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Even with the political control of Congress uncertain Wednesday after nationwide elections, key U.S. lawmakers are vowing continued arms and financial support for Ukraine as it fends off Russia’s invasion, now in its ninth month.

Virginia Senator Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told VOA he is confident there will be continued Democratic and Republican support for the Kyiv government in the new U.S. Congress that takes office in January — regardless of how the final vote-counting turns out. Republicans were edging closer to winning the House of Representatives, but the outcome in the Senate was even more uncertain. 

Warner offered his assessment at an event in the Virginia capital of Richmond, where the city took part in an initiative called Ambulances for Ukraine, sending an ambulance filled with medical supplies to the war-torn country.

Two other senators, Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware and Republican Rob Portman of Ohio, made a recent trip to Ukraine where they reassured government officials of the U.S. Congress’ bipartisan support.

Four House members — Republicans Adam Kinzinger and Victoria Spartz, and Democrats Andy Levin and David Price — told VOA in separate interviews they also foresee continued support for Ukraine. 

Democratic President Joe Biden, with little congressional review, has sent nearly $20 billion in arms and humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the war started in late February.

But if Republicans take control of the House, Congressman Kevin McCarthy, most likely the new House speaker, told CNN the party’s lawmakers would not routinely rubber stamp new requests for Ukraine aid. Some of the party’s most conservative lawmakers have been calling for an aid cutoff, which could lead to contentious debates over new Biden requests for more Ukraine spending. 

“I’m very supportive of Ukraine,” McCarthy said. “I think there has to be accountability going forward. … You always need, not a blank check, but make sure the resources are going to where it is needed. And make sure Congress, and the Senate, have the ability to debate it openly.” 

Mykola Davydiuk, a political analyst based in Kyiv, told VOA it matters little to Ukrainians which political party controls Congress, just that the flow of assistance continues.

“We don’t have favorites or the party that we would like it to win,” Davykiuk said. “I am more than convinced the support will remain. We are not only good friends, but we are also partners with common values. We are both on the side of Western democracy and fight against autocracy and dictatorship.”  

But another Ukrainian political analyst, Volodymyr Fesenko, said Republican control of either or both houses of Congress could prove problematic.

“We can face a problem if a Republican majority emphasizes their opposition and takes a more critical look at the budget proposals of the Biden administration,” Fesenko said. “As they have already said, ‘No more blank checks.’ They will try to have more control over the budget process and control the spending.”  

Officials in Moscow, Reuters reported, do not expect U.S. aid to Ukraine to be cut if Republicans take control of either chamber of Congress.

“A Republican victory in the U.S. congressional elections will not lead to a revolution in U.S. foreign policy and an end to Washington’s support for Ukraine,” Alexei Pushkov, a hawkish Russian senator and foreign policy specialist, wrote on the Telegram messaging service.

“However, the Biden administration will find it more difficult to push financial aid programs to Kyiv through Congress, and the position of U.S. critics of unlimited aid to Ukraine will markedly strengthen,” he said.

VOA Eastern Europe Chief Myroslava Gongadze contributed to this report from Kyiv.. Some material came from VOA’s Eurasia Division and Reuters.
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Russia’s defense minister said Wednesday that Moscow’s troops were retreating from the key southern Ukraine city of Kherson, although Ukrainian officials expressed skepticism that a full withdrawal was underway from the lone regional capital Russia had captured since it invaded in February.

Such a withdrawal would be a major setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Defense chief Sergei Shoigu made the announcement in a televised meeting with Russia’s top military leaders as General Sergei Surovikin, the commander for Russia’s forces in Ukraine, told Shoigu the withdrawal decision was difficult but would “preserve lives of servicemen and combat readiness of forces.”

Ukrainian advances had put Kyiv’s forces within striking distance of Kherson.

“Under these conditions,” Surovikin said, “the city of Kherson and nearby settlements cannot be supplied in a fully fledged manner. After a thorough assessment of the current situation, I offer to take up defense along the left bank of the Dnipro River.”

