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Russia’s defense ministry is coming under criticism from “increasingly diverse actors within the Russian system,” according to an intelligence update posted on Twitter on Saturday by Britain’s defense ministry. The growing criticism is a result, the ministry said, of “continued battlefield setbacks for Russia over the last two weeks.”

Critics of Russia’s military performance in Ukraine include “Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Wagner Group private military company owner Yevgeny Prigozhin, state-approved TV presenters, pop stars, and an increasingly vocal community of ultra-nationalistic military bloggers.”

The British defense ministry said “criticism remains focused at the military high command, rather than senior political leadership, but it does represent a trend of public voicing of dissent against the Russian establishment which is being at least partly tolerated and which will likely be hard to reverse.”

Russia says a truck explosion on the combination rail and highway bridge connecting Crimea to Russia has destroyed part of the roadbed. The blast also caused seven fuel tankers on a train crossing the bridge to catch fire.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the explosion, but Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, tweeted a picture of the damaged bridge with a caption reading “Crimea, the bridge, the beginning. Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled.”

Russia concentrated its attacks in Ukraine on areas it claims to have annexed, including the eastern city Kharkiv and the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram that missile strikes hit the center of Kharkiv early Saturday, according to The Associated Press. He said the explosions sparked fires at several buildings, including a medical institution.

The Ukrainian governor of the Zaporizhzhia region said that Russian forces fired more missiles at the regional capital on Friday and used Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones there for the first time.

The death toll from earlier missile strikes on apartment buildings in the city of Zaporizhzhia rose to 14.

In other Moscow-annexed areas, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported its forces had repelled Ukrainian advances near the city of Lyman and had retaken three villages elsewhere in the eastern Donetsk region. The ministry said Russian forces also had prevented Ukrainian troops from advancing on several villages in the Kherson region.

Communication troubles

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops have reported outages of their Starlink communication devices on the front line that may have prevented troops from liberating territory held by Russian forces, according to Ukrainian officials and soldiers.

Thousands of Starlink terminals, made by Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, were purchased by the U.S. government and crowdfunded by donors to help Ukrainian troops operate drones, receive vital intelligence updates, and communicate with each other in areas where there are no other secure networks, the Financial Times reported.

Some of the outages led to a “catastrophic” loss of communication in recent weeks, said a senior Ukrainian government official with direct knowledge of the issue. Many outages were reported in the south, around the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, but also along the front line in eastern Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Musk and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment, the Times said. But later, on Twitter, Musk said, “As for what’s happening on the battlefield, that’s classified.”

Ukrainian offensive

Ukrainian forces have liberated a total of 2,434 square kilometers and 96 settlements in the eastern part of the country in their latest offensive, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday.

Zelenskyy also said that in the last week alone, Kyiv’s forces had taken 776 square kilometers and 29 settlements in the eastern region.

As Ukraine’s forces advanced into areas previously held by Russia, officials reported the discovery of mass graves.

Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram on Friday that workers in Lyman, an eastern town recently recaptured by Ukraine, found a mass grave with an unknown number of victims. He said another burial site had also been found in the town with 200 individual graves.

A report by Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Ministry said Friday that 530 bodies of civilians have been found in the country’s northeastern Kharkiv region in the past month.

Nuclear worries

Fighting near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has alarmed nuclear energy watchdogs. Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said Saturday’s shelling caused the plant to lose its connection to external power. In a post on Telegram the company said the backup diesel generators have enough fuel for about 10 days.

An accident there could release 10 times the potentially lethal radiation as the world’s worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine 36 years ago, Ukrainian Environmental Protection Minister Ruslan Strilets said Friday.

U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi will travel to Russia early next week for talks on setting up a protection zone around the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant.

U.S. President Joe Biden said at a fundraiser in New York on Thursday night that the risk of Armageddon is the highest it has been since the early 1960s as Russian losses in Ukraine prompt Russian officials to discuss the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons.

“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” he told Democratic donors. In October 1962, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were seemingly on the verge of a nuclear conflict after the U.S. deployment of ballistic missiles in Turkey and Italy were countered by the Soviet deployment of similar missiles in Cuba.

Following Biden’s comments, the White House said Friday that the U.S. sees no reason to change its nuclear posture and does not have any indication that Russia is imminently preparing to use nuclear weapons.

“He was reinforcing what we have been saying, which is how seriously … we take these threats,” from Russia, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One when asked about Biden’s comments.

EU divide

European Union leaders on Friday agreed to give more financial and military aid to Ukraine, but a full day of talks at a Prague summit did not bring any agreement on whether or how to cap natural gas prices.

EU leaders want to lower natural gas prices before winter sets in, but political discussions on how to go about it are tangled amid differing proposals. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday suggested gas price cap options for the EU leaders to discuss, after France, Italy, Poland and 12 other countries urged Brussels to propose an EU-wide cap to contain inflation.

Other countries are opposed — among them Germany, Europe’s biggest gas buyer, and the Netherlands — and they insist capping prices could cause demand for gas to rise or leave countries struggling to attract supply from global markets.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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A giant fire sparked by a car bomb has broken out on a key bridge linking Crimea to Russia, which annexed the territory in 2014, Moscow said Saturday, without immediately blaming Ukraine.

The road-and-rail bridge, built on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin and inaugurated in 2018, was a key transport link for carrying military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, especially in the south, as well as ferrying troops across.

Spanning the Kerch Strait, it is the only crossing between occupied Crimean territory and Russia.

“Today at 6:07 a.m. (0307 GMT) on the road traffic side of the Crimean bridge … a car bomb exploded, setting fire to seven oil tankers being carried by rail to Crimea,” Russian news agencies cited the national anti-terrorism committee as saying.

The Kremlin spokesperson said Putin had ordered the establishment of a commission to look into the blast, Russian news agencies reported.

The head of the Russian-installed regional parliament in Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov, blamed it on “Ukrainian vandals.”

Russia had maintained the bridge was safe despite the fighting in Ukraine but had threatened Kyiv with reprisals if it was attacked.

If it is established that Ukraine was behind the blast, it is a matter of serious concern for Moscow as the bridge is far from the front line.

There have been several explosions at Russian military installations in the Crimean peninsula.

Ukraine’s recent lightning territorial gains in the east and south have undermined a claim from the Kremlin last week that it annexed Donetsk, neighboring Lugansk and the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

The four territories create a crucial land corridor between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, and together make up around 20% of Ukraine.
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As concerns grow of a possible nuclear conflict between Russia and the West over Ukraine, there are hopes China could defuse the crisis.

But Russia’s most influential ally may not have the desire or the ability to help, according to analysts.

“If any power has influence over Putin, it is China,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS University of London’s China Institute.

The problem, according to Tsang, is that “foreign policy under [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] is guided by the China-first — not the world first — principle,” meaning Beijing will be weighing the advantages or disadvantages of getting involved.

