For some Afghans who were evacuated as their country fell to the Taliban last summer, the journey to the United States has stalled, and perhaps ended, at a sun-baked cluster of tents and temporary housing on an American base in the Balkans. 

While more than 78,000 Afghans have arrived in the U.S. for resettlement since August, the future for those who have been flagged for additional security vetting and diverted to Camp Bondsteel, in the small nation of Kosovo, remains up in the air. The U.S. won’t force the dozens there to return to Afghanistan, where they could face reprisals. 

Their frustration is growing. Some Afghans at the base, which has been shrouded in secrecy, took the unusual step this week of staging a protest, holding up signs with messages such as “we want justice,” according to photos sent to The Associated Press. 

“They just keep repeating the same things, that it takes time and we must be patient,” one of the Afghans, Muhammad Arif Sarwari, said in a text message from the base. 

Their complaints open a window into an aspect of the evacuation and resettlement of Afghans that has gotten little attention because U.S. authorities, and the government of Kosovo, have been reluctant to say much about the people sent to Bondsteel. 

The base houses a mix of adults and children, because some of the people who have so far failed to get a visa to the U.S. are traveling with family. Sarwari, a former senior intelligence official with the Afghan government, said there are about 45 people there, representing about 20 or so individual visa cases, after a flight to the U.S. left with 27 of the refugees on Wednesday. 

The Biden administration won’t provide details but acknowledges that some of the evacuees did not make it through what it calls a “a multi-layered, rigorous screening and vetting process” and won’t be permitted to enter the U.S. 

“While the vast majority of Afghan evacuees have been cleared through this process, the small number of individuals who have been denied are examples of the system working exactly as it should,” said Sean Savett, a spokesperson for the National Security Council. 

In all, about 600 Afghans have passed through Bondsteel, according to the government of Kosovo, which initially authorized use of the base for evacuees for a year but recently agreed to extend that until August 2023. 

Kosovo, which gained independence from Serbia in 2008 with U.S. support, has also provided little information about the Afghans at Bondsteel, citing the privacy of the refugees. Prime Minister Albin Kurti said in a statement that the government is proud of its role providing temporary shelter to them. 

Afghans are housed in a section of Bondsteel called Camp Liya, named for an Afghan child handed to the U.S. Marines over a fence at the Hamid Karzai International Airport during the evacuation, according to a U.S. military publication. 

It was the chaotic nature of that evacuation that led to the need for an overseas facility in the first place. As the Afghan government collapsed, thousands of people made it onto military transport planes with minimal screening before they arrived at one of several overseas transit points. 

The people sent to Bondsteel were stopped and diverted for a host of reasons, including missing or flawed documents or security concerns that emerged during overseas vetting by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, officials have said. 

At the same time, some in Congress have criticized the administration for what they say has been inadequate vetting of Afghan refugees. 

Sarwari made it to Kuwait from Afghanistan in early September with his wife and two of his daughters and says he doesn’t know why he’s been held up. He was a prominent figure in Afghanistan, serving as the former director of intelligence after the U.S. invasion in 2001. Before that, he was a top official with the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. 

Both positions would make him a target of the Taliban if he were to return. 

“The vetting team keeps telling us sorry, Washington is just deciding some political issues,” he said. 

Sarwari has applied for a special immigrant visa, which is issued to people who worked for the U.S. government or its allies during the war. He has not received a response, according to his lawyer, Julie Sirrs. 

“In theory, he is free to leave, but it’s not clear where he could go,” Sirrs said. “He obviously cannot return to Afghanistan. He’s clearly in danger if he returns.” 

He and others live a circumscribed existence on Bondsteel. Although technically not detained, they cannot leave the arid, rocky base and have spent months in tents, which were adorned with handwritten signs during this week’s protest. One said, “unfair decision,” while another said, “children are suffering.” 

The Biden administration says authorities have determined that some — it won’t say how many — simply cannot be allowed to enter the U.S. It is working to find other countries that don’t harbor the same security concerns and are willing to accept them for resettlement. No one will be forcibly returned to Afghanistan, the NSC spokesperson said. 

 
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “victory will be ours” Friday as the conflict with Russia entered its 100th day.

Zelenskyy appeared in a video filmed outside the presidential palace in Kyiv, flanked by the same officials who appeared in a similar video on the day of the invasion, February 24.

“Our team is much bigger. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are here. The most important — the people, the people of our state are here. Defending Ukraine for 100 days already. Victory will be ours,” he said.

European leaders also voiced solidarity with Ukraine. “100 days ago Russia unleashed its unjustifiable war on Ukraine. The bravery of Ukrainians commands our respect and our admiration. The EU stands with Ukraine,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter.

Invasion

Russia began building up troops along the border in the fall of 2021 but repeatedly denied it planned to attack its neighbor. Then, on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a televised address announcing what he called a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

“We will strive to de-militarize and de-Nazify Ukraine and will bring to justice those who committed multiple bloody crimes against civilians, including Russian citizens,” Putin said.

That night, explosions echoed across Kyiv. Russian tanks and armored vehicles began crossing the border. A sovereign European nation had been invaded, triggering the continent’s worst conflict since 1945.

U.S. President Joe Biden said it was a pre-meditated attack. “The Russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of Ukraine, without provocation, without justification, without necessity,” Biden said.

Russian failures

A 64-kilometer-long Russian armored column approached Kyiv from the north. But tactical mistakes saw the Russian advance on Kyiv stall as Ukraine’s armed forces put up fierce resistance, aided by Western weapons, including anti-tank missiles and drones.

By April, Russian forces were in retreat from the capital. They left behind scenes of horror. In towns like Bucha, advancing Ukrainian forces uncovered mass civilian graves and widespread evidence of torture and mass rape by Russian soldiers. Moscow claimed the evidence was fabricated.

War crimes

Visiting the site of the mass graves in Bucha, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said the world must take action. “These are war crimes and they will be recognized by the world as genocide,” he said.

The atrocities prompted NATO and Western countries to beef up their deployments in eastern Europe and increase weapons supplies to Ukraine. “We agreed that we must further strengthen and sustain our support to Ukraine so that Ukraine prevails in the face of Russia’s invasion,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said April 7.

The United States has so far pledged $53 billion in military, economic and humanitarian aid.

Finland and Sweden – which for decades have remained neutral – applied to join NATO in the face of Russia’s aggression.

Refugee exodus

Meanwhile, the war prompted a huge exodus of Ukrainian refugees, with some six million fleeing to neighboring countries so far, and a further eight million internally displaced within Ukraine.