Shoigu responded, “Go ahead with the pullout of troops and take all measures to ensure safe transfer of troops, weapons and equipment to the other bank of the Dnipro River.”

But Ukraine was initially skeptical of the Russian retreat, suggesting it might be a Russian ruse for an ambush of Ukrainian troops.

“Actions speak louder than words,” presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter, adding that he expected some Russian forces to remain in Kherson. He said Ukraine would declare the city freed from Russian control based on its own intelligence, not televised Russian statements.

Meanwhile, the Eastern European countries of Slovakia and Hungary said they were preparing for an increase in the number of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine in the coming months as winter approaches.

Russia has targeted power and heating plants in Ukraine in the past few months. Temperatures are dropping below zero Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), with lows of minus 20 degrees Celsius in the region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said about 4 million people are without power.

Roman Dohovic, an aid coordinator for the eastern Slovak city of Kosice, said refugee numbers were “currently up 15%,” with about 6.9 million people believed to be displaced internally within Ukraine.

Russia continues to deploy its troops, however, and call on reservists in a continuation of its invasion. Ukraine’s forces have been fending off attacks, according to reports, and are also on the offensive.

As part of its broader war efforts, Russia has been working on repairing the Crimean Bridge destroyed in October, but the British defense ministry said Wednesday that the bridge was “unlikely to be fully operational until at least September 2023.”

The road bridge was scheduled to close Tuesday in order to install a 64-meter span, the ministry said in a Twitter post. Three additional spans are needed to rebuild the damaged bridge.

“Although Crimean officials have claimed these additional spans will be in place by 20 December, a briefing provided to President Putin added that works to the other carriageway would cause disruption to road traffic until March 2023,” the ministry said.

The bridge has been used to transfer Russian logistics supplies for Crimea and southern Ukraine. Russia used the route to move military equipment and troops in the area by rail or road since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the defense ministry’s update added.

Fierce fighting

Elsewhere in Russian-occupied areas, the Kremlin-installed mayor in the town of Snihurivka, east of the southern city of Mykolaiv, was cited by Russia’s RIA news agency as saying residents had seen tanks and that fierce fighting was going on.

“They got into contact during the day and said there were tanks moving around and, according to their information, heavy fighting on the edge of the town,” Reuters quoted Mayor Yuri Barabashov as saying, sharing accounts of residents.

“People saw this equipment moving through the streets in the town center,” Barabashov said.

The Ukrainian governor of Mykolaiv region, Vitaly Kim, said Ukraine’s offenses had pushed Russian troops out of the region.

“Russian troops are complaining that they have already been thrown out of there,” Kim said in a statement on his Telegram channel.

The Reuters news agency reported that it was not able to independently verify the accounts coming from the warring sides. No official confirmation from Ukraine or Russia was issued on the battleground reports, the report added.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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A leading ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin met Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday on a trip to deepen trade and security cooperation, as Moscow looks to shore up its economy and bolster its war effort in Ukraine.

Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev’s visit was a sign of Iran’s growing importance as a supportive partner and weapons supplier at a time when Moscow is isolated by Western sanctions and faces intense Ukrainian military pressure.

With Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine in its ninth month, Raisi and Patrushev discussed “various issues of Russian-Iranian cooperation in the field of security, as well as a number of international problems,” Interfax news agency said.

Russian state media said Patrushev discussed the situation in Ukraine and measures to combat “Western interference” in both countries’ internal affairs with his Iranian security counterpart Ali Shamkhani.

NourNews, affiliated with Iran’s top security body, said Shamkhani called for deeper ties across a range of sectors from energy to banking.

“Iran welcomes and supports any initiative that leads to a ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine based on dialog and is ready to play a role in ending the war,” Shamkhani was quoted as saying.

Kyiv and the West say Russia has used Iranian Shahed-136 drones to target Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent weeks, forcing Ukraine to introduce rolling blackouts in major cities, including the capital, to preserve power.

Iran acknowledged for the first time at the weekend it supplied Moscow with drones, but said it sent only a small number and they were shipped before the war began. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called that a lie.

Last month, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters that Iran had promised to provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles, in addition to more drones.