China is the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council that has pledged to not be the first to use nuclear weapons. It is also Russia’s biggest trade partner and arguably the country with the most political influence over Moscow.

But some analysts say Beijing has little incentive to help Washington defuse the crisis because of its anger over the Biden administration’s handling of U.S.-China relations, especially the Taiwan issue. They say U.S. weapons sales to the island that China hopes to reunify with one day, along with recent visits by high-level U.S. officials, are seen as emboldening Taiwan’s pro-independence ruling party.

“That is a critical factor, because Beijing has to think: ‘What am I doing this for, given the U.S. seems relentless in introducing measures every other day to harm Chinese interests, from trade to tech, from the Taiwan issue to the Indo-Pacific,’” said Yuan Jingdong, a professor specializing in Chinese foreign policy at the University of Sydney.

And even if it wanted to, China may lack the ability to persuade Putin to end the war, some experts told VOA.

“China’s influence in the Ukraine war is very limited,” said Zhu Feng, dean of the School of International Studies at eastern China’s Nanjing University.

Given that the war is going strongly against Putin, urging him to end it now would amount to asking him to accept defeat, Zhu said.

“Can China convince him? Convince him to die a political death? He won’t listen,” said Zhu.

Yuan agreed: “Putin will simply say ‘Thank you, but no thank you.’ He has to think about something more serious, including his very survival.”

China has publicly called for negotiations and a peaceful resolution.

At a meeting with Ukraine’s foreign minister on the sidelines of a U.N. Security Council session in New York last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said: “As a responsible major country and a permanent member state of the U.N. Security Council, China has always been committed to dialogue for peace, never standing on the sidelines, nor pouring oil on the flame, still less seeking selfish gains. We always stand on the side of peace and will continue to play a constructive role.”

Although Beijing’s stance on the war has been ambiguous — China has not condemned the Russian invasion and it, alongside Brazil, Gabon and India, recently abstained from a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Moscow-backed referendums in eastern Ukraine — Beijing has stopped short of providing Russia with political and military backing.

At a recent meeting between Putin and Xi, Putin revealed China had questions and concerns about the war.

Analysts say it’s possible Xi may have suggested ways of de-escalation in private conversations with Putin, and others speculate that China may not believe a nuclear crisis is imminent.

It’s possible that China “doesn’t think Putin will use nuclear weapons because Putin is not suicidal,” Zhu said. “Putin’s personal political career will suffer a huge impact, and Russia will be downgraded into some kind of failed state.”

Simon Chen, a political science professor at National Taiwan University, said the biggest worry for Beijing is Putin losing political power due to a total defeat in the war.

“It could hurt Putin’s chances of securing another term in office in the presidential election in 2024 and boost the chances of opposition democratic parties in Russia, which are close to the U.S.,” Chen said. “This is not beneficial to China and something China really doesn’t want to see. That’s why Beijing wants both sides to negotiate an end to the war.”

Moscow losing the war could weaken China’s strongest political ally against the U.S., said Yuan.

“Russia’s complete defeat would leave China [alone] against the U.S. and its European and Asian allies and partners and will make it very difficult for China to achieve what it has set out to do,” Yuan said.

Tsang of SOAS argued that it may be in China’s interest to play a much stronger mediating role, even if top Chinese officials might not see that as beneficial.

“If China should successfully put an end to the war, it will emerge as a leading global peace maker and will do China’s global image a ton of good, and the end of the war will also bring in economic benefits,” said Tsang. “The problem is that Xi can’t see it, and no one in the Chinese government dares to tell him.”

Working to end the Ukraine conflict could also help China achieve long-term geopolitical objectives and help China mend its image in other ways, analysts say.

Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, says the Ukraine conflict has been used by Taiwan to allege that China will soon invade the island. The U.S. government, however, has said there’s no evidence Beijing is preparing for an invasion.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is also feeding into European suspicions that Beijing’s ambitious transcontinental trade route—the Belt and Road Initiative—cloaks imperial intentions and debt traps for countries to fall into, a position that Beijing consistently denies.

China, however, may consider an image enhancement as having little value.

“Improving image will not solve China’s Taiwan problem. It may not even lead to the U.S. taking a less forceful approach toward Taiwan, so one might say that positive incentive is needed to nudge China’s positions,” said Sun Yun, director of the China Program at the Washington-based Stimson Center.

Ultimately, Beijing’s action or inaction on the Ukraine war appears to be based on its relations with Washington.

Seeking Chinese help with Russia while “fanning the flames” over Taiwan “doesn’t work,” said Chinese analyst Zhu, reflecting Beijing’s view. “If you want China to help, why do you treat China the way you do?” 
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U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday designed to allay European concerns that U.S. intelligence agencies are illegally spying on them. It promises strengthened safeguards against data collection abuses and creates a forum for legal challenges. 

The order builds on a preliminary agreement Biden announced in March with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a bid to end a yearslong battle over the safety of EU citizens’ data that tech companies store in the U.S. However, the European privacy campaigner who triggered the battle wasn’t satisfied that it resolved core issues and warned of more legal wrangling. 

The reworked Privacy Shield “includes a robust commitment to strengthen the privacy and civil liberties safeguards for signals intelligence, which should ensure the privacy of EU personal data,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. 

Means of redress

“It also requires the establishment of a multilayer redress mechanism with independent and binding authority for EU individuals to seek redress if they believe they are unlawfully targeted by U.S. intelligence activities,” she added. 

Washington and Brussels have long been at odds over the friction between the European Union’s stringent data privacy rules and the comparatively lax regime in the U.S., which lacks a federal privacy law. That has created uncertainty for tech giants including Google and Facebook’s parent company Meta, raising the prospect that U.S. tech firms might need to keep European data out of the U.S. 

Industry groups largely welcomed Biden’s order but European consumer rights and privacy campaigners, including activist Max Schrems, whose complaint kicked off the legal battle a decade earlier, were skeptical about whether it goes far enough and could end up in the bloc’s top court again. 

Friday’s order narrows the scope of intelligence gathering — regardless of a target’s nationality — to “validated intelligence priorities,” fortifies the mandate of the Civil Liberties Protection Officer in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and directs the attorney general to establish an independent court to review related activities. 

Europeans can petition that Data Protection Review Court, which is to be composed of judges appointed from outside the U.S. government. 

The next step: Raimondo’s office was to send a series of letters to the 27-member EU that its officials can assess as the basis of a new framework. 

Improvements acknowledged

The European Union’s executive arm, the European Commission, said the framework has “significant improvements” over the original Privacy Shield and it would now work on adopting a final decision clearing the way for data to flow freely between EU and U.S. companies certified under the framework. 

Raimondo said the new commitments would address European Union legal concerns covering personal data transfers to the U.S. as well as corporate contracts. A revived framework “will enable the continued flow of data that underpins more than $1 trillion in cross-border trade and investment every year,” Raimondo said. 

