A Greek prosecutor said on Thursday she had begun an investigation into an allegation by a journalist that his smartphone had been infected by surveillance software in an operation by the country’s intelligence service.

A spokesman for Greece’s EYP intelligence service told Reuters it had no comment on Greek media reports detailing the assertion by Thanasis Koukakis, 43, a financial journalist who works for CNN Greece and has done investigative reporting on financial crimes.

The allegation comes as the European Union (EU) is beginning to follow the United States in taking a harder look at spyware merchants and the use of powerful surveillance software.

“A preliminary investigation has begun on the matter,” the prosecutor, who declined to be identified, told Reuters, adding the probe would seek to determine whether there had been a breach of the country’s telecommunications privacy legislation.

Koukakis told Reuters he believed his phone had been infected by Predator spyware developed by Cytrox, a Europe-based surveillance company. Cytrox Predator spyware is sold in Greece by Intellexa, which did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Koukakis, who first suspected EYP was listening to his calls in July 2020, asked independent telecommunications privacy authority ADAE to determine whether a privacy breach had taken place and if so whether it had been ordered by a prosecutor.

“I could not believe I was being wiretapped,” Koukakis told Reuters.

Koukakis said the authority responded in July 2021, saying it had not found anything violating the law on the confidentiality of communications.

ADAE’s reply came four months after the government passed an amendment to the privacy law barring it from informing individuals subject to eavesdropping for national security reasons. The amendment took effect retroactively.

ADAE had no immediate response. The legal counsel for ADAE, Katerina Papanicolaou, told Reuters she was not authorized to comment on the matter.

After his phone “started acting strangely” in what appeared to be a second spying attempt, Koukakis said he asked for help from Toronto University’s Citizen Lab, which tracks the spyware industry. Citizen Lab researcher Bill Marczak confirmed the Lab analyzed Koukakis’s phone and found traces of Predator spyware.

“We analyzed it and confirmed a Cytrox infection,” he told Reuters. “We identified the SMS on the phone used to target him … it is the first Greek case we have been able to confirm.”

Commenting on the reported bugging of Koukasis’ phone, government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou told reporters this week Greek authorities do not use the spyware allegedly involved in the hacking and do not do business with companies selling it.

The EU considers the use of spyware against journalists unacceptable.

Koukakis’ case will be investigated by EU lawmakers tracking the spread of espionage software in Europe, said Sophie in’t Veld, a Dutch member of the European parliament. The Greek case “would very much fall within the scope of our inquiry,” she said.
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol “liberated,” after nearly two months of fighting, even though Russian forces have not been able to penetrate the city’s massive Azovstal steel plant that remains in the hands of Ukrainian fighters and civilians.

Rather than storming the plant, Putin has instead ordered a blockade of the facility, sealing it off “so that not even a fly comes through,” a tactic observers believe will save Russian soldiers’ lives and possibly starve out the fighters and civilians inside the plant.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials say evidence of mass graves outside Mariupol has emerged. Photographs from Maxar Technologies, a U.S. satellite imagery company, appear to show images of at least 200 new graves in the town of Manhush.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the World Bank Thursday that his country needs as much as $7 billion a month in support and will need hundreds of billions to recover from Russia’s invasion.

U.S. President Joe Biden authorized another $800 million in U.S. military assistance to Ukraine on Thursday, declaring it was necessary to help Kyiv’s forces repel Russian fighters in the critical battles unfolding in the eastern region of the country.

“This package includes heavy artillery weapons, dozens of howitzers and 144,000 rounds of ammunition,” Biden said in a short White House speech. He said the new arms shipment was particularly aimed at helping Ukraine’s forces fight in the Donbas region, which is flatter, more open terrain than where earlier fighting had occurred to the west.

Biden said the new assistance, on top of another $800 million package announced last week, “almost” exhausts congressional authorization for U.S. military aid to Ukraine. But the president said he would soon ask Congress for even more money for Ukraine’s forces.

Biden said the United States and its Western allies remain united in their resolve to assist Ukraine in fighting back against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s eight-week invasion.

“The most important thing is holding the world together” against Russia, Biden said. “So far, so good.”

Biden vowed that Putin “will never succeed in occupying all of Ukraine. Putin has failed to achieve his grand ambitions on the battlefield. Kyiv still stands,” the president said.

New refugee aid

In other war-related actions, Biden said he was sending $500 million to Ukraine in new economic aid, streamlining a humanitarian refugee effort to allow Ukrainians escaping the ravages of war in their homeland to move more quickly to the United States if they want and banning all Russian ships from docking at U.S. ports.

Earlier Thursday, Putin ordered his forces not to storm a steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol where the last remaining Ukrainian forces have been holed up in the port on the north coast of the Sea of Azov.

In a televised meeting, Putin told Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that Russian forces should blockade the plant “so that a fly cannot not pass through,” and that going forward with a plan to storm the site would unnecessarily risk Russian troops.

Shoigu told Putin that there were 2,000 Ukrainian troops at the Azovstal plant, but that the rest of Mariupol, a key port city, had been “liberated.”

Biden claimed, “There is no evidence Mariupol has fallen,” but weeks of Russian bombing has all but flattened much of the city.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk demanded Russia allow for the evacuation of civilians and wounded soldiers from the plant through a humanitarian corridor.

“There are about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers there. They all need to be pulled out of Azovstal today,” Vereshchuk said in an online post Thursday.

Vereshchuk also said four buses were able to evacuate civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday.

More than 100,000 Ukrainians are believed to be trapped in Mariupol, where 400,000 people lived before Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24.

“The conditions there are truly horrific,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday at a diplomatic conference in Panama. He underscored that attempted humanitarian corridors to allow Mariupol residents to escape “have fallen apart very quickly.”

The fight over Mariupol is part of a broader Russian offensive in the strategically important Donbas region, where Moscow has been boosting its military presence.