Russia has accelerated efforts to build economic, trade and political relations with Iran and other non-Western countries since invading Ukraine on Feb. 24, in a drive to destroy what it calls U.S. “hegemony” and build a new international order.
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French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced that France was ending its Barkhane anti-jihadist mission in Africa after over a decade, saying a new strategy would be worked out with African partners.

The declaration came in a wide-ranging speech reviewing France’s strategy where the president also underlined the importance of its nuclear deterrent, as well as relations with Germany and the United Kingdom despite recent tensions.

Macron laid out his strategic defense priorities for France in Europe and Africa in the coming years, not least in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a growing international assertiveness of China.

“I have decided, in coordination with our partners, to make official today the end of the Barkhane operation,” Macron said in the keynote speech on military policy to top generals and diplomats aboard a helicopter carrier Mediterranean naval base at Toulon.

The move was the “consequence of what we have experienced” in recent months, and a new strategy would be worked out within the next half-year, he added.

“Our military support for African countries will continue, but according to new principles that we have defined with them,” said Macron.

No ‘unlimited’ deployment

He indicated that future strategy would be based on a far closer cooperation with African armies to make France’s own deployment lighter and more dynamic.

French forces have faced growing hostility from some who see them as the ineffective occupying force of a former colonial power, and Macron pulled troops out of Mali this year as relations soured with the country’s military rulers.

Around 3,000 French soldiers remain in Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger. There are no immediate plans for a reduction in numbers.

Macron said that in the coming days exchanges would be launched with African nations and regional organizations and allies “to change the status, format and mission” of French bases in Africa.

“Our interventions should have better time limits and from the very start. We do not want to remain engaged for an unlimited time in foreign operations,” he said.

The French deployment was launched in 2013, when jihadists took over much of northern Mali before being turned back.

But the rebels regrouped and soon the region was targeted by other Islamist insurgencies that are now looking to push south toward the Gulf of Guinea, experts say.

‘Indispensable partner’

He revealed that Britain and France will hold a summit in the first quarter of 2023 aimed at reinforcing their military and defense cooperation, in a new sign of a reset under new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

“Our partnership with the United Kingdom must also be raised to another level,” Macron said.

“I hope that we will actively resume our dialogue on operations, capacities, nuclear and hybrid areas and renew the ambitions of our two countries as friends and allies.”

Macron also insisted on the need for deeper military cooperation with Germany, and “indispensable partner” for building up Europe’s military autonomy.

The two countries have agreed to work notably on next-generation fighter jets and tanks, but both projects have reportedly stalled on divergences over technical needs and how to share production.

“The success of the European project depends in large part, I believe, on the balance of our partnership,” Macron said.

“In that regard I hope that we can make decisive progress in the coming weeks.”

Nuclear deterrent

Macron added that the French nuclear deterrent contributed to the security of Europe, after sparking a controversy with recent comments over what circumstances would cause France to use its atomic weapons.

“Today, even more than yesterday, the vital interests of France have a European dimension. Our nuclear forces therefore contribute by their own existence to the security of France and Europe”, he said.

“Don’t forget that France has nuclear deterrent and don’t dramatize a few remarks,” he added.

Macron in October in an interview had appeared to cast doubt on whether France would contemplate striking back if Russia attacked Ukraine with a tactical nuclear weapon.

“Our [nuclear] doctrine is based on what we call the fundamental interests of the nation and they are defined in a very clear way. It is not at all what would be affected if there was a ballistic nuclear attack in Ukraine or the region,” he then told the France 2 channel.
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Eastern European countries like Slovakia and Hungary are preparing for an increase in the number of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine in the coming months as winter approaches.

Russia has targeted power and heating plants in Ukraine in the past few months. Temperatures drop below zero Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), with lows of minus 20 degrees Celsius in the region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said about 4 million people are out of power.

Roman Dohovic, an aid coordinator for the eastern Slovak city of Kosice, said the increase in the number of refugees is “currently up 15%,” with about 6.9 million people believed to be displaced internally within different parts of Ukraine.