Twice, in 2015 and again in 2020, the European Union’s top court struck down data privacy framework agreements between Washington and Brussels. The first legal challenge was filed by Austrian lawyer and privacy activist Schrems, who was concerned about how Facebook handled his data in light of 2013 revelations about U.S. government cyber-snooping from former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. 

European consumer group BEUC said despite the extra safeguards, fundamental differences between American and European privacy and data protection standards are too wide to bridge. 

“However much the U.S. authorities try to paper over the cracks of the original Privacy Shield, the reality is that the EU and U.S. still have a different approach to data protection, which cannot be canceled out by an executive order,” said the group’s deputy director general, Ursula Pachl. “The moment EU citizens’ data travels across the Atlantic, it will not be afforded similar protections as in the EU.” 

Schrems said while his Vienna-based group, NOYB, would need time to study the order, his initial reading is that it “seems to fail” on some key requirements, including for surveillance to be necessary and proportionate under the EU’s Charter of Fundamental rights to avoid indiscriminate mass data collection. 

While the U.S. included those two words, Schrems said the two sides don’t seem to have agreed they have the same legal meaning. 

If it did, “the U.S. would have to fundamentally limit its mass surveillance systems to comply with the EU understanding of ‘proportionate’ surveillance,” Schrems said. 
…

Russia concentrated its attacks Friday on the area around Zaporizhzhia, one of the four areas of eastern Ukraine that it claims to have annexed.

The Ukrainian governor of the Zaporizhzhia region said that Russian forces had fired more missiles at the regional capital on Friday and had used Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones there for the first time.

The death toll from earlier missile strikes on apartment buildings in the city of Zaporizhzhia rose to 12.

In other Moscow-annexed areas, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported its forces had repelled Ukrainian advances near the city of Lyman and had retaken three villages elsewhere in the eastern Donetsk region. The ministry said Russian forces also had prevented Ukrainian troops from advancing on several villages in the Kherson region.

Communication troubles

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops have reported outages of their Starlink communication devices on the front line that may have prevented troops from liberating territory held by Russian forces, according to Ukrainian officials and soldiers.

Thousands of Starlink terminals, made by Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, were purchased by the U.S. government and crowdfunded by donors to help Ukrainian troops operate drones, receive vital intelligence updates and communicate with each other in areas where there are no other secure networks, the Financial Times reported.

Some of the outages led to a “catastrophic” loss of communication in recent weeks, said a senior Ukrainian government official with direct knowledge of the issue. Many outages were reported in the south, around the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, but also along the front line in eastern Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Musk and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment, the Times said. But later, on Twitter, Musk said, “As for what’s happening on the battlefield, that’s classified.”

Ukrainian claim successes

Ukrainian forces have liberated 2,434 square kilometers and 96 settlements in the eastern part of the country in their latest offensive, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday. 

Zelenskyy also said that in the last week alone, Kyiv’s forces had taken 776 square kilometers and 29 settlements in the eastern region. On Thursday, he said more than 500 square kilometers had been recaptured in the south.

Nuclear worries

Fighting near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has alarmed nuclear energy watchdogs. An accident there could release 10 times the potentially lethal radiation as the world’s worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine 36 years ago, Ukrainian Environmental Protection Minister Ruslan Strilets said Friday.

U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi will travel to Russia early next week for talks on setting up a protection zone around the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant.

President Joe Biden said Thursday night at a fundraiser in New York that the risk of Armageddon was at its highest point since the early 1960s as losses in Ukraine prompt Russian officials to discuss the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons.

“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since [U.S. President John F.] Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” he said. In October 1962, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were seemingly on the verge of a nuclear conflict after the U.S. deployment of ballistic missiles in Turkey and Italy were countered by the Soviet deployment of similar missiles in Cuba.

Speaking to Democratic donors, Biden said he and U.S. officials were still “trying to figure out [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s offramp” in Ukraine.

Following Biden’s comments, the White House said Friday that the U.S. saw no reason to change its nuclear posture and did not have any indication that Russia was imminently preparing to use nuclear weapons.

“He was reinforcing what we have been saying, which is how seriously … we take these threats” from Russia, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One when asked about Biden’s comments.

The president reiterated the U.S. would continue to support Ukraine.

EU divide

European Union leaders on Friday agreed to give more financial and military aid to Ukraine, but a full day of talks at a Prague summit did not bring any agreement on whether or how to cap natural gas prices.

EU leaders want to lower natural gas prices before winter sets in, but political discussions on how to go about it are tangled amid differing proposals. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday suggested gas price cap options for the EU leaders to discuss, after France, Italy, Poland and 12 other countries urged Brussels to propose an EU-wide cap to contain inflation.

Other countries are opposed, including Germany, Europe’s biggest gas buyer, and the Netherlands. They insist capping prices could cause demand for gas to rise or leave countries struggling to attract supply from global markets.

Captured Russian tanks

Britain’s defense ministry said in an intelligence update posted on Twitter Friday that “repurposed, captured Russian equipment makes up a large proportion of Ukraine’s military hardware. Ukraine has likely captured at least 440 Russian main battle tanks and around 650 other armored vehicles since the invasion. Over half of Ukraine’s currently fielded tank fleet potentially consists of captured vehicles.”

The update added that “the failure of Russian crews to destroy intact equipment before withdrawing or surrendering highlights their poor state of training and low levels of battle discipline. With Russian formations under severe strain in several sectors and increasingly demoralized troops, Russia will likely continue to lose heavy weaponry.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Bulgaria does not supply weapons to Ukraine and is not actively supporting the war-torn country on diplomatic or legal fronts. It is, however, assisting Ukrainian refugees. Tatiana Vorozhko reports from its capital, Sofia. VOA footage by Svitlana Koval. Video editing by Oleksii Osyka and Anna Rice.
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The U.N. Human Rights Council has appointed a special rapporteur to monitor human rights in Russia. The resolution was adopted on a vote of 17 in favor, 6 against, and 24 abstentions.  

The debate on the initiative began just as a Belarusian activist and two humanitarian organizations based in Ukraine and Russia were announced as co-winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.   

The significance was not lost on those attending the council session.  

Before the voting began, many delegates expressed concern about the worsening human rights situation in Russia. They deplored the severe restrictions on people’s fundamental rights to freedoms of expression and assembly.   

The U.S. ambassador to the Human Rights Council, Michele Taylor, said repressive tactics and attacks against dissenting voices have significantly increased since Russia launched its war against Ukraine. She said the extensive shrinking of civic space has discouraged Russians from actively participating in public life.  

“These unrelenting domestic attacks on human rights enable Russia’s war on Ukraine and its ongoing violations of the U.N. charter,” Taylor said. “However, the Russian authorities’ long-running and worsening repression within Russia more than justifies the creation of a special rapporteur. We will vote yes on this resolution and urge others to do so as well.”   

