unlikely to resume their education, resulting in a detrimental impact on their prospects and earning capacity. 

Sherif says she has visited countries where most children currently are out of school, and she has seen what happens to children in crisis-ridden countries such as Mali, Chad, the Central African Republic and South Sudan.  

“When you do not go to school, you are very exposed to being — if you are a boy — forcibly recruited into armed groups, terrorist groups, militia, government groups,” she said. “And, if you are a girl, you are exposed to becoming part of a gender-based violence at homes, sexual violence, trafficking, early marriages, and early childbirth.”   

Sherif says the new data must be a wake-up call for all leaders and policymakers as more children are being left behind due to crises. She says the international community must do more to support their educational needs, or there will be far-reaching negative impacts for human and economic development. 
…

U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a “massive act of aggression,” was a major topic during the Global Chiefs of Mission Conference in Washington on Tuesday.

Speaking at the State Department to VOA’s Russian service, Sullivan said, “I think it’s important to understand the scale of the problem and what the Russian government has done through its actions. Almost 15 million people are either refugees, have left Ukraine or they’re internally displaced persons. We’ve heard the casualty statistics — thousands upon thousands of innocent people, men women and children killed, but millions of refugees.”

“So it imposes an enormous burden on Ukraine itself. It imposes an enormous burden on Ukraine’s neighbors,” he said. “The United States, led by President (Joe) Biden, and our allies and partners, have very consciously provided humanitarian and other assistance to Ukraine, to neighboring countries that are Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria that have had this massive influx of refugees.”

“But it all goes back to the decision of a government, really one person – President (Vladimir) Putin, to launch this war,” Sullivan told VOA.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: From the annual Global Chiefs of Mission Conference in Washington, what is the key message from the U.S. ambassadors of the world in terms of the impact of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine?

U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan: I just returned from Moscow at the end of last week for this conference and it’s amazing how the world has turned upside down since the Russian war, aggression started at the end of February, and it’s a big subject of this conference … (of) U.S. ambassadors worldwide, making sure that the world knows and responds to this massive act of aggression and aggressive war waged on the European continent with artillery shells, rockets landing on ancient cities in Europe, sites that we thought we had left behind us in the 20th century, innocents being slaughtered, women and children, hospitals, schools. All because the Russian government and President (Vladimir) Putin decided that he was going to wage a war of aggression and try to capture some or all of an independent, sovereign country that’s a member of the United Nations. And that’s what we’re dealing with now. President (Joe) Biden and Secretary (of State Antony) Blinken have sought to rally the world to oppose this.

VOA: President Biden on the World Refugee Day on Monday recommitted to engaging in diplomatic efforts to “bring an end to the ongoing conflicts” to help refugees. So, what diplomatic solutions are there to bring an end to this particular war? There were many opportunities before, but Putin is not agreeing to anything.

Sullivan: I think it’s important to understand the scale of the problem and what the Russian government has done through its actions. Almost 15 million people are either refugees, have left Ukraine or they’re internally displaced persons. We’ve heard the casualty statistics: thousands upon thousands of innocent people, men women and children killed, but millions of refugees. So it imposes an enormous burden on Ukraine itself. It imposes an enormous burden on Ukraine’s neighbors, small countries like Moldova, who’ve seen their total population spike because of the vast increase in refugees fleeing the violence that the Russian government has unleashed in Ukraine.

So the United States, led by President Biden, and our allies and partners have very consciously provided humanitarian and other assistance to Ukraine, to neighboring countries that are Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, that have had this massive influx of refugees. … We’ve got a program to admit 100,000 Ukrainian refugees to the United States. But it all goes back to the decision of a government, really one person, President Putin, to launch this war. And it’s a symptom (English playwright William) Shakespeare wrote a famous line from, I believe it’s “Julius Caesar:” “Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war.” A person does that, when a government does that, the consequences are often unforeseeable. I think, in this case, it would have been foreseeable that there would be millions of refugees, but I don’t think the Russian government really cared.

VOA: U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said in an interview with VOA in Kyiv, “We all understand very much what’s at stake and that’s why we’re here to help Ukraine prevail.” How confident are you in Ukraine’s overall success, after four months of full-scale Russian war and advances in eastern Ukraine?

Sullivan: I’m not a military expert, but I say this just as a human being, what (Ukraine) President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy and his government has done to resist this massive aggression is inspirational. I don’t think the Russian government expected the Ukrainian government to stand firm and resist. For President Zelenskyy to stay in Kyiv with a Russian army headed south out of Belarus to get him, that took nerve, that took courage. It was inspirational, it motivated, I’m sure, his fellow Ukrainians, who believe in their country, are fighting for their country and they’re not going to give up. You know, the Russian government, Russian media types like to talk about the strength of Russia. They’ve underestimated the strength of Ukraine.

VOA: Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly said that he is ready for talks with Vladimir Putin. While the peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have stagnated and as the chief Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamiya, who visited Washington last week, said that Kyiv might resume talks with Moscow only at the end of August. What do you think should happen for Putin to approve a potential meeting or at least a call with Zelenskyy?

Sullivan: Well, it’s something that President Biden, leaders across the world have been urging the Russian government to stop the war, to stop the aggression and negotiate. I’ve seen no indication that the Russian government, that President Putin is interested in negotiating. They want the Ukrainians to give up their resistance, succumb to a Russian invasion, and then they’ll negotiate. And President Zelenskyy, on behalf of his people whom he represents, democratically elected president, said, “No, thanks, we’ll negotiate but not when you’re holding a gun to our head.” I think, as President Biden would say, this conflict will end as all conflicts do — with some form of negotiation. And what the United States is looking to do is to support Ukraine, to support President Zelenskyy, so that the outcome that the Ukrainians want themselves is what’s achieved not only in the battlefield but in the negotiations, eventually, with Russia.

VOA: Do you think that China would have played a much bigger role in urging Russia to negotiate and maybe you had some talks with the Chinese ambassador in Moscow on that issue?

Sullivan: I have not. I know the U.S. government has, my colleagues in the U.S. government have made it clear that our hope and expectation is that China stands with the rest of the civilized world, those who support the U.N. charter, those who are against aggressive war and violence. And I think it’s fair to say there’s disappointment that the rhetoric from Beijing hasn’t been what one would have hoped. But I also don’t know that we’ve seen the type of material support that would actually bolster the physical effort by the Russian government to crush Ukraine.