“Moscow’s current objective is to broaden its control in the east and south. Ideally, they would like to grab Kharkiv and Odesa,” John Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told VOA. “But those are tall orders. They may have to settle for Mariupol.”

On March 25, following losses in northern Ukraine, Moscow announced a major shift in strategy and removed forces from the north, including the suburbs of the capital, Kyiv, to consolidate military gains in the Donbas and establish a land bridge to the Crimea Peninsula, which it seized in 2014.

Analysts say if Russian forces gain complete control of the Donbas, their diplomats will hold a stronger hand in peace negotiations and be in a better position to demand autonomy for the region.

“But even if (Putin) makes large gains in the east and south and accepts a settlement that gives him control of his new conquests, that does not mean that he will be satisfied,” Herbst said.

U.S. Defense Department analysts say the battle for the Donbas region, where fighting has been ongoing since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, could last for months more.

The United States slapped new sanctions Wednesday on dozens more individuals and entities accused of evading ongoing financial penalties imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

“The Department of Treasury sanctions Transkapitalbank — a key Russian commercial bank that has offered services to banks globally to evade international sanctions, and more than 40 individuals and entities that are part of a Russian sanctions-evasion network led by Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

Psaki said Washington also has imposed sanctions on companies in Russia’s virtual currency mining industry and applied visa restrictions on more than 600 individuals in response to human rights abuses by Russia and Belarus.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

A Russian tanker impounded by Greece this week and reportedly carrying Iranian oil will be released amid confusion about sanctions on its owners.

“The coast guard has been ordered by the anti-money laundering authority to release the vessel,” a Greek government official said, without providing further details.

On Tuesday, Greek authorities impounded the 115,500-deadweight tonnage Russian-flagged Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members on board, on the southern coast of the island of Evia.

They said the ship was impounded as part of EU sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier this month, the EU banned Russian-flagged vessels from its ports, with some exemptions, as it adopted new sanctions against Russia for what the Kremlin describes as a “special military operation.”

The Pegas tanker was also among five vessels sanctioned by the United States on Feb. 22, 2022 — two days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — as part of broader sanctions against Promsvyazbank, a bank Washington described as critical to Russia’s defense sector.

Promsvyazbank said it and its unit PSB Lizing were not the owners of the tanker as it was bought back by its owner in April 2021.

Promsvyazbank did not name the new owner. PSB Lizing said the owner was TransMorFlot. TransMorFlot was not available for comment.

Greek sources close to the matter said that following checks there were no legal grounds to continue impounding the Pegas as the ship had recently changed ownership and its new owner was not on an EU sanctions list.

Iranian oil

On Tuesday, U.S. State Department welcomed Greece’s efforts to implement the sanctions “initiated in response to Russia’s brutal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine” and said it was aware of reports that the tanker was loaded with Iranian crude oil.

Eikon tanker tracking shows the Pegas has been floating around the Mediterranean since September 2021 after loading in the Gulf in August.

Three industry sources said it had Iranian oil on board but struggled to sell it to a customer in Europe, which alongside the United States has a ban on Iranian oil.

U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which monitors Iran-related tanker traffic, also said the Pegas loaded around 700,000 barrels of crude oil from Iran’s Sirri Island on Aug. 19, 2021.

Prior to this load, the Pegas transported over 3 million barrels of Iranian oil in 2021, with over 2.6 million of those barrels ending up in China, according to UANI analysis.

A Greek coast guard official confirmed it had received the decision made by the anti-money laundering unit, an independent authority, but said the order had not yet been officially served to Pegas.

The Pegas, which was renamed Lana in March, had earlier reported an engine problem. It was headed to the southern Peloponnese peninsula to offload its cargo onto another tanker but rough seas forced it to moor just off Karystos where it was seized, according to the Athens News Agency.
…

Onstage, they dance through hoops and perform acrobatics with smiles on their faces. Off it, they hold anguished phone calls with family back in Ukraine.

Dancers Anna and Olga have found a sense of calm performing in a circus near New York, but they are still living the war they fled thousands of miles away.

“I spent a month without a full night’s sleep. We couldn’t go out to buy food — we were stressed and shaken all the time. It was scary,” recalls Anna Starykh, who left Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February.

Now the 21-year-old is performing with the Flip Circus in the New York City suburb of Yonkers, where she can sleep without being woken by explosions.

More than 4,500 miles away from Kyiv, in a parking lot near the banks of the Hudson River, Starykh and her friends prepare to perform with colleagues from across Europe and South America.

The stage has become their sanctuary.

“Work really helps (us) to calm down and stay positive,” she tells AFP.

Their concern for their family members back home is palpable, though.

“I don’t know in which situation they will be next day, next week, next month. I cry about this,” says 22-year-old Olga Rezekina, who also fled Ukraine after the invasion began and whose parents and brother live in Odesa.

Rezekina and Starykh arrived in the United States with 20-year-old Anastasiia Savych, a Flip Circus veteran who had returned to Ukraine with other circus members to renew her visa when Russian tanks crossed the border Feb. 24.

All are graduates of the Bingo Circus Theater, a circus academy in Ukraine. Rezekina and Starykh joined Flip to replace two of Savych’s male colleagues, who were mobilized to fight and stayed in Ukraine.

On the day of the invasion, Savych left Kyiv for Poland on the train.

“I never saw the capital so empty. No cars, no people outside. Everything was closed. It was like in a horror movie,” she tells AFP.

Two other Ukrainian dancers in their troupe fled via Romania and joined up with them in America on March 10.

‘Leave problems backstage’

They are among more than 5 million people who have left Ukraine since the invasion, according to United Nations estimates.

“When I just arrived here, I felt guilty,” says Savych, whose mother convinced her that she would not be able help the family by staying in Ukraine.

Now she waits to hear that the war is over and that “we won,” Savych says.

“I’m 20 years old and want stay young and not speak about the war,” she tells AFP.