Many other countries joined in this chorus of support. Only Venezuela, Cuba and China spoke out in defense of Russia’s position.   

The Russian ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, lashed out at the council, saying it has stopped being a forum for dialogue to resolve general problems of human rights. Instead, he said the council has become a tool for Western countries to attain their political goals. He spoke through an interpreter. 

“This is a further step in the Western strategy towards transforming the HRC [Human Rights Council] and the U.N. human rights system as a whole into a tool to serve the interests of one group of countries … as after all that is the final aim of this despicable document. The accusations it contains could be directed just as successfully against virtually all of the states which are co-sponsors of this draft,” Gatilov said.

The resolution cites many concerns, including mass arrests and detentions, and targeted harassment of journalists, politicians, human rights defenders, and other activists. It criticizes the forced shutdowns of civil society organizations, including the Russian human rights organization Memorial, one of this year’s Nobel peace laureates. 

The resolution calls on Russian authorities to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur who will serve for a period of one year. 

 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Friday held talks by phone with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to deepen relations. The talks are seen as likely to add to growing concerns among some of Turkey’s NATO partners over its relationship with Moscow and where its loyalties lie. 

The phone call was announced in a press statement by Erdogan’s office. 

It said the Turkish president reiterated his willingness to work toward a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. The conversation came after Erdogan’s three face-to-face meetings with Putin in the past few months.

The Turkish leader’s efforts to deepen ties, including his refusal to enforce Western sanctions against Russia, have spurred growing questions about Turkey’s commitment to its Western partners and NATO.

But Turkish presidential adviser Mesut Casin, who is also a professor at Istanbul’s Yeditepe University, said such talks are normal between neighbors. 

“Turkey is a NATO member and will continue to be so and this is very critical for Turkey,” he said. “The NATO alliance is one thing and Turkey’s relation with Russia is something else. They need to be seen as two separate things. Russia is our neighbor and we need maintain good ties. Turkey’s neutrality policy over Ukraine is to the benefit of NATO.”

Ankara insists it also maintains close ties with Ukraine, to which it continues to supply military hardware, including drones. Such contacts with Moscow and Kyiv, Erdogan claims, allowed him to successfully assist the United Nations in brokering a deal to enable Russian-blockaded Ukrainian grain to reach world markets. That deal comes up for renewal in November.

But Western concerns, especially over deepening Turkish-Russian financial ties, are growing. Under the threat of U.S. secondary sanctions, Turkish banks withdrew from Russia’s Mir payment system last month. Moscow was using the system to circumvent a ban on Russian use of international credit cards. But analysts say Ankara retains leverage over its Western allies, with Turkey’s permission required to allow Sweden and Finland to join NATO. On Thursday, Erdogan renewed his threat Thursday to block Sweden’s bid. 

“As long as terrorist organizations demonstrate on Swedish streets and terrorists are present in their parliament, our approach to the issue will not be positive,” the Turkish leader told reporters.

Erdogan accuses Stockholm of offering sanctuary to Kurdish separatists fighting the Turkish state and an organization that Ankara blames for carrying out the failed 2016 military coup. Sweden denies the charges. But some observers say Turkey’s stance will likely only add to questions on whether Ankara is doing Moscow’s bidding.

Asli Aydintasbas, a visiting scholar with the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said the West will need to get used to a more assertive Turkey.

“The dynamics have changed,” she said. “Turkey no longer feels a strong and firm member of the Western camp or NATO alliance. It is still NATO, but obviously also interested in having alternatives. And Turkey is also a whole lot more self-confident than it used to be.”  

With Turkey geographically close to Russia, Ukraine, and other hotspots like Iran and Syria, observers say Erdogan is aware of his country’s strategic importance and Western allies’ need for its continued cooperation.
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Two Russians who said they fled the country to avoid military service have requested asylum in the U.S. after landing in a small boat on a remote Alaska island in the Bering Sea, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office said Thursday.

Karina Borger, a spokesperson for the Alaska Republican senator, said in an email that the office has been in communication with the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection and that “the Russian nationals reported that they fled one of the coastal communities on the east coast of Russia to avoid compulsory military service.”

Thousands of Russian men have fled since President Vladimir Putin announced a mobilization to bolster Russian forces in Ukraine. While Putin said the move was aimed at calling up about 300,000 men with past military service, many Russians fear it will be broader.

Spokespersons with the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection referred a reporter’s questions to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security public affairs office, which provided little information Thursday. The office, in a statement, said the people “were transported to Anchorage for inspection, which includes a screening and vetting process, and then subsequently processed in accordance with applicable U.S. immigration laws under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

The agency said the two Russians arrived Tuesday on a small boat. It did not provide details on where they came from, their journey or the asylum request. It was not immediately clear what kind of boat they were on.

Alaska’s senators, Republicans Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, on Thursday said the two Russians landed at a beach near the town of Gambell, an isolated Alaska Native community of about 600 people on St. Lawrence Island. Sullivan said he was alerted to the matter by a “senior community leader from the Bering Strait region” on Tuesday morning.

Gambell is about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the western Alaska hub community of Nome and about 36 miles (58 kilometers) from the Chukotka Peninsula, Siberia, according to a community profile on a state website. The remote, 100-mile (161-kilometer) long island, which includes Savoonga, a community of about 800 people, receives flight services from a regional air carrier. Residents rely heavily on a subsistence way of life, harvesting from the sea fish, whales and other marine life.

A person who responded to an email address listed for Gambell directed questions to federal authorities. A message seeking comment also was sent to the Consulate General of Russia in San Francisco.

Sullivan, in a statement, said he has encouraged federal authorities to have a plan in place in case “more Russians flee to Bering Strait communities in Alaska.”

“This incident makes two things clear: First, the Russian people don’t want to fight Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” Sullivan said. “Second, given Alaska’s proximity to Russia, our state has a vital role to play in securing America’s national security.”

Murkowski said the situation underscored “the need for a stronger security posture in America’s Arctic.”

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday, as initial details of the situation were emerging, said he did not expect a continual stream or “flotilla” of people traversing the same route. He also warned that travel in the region could be dangerous as a fall storm packing strong winds was expected.

It is unusual for someone to take this route to try to get into the U.S.

U.S. authorities in August stopped Russians without legal status 42 times who tried to enter the U.S. from Canada. That was up from 15 times in July and nine times in August 2021.

Russians more commonly try to enter the U.S. through Mexico, which does not require visas. Russians typically fly from Moscow to Cancun or Mexico City, entering Mexico as tourists before getting a connecting a flight to the U.S. border. Earlier this year, U.S. authorities contended with a spate of Russians who hoped to claim asylum if they reached an inspection booth at an official crossing.