Russia continues to deploy its troops, however, and call on reservists in continuation of its invasion. Ukraine’s forces have been fending off attacks, according to reports, and are also on the offensive. 

As part of its broader war efforts, Russia has been working on repairing the Crimean Bridge damaged in October, but the British defense ministry said Wednesday the bridge is “unlikely to be fully operational until at least September 2023.” 

The road bridge was scheduled to close Tuesday in order to install a 64-meter span, the ministry said in a Twitter post. Three additional spans are needed to rebuild the damaged bridge.

“Although Crimean officials have claimed these additional spans will be in place by 20 December, a briefing provided to President [Vladmir] Putin added that works to the other carriageway would cause disruption to road traffic until March 2023,” the post said.

The bridge is used to transfer Russian logistics supplies for Crimea and southern Ukraine. Russia used the route to move military equipment and troops in the area by rail or road since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the defense ministry’s update added.

Fierce fighting

Elsewhere in Russian-occupied areas, the Kremlin-installed mayor in the town of Snihurivka, east of the southern city of Mykolaiv, was cited by Russia’s RIA news agency as saying residents had seen tanks and that fierce fighting was going on. 

“They got into contact during the day and said there were tanks moving around and, according to their information, heavy fighting on the edge of the town,” Reuters quoted Mayor Yuri Barabashov as saying, sharing accounts of residents.

“People saw this equipment moving through the streets in the town center,” Barabashov said.

The Ukrainian governor of Mykolaiv region, Vitaly Kim, said Ukraine’s offenses have pushed Russian troops out of the region. “Russian troops are complaining that they have already been thrown out of there,” Kim said in a statement on his Telegram channel.

The Reuters news agency reported that it was not able to independently verify the accounts coming from the warring sides. No official confirmation from Ukraine and Russia were issued on the battleground reports, the report added.

NATO summit

NATO leaders announced Wednesday they are planning to meet for another summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, from July 11 to 12, 2023. They met in Madrid, Spain, in June.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the military alliance plans to take “further steps to strengthen our deterrence and defense and review significant increases in defense spending, as well as to continue our support for Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, the chief of staff to Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Wednesday the country’s parliament is scheduled to discuss the ratification of Sweden’s and Finland’s accession to NATO during its autumn session after a series of EU-related bills have been passed. 

“Finland and Sweden are our allies and they can count on us,” Gergely Gulyas told a briefing. Hungary and Turkey are the only members of the alliance that have not cleared the accession process.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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The first North American tour of two Belarusian rock legends just ended in the US. For both artists this tour was about more than just making music. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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The United States and Russia will soon hold talks on resuming suspended nuclear arms control inspections that had been put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic and languished after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the State Department said Tuesday. 

State Department spokesman Ned Price said negotiations on the inspections would take place “in the near future” under the terms of the New START treaty and would not include any discussion of the conflict in Ukraine. 

He would not give a date or a venue for the talks, but other officials suggested they would be held before the end of the year, likely in Egypt. 

The meeting of the treaty’s so-called “Bilateral Consultative Commission” will be the first in more than a year and is intended to show that the two countries remain committed to arms control and keeping lines of communication open despite other differences. 

“We believe deeply around the world in the transformative power and the importance of diplomacy and dialogue,” Price told reporters in Washington. He stressed that the Biden administration was “realistic” about what the meeting could accomplish. 

“It demonstrates our commitment to risk reduction, to strategic stability, something we remain committed to, something that is profoundly in the bilateral interest, and we hope the upcoming meeting is constructive,” he said. 

Inspections of U.S. and Russian military sites under the New START treaty were paused by both sides because of the spread of coronavirus in March 2020. The committee last met in October 2021, but Russia then unilaterally suspended its cooperation with the treaty’s inspection provisions in August to protest U.S. support for Ukraine. 

“We’ve made clear to Russia that measures imposed as a result of Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine don’t prevent Russians and Russian inspectors from conducting New START treaty inspections in the United States,” Price said. “So we hope that the meeting of the BCC will allow us to continue with those inspections.” 