The three friends all have similar but different dreams for the future.

“Live and be safe,” says Starykh, when asked hers. “Traveling around the world,” says Rezekina, while Savych hopes to live permanently in the U.S.

Alexa Vazquez, who helps run Flip — the circus was founded by her family in Mexico more than 50 years ago — says it was difficult getting the women out of Ukraine with airports closed.

“To have these girls here with right now safe means a world to us, especially to me, because they are friends, they are family. We can support them in any way possible,” she tells AFP.

The Ukrainians appear several times in the show, in which animals do not perform.

“People come and they want to look at a good show. You can leave your problems backstage,” concludes Rezekina. 
…

The British government is facing strong backlash from opposition parties and human rights groups after announcing plans earlier this month to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda for processing, in a bid to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats.

The British government says the prospect of being sent to Rwanda will deter migrants from embarking on the treacherous journey.

Record numbers

More than 4,500 migrants have crossed the English Channel from France to Britain in small boats this year, four times more than the total this time last year. There have been dozens of fatalities, including 27 migrants who drowned when their boat capsized off the northern French coast in November.

There is broad political agreement that the dangerous treks must stop, along with bitter debate about how that can be accomplished.

Britain’s latest plan is to fly migrants more than 6,000 kilometers to Rwanda, where they will be put in holding centers while their asylum claims are processed. Britain’s home secretary, Priti Patel, signed the policy alongside Vincent Biruta, Rwanda’s minister of foreign affairs, during a visit to Kigali earlier this month.

“The persistent circumventing of our laws and immigration rules and the reality of a system that is open to gain and to criminal exploitation has eroded public support for Britain’s asylum system and those who genuinely need access to it,” Patel told reporters. “Putting evil people, smugglers, out of business is a moral imperative. It requires us to use every tool at our disposal and also to find new solutions.”

“Working together, the United Kingdom and Rwanda will help make the immigration system fairer, ensure that people are safe and enjoy new opportunities to flourish. We have agreed that people who enter the U.K. illegally will be considered for relocation to Rwanda to have their asylum claims decided and those who are resettled will be given the support, including up to five years of training, with the help of integration, accommodation, [and] health care so that they can resettle and thrive,” the British home secretary said on April 14.

Britain has paid Rwanda an initial $156 million for a five-year trial plan. Britain will also pay Rwanda for each migrant the African nation accepts.

“This [plan] will not only help them, but it will benefit Rwanda and Rwandans and help to advance our own development,” Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vincent Biruta told reporters.

Bitter backlash

The policy has prompted a furious response in Britain and elsewhere. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby — the most senior cleric in the Anglican Church — criticized the policy in his Easter sermon. “Subcontracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well, like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God,” Welby said.

Migrant support groups say Britain should not be outsourcing refugee processing to Rwanda, a country where London itself has flagged human rights concerns.

“We think it’s inhumane, it’s going to be very expensive, and it won’t be effective,” James Wilson, deputy director of the group Detention Action, told VOA. “The U.K. is a signatory to the refugee convention. We have a legal and moral obligation to be assessing any asylum claims to the U.K. in the U.K.”

Wilson said the government should provide safe routes for refugees to reach Britain. “A humanitarian visa system, so that those who have reached France and are looking to claim asylum in the U.K. and having some grounds for doing that would be able to apply for a visa to come to the U.K. to have their asylum claim considered. If we put that kind of scheme in place, which we think is entirely practicable, it would end the need for Channel crossings,” he told VOA.

Patel says Rwanda is “a safe and secure country with the respect for the rule of law and clearly a range of institutions that evolved and developed over time.” She also said Rwanda already has resettled almost 130,000 refugees from multiple countries.

UN objections

Britain says asylum-seekers should apply for refugee status in the first safe country they arrive in, including France. The United Nations disagrees. “There’s nothing in international law that says you have to ask in the first country you encounter,” said Larry Bottinick, a senior legal officer for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

“UNHCR understands the frustration of the U.K. government on that and is not in favor of Channel crossing, of course. We think there’s more effective ways and more humane ways to address this,” Bottinick told The Associated Press.

Australia lessons

Until 2014, Australia sent thousands of migrants to offshore processing centers in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island of Nauru. Many asylum-seekers are still being held in these facilities. The policy failed to deter migrants, says analyst Madeline Gleeson, a senior research fellow at the Kaldor Center for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

“In the first year of offshore processing being in place, more people arrived in Australia by boat than at any other time in recorded history of asylum-seekers arriving that way,” she said.

Gleeson says Britain has indicated that only some migrants will be sent to Rwanda, and they are likely to be single men.

“If that is the case, what you might find is that the next boats coming across the Channel belonged to those groups which are not going to go to Rwanda — so you might see increased numbers of women and children coming on that boat,” she said. “And the concern there is if those boats sink or if they run into trouble, you’re likely to have a much higher human toll if there are more women and children on the boat.

“There will be a cap on how many people can go to Rwanda. And so, the U.K. risks running into the problem we found here in Australia, which is very quickly — within 12 weeks of this policy starting — we had already maxed out the full capacity offshore,” Gleeson told VOA.

There are further concerns the migrants sent to Rwanda will simply try again to reach Britain, thereby fueling the human trafficking gangs that operate from Africa to Europe and on toward the English Channel.
…

Britain plans to send asylum-seekers thousands of miles away to Rwanda for processing, in a bid to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the policy has triggered a backlash in Britain.
…

Turkey has one of the worst records in Europe when it comes to the number of women murdered, or femicides. One of the most prominent groups challenging this phenomenon is called the “We Will Stop Femicide Platform.” But a court case could soon shut the group down, prompting outrage and protests across Turkey. For VOA, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
…

Tensions between Jerusalem and Moscow are rising over the contested Alexander Nevsky Russian church property in Jerusalem’s Old City. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently sent a personal letter to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett demanding Israel immediately hand over control of the church. The issue is one of the latest flashpoints in the increasingly contentious relations between the two countries during the Russian war against Ukraine. Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem. Camera – Ricki Rosen.
…

France decides on its next president April 24, when incumbent Emmanuel Macron faces his far-right rival Marine Le Pen in runoff elections — just as they did five years ago. For the past two decades, the small town of Chateaudun, southwest of Paris, has voted in line with the rest of the country. So which candidate will its citizens back this time around? For VOA, Lisa Bryant went to find out.
Camera: Lisa Bryant Produced by: Jon Spier
…

Cameroon’s energy ministry has said Western sanctions on Russia have driven up the cost of fuel imports and led to a fuel shortage.  The lack of diesel fuels this week left hundreds of trucks taking goods to the neighboring Central African Republic and Chad stranded at the borders. 