VOA: Regarding repression of Russian opposition activists and independent media, you met with the deputy foreign minister of Russia on June 10 to protest threats against journalists working for U.S. media outlets in Russia. Also, the repression against opposition leaders like Alexey Navalny, who has been sent to a maximum-security prison, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was detained after his speech in Arizona about Putin’s war. How does the war impact those cases of people whom experts call hostages of the regime?

Sullivan: I’ve been in Moscow well over two and a half years now, and from the day I arrived, there’s been a snowball rolling of the gradual repression of civil rights, civil society, journalists, NGOs (nongovernmental organizations). And it has been law after law that’s been passed, individuals and organizations being designated as foreign agents or extremists, people being driven out of the country. These are loyal Russians who have lived in their homeland their entire lives, who love their country, disagree with actions their government has taken. But they’re forced to flee their country if they’re lucky. If they’re not, they get thrown in a labor camp for a long time. And so this is something I’ve witnessed over the years. It has increased since the war started.

You mentioned Vladimir Kara-Murza. I met with Vladimir in early March, shortly before he was arrested. He’s a friend of mine and he’s a very brave man. He knew the risks he was running, but he loves his country. And he wanted to be there and speak to the Russian people. Of course, he writes for The Washington Post. And it’s tragic what’s happened to him. But it also doesn’t strike me as the sign of a government that’s confident in what it’s doing if they have to treat their people that way. We here in the United States enjoy a competition of ideas and rhetoric, sometimes a little too much, but it’s a strength, it’s not a weakness. And what they’re revealing is weakness not strength.

VOA: Former Marine Trevor Reid has been released from a Russian prisoner in a swap for Russian citizen Konstantin Yoshinaga. Reid’s family said President Biden might have saved their son’s life. Can you give us any details of the negotiations and how difficult it was because it came during the Russian war?

Sullivan: Trevor has been one of the most important cases I’ve worked on since I became ambassador. He was arrested a few months before I was confirmed as ambassador. And I got to know him very well. He’s an amazing American, former Marine. And one of my first visits to him was before he was convicted in a pretrial detention facility in Moscow called SIZO-5. We were having a conversation and just talking about things he needed, books we were going to try to get him, passing messages from his family. And he just looked at me out of the blue and he said, “Ambassador, I want to tell you something. I want you to know I will never do anything to embarrass the United States.” Wow. Usually in my job people want things from me. And to have somebody trying to reassure me that he was going to be OK. Incredibly strong character and I couldn’t be happier for him.

Unfortunately, though, and Trevor himself has noted, that we have other Americans there now — (former Marine) Paul Whelan, (U.S. Women’s National Basketball Association player) Brittney Griner and others who are there, whom we’re focused on now. I really can’t go into any detail on negotiations, if there are any, because it wouldn’t help getting to their release talking about it publicly.

VOA: This weekend, President Biden departs for the Group of Seven (G-7) Leaders’ Summit in Germany. Many discussions are expected to be about Ukraine. From there, he heads to the NATO summit in Madrid. What are your expectations from these crucial meetings? And is there enough unity being shown among the Western leaders? What do you think?

Sullivan: People have been asking me this question for six months and at every turn the United States and its allies and partners have shown remarkable unity. I am confident that will be the outcome, both of the G-7 meeting and of the NATO leaders’ summit. It’s been a mistake of the Russian government and President Putin underestimating the unity of the NATO alliance, of the United States and our EU partners. That was a mistake because we are unified, and we will resist this aggression.

VOA: There have been some European Union disputes about the Russian gas supplies, an issue that has long been one of the EU’s greatest fears.

Sullivan: It’s a short-term problem that we collectively will overcome, and we won’t make the mistake of being over reliant on such an unreliable aggressive and hostile country like Russia.

VOA: It seems like Russia is operating more through the propagandistic channels inside the country, showing that it’s not a war against Ukraine, but a war against the U.S., against NATO, against the West. What do you think about this? Do you think Russian people, from what you see, are eager to receive this narrative?

Sullivan: It’s difficult. I’ve heard many Russians here in the United States, whom I know, I’ve talked to about this … if that’s the only news you hear, at some point it starts to seep in and that’s just all they hear and it’s difficult for alternative points of view to become well-known.

But there’s an underlying sense, I believe, in Russia that something’s wrong and what’s happening in Ukraine is wrong. They support their country. They love their military. But something’s not right and they know it, and you can sense this lurking. People want to know: When is it going to stop? When is it going to go back to being the way it was? And the message is, unfortunately, it’s not going to be any time soon.
…

Elite swimmer Mykhailo Romanchuk doesn’t know if his father was able to see him winning a medal for Ukraine at the swimming world championships.

Romanchuk’s father is fighting in the east of Ukraine, where pockets of resistance are still denying Russia full military control of the region almost four months after it unleashed its invasion.

“He’s in a hot spot and it’s a hard time,” Romanchuk said after taking bronze in the men’s 800-meter freestyle race on Tuesday.

Romanchuk doesn’t dare talk to his dad out of fear his father’s location could be tracked through the call.

“It’s not possible for them to join the network because the Russians can search everything,” Romanchuk said. “But every morning he sends me (a message) that he is OK.”

The 25-year-old Romanchuk – who intends to race the men’s 1500, then the 10K and 5K races in open water at the worlds – almost never made it to Budapest.

“My mind was to go to the war to defend my home,” said Romanchuk, who spent 10 days agonizing with his wife and family over the best course of action after Russia invaded his country on February 24.

“We decided that I cannot do anything with the gun. For me, it’s better to continue training, to do everything that I do best,” said Romanchuk, who won bronze in the 800 and silver in the 1500 at the Tokyo Olympics last year. “With my swimming, I can tell all the world about the situation in Ukraine.”

As training facilities were destroyed by the war, Romanchuk was invited by German swimmer Florian Wellbrock, who finished second behind American Bobby Finke in the 800, to join him in Germany to train.

Romanchuk and Wellbrock embraced after finishing 1-2 in qualifying for Tuesday’s race. But Finke’s strong finish prevented a repeat in the final. Romanchuk finished 0.69 seconds behind Finke.

Romanchuk said he was both “proud and disappointed” of his third place. He said his medal proves “that Ukrainians will fight to the end, it doesn’t matter what the situation.”