 
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Ukraine urgently needs more air defense systems from the West, according to a new report, which warns that Russia could seek to repeat the tactics it used in Syria to bombard Ukrainian cities from the skies.

The analysis from Britain’s Royal United Services Institute says that in the early days of the invasion in February and March, the skies above Ukraine were largely unprotected as the country’s air defense systems were suppressed by initial Russian attacks.

“During this period, Ukrainian fighter aircraft inflicted some losses on [Russian] aircraft but also took serious casualties due to being totally technologically outmatched and badly outnumbered,” the report says.

After several days, however, Ukraine was able to deploy and activate its air defenses. Since then, Ukrainian forces have shot down dozens of Russian fighter jets, helicopters, other aircraft and missiles, notes report coauthor Justin Bronk.

“The Russian Air Force retains a huge amount of potential firepower. It’s just not being able to use it effectively at the moment because Ukraine is still denying them access to Ukrainian airspace above a very low level, because they still have these surface-to-air missile systems. But Ukrainian stocks of missiles for air defense were not nearly intended to last this long. There’s been very high intensity use for a long time,” Bronk told VOA.

Meanwhile, Russia is using Iranian-made loitering drones and long-range missile strikes to pound Ukraine’s cities and infrastructure. The report says it marks a change in tactics by Russia’s armed forces.

“The latest iteration is a more focused and sustainable bombardment of the Ukrainian electricity grid, blending hundreds of cheap Iranian-supplied Shahed-136 loitering munitions against substations with continued use of cruise and ballistic missiles against larger targets.”

Bronk said the West must not become complacent about the need to urgently bolster Ukrainian air defense capacity.

“The West really needs to focus on delivering additional ammunition and eventually the replacement of some systems with systems we can more easily support — because of course these are Soviet-era systems that we don’t use ourselves in the West,” Bronk added.

Western nations have supplied various air defense systems. Ukraine’s defense minister said Monday his country had received the first NASAMS (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems) developed jointly by the United States and Norway. Kyiv also has taken delivery of Italian-made Aspide surface-to-air missiles.

“The priority No. 1 is air defense systems. Our partners know this very well,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Monday.

Germany sent an Iris-T air defense system last month and is supplying dozens of Gepard anti-aircraft tanks. France has sent its “Crotale” air defense system.

The report authors say Ukraine needs more from the West. Advanced fighter aircraft would create an important deterrent, noted Bronk.

“The provision of Western fighter aircraft will also be a huge boon to Ukraine in terms of being able to keep the Russian Air Force back. The Russian Air Force has been extremely risk-averse throughout this. And so, even a small number of Western fighters equipped with missiles and radars that are able to meet Russian fighters on relatively equal terms … would be a really valuable deterrent force,” Bronk told VOA.

He said the likely consequence of Russia gaining control of the skies is tragically evident.

“We know what happens in Syria when the Russian Air Force is able to attack with relative impunity from medium and higher altitudes: large scale bombardments with a lot of unguided bombs — on not just frontline positions but also besieged cities. We remember Aleppo and Homs.”

Those cities were all but destroyed by Russian and Syrian government air strikes in 2015 and 2016 at the height of the civil war. Tens of thousands of people were killed, forcing a withdrawal of rebel forces.

As Russia’s ground forces are forced back in eastern Ukraine, analysts fear the Kremlin wants to repeat the tactics used in Syria on Ukrainian cities.
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UNICEF warns millions of children caught in climate-induced disasters are at risk of starvation, disease, exploitation, and death.

A UNICEF analysis released Tuesday finds 27.7 million children in 27 countries have been affected by flooding so far this year. Among them, Chad, the Gambia, and northeast Bangladesh have recorded the worst floods in a generation.  The agency reports Pakistan’s record-breaking floods have killed nearly 1,700 people, 615 of them children.

UNICEF’s global communication and advocacy director, Paloma Escudero, says she saw for herself the enormity of the disaster during a visit to Pakistan last week. She says the needs are vast, adding 10 million girls and boys need immediate lifesaving support.