Cameroon says thousands of buses, trucks and cars have been stranded in the central African country for two weeks by diesel fuel shortages.  The shortage has left them unable to deliver goods to Cameroon’s landlocked neighbors.

Brilliant Chaba, a 43-year-old truck driver, said his truck transporting computers imported by Chad’s government through Cameroon’s Douala seaport has been stuck in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde for three days because of lack of diesel fuel. He said he is not sure he will arrive in the Chadian capital, N’djamena, within a week as expected. Chaba said he is running short of money to settle parking fees for his truck, buy food and pay for his lodging in Yaounde.

Moise Vokeng, president of the Cameroon Professional Transporters Network, said transporters are surprised that the government of Cameroon has not been able to provide diesel in the country for close to two weeks. He said perishable goods are going bad on their way to Chad and the Central African Republic.  He added that the government should immediately import fuel, or the economic consequences of a fuel shortage will be difficult to contain.

Cameroon says Western sanctions on Russia imposed because of its invasion of Ukraine have created the fuel shortage. 

The sanctions hindered Cameroon’s trade with Russia, which normally supplies more than half of Cameroon’s gasoline imports. 

The government has not revealed the extent of the fuel shortage, but said it will import the necessary quantities from Africa and Europe. 

Simon Pierre Omgba Mbida, an international relations specialist at Cameroon’s External Relations Ministry, said most African countries will be victims of the war of influence between Moscow and European nations, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will have disastrous consequences on Africa’s economy. He said some European countries erroneously think that the 57 member states of the African Union and the 27 member states of the European Union should take common positions on topical issues affecting the world. He said each African state, like European nations, has its interests that guide decisions it takes.

The United Nations says since the start of the year, oil prices have gone up by more than 60% and natural gas and fertilizer prices have more than doubled because of Russia’s war on Ukraine. The U.N. says the war risks tipping up to 1.7 billion people, over one-fifth of humanity, into poverty, destitution and hunger.
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered his forces not to storm a steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol where the last remaining Ukrainian forces have been holed up.  

Putin told Sergei Shoigu, his defense minister, in a televised meeting that Russian forces should blockade the plant “so that a fly cannot not pass through,” and that going forward with a plan to storm the site would unnecessarily risk Russian troops.  

Shoigu told Putin that there were 2,000 Ukrainian troops at the Azovstal plant, but that the rest of Mariupol, a key port city, had been “liberated.”  

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk demanded Russia allow for the evacuation of civilians and wounded soldiers from the plant through a humanitarian corridor. 

“There are about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers there. They all need to be pulled out of Azovstal today,” Vereshchuk said in an online post Thursday. 

Vereshchuk also said four buses were able to evacuate civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday.   

More than 100,000 Ukrainians are believed to be trapped in Mariupol, where 400,000 people lived before Russia invaded the country on February 24.        

“The conditions there are truly horrific,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday at a diplomatic conference in Panama. He underscored that attempted humanitarian corridors to allow Mariupol residents to escape “have fallen apart very quickly.”      

The fight over Mariupol is part of a broader Russian offensive in the strategically important Donbas region, where Moscow has been boosting its military presence.        

“Moscow’s current objective is to broaden its control in the East and South. Ideally, they would like to grab Kharkiv and Odesa,” John E. Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told VOA. “But those are tall orders. They may have to settle for Mariupol.”    

On March 25, following losses in northern Ukraine, Moscow announced a major shift in strategy and removed forces from the north, including the suburbs of the capital, Kyiv, to consolidate military gains in the Donbas and establish a land bridge to Crimea.      

Analysts say if Russian forces gain complete control of the Donbas, their diplomats will hold a stronger hand in peace negotiations and be in a better position to demand autonomy for the region.     

“But even if he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] makes large gains in the East and South and accepts a settlement that gives him control of his new conquests, that does not mean that he will be satisfied,” Herbst said.    

U.S. Defense Department analysts say the battle for the Donbas region, where fighting has been ongoing since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, could last for months more.      

U.S. President Joe Biden is due to speak Thursday about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including U.S. aid for Kyiv as his administration prepares another round of security assistance that is expected to total about $800 million.   

The United States announced a similarly sized package last week, and the new aid is expected to include more artillery and tens of thousands more artillery rounds, which will likely be critical to the fighting in the eastern Donbas region.   

Earlier in the week, Biden confirmed to reporters that he will send more artillery to Ukraine.     

“Out of the $3.5 billion in drawdown authority Congress granted for this fiscal year, we have used over $2.4 billion to provide Ukraine the military equipment and capabilities they need to defend themselves,” a senior administration official told VOA. “We are continuing to look at additional security assistance we can provide to Ukraine, and there are additional authorities we can draw on if needed.”      

The $3.5 billion is part of the $13.6 billion Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act Congress approved in March.      

The United States slapped new sanctions Wednesday on dozens more individuals and entities accused of evading ongoing financial penalties imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.     

“The Department of Treasury sanctions Transkapitalbank — a key Russian commercial bank that has offered services to banks globally to evade international sanctions, and more than 40 individuals and entities that are part of a Russian sanctions-evasion network led by Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.      