Russia is weaponizing refugees, says Afzal Ashraf, a professor of international affairs at Britain’s Loughborough University. “The shelling of civilian areas and driving out large amounts of civilian populations may well be part of the Russian plan, because that serves them well. It puts pressure, long term economic and political pressure, on Western governments,” Ashraf told AFP.

Western sanctions have tightened the economic noose on Russia, causing its currency to plummet. The U.S. banned imports of Russian energy. Europe – which is far more reliant on such imports – agreed to phase out Russian coal by the end of 2022 and ban most oil imports. However, European countries have so far failed to agree on a gas embargo and continue to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Russia every day.

Eastern offensive

Facing mounting military losses, the Kremlin had redirected its forces to the eastern Donbas region by early May and began a new offensive to take the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which had been partly controlled by pro-Russian rebels since Moscow’s forceful annexation of Crimea in 2013.

The strategic port of Mariupol was all but destroyed. It fell to Russian forces in late May, after the last 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers sheltering in the giant Azovstal steelworks surrendered. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the city under indiscriminate Russian shelling and missile strikes.

Fighting continues to rage in the east and south of Ukraine. The governor of the Luhansk region said Friday that Russia now controls around 70 percent of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. Russian forces have been making steady gains across Donbas in recent days.

New weapons

The U.S. is to begin sending long-range GPS-guided artillery systems to Ukraine, something Kyiv has long demanded, says Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington.

“If you combine Ukrainian bravery and skill and a willingness to defend their homes against this unprovoked invasion with Western support, which frankly we’re going to have to be able to provide for the long haul, then I think over the long run this will be a grand strategic disaster for Putin. But in the short term, let’s be clear, the picture is mixed,” Bowman told VOA.
…

The top African Union official met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine and its effects on Africa. A cutoff in grain exports has heightened food insecurity in many African countries, leaving millions of Africans hungry.

Senegalese President Macky Sall met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russian city of Sochi Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine and the effect it’s having on Africa’s 1.3 billion people.

Before the war, the continent annually imported about 30 million tons of wheat and maize from Russia and Ukraine. The war has greatly reduced the exports and sparked a global increase in food and fuel prices.

At Friday’s meeting, Sall, the current African Union chairperson, urged Putin to be aware that African countries are “victims” of the Ukraine conflict, according to the French news agency.  He said food supplies should be “outside” of Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over Ukraine.

Speaking to journalists in Nairobi, Africa Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina, said the rise in oil prices caused by the war is also hurting Africa’s economy.

“You look at the energy prices today, energy prices have gone up to the roof of course which benefits all the exporting countries but you, for example, Kenya, you spend a lot of money importing fuel,” Adesina said. “So fuel made importing countries suffer as a result of that which has a tendency to slow down economic growth.”

Adesina also lamented the Russian blockade of ships in the Black Sea, which is holding back millions of tons of Ukrainian grain meant for other countries, including some in Africa.

The Africa Development Bank recently authorized a $1.5 billion program to ensure that Africa grows enough food to feed its citizens.  The bank group said the money would benefit 20 million African farmers.

Adesina said the bank is determined to make Africa less reliant on outside countries for its food supply.

“Africa will not have a food crisis,” he said “We will support Africa to produce its food and we will use this opportunity. We must not lose, and wait for a crisis, to get Africa to be a solution to global food issues. Africa has 65 percent of all arable land left in the world. So what Africa does with agriculture will determine the future of food in the world. We must take agriculture as a business.”  

 In the meantime, some countries are facing severe problems feeding their populations. 

Chad, a landlocked African country, declared a food emergency Thursday and authorities called other countries for help.

Last month, the United Nations said the number of food-insecure people in the world has doubled from 135 million to 276 million in two years.  The crisis is blamed on climate change, the global pandemic and the current war in Ukraine.

As African leaders meet the Russian president, the head of the African Development Bank is calling for an end to the war that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands and negatively impacted millions of people around the world.
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Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was summoning the heads of U.S. media outlets in Moscow to a meeting this Monday to notify them of tough measures in response to U.S. restrictions against Russian media.

“If the work of the Russian media – operators and journalists – is not normalized in the United States, the most stringent measures will inevitably follow,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday.

“To this end, on Monday, June 6, the heads of the Moscow offices of all American media will be invited to the press center of the Russian Foreign Ministry to explain to them the consequences of their government’s hostile line in the media sphere,” she added. “We look forward to it.”

Russia has accused Western countries of imposing unfair restrictions on its media abroad, including bans on some state-backed news outlets. Lawmakers passed a bill last month giving prosecutors powers to shut foreign media bureaus in Moscow if a Western country has been “unfriendly” to Russian media.

Since invading Ukraine in February, Russia has cracked down on media coverage of the conflict, introducing 15-year prison sentences for journalists spreading intentionally “fake” news about what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The law prompted some Western media to pull their journalists out of Russia. Other Western organizations, including Reuters, have stayed in the country and continue to report.

Russia says it is engaged in a “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” its neighbor. Ukraine and allies call this a baseless pretext for a war that has killed thousands, flattened cities, and forced more than 6 million people to flee abroad.
…

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday Russian troops have succeeded in their main stated task of “protecting civilians” in the separatist-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine.  

He added that Russian forces have “liberated” parts of Ukraine and “this work will continue until all the goals of the special military operation are achieved.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Russian forces occupy about 20% of Ukrainian territory. Friday marks the 100th day of fighting which continues on several fronts.

“Just imagine! Constant fighting, which stretched along the front line for more than a thousand kilometers,” Zelenskyy told the Luxembourg parliament in a virtual speech Thursday. He said the Ukrainian area controlled by Moscow’s forces is comparable to the entirety of the Netherlands.

Zelenskyy did not say how much territory Russia has captured since the start of its invasion, Feb. 24. Moscow seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and Russia-backed separatists had also captured parts of the eastern Donbas region, where fighting is the most intense now, prior to the invasion.

Ukraine said Thursday its forces have recaptured 20 small towns and villages in the Kherson region in the southern part of the country. Meanwhile, Russian forces continued their assault on Sievierodonetsk, the last major city nominally held by Ukraine in the Luhansk region in the eastern part of the country.

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said Russia controlled about 70% of the city as fierce street battles took place.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Russia has taken control of most of the city. The ministry said Ukrainian forces control the main road into Sievierodonetsk, with Russia making “steady local gains, enabled by a heavy concentration of artillery.”