Swimmers from Russia and its ally Belarus have been excluded from the championships. Romanchuk said he doesn’t know how he would have reacted if they hadn’t been.

“My reaction could be maybe aggressive, I don’t know,” said Romanchuk, who referred to Olympic backstroke champion Evgeny Rylov appearing at a pro-war rally in Moscow. “Inside of me, I was ready to go and to kill him,” he said of Rylov. “But before he was a good friend. Before. But everything changed.”

Romanchuk spoke of the destruction Russia has caused in his country, the people killed, the lives shattered.

It makes it hard for him to focus on swimming.

“Especially in the beginning when I moved to Germany to join the group. It was hard because mentally you are in the war and you are sleeping just three or four hours because you are always reading the news,” Romanchuk said. “It was so hard in the beginning, but then you understand that all you can do is to swim, to train, to represent your country.”

For the freshly minted medalist, it’s a time to feel proud.

“I’m so proud of all the people in Ukraine. This is all I can say. I’m proud of the people, of the government, the president. I’m so proud of them,” Romanchuk said. “And I’m really happy to be Ukrainian.”
…

Ukraine reported heavy strikes Tuesday in the Sievierodonetsk region as Russian forces push to gain full control of the eastern city.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that the military situation in the eastern region of Luhansk “is really the toughest area right now. The occupiers are also putting serious pressure on the Donetsk direction.”

He said Russia has stepped up efforts to evict Ukrainian troops from key areas.

A spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said at a daily briefing that fighting in Sievierodonetsk was fierce, with Russia conducting airstrikes and shelling on Ukrainian positions.

Serhiy Haidai, governor of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, told The Associated Press in written comments, “It’s just hell there. Everything is engulfed in fire. The shelling doesn’t stop even for an hour.”

“Today, everything that can burn is on fire,” Haidai said. He reported heavy fighting at the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, where Ukrainian fighters and about 500 civilians are taking shelter.

Russian forces control about 95% of the Luhansk region, AP reported, with Ukraine forces holding just the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk.

Haidai also said Russian forces had brought “catastrophic destruction” to Lysychansk, an industrial city just across a river from Sievierodonetsk.

Zelenskyy acknowledged difficulties trying to defend the country’s eastern region but said Russian forces would continue to be met with Ukrainian resistance.

In Lviv, Ukraine, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland met Tuesday with Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova to announce the creation of a team focused on war crimes accountability, the Justice Department said.

“The United States is sending an unmistakable message. There is no place to hide. We will, we and our partners, will pursue every avenue available to make sure that those who are responsible for these atrocities are held accountable,” Garland told reporters.

The War Crimes Accountability Team will assist Ukraine with criminal prosecution, evidence collection and forensics of human rights abuse, war crimes and other atrocities, the department said, adding that the team’s lead counselor is Eli Rosenbaum, a Justice Department official who once led the effort to track down Nazi war criminals.

“America — and the world — has seen the many horrific images and read the heart-wrenching accounts of brutality and death that have resulted from Russia’s unjust invasion of Ukraine,” Garland said in a statement.

The team also will focus on potential war crimes over which the United States has jurisdiction, including killing and wounding U.S. journalists, the department said.

“In addition, the Justice Department will provide additional personnel to expand its work with Ukraine and other partners to counter Russian illicit finance and sanctions evasion. Among other things, the Department will provide Ukraine an expert Justice Department prosecutor to advise on fighting kleptocracy, corruption, and money laundering,” the DOJ statement said.

Also, Ukraine is set to become an official candidate for European Union membership on Thursday, ministers and diplomats said on Tuesday.

Last week, the European Commission recommended the action. After several days of internal EU discussion, none of the 27 member states have voiced opposition to the plan, three diplomats told Reuters.

“We are working towards the point where we tell (Russian President Vladimir) Putin that Ukraine belongs to Europe, that we will also defend the values that Ukraine defends,” Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg’s foreign affairs minister, said, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that the United Nations and its humanitarian partners delivered on Monday “12 trucks of critical supplies to help nearly 64,000 people in the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.” He said the cities are close to the front lines of the government-controlled Donetska Oblast.

The humanitarian convoy that reached the two cities carried hygiene supplies, water purification tablets and food assistance, he said.

Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
…

Pavlo Vyshebaba joined the military on the first day of the Russian invasion, having no combat experience at all. Then the well-known Ukrainian eco-activist headed straight to his native Donbas region. During brief calm moments on the front line, he wrote about what he was seeing and feeling. Lesia Bakalets has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
…

President Emmanuel Macron held talks Tuesday with France’s main party leaders in a bid to show he is open to dialogue after his centrist alliance failed to win an absolute majority in parliamentary elections. 

The meetings at the Elysee presidential palace come after Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne formally offered her resignation Tuesday, in line with the tradition after parliamentary elections. Macron immediately rejected the offer and maintained the current government. 

Macron’s Together! alliance won 245 seats in Sunday’s parliamentary elections — 44 seats short of a majority in the National Assembly, France’s most powerful house of parliament. 

The leftist Nupes coalition won 131 seats to become the main opposition force. The far-right National Rally got 89 seats in the 577-member chamber, up from its previous eight. 

Macron held successive meetings with opposition members, including the president of The Republicans, Christian Jacob, the head of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, and far-right leader Marine Le Pen. 

Macron also met with representatives of his own party and allied movements. Other meetings were scheduled Wednesday. 

Talks were aiming at finding “potential constructive solutions” to the situation, according to Macron’s office. 

Macron has not publicly commented on the elections’ results yet. 

With the most seats at the National Assembly, his government still has the ability to rule, but only by bargaining with legislators. To prevent potential deadlock, Macron’s party and allies may try to negotiate on a case-by-case basis with lawmakers from the center-left and from the conservative party. 

Macron was reelected in April on an agenda including measures to boost purchasing power, tax cuts and raising the minimum retirement age from 62 to 65. 

After her meeting with Macron, Le Pen said that he “listens,” but “does he hear? We’ll see.” 

She said she told him her party’s MPs will be part of the opposition but don’t want to do “systematic obstruction.” 

“If measures are being proposed that go in the right direction … we will vote for them. If they go in the wrong direction, we will amend them. If they are not amended as we want, then we will oppose them,” she said. 

On his way out of the Elysee, Jacob said The Republicans, who hold 61 seats, won’t enter into any “pact or coalition” with Macron’s centrists. However, he opened the door to voting in favor of some measures if they are in line with his party’s platform. 