Psaki said Washington also has imposed sanctions on companies in Russia’s virtual currency mining industry and applied visa restrictions on more than 600 individuals in response to human rights abuses by Russia and Belarus.     

Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow and director of research in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, told VOA that in addition to military assistance and economic sanctions, Washington must start thinking about plausible end states of the conflict.     

“And then, think of what we can do to encourage the parties, working with other outside actors, even the Chinese perhaps, to try to get to some kind of a place we can all live with, compared to the alternative of this turning into a multimonth or even multiyear conflict,” O’Hanlon said. “But for the short term, we’re just trying to help the Ukrainians not lose.”         

VOA’s Anita Powell and Steve Redisch contributed to this report.  Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
…

French President Emmanuel Macron and far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Thursday prepared for a final rush of campaigning before France’s presidential election after an acrimonious debate where they clashed over relations with Russia and the Islamic headscarf.

France faces a stark choice in Sunday’s second-round run-off between the centrist Macron and the anti-immigration Le Pen, who will seek to become the country’s first far-right head of state in an outcome that would send shockwaves around Europe.

There are just two days of campaigning left as Saturday is a day of calm with no campaigning allowed.

On Thursday, Macron was due to meet voters in the north of Paris and Le Pen to hold a rally in the northern city of Arras.

Wednesday’s bruising three-hour live televised debate saw Macron repeatedly seeking to land punches on Le Pen over her record, while she sought to keep the focus on the government’s performance.

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine overshadowing the campaign, Macron angrily zeroed in on a loan Le Pen’s party had taken from a Czech-Russian bank ahead of her 2017 election campaign.

“You are dependent on the Russian government, and you are dependent on Mr. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” Macron said. “When you speak to Russia you are speaking to your banker.”

Macron also referred to Le Pen’s past recognition of Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. “Why did you do this?” he asked.

Le Pen replied that she was “an absolutely and totally free woman,” arguing that her party had only taken that loan as it could not find financing in France where banks refused to lend to her.

Macron adopted a variety of poses to express skepticism at her arguments, raising his eyebrows, leaning his chin on his fists and lamenting in apparent bewilderment “Madame Le Pen… Madame Le Pen!”

 ‘Civil war’ 

The most explosive clash came when Le Pen confirmed she was sticking to her controversial policy of banning the wearing of the Islamic headscarf by women in public, describing it as a “uniform imposed by Islamists.”

Macron responded: “You are going to cause a civil war if you do that. I say this sincerely.”

She also vowed to put an end to “anarchic and massive” immigration into France, claiming it was worsening crime, which she said was becoming “unbearable” for people all over the country.

The priority for Le Pen was to avoid a repeat of the 2017 run-off debate where Macron managed to make her look flustered and sometimes not on top of her brief.

She sought to put heat on the president, mocking how the “Mozart of finance” had left a “bad” economic legacy that included an extra 600 billion euros ($650 billion) in national debt.

“It’s not Gerard Majax (on TV) this evening,” retorted Macron, referring to a well-known French television conjurer. “You never explain how you will finance your projects and you are not honest with people.”

Turning to Europe, Le Pen insisted she wanted to stay in the European Union but reform the bloc into an “alliance of nations.”

“Your policy is to leave Europe,” Macron responded, describing the election as a “referendum for or against the EU.”

There were also intense exchanges on daily concerns such as the rising cost of living, which Le Pen has made a major feature of her campaign.

Both candidates have their eyes on voters who backed third-placed hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round. He has refused to urge his supporters to vote for Macron in order to keep Le Pen out of the Elysee Palace.

Le Pen said she had seen people “suffering” over the first five years of Macron’s rule and that “another choice is possible.”

Macron replied that “we must and should improve people’s daily lives through major projects for the school and health systems.”

Tighter race

Macron is favored to win the run-off, with most polls showing an advantage of more than 10 percent, which would make him the first French president to win a second term since Jacques Chirac in 2002.

But analysts and allies of the president have warned the result is far from a foregone conclusion, with polls indicating that more than 10 percent of French people who intend to cast their ballots have yet to decide who to vote for.

Supporters of both camps celebrated the performances of their candidates, with Macron brandishing his trademark self-confidence and Le Pen avoiding the pitfalls of 2017.

But the challenger did not at any moment cause Macron discomfort, while the president adopted a much more aggressive approach.

“Macron on the attack, Le Pen on the defensive,” headlined the Le Parisien daily in its Thursday edition. The left-leading Liberation said Le Pen was “vague on numerous subjects” and Macron “arrogant.”

A snap opinion poll by Elabe for BFM TV said 59 percent of viewers found Macron the most convincing and that 39 percent plumped for Le Pen.

“Such a waste,” tweeted Melenchon. “The country deserved better.
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The United States is imposing new sanctions on dozens more individuals and entities accused of evading financial penalties imposed on Moscow
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Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he will visit Israel on May 24 amid increasing efforts between the regional rivals to mend ties, four years after they expelled ambassadors.

Turkey and Israel have in recent weeks been working to mend their long-strained ties, and energy has emerged as a potential area of cooperation.

President Tayyip Erdogan said last month he was “very, very hopeful” for energy cooperation with Israel, and he hoped to discuss the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

On Tuesday, Erdogan said he told his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog that he was “very upset” by Palestinians injured or killed in the West Bank and Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The two countries expelled ambassadors in 2018 and have often traded barbs over the Palestinian conflict, Turkish support of the Hamas militant group, which runs Gaza, and other issues.

Speaking to broadcaster CNN Turk, Cavusoglu said he will travel to Israel and Palestine with Energy Minister Fatih Donmez on May 24 and would discuss the appointment of ambassadors with his Israeli counterpart during the visit.
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As Russia launched new attacks Wednesday on the embattled Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, President Joe Biden convened his military leadership to get the latest assessment of the Russian invasion.