A Ukrainian official said Kyiv’s forces were hoping to recapture territory lost earlier in the war in southern Ukraine in part to tie up some Russian forces more focused on fighting in the Donbas region.

The Ukrainian leader’s assessment of the war came a day after U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States is providing Ukraine with a $700 million package of “more advanced rocket systems and munitions” to help fight off Russia’s invasion, now in its fourth month. White House officials say Ukraine has vowed not to fire those rockets into Russian territory.

“This new package will arm them with new capabilities and advanced weaponry, including HIMARS with battlefield munitions, to defend their territory from Russian advances,” Biden said in a statement. “We will continue to lead the world in providing historic assistance to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom.” Biden used the acronym for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.

Zelenskyy said in his daily address that the HIMARS package is one item in a list of “three important pieces of news” for Ukraine.

The two other items are the European Union’s moves “towards the implementation of the sixth sanctions package” against Russia, which Zelenskyy said is “primarily about oil,” and also the fact that “more and more embassies” are resuming “their full-fledged activities in Kyiv.”

“The world is giving up Russian oil,” Zelenskyy said. “Moreover, other countries, which produce much better and lighter oil, are preparing to replace Russian supplies. Therefore, huge revenues are lost for the aggressor state in this sphere.” He said, Russia “has to get used to the fact that a very painful reduction in income is an inevitable consequence of the war.”

The return of embassy activity to Ukraine’s capital, Zelenskyy said is “a testament to the faith in our victory.”
…

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT.

1:05 a.m.: The Associated Press reports that the U.S. says it’ll hold Russia accountable for crimes its forces have committed since the invasion of Ukraine began.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Uzra Zeya addressed the U.N. Security Council and said the U.S. and its allies support a broad range of international investigations into alleged atrocities in Ukraine.

12:02 a.m.: Al Jazeera reports that a man in Kharkiv, Ukraine, has been indicted for allegedly supporting the Russian invasion. A prosecutor says the man produced and distributed materials justifying the invasion. If convicted, he could get five years in prison.
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Britain celebrates the second day of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee on Friday, with the highlight a service of thanksgiving attended by senior royals and politicians that the 96-year-old monarch herself will miss due to ongoing mobility issues.

The four days of events kicked off Thursday, when a happy-looking Elizabeth waved to crowds from the balcony of Buckingham Palace after a military parade and Royal Air Force flyover, and later led the lighting of the Principal Platinum Jubilee Beacon at her Windsor Castle home.

The celebrations continue with a National Service of Thanksgiving at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral to pay tribute to the sovereign’s 70 years on the throne.

But the queen, who has been forced to cancel a series of engagements recently because of “episodic mobility problems,” will be absent, pulling out late Thursday and slightly taking the sheen off the day’s party atmosphere.

“The queen greatly enjoyed today’s birthday parade and flypast but did experience some discomfort,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

Officials said the journey from Windsor Castle, where she spends most of her time, to London and the activity involved for the service were too much and that a regrettable but sensible decision had been taken.

A palace source said it had always been the queen’s hope that she would attend rather than a firm commitment.

She will not be the only absentee. Her second son, Prince Andrew, 62, has tested positive for COVID-19 and will also miss the service, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said Thursday.

That will potentially spare the royals some awkwardness, with Andrew’s reputation shattered after he settled a U.S. lawsuit in February in which he had been accused of sexually abusing a woman when she was underage, claims he denied.

Grandson Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, who have made almost no public appearances in Britain since stepping down from royal duties two years ago, are expected to attend.

The couple moved to the United States to lead a more independent life and have since delivered some stinging attacks on Buckingham Palace and the royal family.

The service will include Bible readings, prayers and hymns to express gratitude for Elizabeth’s reign. Political figures from Britain and across the world will be in attendance, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson will give a reading.

David Ison, the Dean of St. Paul’s, will say, “We come together in this cathedral church today to offer to God our thanks and praise for the reign of her majesty the queen and especially for her seventy years of faithful and dedicated service.”

The cathedral’s “Great Paul” bell — the largest in the country and dating to 1882 — will also be rung for the first time at a royal occasion since being restored last year after a mechanism broke in the 1970s.

After the service, a reception will be held at the Guildhall hosted by the Lord Mayor of the City of London.

Thursday marked not only the start of the Jubilee, but also the 69th anniversary of the coronation of Elizabeth, who became queen upon the death of her father, George VI, in February 1952.

She has now been on the throne for longer than any of her predecessors in 1,000 years and is the third-longest reigning monarch ever of a sovereign state. Opinion polls show she remains hugely popular and respected among British people.

“She is a very special person in our lives and always has been,” said 74-year-old retired teacher Sandra Wallace, one of the tens of thousands who thronged central London on Thursday. 
…

More than three months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Justice Department is girding for more Russian cyberattacks, the department’s top national security official said Thursday.

“At DOJ, we’re particularly focused right now on the cyberthreat from Russia,” said Matthew Olsen, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “And we are bracing for the possibility of more attacks.”

Olsen made the remarks at a conference of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence. The Tallinn, Estonia-based organization this week approved Ukraine’s bid to join as a “contributing participant.”

Olsen’s comments echoed repeated warnings by the Biden administration throughout the Ukraine conflict that Russia is likely to carry out cyberattacks against the United States in response to punishing Western sanctions on Moscow.

In March, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned about “possible threats to U.S. and international satellite communication networks.”

The warning came after a purported Russian cyberattack on U.S.-based telecommunications provider Viasat on February 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine.

The attack left tens of thousands of Viasat’s Ukrainian customers without satellite service.

The attack, Olsen said, was “one of numerous recent examples” of Russian malicious cyberactivity.

SolarWinds attack

In a massive cyberattack in late 2020, Russian hackers exploited software developed by U.S.-based SolarWinds Corporation to compromise the computer networks of multiple U.S. government agencies and private companies.

In response, the Biden administration last year expelled 10 Russian diplomats and imposed sanctions on several Russian individuals and entities.

Olsen said the Justice Department is working with other law enforcement agencies and private companies to respond to cyberthreats.

“We are determined to hold accountable those who target and attempt to destroy the computer systems that support our critical infrastructure,” Olsen said.

In March, the Justice Department announced criminal charges against four Russian government employees in connection with two hacking campaigns that targeted the global energy sector between 2012 and 2018.

In addition to prosecuting hackers, the Justice Department has “taken more proactive steps to disrupt nation-state cyberthreats before a significant attack or intrusion can occur,” Olsen said.