Some trace the spike to before Russia invaded Ukraine, attributing it to the imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny last year.
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A new COVID-19 wave appears to be brewing in Europe as cooler weather arrives, with public health experts warning that vaccine fatigue and confusion over types of available vaccines will likely limit booster uptake.

Omicron subvariants BA.4/5 that dominated this summer are still behind the majority of infections, but newer Omicron subvariants are gaining ground. Hundreds of new forms of Omicron are being tracked by scientists, World Health Organization officials said this week.

WHO data released late on Wednesday showed that cases in the European Union (EU) reached 1.5 million last week, up 8% from the prior week, despite a dramatic fall in testing. Globally, case numbers continue to decline.

Hospitalization numbers across many countries in the 27-nation bloc, as well as Britain, have gone up in recent weeks.

In the week ended Oct 4, COVID-19 hospital admissions with symptoms jumped nearly 32% in Italy, while intensive care admissions rose about 21%, compared to the week before, according to data compiled by independent scientific foundation Gimbe.

Over the same week, COVID hospitalizations in Britain saw a 45% increase versus the week earlier.

Omicron-adapted vaccines have launched in Europe as of September, with two types of shots addressing the BA.1 as well as the BA.4/5 subvariants made available alongside existing first-generation vaccines. In Britain, only the BA.1-tailored shots have been given the green light.

European and British officials have endorsed the latest boosters only for a select groups of people, including the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.

Complicating matters further is the “choice” of vaccine as a booster, which will likely add to confusion, public health experts said.

But willingness to get yet another shot, which could be a fourth or fifth for some, is wearing thin.

“For those who may be less concerned about their risk, the messaging that it is all over coupled with the lack of any major publicity campaign is likely to reduce uptake,” said Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

False sense of security

“So on balance I fear that uptake will be quite a bit lower.”

“Another confounder is that quite a high proportion of the population might have also had a COVID episode in recent months,” said Penny Ward, visiting professor in pharmaceutical medicine at King’s College London.

Some may erroneously feel that having had a complete primary course and then having fallen ill with COVID means they will remain immune, she added.

Since Sept. 5, when the roll-out of new vaccines began in the European Union, about 40 million vaccine doses produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have been delivered to member states, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

However, weekly vaccine doses administered in the EU were only between 1 million and 1.4 million during September, compared with 6-10 million per week during the year-earlier period, ECDC data showed.

Perhaps the biggest challenge to uptake is the perception that the pandemic is over, creating a false sense of security.

“There must be some complacency in that life seems to have gone back to normal – at least with regards COVID and people now have other financial and war-related worries,” said Adam Finn, chair of ETAGE, an expert group advising the WHO on vaccine preventable diseases in Europe.

He added that some lawmakers, too, were dropping the ball.

Italy’s Gimbe science foundation said the government, soon to be replaced after an election, was ill prepared for the autumn-winter season, and highlighted that a publication on the government’s management of the pandemic had been blocked.

The health ministry declined to comment.

Meanwhile, British officials last week warned that renewed circulation of flu and a resurgence in COVID-19 could pile pressure on the already stretched National Health Service (NHS).
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This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three recipients: Ales Bialiatski, one of the initiators of the democracy movement that emerged in Belarus in the mid-1980s; and two human rights groups – Memorial, a Russian organization, and the Center for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian group.

Last year’s Peace Prize was awarded to Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov, a Russian. The Nobel Committee said the two received the award “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”

The award is accompanied by a nearly $1 million prize and an 18-karat gold medal.

Muratov sold his Noble medal to benefit Ukrainian children displaced by the war. An anonymous philanthropist bought the gold disc for $103.5 million.

Other winners of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize have included: Martin Luther King Jr., The Red Cross, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Dag Hammarskjold, and Barack Obama.

No prize was awarded during World War II, from 1940-45.
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In recent days, Ukraine has seized control of large areas in the east and south of the country from invading Russian forces. With the Kremlin troops’ retreat, the war could be entering a critical new phase, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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The risk of Armageddon is the highest it has been since the early 1960s, President Joe Biden said Thursday night as Russian losses in Ukraine prompt Russian officials to discuss the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons.

“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Biden said at a fundraiser in New York for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. In October 1962 the U.S. and the Soviet Union were seemingly on the verge of a nuclear conflict after the U.S. deployment of ballistic missiles in Turkey and Italy were countered by the Soviet deployment of similar missiles in Cuba.

The president said the Russia President Vladimir Putin, “a guy I know fairly well,” is not joking when he talks of using “nuclear or biological or chemical weapons.”

“I don’t there is any such a thing as the ability to easily use a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon,” Biden said.

Speaking to Democratic donors, Biden said he and U.S. officials were still “trying to figure out Putin’s off-ramp” in Ukraine.

“Where does he find a way out?” Biden asked. “Where does he find himself in a position he does not not only lose face but lose significant power within Russia?”

The president reiterated that the U.S. would continue to support Ukraine.

In Ukraine on Thursday, a Ukrainian official said Russian shelling struck residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, killing at least two people.

Oleksandr Starukh, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, posted on Telegram that five other people were trapped in rubble following the attack.

Ukraine controls the city, but the Zaporizhzhia region is mostly occupied by Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law Wednesday declaring Russia was annexing Zaporizhzhia and three other regions, a move denounced by Ukraine and its Western partners, as well as the United Nations, as a violation of international law.

Zaporizhzhia is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and shelling in the area in recent months has raised international fears of a nuclear disaster.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the U.N.’s atomic energy agency, is due to visit Kyiv and Moscow this week for what he said would be important meetings. He said Wednesday that the need for a protective zone around the power plant is “now more urgent than ever.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Wednesday that his forces had recaptured Novovoskrysenske, Novohryhorivka and Petropavlivka, three villages in the Kherson region that was also a part of Russia’s annexation claims.

The gains add to Ukraine’s recent successes in reclaiming territory from Russia in the northeastern and southern parts of the country.

Zelenskyy said in his address that Putin has “already lost,” calling the war the Russian leader launched in late February “self-destruction of your nation’s every prospect.”

“Ukrainians know what they fight for,” Zelenskyy said. “And more and more Russian citizens realize that they must die simply because one single man does not want to stop the war.”

The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, arrived in Kyiv on Thursday for what the agency said was a visit to meet with government officials, farmers, journalists, entrepreneurs and energy workers to discuss how to more effectively assist the Ukrainian people.

“It is a critical moment for the Ukrainian people as they defend their freedom from brutal attack, liberate occupied land, prepare for winter, and strengthen democratic institutions & the rule of law,” Power tweeted.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Leaders from 44 European countries met Thursday in Prague in the inaugural meeting of the European Political Community, a new regional group seeking to find strategies to address shared concerns such as energy, the economy and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The group was the brainchild of French President Emmanuel Macron and includes all 27 members of the European Union, plus 17 other nations, some of which are seeking EU membership.