“I want to hear from all of you and your assessments on what you’re seeing in the field and across our forces,” Biden said to his top military brass at the White House before his meeting. “The strategic environment is evolving rapidly in the world, but that means our plans and force posture have to be equally dynamic.”

Biden met with combatant commanders, including Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and approximately two dozen other military leaders and national security advisers.

Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. slapped fresh sanctions on dozens more individuals and entities accused of evading ongoing financial penalties imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

“The Department of Treasury sanctions Transkapitalbank — a key Russian commercial bank that has offered services to banks globally to evade international sanctions, and more than 40 individuals and entities that are part of a Russian sanctions-evasion network led by Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

Psaki said Washington also has imposed sanctions on companies in Russia’s virtual currency mining industry and applied visa restrictions on more than 600 individuals in response to human rights abuses by Russia and Belarus.

A day earlier, reports emerged that Biden’s administration was preparing another large military aid package for Ukraine. The size would be similar to the $800 million package announced just last week and is expected to include more artillery and tens of thousands more artillery rounds, which will likely be critical to the fighting in the eastern Donbas region.

Earlier in the week, Biden confirmed to reporters that he will send more artillery to Ukraine.

“Out of the $3.5 billion in drawdown authority Congress granted for this fiscal year, we have used over $2.4 billion to provide Ukraine the military equipment and capabilities they need to defend themselves,” a senior administration official told VOA. “We are continuing to look at additional security assistance we can provide to Ukraine, and there are additional authorities we can draw on if needed.”

The $3.5 billion is part of the $13.6 billion Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act that Congress approved in March.

Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow and director of research in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, told VOA that in addition to military assistance and economic sanctions, Washington must start thinking about plausible end states of the conflict.

“And then, think of what we can do to encourage the parties, working with other outside actors, even the Chinese perhaps, to try to get to some kind of a place we can all live with, compared to the alternative of this turning into a multimonth or even multiyear conflict,” O’Hanlon said. “But for the short term, we’re just trying to help the Ukrainians not lose.”

Battle for Mariupol

More than 100,000 Ukrainians are believed to be trapped in Mariupol, where 400,000 people lived before Russia invaded the country Feb. 24.

“The conditions there are truly horrific,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday at a diplomatic conference in Panama. He underscored that attempted humanitarian corridors to allow Mariupol residents to escape “have fallen apart very quickly.”

The fight over Mariupol is part of a broader Russian offensive in the strategically important Donbas region, where Moscow has been boosting its military presence.

On March 25, following losses in northern Ukraine, Moscow announced a major shift in strategy and removed forces from the north, including the suburbs of the capital, Kyiv, to consolidate military gains in the Donbas and establish a land bridge to Crimea.

Analysts say if Russian forces gain complete control of the Donbas, their diplomats will hold a stronger hand in peace negotiations and be in a better position to demand autonomy for the region.

U.S. Defense Department analysts say the battle for the Donbas region, where fighting has been ongoing since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, could last for months more.  
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The Wimbledon tennis tournament announced Wednesday it is banning Russian and Belarusian players from this year’s matches starting in late June because of what officials said was Russia’s “unjustified” invasion of Ukraine.

The ban will keep some of the world’s top players from competing at one of the world’s premier tournaments at London’s All England Club.

Among them are Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, currently ranked second globally, and No. 8 Andrey Rublev in the men’s draw and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, ranked 15th on the women’s side.

Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, No. 4 in the world, was a Wimbledon semifinalist last year. Her compatriot Victoria Azarenka is a former top-ranked player and currently is No. 18.

“It is our responsibility to play our part in the widespread efforts of government, industry, sporting and creative institutions to limit Russia’s global influence through the strongest means possible,” the All England Club said in a statement. “In the circumstances of such unjustified and unprecedented military aggression, it would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players” with the Wimbledon championships.

The officials said they would reconsider the ban “if circumstances change materially between now and June.”

Wimbledon begins June 27 and runs through July 10.

The ban on the Belarus contenders was included because the country is a key staging area for the Ukraine attack, which Russia calls a “special military operation” rather than an invasion or war.

Wimbledon has not banned athletes from countries since after World War II, when players from Germany and Japan were not allowed to compete.

The French Open has decided to let Russian and Belarusian players compete at its tournament starting May 22, but as neutral athletes not aligned with their homelands.

Russian Tennis Federation president Shamil Tarpischev told the country’s Sport Express newspaper that there was nothing it could do about the Wimbledon ban.

“I think this decision is wrong, but there is nothing we can change,” Tarpischev said. “The [Russian] Tennis Federation has already done everything it could.”
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Hundreds of Ethiopians reportedly have been been lined up for days outside the Russian embassy in Addis Ababa this week in hopes of being recruited to fight for Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine. But the embassy has dismissed claims it is recruiting foreign fighters and says the Ethiopians are there to show their solidarity with Russia.   

Witnesses say the embassy is not bringing the hopefuls inside but say staffers have come outside to take documents. 

Feleke Gebrekidan was among the Ethiopians who have spent long hours waiting outside the embassy. He has military experience, he said, having served in the Ethiopian military for over a decade.

He said the would-be recruits are former members of the Ethiopian army, who do not have jobs at the moment. Having heard that the Russian embassy is currently recruiting, he said he and other came with their credentials. He said he even brought the clearance he received after serving in the military.  

Feleke said he has been at the gate of the embassy for three days but has not managed to get inside. He said he plans to come back and try again.  

Tewodros Sime, who lives next to the Russian embassy in Addid Ababa, said he is not happy to see his fellow citizens volunteering for the war.   

“Why would I fight on behalf of a foreign nation?” he asked. “I was so angry when people poured in for registration to the embassy. Many did not show up when the Ethiopian ministry of defense was calling [men] to join our army. They are now bowing for Russians and I am so sad about it. We should prioritize peace in our country.”

Some of the volunteers are motivated by economics.  They are desperate to get a job, even a potentially deadly job overseas, because they are unemployed.