He notably mentioned pension changes, since the conservatives are, like Macron, in favor of raising the retirement age. 

The Socialist leader, Olivier Faure, told reporters “it’s possible to move forward” but “we won’t approve policies which would be contrary to commitments we made to the French.” 

Faure advocated for a measure proposed by the leftist coalition to bring the monthly minimum salary from about 1,300 euros to 1,500 euros. 

Macron will also soon need to handle another issue: a government reshuffle. Three ministers — out of the 15 who were running for reelection — have lost their seats and won’t be able to stay in the government under the rules he set. 

While keeping him busy at home, the situation at parliament is not expected to destabilize Macron’s international agenda. The French president holds substantial powers over foreign policy, European affairs and defense. 

Macron is to travel to Brussels for a European summit scheduled on Thursday and Friday. He will then head to a G-7 meeting in Germany next week, followed by a NATO summit in Spain and a brief visit to Portugal. 

 
…

Russia has summoned the European Union’s envoy to Moscow to “strongly” protest new restrictions on goods shipments to its Kaliningrad exclave through EU member Lithuania while threatening the Baltic state with “retaliation.”

The Foreign Ministry in Moscow said on Tuesday that EU Ambassador to Moscow Markus Ederer was informed of the “inadmissibility of such actions” and warned “retaliation will follow” if the restrictions aren’t removed immediately. It did not elaborate.

Kaliningrad is wedged between Lithuania and Poland, where the Pregolya River feeds into the Baltic Sea. It has about 500,000 inhabitants.

Lithuanian officials said they imposed the restrictions beginning on June 20 in an effort to shore up punitive measures that followed Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Ederer echoed that line after the meeting in Moscow, saying that “Lithuania is not taking unilateral measures, it is implementing EU sanctions.”

He added that there was no blockade of Kaliningrad as the transit of non-sanctioned goods to the enclave continues.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, dispatched one of President Vladimir Putin’s top allies to Kaliningrad, where he warned that “appropriate measures” will be taken by Moscow “in the near future.”

“Russia will certainly respond to such hostile actions,” Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev said at a regional security meeting in Kaliningrad.

“Their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania,” he warned.

Some information came from Reuters, AFP, and AP.
…

Lawyers for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange are urging the Australian government to do more to gain the release of the Queensland-born activist. Assange is to be extradited from Britain to the United States to face espionage charges, in a move approved by the British government late last week.

To his supporters, Julian Assange is a hero who, among other things, exposed U.S. wrongdoing in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. They insist his prosecution is politically motivated.

But officials in Washington have for years said the confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables Assange’s Wikileaks website released had violated U.S. espionage laws and put lives at risk.

The Australian-born activist is in a British prison awaiting extradition to the United States, where he is wanted on 18 criminal charges, including breaking spying laws.

Last Friday, British Interior Minister Priti Patel approved Assange’s extradition.

Assange’s legal team is urging the recently elected government in Canberra to demand Assange’s release from prison. It is reported that Australia is quietly lobbying for his release and has raised the case with senior United States officials.

Greg Barns is a member of Assange’s Australian-based legal team. He told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that Canberra had intervened to bring home an Australian terrorism suspect from Guantanamo Bay and a Melbourne-based academic recently detained in Iran.

“There is precedent for Australia doing this. We saw most famously the David Hicks case back in, I think, 2004 when the [former Prime Minister John] Howard government used its good offices with the Bush administration to get David Hicks back to safety from Guantanamo Bay,” said Barns. “We saw it in Kylie Moore-Gilbert, for example. Simply because a case is before other jurisdictions does not mean that Australia cannot get involved.”

In a statement, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Assange’s case has “dragged on for too long and that it should be brought to a close.” She added that the Australian government could not “intervene in the legal matters of another country.”

Since it was founded in 2006, Wikileaks has released hundreds of thousands of secret classified files and diplomatic cables in what has been described as the largest security breach of its kind.

Assange has been fighting extradition to the United States since June 2019 and has indicated he plans to appeal Britain’s expulsion order.

 
…

Ukraine reported heavy strikes Tuesday in the Sievierodonetsk region as Russian forces push to gain full control of the eastern city. 

A spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said at a daily briefing that fighting in Sievierodonetsk was fierce, with Russia conducting both airstrikes and shelling on Ukrainian positions. 

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai reported heavy fighting at the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, where Ukrainian fighters and about 500 civilians are taking shelter. 

Haidai also said Russian forces had brought “catastrophic destruction” to the city of Lysychansk, located just across a river from Sievierodonetsk. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged difficulties trying to defend the country’s eastern region but said Russian forces would continue to be met with Ukrainian resistance. 

“We have the most difficult fighting there. But we have our strong guys and girls there,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Monday, adding, “the occupiers receive a response to their actions against us.” 

Earlier Monday, Zelenskyy accused Russia of holding Africa “hostage” by blocking wheat deliveries and contributing to rising food prices on the continent. 

In a video speech to African Union leaders, Zelenskyy said, “This war may seem very distant to you and your countries. But catastrophically, rising food prices have already brought it home to millions of African families.” 

He said Ukraine is holding “complex, multilevel negotiations” to try to end Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports. 

“But there is no progress yet. … That is why the global food crisis will continue as long as this colonial war continues,” he said. 

Russia denies it is deliberately blocking wheat exports from Ukraine and blames sanctions imposed by Western nations for rising global food prices. 

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called Russia’s actions “a real war crime.” He told the EU’s top diplomats gathered in Luxembourg on Monday, “It is inconceivable, one cannot imagine that millions of tons of wheat remain blocked in Ukraine while in the rest of the world, people are suffering (from) hunger.” 

Also Monday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland met in Toronto to discuss sanctions and other ways to boost economic pressure against Russia. 

Yellen said at the start of the meeting that the two would also work together to boost energy production to counter high gas and energy prices. 

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
…

British rail workers launched their biggest strike in decades on Tuesday. 

Last-minute talks to avoid the stoppage failed Monday, with the rail management and the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union unable to resolve a dispute about pay and job security. 

Union leaders say pay has failed to keep pace with inflation. 

British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps warned the strike would cause “mass disruption.” 