The only two European nations not invited were Russia and its neighboring ally Belarus.

In remarks to open the meeting, Macron said the group’s existence is aimed at sending a message of unity to all European nations by building “a strategic closeness” and finding common strategies. He indicated the group was not seeking to compete with the EU but to find complementary projects.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who closely supported Macron in creating the summit, said the meeting sends a strong signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“It is very visible that all of us who are meeting here know that the Russian attack on Ukraine is a brutal violation of the security and peace that we have had in Europe over the last decades. And therefore, it is important that we reject this attack,” said Scholz.

Thursday’s summit featured an opening ceremony, followed by a series of meetings where leaders discussed the key challenges Europe faces: security, energy, climate, the economy and migration.

No formal policy statements, resolutions or declarations were expected from the summit.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Turkey’s disinformation bill is one step closer to being signed into law, despite protests by the country’s media.

Parliamentary debate on the “proposal on the amendment of the press law and other laws” started Tuesday.

The Turkish government says the bill, suggested in May by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its alliance partner, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), is needed to tackle the “serious threat” from disinformation.

The draft of 40 articles includes punishments for “spreading misleading information” on national security, public order and health in an attempt to spread panic or fear; requirements for social media companies to appoint Turkish representatives to handle requests related to content removal; a new committee to handle press accreditation; and a provision making digital media eligible to receive state advertising revenue.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan first suggested legislation on disinformation after his government was criticized on social media over its handling of wildfires in Turkey’s Mediterranean and Aegean coastal cities last year.

“Personally, I do not have a positive view of social media, and I believe that with the opening of the parliament, it is necessary to work on new legislation on social media,” Erdogan said in a TV interview in August 2021.

But journalists warn the provisions are vaguely worded and that the proposed bill could be used to repress critics.

“The public will be silenced, and the journalists will censor themselves. Self-censorship, which already exists, will become more widespread, and freedom of expression will be completely stifled by this law,” Pinar Turenc, president of Turkey’s Press Council, told VOA.

Editorial independence

Critics warn that provisions in Article 29, which focuses on “misleading information,” could be used to further restrict independent news and social media as Turkey draws near to presidential and parliamentary elections in 2023.

“We are faced with a blanket bill that aims to silence not only the digital media and the press but also the dissidents before the 2023 elections by intimidating them,” Yaman Akdeniz, a cyberlaw professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, told VOA.

“Because of their news articles, media outlets will face investigations for the crime of disinformation, and the journalists will be prosecuted,” Akdeniz said.

Kemal Aktas, head of the Parliamentary Correspondents Association, raised concerns that the bill could make political reporting and access to sources difficult.

“The bill mentions the terms of ‘public order, national security and public health,’ but it is unclear where these terms begin and end,” Aktas told VOA.  “Because it is unknown how a prosecutor or a judge will evaluate these terms, we think there will be great difficulties in covering political news.”

The founder of Yeniden TV, Aysegul Dogan, said the bill risked eroding journalists’ editorial independence.

“Are we going to cover news and ask questions by thinking, ‘If I write like this or ask this, will I create anxiety, panic, or fear?’ We are talking about a legal regulation that should worry everyone who uses social media as much as journalists,” Dogan told VOA, adding that it could also affect citizen journalists.

Ahmet Ozdemir, the ruling AKP’s deputy for Kahramanmaras city, dismissed the criticism, saying that provisions in Article 29 have “nothing to do” with journalists.

“Why would a press member knowingly and willingly spread false news among the public? Why would his reputation be damaged? It is not technically possible for a press member to be the subject of this crime,” Ozdemir said during the parliamentary debate.

In a separate event, Fahrettin Altun, communications director of the Turkish presidency, spoke more widely at a symposium Tuesday on the need to protect against digital threats.

“It is not up for debate to exclude any area from the reach of the law,” Altun said. “We prioritize and address security issues in the cyber world in the same ways that we prioritize and address security issues in the real world.”

Digital media

Turkish media have also objected to parts of the bill that would allow news websites to receive public advertising revenue and would establish a new committee to issue press cards.

Some journalist associations said that allowing websites to receive revenue from the state-run Press Advertising Agency (BIK) could adversely affect local newspapers. With no additional budget, the revenue will have to stretch further, which could force some papers to downsize, the groups said in a statement Tuesday.

Advocacy groups including Reporters Without Borders have previously criticized BIK’s criteria for allocating official revenue, saying it is “liable to give rise to arbitrary practices that deprive outspoken media outlets of advertising revenue.”

A spokesperson for BIK told VOA in September that the agency works within the regulations that govern it, and its decisions “are completely objective.”

Similarly, journalism unions objected to provisions concerning media accreditation.

The proposed legislation says press cards will be granted by a nine-member committee, five of whose members are appointed by the directorate of communications. The other four will come from journalism organizations.

Gokhan Durmus, chair of the Journalists Union of Turkey, objected that the committee will be controlled by bureaucrats instead of journalism organizations. “The unions should issue the press card, as in the rest of Europe,” he said.

As long as a government is hostile to the independent media, press cards do not provide security for journalists, Durmus added.

“The authorities do not look at the card in the journalist’s pocket. They look at what news the journalist came to cover. And if the news is not wanted to be made public, the journalist is beaten, detained, tried at the court or arrested,” Durmus told VOA.

With AKP and MHP holding a majority in parliament, the bill is expected to pass. The main opposition Republican People’s Party has voiced its opposition and has said it will appeal to the Constitutional Court if the law is enacted.

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service. 
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EU lawmakers on Thursday condemned the crackdown on media freedom in military-ruled Myanmar and called for the release of “every unfairly detained journalist.”

Since the military seized power in February last year, it has forced at least 12 media outlets to shut down and arrested about 142 journalists, 57 of whom remain detained. 

Most of those still detained are being held under an incitement charge for allegedly causing fear, spreading false news or agitating against a government employee.

In its resolution adopted by show of hands, the EU Parliament cited the cases of BBC freelance producer Htet Htet Khine; Sithu Aung Myint, a Frontier Myanmar columnist and contributor to Voice of America; and freelancer Nyein Nyein Aye.

“Strongly condemning the military junta’s violent and illegitimate rule in Myanmar, MEPs urge it to drop all politically motivated charges against the members of the press and media workers, and unconditionally release every unfairly detained journalist,” the EU Parliament said.

“They also call on the junta to immediately end its abuses, including arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, sexual violence and other ill-treatment, as well as unfair trials against people working in the media.”

According to Reporters Without Borders, Nyein Nyein Aye was sentenced in July to three years in prison with hard labor on charges of “causing fear, spreading false news and agitating crimes against a government employee.”

Htet Htet Khine was sentenced on Sept. 15 to three years’ hard labor. On Sept. 27, a court sentenced her to a further three years, with a reduction for time served. She has been in detention since August 2021.