He cited a 2021 court-authorized operation by the Justice Department to disrupt a Chinese hacking group’s exploitation of vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Exchange Server.

Olsen did not say whether the U.S. has taken any proactive steps against Russian cyber actors during the Ukraine conflict. But General Paul Nakasone, head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, told Sky News on Wednesday that the U.S. had conducted offensive cyber operations in support of Ukraine during the three-month-old war.
…

Hidden from much of the world behind a veil of Kremlin censorship, Russian critics of President Vladimir Putin are waging a vigorous campaign of resistance to the war in Ukraine, according to a prominent opposition spokesman.

“The war in Ukraine is being fought on three different fronts,” said Leonid Volkov, a top aide to jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, Volkov was in Washington in May to pick up the International Republican Institute’s 2022 Freedom Award on Navalny’s behalf.

Identifying those three fronts as military, informational and economic, he acknowledged that Russian civil society can’t do much to help Ukraine on the military front.

But, he said, Navalny’s supporters are actively fighting to resist Putin on the information front “where we fight to change the attitude of the Russian society,” and they are contributing to the West’s economic sanctions by identifying Putin supporters and their assets.

Volkov told the IRI audience that Navalny and his team have put together a list of what he described as “6,000 of Putin’s warmongers and war enablers – his oligarchs, corrupt government officials, his friends and family.”

“We suggest sanctioning all of them, make Putin toxic, isolated,” Volkov said. “I’m glad to say that during my meetings here, this idea has found a lot of support.”

On the information front, Volkov said, Navalny is leading an effort to counter a Russian propaganda campaign that depicts the war as a “special military operation” and outlaws truthful reporting, even while serving a dubious jail term that was extended by nine years in March.

Navalny “maintains contact with the outside world through his attorneys” and by maintaining an active presence on social media platforms, Volkov said. As a result, the Anti-Corruption Foundation that he established in 2011 has been able to survive enormous repression and is now stronger than it ever was, according to Volkov.

“Just to give you an example, in April this year, we had over 20 million unique views of our program on YouTube where we investigate Putin’s corruption, countering Putin’s propaganda and disinformation and tell our Russian compatriots truth about Putin’s atrocious war against Ukraine,” Volkov said. “Twenty million, this is twice the number of followers we had on social media before the war started.”

Russian-language TV shows produced by Navalny’s foundation have also had tens — and in some instances hundreds — of millions of views on the foundation’s YouTube channel. The foundation is now conducting a GoFundMe campaign in hopes of expanding its reach.

Navalny has also been able to make his case against the war in an article penned for Time magazine and published late last month. In it, he portrayed the war against Ukraine as an extension of oppression within Russia itself.

“If someone destroys the independent media, organizes political assassinations, and sticks to his imperial delusions, then he is a madman capable of causing a bloodbath in the center of Europe in the 21st century,” Navalny wrote.

“A path that begins with ‘just a little election rigging’ always ends with a dictatorship. And dictatorship always leads to war. It’s a lesson we shouldn’t have forgotten.”

In the same essay, Navalny castigated world leaders, who he said, “have hypocritically talked for years about a ‘pragmatic approach’ and the benefits of international trade” with Russia. In so doing, he wrote, “they enabled themselves to benefit from Russian oil and gas while Putin’s grip on power grew stronger.”

The economic gains of those policies have been dwarfed by the costs of defending Ukraine against Russia’s aggression, Navalny continued. “Between sanctions and military and economic aid, this war will cost hundreds of times more than those lucrative oil and gas contracts, the signing of which used to be celebrated with champagne.”

Navalny’s stand has won him praise in the West, where he was honored this week by the European People’s Party, the largest voting bloc within the 27-member European Union.

“His fight for freedom of speech and freedom in Russia is [also] our fight,” the party declared at its annual conference in Rotterdam, where banners declared “We Stand with Freedom” and “We Stand with Ukraine.”

At the IRI event in Washington, Congressman Mike McCaul, the most senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, compared Navalny to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose staunch resistance to Russia has won him worldwide admiration.

By the same token, “the belligerent actions of Putin’s kleptocratic regime are a threat to freedom and democracy everywhere,” including Russia itself, IRI President Dan Twining told VOA.

To “live and let live” is how he sees the future state of Russia both on Russian soil and in its relations with Ukraine and other neighbors, Navalny said, while delivering his “final words” after a Russian court rejected his appeal of a nine-year sentence last week.

Navalny, a 45-year-old father of a 21-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son, looked to his own future while addressing the court.

“Certainly, I don’t want to sit in this cage instead of doing some useful things and watching my children grow up. But man is not given life to be afraid of the crazy old man in a bunker and this system he has built.”
…

The U.S. government said Thursday that it was trying to shut down sanction evasion measures used by Russia’s elites, including President Vladimir Putin, “to attempt to hide and move money and anonymously make use of luxury assets around the globe.”

The targets include a yacht brokerage, aircraft, Russian officials and others close to Putin.

Targeted yachts include the Russia-flagged Graceful and the Cayman Islands-flagged Olympia, as well as two other yachts, the Shellest and the Nega, both owned by Russian companies.

The White House said the new sanctions were imposed “to crack down on evasion and tighten our sanctions to enhance enforcement and increase pressure on Putin and his enablers.”

In a statement announcing the sanctions, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “The United States will continue to support the people of Ukraine while promoting accountability for President Putin and those enabling Russian aggression.”

The U.S. government said Putin had “taken numerous trips” on the now-sanctioned yachts as recently as last year.

“Russia’s elites, up to and including President Putin, rely on complex support networks to hide, move and maintain their wealth and luxury assets,” said Brian Nelson, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.

“Today’s action demonstrates that Treasury can and will go after those responsible for shielding and maintaining these ill-gotten interests,” he said. “We will continue to enforce our sanctions and expose the corrupt systems by which President Putin and his elites enrich themselves.”
…

Matthew Parker is a U.S. army veteran who served in Iraq alongside a Ukrainian American soldier. When Parker heard Russia invaded Ukraine, he decided he wanted to help Ukrainians defend their homeland. He is among thousands of Americans that Ukraine says have joined its new international legion to help protect the country. VOA’s Myroslava Gongadze caught up with Parker when he arrived in Warsaw, Poland. Camera – Bogdan Osyka.
…

The Greek government and shipping industry on Thursday called for a global mobilization to free the crews of two oil tankers held by Iran in an ongoing dispute with Athens.