The union of more than 40,000 workers plans to strike on Thursday and Saturday as well. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Dmitry Muratov, editor of one of Russia’s last independent newspapers, auctioned off his 2021 Nobel Peace Prize medal on Monday, bringing in a record-shattering $103.5 million to benefit children displaced by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Organizer Heritage Auctions did not identify the winning bidder of the auction, which took place on World Refugee Day.

The money is going to UNICEF’s humanitarian response for displaced Ukrainian children.

Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines for their work to preserve free speech in their countries.

The previous record price paid for a Nobel Prize medal was $4.76 million in 2014.

Muratov said after Monday’s auction that he hoped “there was going to be an enormous amount of solidarity, but I was not expecting this to be such a huge amount.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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Two Americans detained in Ukraine while fighting on the Ukrainian side of the war were mercenaries who endangered the lives of Russian servicemen and should face responsibility for their actions, the Kremlin said Monday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, interviewed by the U.S. television network NBC, also said U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, held in Russia for more than two months, was guilty of drug offenses and not a hostage.

Peskov’s comments were the first formal acknowledgment that the two men, identified in U.S. reports as Andy Huynh, 27, of Hartselle, Alabama, and Alexander Drueke, 39, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, were being held and under investigation.

“They are soldiers of fortune. They were involved in illegal activities on the territory of Ukraine. They were involved in firing at and [the] shelling of our military personnel. They were endangering their lives,” Peskov said.

“And they should be held responsible for those crimes they have committed. Those crimes have to be investigated. … The only thing that is clear is that they have committed crimes. They are not in the Ukrainian army. They are not subject to the Geneva Conventions.”

Family members said last week the two men went to Ukraine as volunteer fighters and had gone missing.

Russian media last week broadcast images of them captured while fighting for Ukraine.

Peskov would not reveal where the men were held.

Two Britons and a Moroccan have already been sentenced by a court under the jurisdiction of separatists in Donetsk on grounds that they were mercenaries and not subject to the Geneva Conventions governing prisoners of war.

Kyiv condemned the court ruling as having no authority and said the fighters were members of the Ukrainian armed forces, and thus subject to Geneva Conventions’ protections.

Moscow calls its actions a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and its allies in the West say the fascist allegation is baseless and the war is an unprovoked act of aggression.

Griner’s prosecution

Peskov said Griner, who had come to promote basketball in Russia, was being prosecuted under laws forbidding the import of drugs.

“Russia is not the sole country in the world to have quite strict laws in that sense … it is prosecuted by law. We can do nothing about that,” Peskov told NBC.

He “strongly disagreed” with any notion that Griner, who arrived in Russia in February, was being held hostage.

“We cannot call her a hostage. Why should we call her a hostage?” he said. “She violated Russian law and now she is being prosecuted. It not about being a hostage.”

Russian customs officials say vape cartridges containing hashish oil were found in Griner’s luggage.

The U.S. State Department determined in May that Griner was wrongfully detained and assigned diplomats to work for her release. Her wife, Cherelle Griner, has said she is a political pawn.
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According to United Nations estimates, since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, some 2.5 million Ukrainians have crossed the Polish border and gone back to Ukraine. Iryna Martynenko was among those who returned to her native city of Sumy, in the northeast. Olena Adamenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera and video editing by Mykhailo Zaika.
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Two months after French President Emmanuel Macron won reelection, his second term is now threatened with gridlock and a possible political crisis after his centrist party lost its ruling majority in the lower house of the National Assembly Sunday. Legislative vote saw a surging far left and far right — and near-record abstention.

France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne acknowledged the message from Sunday’s vote that gave the centrist Ensemble or Together coalition the largest number of seats in the lower house — but stripped it of a ruling majority. She called the situation unprecedented and vowed to cobble a working majority.

Meanwhile, the far left and far right were celebrating. Leader Jean-Luc Melenchon of the new left-wing NUPES coalition, which placed second in the voting, called the results an electoral defeat for President Emmanuel Macron.

However, his alliance didn’t do as well as he’d hoped — earning only 131 of the 577 legislative seats, compared to 245 for Macron’s centrists.

In many ways, the biggest win went to the far-right National Rally party, which scooped up 89 seats, an historic high. Leader Marine Le Pen noted that effectively makes hers the biggest opposition party, as Melenchon’s NUPES is an alliance of four different leftist parties.

What’s clear is the results present a major challenge to Macron’s second-term ambitions, which include passing major fiscal and retirement reforms. In the near term, it may also force him to concentrate less on foreign policy goals — including helping to end the war in Ukraine — as he looks for a way to govern effectively at home.

Political analyst Jean Petaux outlines several political scenarios for Macron moving forward — from hoping the NUPES coalition will divide and weaken, to seeking alliances with the center-right Les Republicains and other parties on a case-by-case basis. And possibly even orchestrating a political crisis that would allow the President to call for new legislative elections next year, hoping they might produce more favorable results. All suggest a complicated political path ahead.

Petaux believes Prime Minister Borne will likely keep her job.

But the NUPES vow to bring a no-confidence motion against her up for vote in early July. More immediately, three of Macron’s ministers lost their legislative bids. Under his rules, that means they must resign.
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What’s the price of peace? 

That question could be partially answered Monday night when Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctions off his Nobel Peace Prize medal. The proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine. 

Muratov, awarded the gold medal in October 2021, helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was the publication’s editor-in-chief when it shut down in March amid the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

It was Muratov’s idea to auction off his prize, having already announced he was donating the accompanying $500,000 cash award to charity. The idea of the donation, he said, “is to give the children refugees a chance for a future.” 

In an interview with The Associated Press, Muratov said he was particularly concerned about children who have been orphaned because of the conflict in Ukraine. 

“We want to return their future,” he said. 

He added that it’s important international sanctions levied against Russia do not prevent humanitarian aid, such as medicine for rare diseases and bone marrow transplants, from reaching those in need. 

“It has to become a beginning of a flash mob as an example to follow so people auction their valuable possessions to help Ukrainians,” Muratov said in a video released by Heritage Auctions, which is handling the sale but not taking any share of the proceeds. Muratov shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year with journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines. 

Honored for perseverance

The two journalists, who each received their own medals, were honored for their battles to preserve free speech in their respective countries, despite coming under attack by harassment, their governments and even death threats. 

Muratov has been highly critical of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and the war launched in February that has caused nearly 5 million Ukrainians to flee to other countries for safety, creating the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II. 