“The floods have contaminated drinking water, which is spawning deadly water-borne diseases such as acute watery diarrhea, which compounds already acute malnutrition,” Escudero said.  “Estimates suggest close to 1.6 million children in flood areas could be suffering from severe acute malnutrition.”   

She notes stagnant water is a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes, increasing the risk of malaria and dengue. She warns many vulnerable children and young people will die in the days and weeks to come without urgent action.

Escudero spoke on a video link from Sharm el-Sheikh, site of COP27, the climate change conference. She says scientists have found the recent floods in Pakistan have been made worse by climate change. While children are the least responsible for creating this problem, she says they are suffering the most.

“In Africa, just like in Pakistan, children are paying the price for a climate disaster not of their making. From the extreme drought and risk of famine in Somalia to the erratic rains across the Sahel, UNICEF is being challenged to respond at an unprecedented scale to emergencies that have all the markings of climate-induced disasters,” Escudero said. 

UNICEF reports children account for almost half of the more than 20 million people facing famine in drought-stricken Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.

Nearly 40 youth climate activists from around the world are in Sharm el-Sheikh. They are working with UNICEF to sensitize delegates to the severe impact of the climate crisis on the world’s poorest, most vulnerable children.

Escudero notes it is not up to young people to keep raising the alarm. What is needed, she says, is for people with power to start acting.
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Greece’s Supreme Court has ordered an investigation into allegations that the country’s intelligence service was tapping the phones of nearly three dozen politicians, businessmen, and journalists. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has denied the allegations but the scandal, analysts say, may force him to resign as leader of the country’s center-right party.  

The scandal is being likened to the Watergate political scandal that forced the resignation of former U.S. President Richard Nixon in the 1970s. Mitsotakis is vehemently denying any implication in allegations that 33 businessmen, journalists and even politicians of his own party, including the country’s foreign minister, were being tapped by Greek spies.

“This is all shameless and dangerous,” he said in a late-night interview with local television. “But I have faith,” Mitsotakis added, “that the Supreme Court prosecutor will request and get the clarifications needed.”

The left-wing newspaper Documento exposed the scandal on Saturday, reporting that the public figures had been targeted illegally by spyware known as Predator as well as surveillance bugs planted by the state intelligence service, known here as EYP.

Mitsotakis, who leads the country’s center-right party and oversees EYP as part of his duties as prime minister, is already under pressure over a similar scandal that erupted over the summer alleging that EYP had tapped the phone of his socialist political opponent.

At the time, Mitsotakis flatly denied using illegal Israeli-made spyware to listen into the calls of his rival. But he said the taps were legal and admitted that state intelligence had in fact eavesdropped on his opponent, though without explaining why.

On Monday, Kostas Vaxevanis, the editor and journalist who exposed the latest scandal appeared before a Supreme Court prosecutor to answer to an urgent investigation launched in response to the revelations.

Vexevanis emerged from the testimony hours later insisting his story was solid.

“Of course, there is credible proof substantiating the revelations,” he told reporters. “We have already published four text messages sent to people who were being tapped proving that they were being illegally monitored.”

Vexevanis’s report cited two people who claimed they had key roles in the surveillance. 

Mitsotakis said the report was part of a bigger political conspiracy to bring down his government and spark the election process early.

“This is all part of an attempt to sink the county in mud and an unbelievable debate in which the government now is being called upon to prove it is not the elephant it is being made out to be,” he said.

Leading businesspeople and politicians targeted by the alleged phone taps have lashed out at the government and Mitsotakis personally. Meanwhile, observers say Greeks have been left stunned and fearful of a state apparatus employing shady tactics more reminiscent of the Cold War than representative of a flourishing democracy.

Vaxevanis has vowed to release more details in the coming weeks.

If verified, the allegations mark an impeachable offense that, analysts say, may see the Greek leader resigning well ahead of national elections slated for next year.
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A German humanitarian group said its ship docked in southern Italy early Tuesday and disembarked 89 people rescued at sea, ending one migrant rescue saga as others continue under Italy’s new hard-right government.