Also, most Ethiopians see Russia as a friendly nation politically.  In the 1980s, Ethiopia was under communist leadership, and there are thousands of Ethiopian military personnel who were trained in what was then the Soviet Union. 

Maria Chernukhina, the press attache for the Russian embassy in Addis Ababa,  speaking to VOA, acknowledged that some of those in line are carrying documents but said that this reflects their own willingness and hope. She said the Russian embassy is not recruiting people for any purpose, as that would not comply with its responsibility as a diplomatic mission.  

Since the war began, she added, Ethiopians have been calling and emailing the embassy to voice their solidarity with Russia. Chernukhina said the line outside the embassy is also part of that.  

Contacted by VOA, the Ukrainian embassy in Addis Ababa declined to say anything about the lines. The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
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Turkish authorities jailed a journalist on Tuesday pending trial after he announced hackers had stolen personal information from government websites and shared some of it with him, including President Tayyip Erdogan’s ID card, as proof, his lawyer said. 

The independent journalist, Ibrahim Haskologlu, posted the announcement on Twitter, illustrating it with a partially obscured photo of what he said was Erdogan’s ID.

His lawyer, Emrah Karatay, said his client was arrested on a charge of illegally obtaining and disseminating personal information due to his social media posts.

In his Twitter posts last week, Haskologlu said that a group of hackers had contacted him two months ago and told him that they had obtained Turks’ personal information from government websites.

As well as sharing the purported photo of Erdogan’s ID, Haskologlu also published an image of what he said was the ID card of Hakan Fidan, head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency. Most of the information on the cards was concealed.

“The reason for his formal arrest was that he did not notify prosecutors,” Karatay said, adding that Haskologlu had warnedvarious authorities but no action was taken.

“He thought he had to warn people as a journalist and posted these. Now he’s arrested – that’s all,” Karatay said, adding that police had searched Haskologlu’s house when they detained him last night. 

Istanbul police was not immediately available for comment.

Broadcaster NTV said the interior ministry had filed a complaint about Haskologlu after his posts, prompting an investigation by the Istanbul prosecutor’s office.

Turkey is one of the world’s top jailers of journalists and mainstream media is controlled by those close to Erdogan’s government. Turkey’s government denies accusations by human rights groups that it muzzles the media.
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A court in Moscow has rejected an appeal by the independent radio station Ekho Moskvy against moves by the government to restrict the broadcaster’s reach, which led to its decision to close.

The Taganka district court on April 20 refused to recognize as illegal the decision by Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, to restrict access to Ekho Moskvy’s website on March 1 at the Prosecutor-General’s request.

Judge Nadezhda Kiselyova said statements by Ekho Moskvy’s lawyers — which maintained that the Prosecutor-General’s request failed to specify which programs at the station violated Russian laws — were baseless and thus the appeal had been turned down.

In its March request, the Prosecutor-General’s Office said the broadcaster, known to be critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was distributing what authorities deemed information “calling for extremist activities, violence, and premeditated false information” about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian government has instructed media in the country to refrain from calling Russia’s actions in Ukraine a war or an invasion and should instead be referred to as a “special military operation.”

Soon after the move by the Prosecutor-General’s Office, Ekho Moskvy’s board decided to liquidate the radio station and its website.

Ekho Moskvy first aired on August 22, 1990, in Moscow.

Before Russia launched its war with Ukraine on February 24, the station had been taken off the air only once, during the State Committee for the Emergency Situation (GKChP) coup in 1991.

Several Russian media outlets have chosen to suspend operations rather than face heavy restrictions on what they can report. The Kremlin has also blocked multiple foreign news outlets, including RFE/RL, for their independent coverage of the war.
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As Western sanctions against Russia continue to mount, observers in Azerbaijan are concerned about the potential ramifications in a country with close economic ties to Moscow.

Some experts believe Russia’s worsening economic position will harm Azerbaijan’s trade relations and money transfers with the country, which is Azerbaijan’s main import partner and home to over 2.5 million Azerbaijani migrant laborers.

Economist Natig Jafarli told VOA that economic sanctions on Russia will create problems for the banking sector of Azerbaijan and could create certain obstacles to international money transfers, since Azerbaijan does not have a separate money transfer system with Russia.

“If Russia is completely excluded from the international money transfer system, at the very least, interbank money transfers and transfers between Azerbaijan and Russia will become impossible,” Jafarli said.

According to Gubad Ibadoglu, senior economist and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan will be the most affected by the rapid changes in the Russian economy.

“SOFAZ’s investments in Russia have exceeded $903 million,” he said. “These investments are currently at risk, which will ultimately lead to exchange rate losses for SOFAZ. In other words, there will be an increase in extra-budgetary expenditures, which will increase its foreign exchange earnings,” suggesting that SOFAZ and other Azerbaijani government bodies must sell their assets before “the economic catastrophe” in Russia and withdraw their investments.

In addition to SOFAZ, Ibadoglu said Azerbaijan’s trade relations with Russia will be affected, considering that Russia is Azerbaijan’s main import partner.

Azerbaijan bought $2.1 billion worth of goods and sold $920.8 million on the Russian market in 2021. More than 95% of those goods were non-oil products. Ibadoglu said problems with bank settlements with Russia, which is the traditional market of the non-oil sector, and the devaluation of the ruble this year could create serious difficulties for exporters.

“Those who export goods from Azerbaijan to Russia will face losses due to the sharp depreciation of the ruble against the Azerbaijani manat, which will reduce the income of producers and exporters, especially in the non-oil sector, mainly in agriculture,” he said.

Remittances sent from Russia by the approximately 2.5 million Azerbaijanis living there will be another area affected by the situation in Russia, Ibadoglu said.

In most Azerbaijani districts, Azerbaijani labor migrants play an important role in determining household income. Ibadoglu said tensions in the Russian labor market, as well as the decline and devaluation of earnings as a result of the tensions, matched with the ruble’s depreciation, will result in a decrease in remittances to Azerbaijan.