Independent journalists in Russia have come under scrutiny by the Kremlin, if not outright targets of the government. Since Putin came into power more than two decades ago, nearly two dozen journalists have been killed, including at least four who had worked for Muratov’s newspaper. 

In April, Muratov said he was attacked with red paint while aboard a Russian train. 

Muratov left Russia for Western Europe on Thursday to begin his trip to New York City, where live bidding will begin Monday afternoon. 

Online bids began June 1 to coincide with the International Children’s Day observance. Monday’s live bidding falls on World Refugee Day. 

As of early Monday morning, the high bid was $550,000. The purchase price is expected to spiral upward, possibly into the millions. 

“It’s a very bespoke deal,” said Joshua Benesh, the chief strategy officer for Heritage Auctions. “Not everyone in the world has a Nobel Prize to auction and not every day of the week that there’s a Nobel Prize crossing the auction block.” 

Uniqueness item, unique circumstances.

Since its inception in 1901, there have been nearly 1,000 recipients of the Nobel Prizes honoring achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and the advancement of peace. 

The most ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal was in 2014, when James Watson, whose co-discovery of the structure of DNA earned him a Nobel Prize in 1962, sold his medal for $4.76 million. Three years later, the family of his co-recipient, Francis Crick, received $2.27 million in bidding run by Heritage Auctions, the same company that is auctioning off Muratov’s medal. 

Melted down, the 175 grams of 23-karat gold contained in Muratov’s medal would be worth about $10,000. 

The ongoing war and international humanitarian efforts to alleviate the suffering of those affected in Ukraine are bound to stoke interest, Benesh said, adding it’s hard to predict how much someone would be willing to pay for the medal. 

“I think there’s certainly going to be some excitement Monday,” Benesh said. “It’s it’s such a unique item being sold under unique circumstances … a significant act of generosity, and such a significant humanitarian crisis.” 

Muratov and Heritage officials said even those out of the bidding can still help by donating directly to UNICEF. 

Press writer Andrew Katell contributed to this report.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “we should expect greater hostile activity from Russia” this week as European Union leaders consider whether to support candidate status for Ukraine in the EU.

“And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries. We are preparing. We are ready. We are warning partners,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Sunday.

The European Commission recommended last week that Ukraine receive candidate status. The 27 member states will discuss the issue and give their votes during a summit Thursday and Friday. If Ukraine does advance to candidate status, the process for joining the EU in full could take several years.

Zelenskyy said, “fierce fighting continues in Donbas,” the eastern region of Ukraine that has been the focus of Russian efforts in recent months.

Leaders implore West for support

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Sunday that Russia’s war in Ukraine could be long-lasting, but said Western allies should not curb their support for Kyiv’s forces.

“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years,” Stoltenberg told the German weekly Bild am Sonntag. “We must not let up in supporting Ukraine, even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday with an offer of training for Ukrainian forces, also warned against the risk of “Ukraine fatigue” as the war grinds on toward the four-month mark in the coming days.

In an opinion piece in London’s Sunday Times, Johnson said this meant ensuring “Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader.”

Zelenskyy said he had visited forces in the southern Mykolaiv region, about 550 kilometers south of Kyiv.

“Their mood is assured: they all do not doubt our victory,” he said in a video Sunday that appeared to have been recorded on a moving train. “We will not give the south to anyone, and all that is ours we will take back” from the Russians.

Zelenskyy said Russian forces had destroyed parts of the Mykolaiv and Odesa regions.

“The losses are significant,” he said. “Many houses have been destroyed; civilian logistics have been disrupted.”

Battles continue in east

While Russia failed early in the war to topple Zelenskyy’s government and capture the capital, Kyiv, intense fighting rages in the eastern part of the country, centering on the embattled industrial city of Sievierodonetsk in Luhansk province, which is part of the broader Donbas region that Russia is trying to control.

Shelling continues, but Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai told Ukraine television, “All Russian claims that they control the town are a lie. They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town.” But he said the battles made evacuations from the city impossible.

Haidai said that in Sievierodonetsk’s twin city of Lysychansk, residential buildings and private houses had been destroyed. “People are dying on the streets and in bomb shelters,” he said.

Russia’s defense ministry said its forces have taken control of Metolkine, just southeast of Sievierodonetsk, with Russian state news agency TASS claiming that many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered there. Ukraine’s military acknowledged that Russia had “partial success” in the area.

Analysts at a Washington-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said in a note that “Russian forces will likely be able to seize Sievierodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of their available forces in this small area.”

Some information from this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Firefighters in Spain and Germany struggled to contain wildfires on Sunday amid an unusual heat wave in Western Europe for this time of year.

The worst damage in Spain has been in the northwest province of Zamora where over 25,000 hectares (61,000 acres) have been consumed, regional authorities said, while German officials said that residents of three villages near Berlin were ordered to leave their homes because of an approaching wildfire Sunday.

Spanish authorities said that after three days of high temperatures, high winds and low humidity, some respite came with dropping temperatures Sunday morning. That allowed for about 650 firefighters supported by water-dumping aircraft to establish a perimeter around the fire that started in Zamora’s Sierra de la Culebra. Authorities warned there was still danger that an unfavorable shift in weather could revive the blaze that caused the evacuation of 18 villages.

Spain has been on alert for an outbreak of intense wildfires as the country swelters under record temperatures at many points in the country for June. Experts link the abnormally hot period for Europe to climate change. Thermometers have risen above 40 C (104 F) in many Spanish cities throughout the week — temperatures usually expected in August.

A lack of rainfall this year combined with gusting winds have produced the conditions for the fires.

Authorities said that gusting winds of up 70 kph (43 mph) that changed course erratically, combined with temperatures near 40 C, made it very tough for crews.

“The fire was able to cross a reservoir some 500 meters wide and reach the other side, to give you an idea of the difficulties we faced,” Juan Suárez-Quiñones, an official for Castilla y León region, told Spanish state television TVE.

The fire in Zamora was started by a strike from an electrical storm on Wednesday, authorities said. The spreading fire caused the high-speed train service from Madrid to Spain’s northwest to be cut on Saturday. It was reestablished on Sunday morning.

Military firefighting units have been deployed in Zamora, Navarra and Lleida.

There have been no reports of lives lost, but the flames reached the outskirts of some villages both in Zamora and in Navarra. Videos shot by passengers in cars showed flames licking the sides of roads. In other villages, residents looked on in despair as black plumes rose from nearby hills.