“We call on all nations to act in order to end this unacceptable incident, and to ensure it does not happen again,” Merchant Marine Minister Ioannis Plakiotakis told reporters.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Friday seized the two Greek-flagged tankers in the Gulf, days after Athens said it would deliver to Washington Iranian oil it had seized from a Russian tanker in April.

Plakiotakis said last week’s incident posed a “threat” to shipping safety and trade and has “cast a shadow” over Greece’s top shipping fair Posidonia, which opens Monday with over 1,900 companies from nearly 90 nations participating.

Speaking at the Posidonia inaugural press conference on Thursday, Union of Greek Shipowners president Melina Travlos said some of the sailors held by Iran were youths on their first shipping assignment.

“The global shipping community must mobilize, nations, everyone. This situation needs to end,” she said.

Greece’s coastguard on Thursday said both ships are moored at the Iranian port of Bandar.

The coastguard has identified nine Greeks and a Cypriot on board, but has given no information about other crew nationalities.

Iran has said the crews of two tankers were in “good health” and not under arrest.

The Revolutionary Guards — the ideological arm of Iran’s military — had said it seized the tankers “due to violations”, without elaborating further.

Greece has condemned Tehran’s detention of the two ships as “tantamount to acts of piracy” and warned its citizens not to travel to Iran.

The German and French foreign ministries, in separate statements, condemned the seizure as a violation of international law, and called on Iran to immediately release the ships and their crews.

The United States has also strongly condemned Iran’s seizure of the two tankers, and demanded their immediate release.

Iran has called the statements “one-sided” and “inappropriate interference.”

Tehran noted that France and Germany “are protesting against the legal measures taken in Iran” while “remaining silent” on Greece’s own seizure of the tanker, which it said was Iranian.
…

Four days of celebrations honoring Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne get underway with a display of British military traditions stretching from the days of horse and cannon to the jet age, The Associated Press reports.
…

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT.

12:04 a.m.: Russian forces continue their siege of Sievierodonetsk, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine, The New York Times reported. “A local official said on Wednesday that Russian forces controlled about 70 percent of the city, where only about 12,000 residents remain out of a prewar population of 100,000 after weeks of intense shelling.” the Times report said. “Ukrainian soldiers there are at risk of being surrounded. With bridges over the Seversky Donets River destroyed or under fire, resupply has become tenuous. Ukrainian officials have been candid about the army’s travails while arguing more rapid deliveries of Western weaponry will resolve them. Every day in the current heavy fighting, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with Newsmax this week, 60 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers are killed and another about 500 soldiers are wounded in combat.”  

12:01 a.m.: When she helped launch The Kyiv Independent in November, chief editor Olga Rudenko had no idea that six months later she would be on the cover of Time magazine. But her team’s reporting on Russia’s war in Ukraine propelled their English-language site into the spotlight, with Time describing The Kyiv Independent as the “world’s primary source for reliable English-language journalism on that war.” 

Rudenko says she feels she has a great responsibility to her audience, “to be the world’s window into Ukraine.” In this interview with VOA, she shares her commitment to fact-based reporting and how that has been essential in a war where disinformation is high, and journalists find themselves reporting on atrocities happening so close to home. 

 
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Queen Elizabeth II will make two appearances on the Buckingham Palace balcony on Thursday, kicking off four days of public events to mark her historic Platinum Jubilee.

The extent of the 96-year-old monarch’s involvement in the celebrations for her record-breaking 70 years on the throne has been a source of speculation for months.

She has cut back drastically on her public appearances since last year because of difficulties standing and walking — and a bout of COVID-19.

But royal officials confirmed that she would take the salute of mounted troops from the balcony after a military parade called Trooping the Colour.

The centuries-old ceremony to officially mark the sovereign’s birthday has previously seen the queen take the salute on horseback herself.

Her 73-year-old son and heir, Prince Charles, will step in this year, supported by his sister, Princess Anne, 71, and his eldest son, Prince William, 39.

Joining senior royals watching the display of military precision will be Charles’ younger son, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan, on a rare visit from California, Buckingham Palace confirmed.

But the queen’s disgraced second son, Prince Andrew, 62, is not expected to join them.

She will return to the balcony later to watch a flyby of military aircraft, including iconic models from World War II, the palace said.

At nightfall, the queen will be at Windsor Castle, west of London, to take part in a ceremony to light more than 3,000 beacons across the country and the Commonwealth of 54 nations that she heads.

Parties, parades, concerts

Elizabeth was a 25-year-old princess when she succeeded her father, King George VI in 1952, bringing a rare touch of glamour to a battered nation still enduring food rations after World War II.

Seventy years on, she is now the only monarch most Britons have ever known, becoming an enduring figurehead through often troubled times.

Britain’s first and very likely only Platinum Jubilee will see street parties, pop concerts and parades until Sunday in potentially the last major public celebration of the queen’s long reign.

It has not yet been confirmed if she will attend a thanksgiving service at St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday, while her planned attendance at horse racing showcase The Derby on Saturday is off.

She could yet put in a final appearance — again from the palace balcony — on Sunday, at the climax of a huge public pageant involving 6,000 performers.

In a message, the queen thanked everyone involved in organizing the community events in Britain and around the world.

“I know that many happy memories will be created at these festive occasions,” she said.

“I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm.”

Attention turning to succession

The jubilee, held against a backdrop of rising inflation that has left many Britons struggling, is being seen not just as respite for the public after two years scarred by the pandemic but also for the royals.

Harry, 37, and Meghan, 40, caused shockwaves in early 2020 by moving to North America, from where they have publicly criticized royal life.

In April last year, she lost her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, and was forced to sit alone at his funeral because of coronavirus restrictions.

Since then, she has struggled with her health and also the fallout from Andrew’s links to the convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Andrew, who in February settled a U.S. civil claim for sexual assault, has effectively been fired from his royal duties.

Attention is increasingly turning to the succession, and the monarchy’s future at home and in the 14 other Commonwealth countries where the queen is also head of state.

Her approval rating among Britons remains high at 75%, according to a poll by YouGov published Wednesday, but Charles is only at 50%.

A total of 62% still want a monarchy, although younger people are split, with 33% in favor, and 31% wanting a republic.

Only 39% said they thought there would still be a monarch in 100 years’ time.
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President Joe Biden has announced that the United States will send advanced rocket systems to Ukraine to help Kyiv resist Russian forces in the eastern part of the country. As VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports, Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Ukraine has assured the U.S. it will not use the systems to hit targets on Russian territory.
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The effort to bring Sweden and Finland into NATO remains stalled, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists that his country will exercise its authority to veto an expansion of the alliance.