“According to the data from the Central Bank of Azerbaijan for the first nine months of 2021, about 60% of remittances came from migrants living in Russia. This means that last year, remittances sent through banks by migrants living in Russia amounted to $680 million. A sharp decline in this transfer is expected this year,” Ibadoglu said.

Azerbaijani parliament member Rasim Musabeyov agrees that remittances will be affected.

“Russia’s sanctions will significantly limit banking operations. With the economic downturn in Russia, it will be difficult to send money to families,” he said.

He also argues that sanctions will have a negative impact on Azerbaijan’s foreign trade with Russia.

“We used to import very important food products from the Russian market. But it is difficult to say to what extent it will be possible to import them now,” Musabeyov said.

Yet the lawmaker says Russia’s economic downturn also creates opportunities. He claims that since communication routes through Russia are restricted, and Ukraine’s borders are closed due to the war, trade that was previously carried out through Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, will now mainly pass through the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars route.

“The importance of our transport routes will increase significantly. Both the Southern Gas Corridor and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline will be heavily loaded. It is estimated that a large part of Kazakh oil will be exported to the markets, not through Novorossiysk, but through Azerbaijan, and it is likely to significantly increase our capacity,” Musabeyov said.

This story originated in VOA’s Azerbaijani Service.
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Russia said Tuesday it will expel 15 Dutch diplomats, saying they have two weeks to leave the country. The retaliatory move following the Netherlands’ expulsion last month of 17 Russians whom Dutch officials said were intelligence officers posing as diplomats. 

In response to Tuesday’s announcement, Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Wopke Hoekstra said in a statement, “It was to be expected that Russia would take countermeasures. Nevertheless, this is a regrettable step.” The envoys will be leaving the Dutch embassy in Moscow and consulate-general in St. Petersburg.  

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was also going to expel four Austrians and 12 Belgians, both in retaliation. 

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, some 300 Russian diplomats have had to leave various countries. 

Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland and the United States have expelled Russian envoys.  

Russia has taken similar moves against envoys from the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and the European Union.  

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a “wholehearted” apology Tuesday for attending parties that were banned during COVID-19 lockdowns. 

However, he did say he didn’t know he was breaking the rules. 

Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak have been under investigation for 12 parties at both 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, some of which were attended by the ministers and their staff. 

Police said some 50 people could face fines or other penalties over the parties. 

The political opposition in Britain has called for Johnson’s resignation over the scandal. This week, there will be a parliamentary debate and vote on whether to censure Johnson. 

Johnson previously apologized over one incident saying he thought it was a work event. 

The parties were held during 2020 and 2021, according to news reports. 

One event captured in a photo published by the BBC, shows Johnson and others gathered at the Downing Street garden drinking wine in May 2020 when other Brits were not allowed leave their homes without a reason, and outdoor gatherings were limited to two for exercise. 

Investigations into other parties could lead to more fines for Johnson, which could lead to more pressure on him from his own party. 

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press.
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The world economy will grow at a slower pace because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund said in a report Tuesday.

The organization forecasts growth of 3.6% this year, compared to 6.1% last year. Originally, it had predicted 4.4% growth this year.

“The economic effects of the war are spreading far and wide,” the IMF said in its report.

The war has exacerbated negative economic trends such as disrupted commerce and price hikes for fuel and food.

“In the matter of a few weeks, the world has yet again experienced a major, transformative shock,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas wrote in the foreword to the fund’s World Economic Outlook report. “Just as a durable recovery from the pandemic-induced global economic collapse appeared in sight, the war has created the very real prospect that a large part of the recent gains will be erased.”

The IMF predicts the Russian economy will shrink by 8.5% this year, and Ukraine’s will fall by a whopping 35%.

The United States, China and Europe were also expected to see slower growth as a result of the war.

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press.
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The World Health Organization says escalating fighting in Ukraine is preventing emergency medical supplies and health personnel from reaching many people in need of help.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two months ago, the World Health Organization has delivered some 218 metric tons of emergency medical supplies. Roughly two-thirds have reached their intended destinations, mostly in the east and north of the country where the need is greatest.

WHO has released 15 generators from its warehouse in Lviv Tuesday with plans to deliver them this week to hospitals across the country. Speaking from Lviv, WHO spokesman, Bhanu Bhatnagar, says three will be sent to Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. That is where heavy fighting is underway, and the power supply is badly affected.

Other generators, he says are destined for places such as Kharkiv, which has been devastated by Russian shelling, and the besieged city of Mariupol.

“We will only move the generators to their final destinations when we can ensure the safety of our personnel and the precious cargo they are transporting. These generators will help meet the sort of minimum energy needs of medical and surgical units of referral hospitals, where power supply is either limited or non-existent,” he said.

Bhatnagar says access to a reliable power supply is critical, noting even a momentary power failure can have serious consequences for patients. He says providing care in this dangerous environment is becoming ever more difficult.

As of now, he says WHO has verified 147 attacks on health care facilities, ambulances, and medical personnel. He adds at least 73 people have been killed and 52 injured. Attacks such as these, he says are hampering efforts to reach the people who need help.

“An increase in fighting in certain parts of the country could really threaten our supply chains in and out of some of the affected areas. To mitigate this risk, we are ramping up our donations to the Ministry of Health. We are also assessing the possibility of pre-positioning supplies in additional locations to sort of build a network of warehouses to reach affected areas,” said Bhatnagar.

Mariupol has been subjected to heavy bombardment by Russian forces since the start of the war. The city has been demolished, thousands of people reportedly have been killed and thousands more remain trapped.

Bhatnagar says WHO fears the worst for the health system of Mariupol. He says no one has access to the city. But he adds WHO is positioning generators and other supplies nearby. This, so it can bring in life-saving medicines and equipment the moment this becomes possible.
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