In central-north Navarra, authorities have evacuated some 15 small villages as a precaution, as the high temperatures in the area are not expected to drop until Wednesday.

They also asked farmers to stop using heavy machinery that could unintentionally spark a fire.

“The situation remains delicate. We have various active fires due to the extremely high temperatures and high winds,” Navarra regional vice-president Javier Remírez told TVE.

Remírez said that some villages had seen some buildings damaged on their outskirts.

Some wild animals had to be evacuated from an animal park in Navarra and taken to a bull ring for safe keeping, authorities said.

Wildfires were also active in three parts of northeast Catalonia: in Lleida, in Tarragona and in a nature park in Garaf, just south of Barcelona.

Firefighters said that 2,700 hectares (6,600 acres) were scorched in Lleida. They added that they have responded to over 200 different wildfires just in Catalonia over the past week.

In Germany, strong winds have been fanning the blaze about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Berlin, prompting officials to declare an emergency Saturday.

Villagers in Frohnsdorf, Tiefenbrunnen and Klausdorf were told to immediately seek shelter at a community center in the nearby town of Treuenbrietzen.

“This is not a drill,” town officials tweeted.

Germany has seen numerous wildfires in recent days following a period of intense heat and little rain.

The country’s national weather agency said the mercury topped 38 C (100.4 F) at some measuring station in the east Sunday.

Thunderstorms were forecast to bring cooler weather in from the west from the evening onward.
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France voted Sunday in the second-round runoff of legislative elections that saw a new left-wing alliance threatening President Emmanuel Macron’s majority in the National Assembly, the lower house of the country’s Parliament.

Voters trickled out of Neuilly Plaisance’s city hall, shopping carts in tow. After casting their ballots, their next stops were the bakery and Sunday market to finish their errands.

Gregory, an electrician in this eastern Paris suburb, had cast his ballot for France’s new leftist coalition, known as NUPES. He said French President Emmanuel Macron is breaking everything the country has worked for when it comes to social and environmental issues.

Pre-vote polls suggested Macron’s centrist alliance, Ensemble, or Together, would earn the largest share of votes — but not necessarily a ruling majority. The NUPES was hoping for an upset victory that would force Macron to pick its leader, far-left politician Jean-Luc Melenchon, as prime minister.

Michelle, another Neuilly Plaisance voter, said she believes that scenario would be a disaster. Certainly not the NUPES, she said. If they win, France will be in a mess.

Retiree Raymond offered a similar reaction. He said he doubts the feasibility of programs pushed by the leftist coalition. “Where’s the money to pay for them?” he asked.

Macron won a second term against his far-right rival Marine Le Pen just two months ago. But the abstention rate was high, and many French are underwhelmed by their president. Some criticized Macron for not campaigning enough for this crucial parliamentary vote, where this time his main rival was the far left.

These elections for the powerful National Assembly, or lower house of Parliament, will be critical in determining whether Macron can push through fiscal and retirement reforms that mark his second term agenda. The NUPES coalition has vowed to block them and enact tougher environmental policies.

Like the April presidential elections, these legislative elections have also been marked by high voter abstention.

 
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Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said on Sunday a new British law to change part of a Brexit deal to try to ease trade with Northern Ireland was “unilateralism of the worst kind” and urged the government to resume talks.

The European Commission launched two new legal proceedings against Britain this month after London published plans to override some post-Brexit rules in the so-called Northern Ireland protocol which governs trade with the British province.

London has proposed scrapping some checks on goods from the rest of the United Kingdom arriving in Northern Ireland and challenged the role of the European Court of Justice to decide on parts of the post-Brexit deal agreed by the EU and Britain.

The new legislation has yet to be passed by parliament, a process which could take some time.

“It’s not acceptable, it represents unilateralism of the worst kind,” Martin told the BBC.

“We accept fully there are legitimate issues around the operation of the protocol and we believe with serious sustained negotiations between the European Union and United Kingdom government, those issues could be resolved.”

He said the legislation, which London says is needed to restore a power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland, would damage the province’s economy by introducing a dual regulatory regime that could increase costs to business.

“If this bill is enacted, I think we’re in a very serious situation,” he said. “What now needs to happen is really substantive negotiations between the British government and the European Union.”
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Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, couples there continue to get married. For many, the war itself prompted them to officially tie the knot – especially military couples. At least one jewelry store provides military couples with free wedding bands; wedding ceremonies are often held online, at times, literally from the front lines. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story.
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Fine Italian knitwear packed in boxes addressed to retailers in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kursk sit stacked in a Lombardy warehouse awaiting dispatch. Although not subject to sanctions to punish Russia for invading Ukraine, the garments are not likely to ship any time soon.

Missing payments from the Russian retailers who ordered the garments are piling up due to restrictions tied to the banking sector, putting pressure on small fashion producers like D. Exterior, a high-end knitwear company with 50 workers in the northern city of Brescia.

“This is very painful. I have 2 million euros worth of merchandise in the warehouse, and if they cannot pay for it, I will be on my knees,” said D. Exterior owner Nadia Zanola, surveying the warehouse for the brand she founded in 1997 from the knitwear company created by her parents in 1952.

Italy is the largest producer of global luxury goods in the world, making 40% of high-end apparel, footwear and accessories. While Russia generates just about 3% of Italian luxury’s 97 billion euros ($101 billion) in annual revenue, it is a significant slice of business for some of the 80,000 small and medium companies that make up the backbone of Italian fashion, according to industry officials.

“We are talking about eliminating 80% to 100% of revenues for these companies,’’ said Fabio Pietrella, president of the Confartigianato fashion craftsman federation.

Districts producing footwear in the Marche and Veneto regions, and knitwear makers in Umbria and Emilia-Romagna have grown particularly reliant on Russia.

“These are districts that connect the supply chain, and if it is interrupted, not only is the company that closes harmed, but an entire system that help make this country an economic powerhouse,’’ Pietrella said.

The Italian fashion world is best known for luxury houses like Gucci, Versace and Armani, which unveil their menswear collections in Milan this week. And some of the biggest names appear on a list compiled by Yale University professor Jeffrey Sonnenberg of major companies doing business in Russia since the war in Ukraine began.

“There are companies that kept selling to Nazi Germany after the outbreak of World War II — we don’t celebrate them for that,” Sonnenberg said, labeling as “greedy” any enterprise that continues to do business in Russia today.