In public remarks on the issue, Erdogan has claimed that by allowing some Kurdish dissident groups that oppose his government to operate in Sweden, the Swedish government is damaging Turkey’s national security. Erdogan has also expressed frustration with arms embargoes levied against his government by European countries after he sent troops into Syria in 2019.

The two Scandinavian countries, which have maintained their neutrality for many years, officially applied to join NATO in May, nearly three months after Russia invaded Ukraine. While Sweden does not share a border with Russia, Finland, its neighbor to the east, does. The Finland-Russia border is nearly 1,300 kilometers long.

Issue for Biden

The dispute over expanding NATO could become a political liability for the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, who encouraged Sweden and Finland to apply, hosted their leaders in Washington and publicly expressed his expectation that their application would be accepted promptly.

The administration has since tried to distance itself from the discussion.

On Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, “We will continue to have consultations with our NATO counterparts, with our allies, with our ally Turkey, with our partners, Finland and Sweden, who will, we think, soon be considered allies, as well. So, we will continue to engage in that dialogue, but ultimately this is not an issue between the United States and Turkey. This is an issue between those three countries.”

However, experts said that practically speaking, there are no discussions about the composition of NATO that do not involve the United States, by far its largest member state.

Kurdish groups

Turkey has been involved in decadeslong conflicts with a number of Kurdish groups seeking independence or an autonomous region within Turkey.

One of these organizations, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, is formally recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and others. However, there are multiple other groups that advocate for sovereignty for the Kurds — the largest ethnic group in the world without its own state.

Some of those groups have allied with the United States in the battle against Islamic State in northern Syria. The People’s Protection Units, or YPG, have been particularly effective in that fight, but are deeply mistrusted by Erdogan because of their connections to PKK separatists in Turkey. Another group, the PYD, is the political arm of the YPG and has established relationships with some Western governments, including Sweden.

In Turkey’s view, connections to the PKK make groups like the PYD de facto terrorist organizations.

Erdogan makes his case

In an article published by The Economist this week, Erdogan described his country as a staunch supporter of NATO, noting the many actions it has taken in support of the alliance over the years.

In the NATO reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Turkey’s contribution to the effort has been among the most significant. In addition to providing vital military equipment and diplomatic support, Erdogan’s government has also blocked Russian warships from passing between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.

“As all NATO allies accept Turkey’s critical importance to the alliance, it is unfortunate that some members fail fully to appreciate certain threats to our country,” he wrote. “Turkey maintains that the admission of Sweden and Finland entails risks for its own security and the organization’s future. We have every right to expect those countries, which will expect NATO’s second-largest army to come to their defense under Article 5, to prevent the recruitment, fundraising and propaganda activities of the PKK, which the European Union and America consider a terrorist entity.”

Calls for extradition

Erdogan went on to call for the extradition from Sweden of “members of terrorist organizations,” which it deems necessary for Turkey to lift its veto on NATO membership.

In addition, he said that arms embargoes against his country must be lifted.

“Turkey stresses that all forms of arms embargoes — such as the one Sweden has imposed on my country — are incompatible with the spirit of military partnership under the NATO umbrella,” he said. “Such restrictions not only undermine our national security but also damage NATO’s own identity.”

Arms embargoes

While the embargo imposed by Sweden and other European countries after Turkey’s incursion into Syria is the only one directly mentioned by Erdogan in his article, it may not be the only one on his mind.

After Turkey purchased Russian air defense systems in 2019, the United States blocked the country from purchasing the F-35, America’s most advanced fighter jet. Later, when Turkey asked to purchase more F-16 fighters from the U.S., members of Congress took action to block the sale.

While Turkey appears to have accepted that the F-35 is off the table, an easing of the blockade on the F-16 might make Erdogan more amenable to accepting Sweden’s and Finland’s applications.

‘Transactional player’

Ambassador James F. Jeffrey, chair of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center and former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Turkey, told VOA that Turkey is a “transactional foreign policy player.”

Erdogan, he said, wants a tangible benefit from allowing the two Scandinavian countries to join NATO — especially because his country feels that its contributions to the alliance are frequently overlooked.

“Turkey’s assessment, and they’re absolutely right … is that it is seen as, at best, a half-member, tolerated but not liked by the rest of NATO, and certainly not by the Washington foreign policy community,” Jeffrey said.

He added, “I mean, it is ridiculous to have an arms embargo on a fellow NATO country when you’re then demanding that NATO country take action for you.”

Domestic politics

Some experts say it is impossible to separate Erdogan’s position on Sweden and Finland from Turkish domestic politics. Spiraling inflation has severely damaged the Turkish economy and hurt Erdogan’s standing in public opinion polls.

“This is almost 90% about domestic politics,” Kemal Kirisci, a nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, told VOA. “Erdogan is fully exploiting any opportunity that arises to boost his standing in the eyes of the public,” and the Swedish and Finnish applications come “at a perfect time.”

Kirisci said that while Turkey may have some legitimate grievances, particularly about Sweden’s treatment of Kurdish dissident groups, Erdogan is unlikely to win major concessions on those issues. For that reason, he agrees that the Turkish president’s real goal in holding up the Swedish and Finnish applications is to have arms embargoes against Turkey lifted.

This would allow Erdogan to demonstrate that he is “able to stand up to the West,” Kirisci said, while simultaneously strengthening Turkey’s military.

New Syria offensive

In a possible complicating factor, Erdogan confirmed Wednesday that he is planning to send more Turkish troops into Syria to expand a 30-kilometer-deep “safe zone” on the Syrian side of the border.

“Let’s see who supports these legitimate steps by Turkey and who hinders them,” he said in remarks to members of his political party.

Past incursions have led to conflict between Turkish troops and members of Kurdish organizations that have been supported by the U.S. There are currently 900 U.S. troops in northern Syria supporting efforts against the Islamic State group.

However, Jeffrey said that Erdogan’s announcement that the new offensive would target Syria’s Tal Rifaat and Manbij areas should reduce concerns.

“They’re both to the west of the Euphrates,” he said. “They’re not areas that the U.S. has much concern about,” because American troops are not working with the Kurdish forces in that region.
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The European Commission said Wednesday that Croatia had met all the criteria to join the eurozone, paving the way for the country to become the single currency’s 20th member on January 1.

Croatia’s switch from the kuna to the euro will come less than a decade after the former Yugoslav republic joined the European Union, setting a new milestone in the bloc’s further integration.