“We remain concerned for her safety and wellbeing in detention, and call for the release of Htet Htet Khine and other media workers who have been unjustly detained in Myanmar,” said BBC Media Action Chief Executive Officer Caroline Nursey.

Sithu Aung Myint was arrested in August 2021 along with Htet Htet Khine.

Some of the closed media outlets have continued operating without a license, publishing online as their staff members dodge arrest. Others operate from exile.

The army’s takeover led to mass public protests that the military and police responded to with lethal force, triggering armed resistance and escalating violence that have led to what some U.N. experts characterize as a civil war.

According to detailed lists by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a watchdog group based in Thailand, 2,336 civilians have died in the military government’s crackdown on opponents and at least 15,757 people have been arrested.

EU lawmakers also called for restoration of the civilian government and the “unconditional release” of Myanmar’s former president, Win Myint, and former leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
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Sweden’s domestic security agency said Thursday that its initial investigation into explosions last week along two Russian natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea “has strengthened the suspicions of serious sabotage” as the cause.

Separately, a Swedish prosecutor said that “seizures have been made at the crime scene and these will now be investigated,” although he did not identify the seized evidence.

Neither of the underwater Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines had been in use at the time of the blasts but for days sent methane from the pipes bubbling to the surface off the coasts of Sweden and Denmark.

Some Scandinavian officials have speculated that Russia detonated the pipeline explosions as a way to punish Western allies for their support of Ukrainian forces in fighting Moscow’s seven-month invasion and to cut the possible flow of fuel for the coming winter months.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of attacking the pipelines, which the United States and its allies have vehemently denied. They have said that Russia had the most to gain by disrupting Europe’s energy supplies.

The Swedish Security Service said its investigation confirmed that “detonations” caused extensive damage to the pipelines. The security agency said what happened in the Baltic Sea was “very serious,” but did not release further details of its investigation.

Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said he had given “directives to temporarily block [the area around the damaged pipelines to] carry out a crime scene investigation.”

But he said that now that the initial probe is completed, the blockade around the pipelines off Sweden will be lifted.

The Danish and Swedish governments had previously said they suspected that several hundred pounds of explosives were used to damage the pipelines.

Some of the material in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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WNBA star Brittney Griner is at her “absolute weakest moment in life right now” as she faces a hearing in Russia later this month for her appeal of a nine-year prison sentence for drug possession, Griner’s wife said in an interview aired Thursday.

Cherelle Griner told “CBS Mornings” that her wife, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who was playing in Russia during the WNBA offseason, is afraid of being forgotten by the United States.

“She’s very afraid about being left and forgotten in Russia, or just completely used to the point of her detriment,” Cherelle Griner said.

She said Brittney Griner told her in a phone call that she felt “like my life just doesn’t matter.”

“Like, y’all don’t see the need to get me back home? Am I just nothing?” Cherelle Griner quoted her wife as saying. It wasn’t clear when the call took place.

Brittney Griner was convicted Aug. 4 after Russian police said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow. Her defense lawyers said she had been prescribed cannabis for pain. The WNBA star said she had inadvertently packed them and had no criminal intent.

She is appealing her prison sentence; the hearing is scheduled for Oct. 25. But Cherelle Griner said after that hearing, her wife could potentially be moved to a labor camp elsewhere in Russia.

“My brain can’t even fathom it,” she said in the CBS interview.

President Joe Biden met with Cherelle Griner at the White House last month. He also sat down with Elizabeth Whelan, the sister of Paul Whelan, another American currently imprisoned in Russia. The Biden administration said in July that it had made a “substantial proposal” to get them home. The administration has not provided specifics about its proposal, but a person familiar with the matter previously confirmed it had offered to release Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the U.S.

Cherelle Griner said the president is “doing what he can, but there’s another party in this situation.” She said it’s going to take Russian President Vladimir Putin changing his mindset.

Though Brittney Griner was arrested in February — amid escalated tensions because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine —- the couple did not speak on the phone until August. Cherelle Griner said the first conversation was “just so delightful” and felt optimistic that her wife would survive the ordeal. But the second conversation, she said, “was the most disturbing phone call I’ve ever experienced.”

“You could hear that she was not OK,” Cherelle Griner said.
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The Ukrainian city of Bucha was the scene of one of the worst massacres in Russia’s war against its neighbor, with hundreds of bodies discovered in mass graves back in April. Now, against many expectations, a robust reconstruction effort is making it possible for children to return to school. For VOA, Anna Chernikova reports from Bucha. Camera – Serhii Smychok.
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Greece’s coast guard said Thursday at least 16 people were dead after two boats carrying migrants sank in separate incidents.

Authorities said one boat carrying about 40 people went down near the eastern island of Lesbos, near Turkey.

Fifteen bodies were recovered and five people were rescued, with a search ongoing for the rest of the migrants.

A second boat went down off the island of Kythira after hit rocks.

Authorities said they rescued 30 people from the second boat.

Both vessels were operating amid winds as high as 100 kilometers per hour.

Migrants typically reach Greece form neighboring Turkey, but smugglers have been utilizing longer and more dangerous routes to avoid patrols in the Aegean Sea.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Amid unconfirmed reports that a train operated by Russia’s nuclear division was spotted heading toward Ukraine, the White House says that it has no indication that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Nuclear weapons experts tell VOA if Russia is moving nuclear weapons toward the Ukrainian border, the United States will know. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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For the first time in 20 years, a Russian cosmonaut rocketed from the U.S. on Wednesday, launching to the International Space Station alongside NASA and Japanese astronauts despite tensions over the war in Ukraine. 

Their SpaceX flight was delayed by Hurricane Ian, which ripped across the state last week. 

“I hope with this launch we will brighten up the skies over Florida a little bit for everyone,” said the Japan Space Agency’s Koichi Wakata, who is making his fifth spaceflight. 

Joining him on a five-month mission are three new to space: Marine Col. Nicole Mann, the first Native American woman to orbit Earth; Navy Capt. Josh Cassada; and Russia’s lone female cosmonaut, Anna Kikina. 

“Awesome!” said Mann as they reached orbit. “That was a smooth ride uphill. You’ve got three rookies who are pretty happy to be floating in space right now.” 

They’re due to arrive at the space station Thursday, 29 hours after a noon departure from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and won’t be back on Earth until March. They’re replacing a U.S.-Italian crew that arrived in April. 

Kikina is the Russian Space Agency’s exchange for NASA’s Frank Rubio, who launched to the space station two weeks ago from Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz rocket. He flew up with two cosmonauts. 

The space agencies agreed over the summer to swap seats on their flights in order to ensure a continuous U.S. and Russian presence aboard the 260-mile-high (420-kilometer-high) outpost. The barter was authorized even as global hostilities mounted over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. The next crew exchange is in the spring. 

Shortly before liftoff, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that the key reason for the seat exchange is safety — in case an emergency forces one capsule’s crew home, there would still be an American and Russian on board. 