He also underlined that fashion companies don’t have the grounds to make humanitarian appeals to bypass sanctions, voluntary or otherwise, as has been the case with agricultural firms and pharmaceutical companies.

Among those receiving a failing grade from Sonnenberg is Italy’s Benetton, which in a statement condemned the war but said it would continue its commercial activities in Russia, including longstanding commercial and logistic partnerships and a network of stores that sustain 600 families.

French conglomerate LVMH, meanwhile, has temporarily closed 124 stores in Russia, while continuing to pay its 3,500 employees in Russia. The Spanish group Inditex, which owns the fast-fashion chain Zara, also temporarily closed 502 stores in Russia as well as its online sales, accounting for 8.5% of group pre-tax earnings.

Pietrella fears a sort of Russia-phobia is taking hold that is demonizing business owners for trying to keep up ties with a longer-term vision.

He characterized as a “witch-hunt” criticism of some 40 shoe producers from the Marche region on Italy’s Adriatic coast for traveling to Russia for a trade fair during the war.

European Union sanctions against Russia sharpened after the Ukraine invasion, setting a 300-euro wholesale maximum for each item shipped, taking super-luxury items out of circulation but still targeting the upper-middle class or wealthy Russians.

“Without a doubt, we as the fashion federation have expressed our extreme concern over the aggression in Ukraine,’’ Pietrella said. “From an ethical point of view, it is out of discussion. But we have to think of our companies. Ethics are one thing. The market is another. Workers in a company are paid by the market, not by ethics.”

He said the 300-euro limit on sales was a gambit by European politicians that on paper allows trade with Russia despite accompanying bureaucratic and financial hurdles, while also shielding governments from having to provide bailout funds to the industry. He also dismissed as overly facile government suggestions to find alternative markets to Russia.

“If there was another market, we would be there already,’’ Pietrella said.

At D. Exterior, exposure to Russia grew gradually over the years to now represent 35% to 40% of revenue that hit 22 million euros before the pandemic, a stream that is also under new pressure from higher energy and raw material costs.

The company was already delivering its summer collection and taking orders for winter when Russia invaded on Feb. 24. By March, Russian retailers were having trouble making payments.

Not only is Zanola stuck with some 4,000 spring and summer garments that she has little hope of shipping to Russian clients, she said she was contractually required to keep producing the winter orders, risking 100,000 euros in labor and materials costs if those are unable to ship.

Over the years, her Russian clients have proven to be ideal customers, Zanola said. Not only do they pay on time, but they are appreciative of the workmanship in D. Exterior’s knitwear creations.

After working so hard to build up her Russian customer base, she is loathe to give it up and doesn’t see a quick long-term replacement.

“If Russia were Putin, I wouldn’t go there. But since Russia is not only Putin, one hopes that the poor Russians manage to raise themselves up,” she said.
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The head of NATO said Sunday the war in Ukraine could last years and Ukrainian forces faced intensified Russian assaults after the EU executive recommended that Kyiv should be granted the status of a candidate to join the bloc.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was cited by Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper as saying the supply of state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops would increase the chance of liberating the eastern Donbas region from Russian control.

“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine,” he said. “Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday, made similar comments about the need to prepare for a long war in an op-ed for London’s Sunday Times newspaper.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday he stressed the need to avoid “Ukraine fatigue” and with Russian forces “grinding forward inch by inch,” for allies to show the Ukrainians they were there to support them for a long time.

In the op-ed, he said this meant ensuring “Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader.”

“Time is the vital factor,” Johnson said. “Everything will depend on whether Ukraine can strengthen its ability to defend its soil faster than Russia can renew its capacity to attack.”

Ukraine received a significant boost Friday when the European Commission recommended that it be granted EU candidate status — something European Union countries are expected to endorse at a summit this week.

This would put Ukraine on course to realize an aspiration seen as out of reach before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, even if actual membership could take years.

On Ukraine’s battlefields Russian attacks intensified.

Sievierodonetsk, a prime target in Moscow’s offensive to seize full control of the eastern region of Luhansk, was again under heavy artillery and rocket fire as Russian forces attacked areas outside the industrial city, the Ukrainian military said.

The Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff admitted its forces had suffered a military setback in the settlement of Metolkine, just to the southeast of Sievierodonetsk.

“As a result of artillery fire and an assault, the enemy has partial success in the village of Metolkine, trying to gain a foothold,” it said in a Facebook post late Saturday.

Serhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian-appointed governor of Luhansk, referred in a separate online post to “tough battles” in Metolkine.

Russia’s Tass news agency, citing a source working for Russian-backed separatists, said many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Metolkine.

To the northwest, several Russian missiles hit a gasworks in Izium district, and Russian rockets rained down on a suburb of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, hitting a municipal building and starting a fire in a block of flats, but causing no casualties, Ukrainian authorities said.

Ukrainian authorities also reported shelling of locations further west in Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk, and on Saturday they said three Russian missiles destroyed a fuel storage depot in the town of Novomoskovsk, wounding 11 people, one critically.

The Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff said Russian troops on a reconnaissance mission near the town of Krasnopillya had been beaten back with heavy casualties Saturday.

Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield accounts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose defiance has inspired Ukrainians and won him global respect, said in a Telegram post on Saturday he had visited soldiers on the southern front line in the Mykolaiv region, about 550 kilometers south of Kyiv.

“Our brave men and women. Each one of them is working flat out,” he said. “We will definitely hold out! We will definitely win!”

A video showed Zelenskyy in his trademark khaki T-shirt handing out medals and posing for selfies with servicemen.

Zelenskyy’s office said he had also visited National Guard positions in the southern region of Odesa to the west of Mykolaiv. Neither he nor his office said when the trips took place, but he did not deliver his customary nighttime address Saturday.

Zelenskyy has remained mostly in Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine, although in recent weeks he has made unannounced visits to Kharkiv, and two eastern cities close to where battles are being fought.

One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stated goals when he ordered his troops into Ukraine was to halt the eastward expansion of the NATO military alliance and keep Moscow’s southern neighbor outside of the West’s sphere of influence.

But the war, which has killed thousands of people, turned cities into rubble and sent millions fleeing, has had the opposite effect — convincing Finland and Sweden to seek to join NATO — and helping to pave the way for Ukraine’s EU membership bid. 
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