The EU’s executive said Croatia had met the strict conditions to be part of the single currency, including keeping inflation in the same range as its EU peers, as well as embracing sound public spending.

Joining the single currency “will make Croatia’s economy stronger, bringing benefits to its citizens, businesses and society at large,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

“Croatia’s adoption of the euro will also make the euro stronger,” she added.

The European Central Bank also gave a positive opinion in a separate report released on Wednesday.

Croatia expressed willingness to adopt the single currency upon joining the EU in 2013, and Brussels’ decision comes as the euro has just celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Croatia still needs the endorsement of the EU’s finance ministers, who are expected to give their full backing in July.

“The indications which we are having are positive. So normally, I would expect that the procedure goes through and Croatia will be able to join the euro area as of next year,” said EU Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis.

Dombrovskis, the commission’s most senior economic official, will travel to Zagreb on Thursday to formally present the opinion to the Croatian government.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic expressed confidence his country would join the currency club in the new year.

The country’s aim was to enter the Schengen open-borders zone on the same date, Plenkovic said at a press conference in Berlin.

Price hike fears

On January 1, 2002, millions of Europeans in 12 countries gave up the lira, franc, deutsche mark and drachma for euro bills and coins.

They have since been joined by seven other countries: Slovenia in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014 and, finally, Lithuania in 2015.

Bulgaria is the next county in line to join the euro, and it has stated its willingness to adopt it as of January 1, 2024.

However, eurozone members are worried about the long-term stability of the Bulgarian economy, and Sofia has yet to garner the same political support as Croatia.

EU governments are wary of repeating the mistakes of the euro’s early days, when countries such as Greece were rushed into the single currency with shaky finances, setting the stage for the eurozone debt crisis.

Like euro-adopting citizens before them, many Croatians fear the introduction of the euro will lead to a hike in prices — in particular that businesses will round up prices when they convert from the kuna.
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Russia relentlessly shelled Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, with the Luhansk regional governor conceding that Moscow’s forces now control 70% of the city and that evacuation of civilians had been halted.

Some Ukrainian troops were still fighting against the Russian onslaught, Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said, but others had retreated.

“There is no possibility to bring in humanitarian aid,” Haidai said in a Telegram post.

But Haidai said that Lysychansk — the only other city in the Luhansk region not taken by Russia or Moscow-backed separatists — remains “fully” under Ukrainian control.

The battle for Sievierodonetsk remains crucial for Russia’s aim to take control of Ukraine’s industrialized Donbas region in the eastern part of the country after it failed earlier during its three-month offensive to topple the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or capture the capital, Kyiv.

If Russia were to capture Sievierodonetsk and its smaller twin Lysychansk on the west bank of the Siverskyi Donets River, it will hold all of Luhansk, one of two provinces in the Donbas that Moscow claims on behalf of separatists and a key war aim of President Vladimir Putin.

Oleksandr Stryuk, the head of the Sievierodonetsk city administration, told Reuters that Ukrainian forces now control just 20% of the city, Russian forces have well more than half, and the rest has become a “no-man’s land.”

“The 20% is being fiercely defended by our armed force,” Stryuk said. “Attempts are being made to drive out the Russian troops … We have hope that despite everything we will free the city.”

Haidai, the Luhansk governor, said Lysychansk was easier to defend since it is located on a hill, but he warned that Russian forces would target it with artillery and mortars once in full control of Sievierodonetsk.

Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the pro-Moscow Luhansk People’s Republic, told Russia’s TASS news agency that Russian fighters had advanced slower than expected, in order to safeguard Sievierodonetsk’s infrastructure and “exercise caution around its chemical factories.”

Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council aid agency, which had long operated out of the city, said up to 12,000 civilians remain trapped by the fighting in Sievierodonetsk, without sufficient access to water, food, medicine or electricity.

Before the war, the city was home to about 120,000 people.

Some material in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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The food crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine could see some easing according to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who spoke Wednesday.

He said any breakthrough was not imminent and could still be some time off.

The war has effectively bottlenecked supplies of grain and fertilizer from the war zone. Russia and Ukraine account for a third of global wheat supplies while Russia is a major global source of fertilizer.

Guterres called for “quick and decisive action to ensure a steady flow of food and energy,” including “lifting export restrictions, allocating surpluses and reserves to vulnerable populations and addressing food price increases to calm market volatility.”

“I think that there is progress, but we are not yet there. These are complex things and the fact that everything is interlinked makes the negotiation particularly complex,” Guterres said at a news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson in Stockholm.

Guerres traveled to Moscow and Kyiv earlier this year in an attempt to get exports from both countries to resume.

“As I said to the security council, I’m hopeful, but there is still a ways to go, and we are totally committed to make things happen,” he said.

Moscow has blamed Western sanctions for the disruptions in supplies and has said Russia would allow Ukrainian wheat and Russian fertilizer through the Black Sea if sanctions were eased.

During a trip to Bahrain Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov placed the responsibility on Kyiv and the West.

He said Western countries “created a lot of artificial problems by closing their ports to Russian ships, disrupting logistics and financial chains.”

Some information in this report comes from Reuters and Agence France Presse
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged to send Ukraine high-tech anti-aircraft systems as Germany looks to quell criticism from opposition members that it hasn’t provided enough military aid in the fight against Russia’s unprovoked invasion.

Speaking to lawmakers in Berlin on Wednesday, Scholz said the government had approved a proposal to ship IRIS-T missiles and radar systems to Kyiv as Russia continues to pound targets in eastern Ukraine.

The goal is to ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin “does not win” the war he started in Ukraine, Scholz said.

“Our goal is for Ukraine to be able to defend itself and succeed in doing so,” he added.

Russia has stepped up its offensive to take further ground in areas where Moscow-backed separatists already have a foothold as Western nations rush to get weapons to Ukraine, which lacks the firepower of Russia.

Scholz’s announcement comes hours after U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington will provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems that can strike with precision at targets up to 80 kilometers away.

The rocket system known as HIMARS, can be used both to intercept Russian artillery and to take out Russian positions in towns where fighting is intense, such as Syevyerodonetsk.

Some information came from Reuters.

 
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In the dusty, northern-most sheikhdom of the United Arab Emirates, where laborers cycle by rustic tea shops, one of the world’s largest yachts sits in a quiet port — so far avoiding the fate of other luxury vessels linked to sanctioned Russian oligarchs. 