In the meantime, Russia remains committed to the space station through at least 2024, Russia space official Sergei Krikalev assured reporters this week. Russia wants to build its own station in orbit later this decade, “but we know that it’s not going to happen very quick and so probably we will keep flying” with NASA until then, he said. 

Beginning with Krikalev in 1994, NASA started flying cosmonauts on its space shuttles, first to Russia’s Mir space station and then to the fledgling space station. The 2003 Columbia reentry disaster put an end to it. But U.S. astronauts continued to hitch rides on Russian rockets for tens of millions of dollars per seat. 

Kakina is only the fifth Russian woman to rocket off the planet. She said she was surprised to be selected for the seat swap after encountering “many tests and obstacles” during her decade of training. “But I did it. I’m lucky maybe. I’m strong,” she said. 

Mann is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in California, and taking up her mother’s dream catcher, a small traditional webbed hoop believed to offer protection. Retired NASA astronaut John Herrington of the Chickasaw Nation became the first Native American in space in 2002. 

“I am very proud to represent Native Americans and my heritage,” Mann said before the flight, adding that everyone on her crew has a unique background. “It’s important to celebrate our diversity and also realize how important it is when we collaborate and unite, the incredible accomplishments that we can have.” 

As for the war in Ukraine, Mann said all four have put politics and personal beliefs aside, “and it’s really cool how the common mission of the space station just instantly unites us.” 

Added Cassada: “We have an opportunity to be an example for society on how to work together and live together and explore together.” 

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has now launched eight crews since 2020: six for NASA and two private groups. Boeing, NASA’s other contracted taxi service, plans to make its first astronaut flight early next yea r, after delays to fix software and other issues that cropped up on test flights. 

 
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Greece is warning it is ready to use all its diplomatic and military might to defend its sovereignty against what it calls hostile plans by its historic foe Turkey. The direct warning follows a controversial energy deal Turkey recently signed with an element of Libya’s divided government. But the tensions that have been building up recently between the two NATO allies is sparking fears of a crisis that could spill out of control and destabilize the military alliance.

Speaking to Greece’s parliament, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis advised Turkey to return, in his words, to a realm of logic. Otherwise, he warned Ankara’s growing aggression and plans to claim control of areas Greece considers its territory will be stopped.

The Greek leader said geography does not change at the behest of one’s decision to change or distort it. He said Greece’s borders are its own and, Mitsotakis said, they are ready to be defended by its armed forces as well as by what he said are its powerful diplomatic allies.

Lawmakers answered with a roaring applause and standing ovation before Mitsotakis quickly moved to meet with the U.S. ambassador to Greece and a visiting U.S. congressional delegation of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Greece and Turkey are longtime foes but also NATO allies. Relations have cooled and warmed over the decades, often over air and sea rights.

Greece’s threat comes after Turkey recently signed an agreement with one of Libya’s two rival administrations, granting rights to an already controversial energy collaboration in waters that Greece and other countries, including Egypt and Cyprus, also claim.

The deal also comes as Greece boosts deployment of troops and U.S. military hardware on two islands closest to Turkey’s borders in the Aegean Sea — actions that recently prompted a complaint from Ankara to Washington. Turkish officials called the deployment a hostile move by a NATO member and warned that Turkey would also mobilize its military in response.

Ankara sees the military buildup on the islands of Lesbos and Samos as a violation of a decades-old agreement marking the borders of the two countries.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has gone further in the last few days, denouncing Greek ownership of several islands in the Aegean — remarks that have prompted Athens to escalate talk of its willingness to defend itself in the face of what it calls Turkish aggression.

The European Union has chided Turkey for its stance and Washington is already at odds with Turkey for purchasing a missile defense system from Russia, a move NATO countries say puts the alliance at risk.

Analyst George Tzogopoulos explains the broader repercussions that this growing crisis could bring to the NATO alliance and how Russia, its greatest opponent, may exploit it.

“It’s crystal clear in Washington that Turkey is not considered a reliable partner and within that context, Greece is. So, this situation is creating a new dynamic within the Eastern Mediterranean and NATO itself but most importantly, in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US is working closer with reliable partners, and this is fueling the aggressive rhetoric from the other side [Turkey],” he said.

There are hopes within Europe, he says, that the situation may be contained. But Tzogopoulos warns the alternative could prove dangerous.

“If Turkey continues, the cohesion of NATO’s southeast flank will be jeopardized, news that will be welcomed in Moscow,” he said.

Diplomatic sources in Athens tell VOA that senior Greek officials will visit the Middle East in the coming days to try and overturn Turkey’s latest energy pact before Ankara sends out drilling vessels to contested waters, as part of a bid to avert a larger conflict.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law Wednesday to formalize Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, a move widely condemned as illegal and one that comes as Ukrainian forces advance in a counteroffensive to take back areas under Russian control.

The Russian measure, approved earlier this week by the country’s parliament, claims Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions as Russian territory.

Russia-installed officials carried out what they called referendums in those areas. Ukraine and its western partners, along with the United Nations, rejected those votes and the overall annexation effort, saying the votes were held under coercive conditions and did not represent the will of the people.

The U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote next week on a draft resolution condemning Russia’s annexation claim. Russia used its veto power to stop a similar measure at the U.N. Security Council last week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared photos Wednesday from Lyman, a key city in Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, recaptured by Ukrainian forces in the days after the Russian referendums.

“All basics of life have been destroyed here,” Zelenskyy tweeted. “They are doing so everywhere in the territories they seize. This can be stopped in 1 way only: liberate Ukraine, life, humanity, law and truth as soon as possible.”

Hours earlier, Zelenskyy tweeted his thanks to U.S. President Joe Biden following the announcement of $625 million in new U.S. military aid.

Zelenskyy said his military’s ability to reclaim territory from Russian forces is a joint success of Ukraine, the United States “and the entire free world.”

The new round of U.S. aid includes four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, 200 mine resistant vehicles, hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery and mortar ammunition.

Laura Cooper, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, told reporters Tuesday the package is “tailored to meet Ukraine’s immediate needs” and to “maintain momentum in the east and in the south.”

Russia criticized the U.S. move, with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov calling it “an immediate threat to the strategic interests of our country.”

“The supply of military products by the U.S. and its allies not only entails protracted bloodshed and new casualties, but also increases the danger of a direct military clash between Russia and Western countries,” Antonov posted on Telegram.

Britain’s defense ministry said Wednesday that Ukraine is continuing to make progress along both the northeastern and southern battle fronts, including moving close enough to put a key supply road for Russian forces near the town of Svatove in Luhansk in range of Ukrainian artillery.

“Politically, Russian leaders will highly likely be concerned that leading Ukrainian units are now approaching the borders of Luhansk Oblast,” the British defense ministry said in its daily assessment.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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