The display of lavish wealth is startling in one of the UAE’s poorest emirates, a 90-minute drive from the illuminated high-rises of Dubai. But the 118-meter (387-foot) Motor Yacht A’s presence in a Ras al-Khaimah creek also shows the UAE’s neutrality during Russia’s war on Ukraine as the Gulf country remains a magnet for Russian money and its oil-rich capital sees Moscow as a crucial OPEC partner. 

Since Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, the seven sheikhdoms of the Emirates have offered a refuge for Russians, both those despairing of their country’s future as well as the mega-wealthy concerned about Western sanctions. 

While much of the world has piled sanctions on Russian institutions and allies of President Vladimir Putin, the Emirates has not. It also avoids overt criticism of the war, which government readouts still refer to as the “Ukraine crisis.” 

The Motor Yacht A belongs to Andrey Melnichenko, an oligarch worth some $23.5 billion, according to Forbes. He once ran the fertilizer producer Eurochem and SUEK, one the the world’s largest coal companies. 

The European Union in March included Melnichenko in a mass list of sanctions on business leaders and others described as close to Putin. The EU sanctions noted he attended a Feb. 24 meeting Putin held the day of the invasi

“The fact that he was invited to attend this meeting shows that he is a member of the closest circle of Vladimir Putin and that he is supporting or implementing actions or policies which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, as well as stability and security in Ukraine,” the EU said at the time. 

Melnichenko resigned from the corporate positions he held in the two major firms, according to statements from the companies. However, he has criticized Western sanctions and denied being close to Putin. 

Melnichenko could not be reached for comment through his advisers. 

Already, authorities in Italy have seized one of his ships — the $600 million Sailing Yacht A. France, Spain and Britain as well have sought to target superyachts tied to Russian oligarchs as part of a wider global effort to put pressure on Putin and those close to him. 

But the $300 million Motor Yacht A so far appears untouched. It flew an Emirati flag on Tuesday when Associated Press journalists observed the ship. Two crew members milled around the deck. 

The boat’s last recorded position on March 10 put it off the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, just over 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) from Ras al-Khaimah. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the AP show the vessel in Ras al-Khaimah’s creek beginning March 17, a week later. 

The Financial Times first reported on the ship’s presence in the UAE. 

Authorities in Ras al-Khaimah did not respond to a request for comment on the yacht’s presence. The UAE’s Foreign Ministry did not answer questions about the ship, but said in a statement to the AP that it takes “its role in protecting the integrity of the global financial system extremely seriously.” 

But so far, the UAE has taken no such public action targeting Russia. The country abstained on a U.N. Security Council vote in February condemning Russia’s invasion, angering Washington. 

The neutral response may stem from “the financial gain we’re seeing in Dubai in terms of new tourist arrivals, and Russian efforts to move assets and buy property,” said Karen Young, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. 

The flow of Russian money — both legitimate and shady — is now an open secret in Dubai, where lavish hotels and beaches increasingly bustle with Russian speakers. State-run radio hosts cheerily describe a massive influx. 

The UAE became one of the few remaining flight corridors out of Moscow. The Emirati government offered three-month multiple-entry visas upon arrival to all Russians, allowing major companies to easily transfer their employees from Moscow to Dubai. The private jet terminal at Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central has seen a 400% spike in traffic, the airport’s CEO recently told the AP. 

Real estate agents have reported a surge of interest from Russians seeking to buy property in Dubai, particularly in the skyscrapers of Dubai Marina and villas on the Palm Jumeirah. 

For those who want to move to the UAE, buying high-end property also helps secure a visa. 

“Business is booming right now,” said Thiago Caldas, CEO of the Dubai-based property firm Modern Living, which now accepts cryptocurrency to facilitate sales with new Russian clients. “They have a normal life and don’t face restrictions.” 

Caldas said inquiries from Russian clients in Dubai have multiplied by over 10 since the war, forcing his firm to hire three Russian-speaking agents to deal with the deluge. 

With sanctions on Russian banks and businesses thwarting many citizens’ access to foreign capital, Russians are increasingly trying to bypass bank transfers through digital currencies in Dubai, said two cryptocurrency traders in the city, where they’re able to liquidate large sums of cash. 

“It’s a safe haven. … The inflow from Russian accounts skyrocketed 300% days after the war in Ukraine began,” said a Russian crypto trader in Dubai, who spoke like the other on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. 

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala state investment company remains among the most active sovereign wealth funds in Russia, along with those of China and Qatar, according to calculations by Javier Capapé of IE University in Spain for the AP. 

But pressure is growing. Late on Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi posted a strongly worded video message in solidarity with Ukraine featuring local ambassadors from the world’s leading democracies as Russia’s foreign minister visits the region. 

“We are united against Russia’s unjustifiable, unprovoked and illegal aggression,” said Ernst Peter Fischer, Germany’s ambassador to the UAE. 
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The World Health Organization reported more than 250 attacks on health facilities and health personnel in Ukraine since it was invaded by Russian forces. One U.S. firm is helping fill the gap with mobile laboratories and clinics. For VOA, Genia Dulot has our story from Los Angeles.
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For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT.

12:15 a.m.: U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday he decided to provide Ukraine with “more advanced rocket systems and munitions” as part of U.S. efforts to help the Ukrainian fight against a Russian invasion now in its fourth month.

Biden wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times that the United States has aided Ukraine with weapons and ammunition in order to bolster its position on the battlefield and ultimately in peace negotiations with Russia.

“Unprovoked aggression, the bombing of maternity hospitals and centers of culture, and the forced displacement of millions of people makes the war in Ukraine a profound moral issue,” Biden said.

Biden wrote Tuesday that he does not seek war with Russia.

“As much as I disagree with Mr. Putin, and find his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow,” Biden said. “So long as the United States or our allies are not attacked, we will not be directly engaged in this conflict, either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces. We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders.”

12:01 a.m.: Russian opposition figure and jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny could face 15 more years under a new charge, The Associated Press reported.

Navalny took to social media Tuesday to say he now has been charged with starting an extremist organization. There has been no official announcement about new charges against Navalny.

Navalny was jailed last year when he returned to Russia after receiving medical treatment in Germany following a poison attack with a Soviet-era nerve agent during a visit to Siberia in 2020. Navalny blamed Putin for the attack.

He is currently serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a prison camp east of Moscow on a 2014 embezzlement conviction. Navalny has been a longtime outspoken critic of the government, including calling the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “stupid” and “built on lies.”

Last year, Navalny’s foundation was outlawed after being labeled “extremist” by authorities, who blocked tens of websites run by his network.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
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