Mission Lifeline posted videos on social media of the 25-meter (80-foot) Rise Above freighter docking in Reggio Calabria and said the “odyssey of 89 passengers and nine crew members on board seems to be over.” In a subsequent post it said all 89 were allowed to disembark.

The group had waited at sea for days for Italy to assign it a port after it entered Italian waters over the weekend without consent because of rough seas. Six of the original 95 people were evacuated at sea for medical reasons.

Italy has refused to assign migrant rescue ships with a port of safety as the new far-right-led government of Premier Giorgia Meloni takes a hard line with nongovernmental organizations operating in the central Mediterranean. Instead, it has been instructing them to ports, where authorities allow only vulnerable people to disembark.

Italian authorities insist the boats must then return to international waters with those not deemed vulnerable and that the countries whose flag the ships fly take the migrants in.

Two NGO-run boats are docked in Catania, in Sicily, one with 35 people that Italy won’t allow to disembark, the other with 214 people. Both ships are refusing to leave, saying that under international law all people rescued at sea are vulnerable and entitled to a safe port.

A fourth ship, the Ocean Viking operated by SOS Mediterranee, remains in international waters off Sicily with 234 rescued people. Its first rescue was 17 days ago.
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Chinese authorities behind a major trade expo in Shanghai pulled an opening ceremony address by the European Council president that was set to criticize Russia’s “illegal war” in Ukraine and call for reduced trade dependency on China, diplomats said.

The pre-recorded video by Charles Michel was meant to be one of several from world leaders and heads of international organizations including Chinese President Xi Jinping at the opening of the China International Import Expo (CIIE) on Friday, three European diplomats told Reuters.

The diplomats, who cannot be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters they were surprised the speech was removed.

“President Michel was invited to address 5th Hongqiao Forum/CIIE in Shanghai,” Barend Leyts, a spokesman for Michel told Reuters. “As requested by the Chinese authorities, we had indeed provided a pre-recorded message which was ultimately not shown. We have addressed this through the normal diplomatic channels.”

No one from China’s foreign ministry or the co-organizers of the expo, China’s commerce ministry and the Shanghai city government, responded to Reuters requests for comment.

Other dignitaries who did speak at the ceremony after Xi included the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, the director-general of the World Trade Organization and the presidents of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Belarus, according to the expo’s official website.

Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko is a staunch ally of Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin whose country has hosted thousands of Russian troops before and during what Moscow calls a “special operation” in Ukraine.

Focus on Russia and trade

The European Council president’s speech was set to be heavily critical of “Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine” and say Europe is learning “important lessons” from it, according to excerpts of the address provided by European diplomats.

Europe has been over-dependent on Russia for fossil fuels, leading to a trade imbalance, Michel was to say.

“In Europe, we want balance in our trade relations … to avoid over-dependencies,” according to the diplomats familiar with what he was to say. “This is also true of our trade relations with China.”

Michel was also set to call for China to do more do put an end to the bloodshed in Ukraine.

China has consistently refused to criticize Russia’s aggression which has ravaged cities across Ukraine and killed thousands of troops and civilians since it began on February 24.

“China has a role in using its influence to stop Russia’s brutal war … through your so-called ‘no-limits’ partnership with Russia,” Michel was to say, referring to a pact announced by Xi and Putin in Beijing before the war began. “You, China, can help put an end to this.”

Both Xi and Michel are expected to attend and meet at the Group of Twenty (G-20) heads of state summit in Bali next Tuesday and Wednesday.

The President of the European Council is one of the European Union’s top ranked officials whose role includes representing the bloc at international summits and bilateral summits with other heads of state.

Since 2019, the EU has officially regarded China as a partner, an economic competitor and systemic rival.

The EU’s foreign policy service said in a paper last month that Beijing should now be thought of primarily as a competitor that is promoting “an alternative vision of the world order.”
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Ukraine is boosting its ties with Southeast Asian nations, signing a key foreign relations pact with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) later this week in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba is expected to sign, in person, the so-called instrument of accession to the Treaty on Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) and attend some ASEAN events.

TAC is a peace treaty established in 1976 by ASEAN’s founding members that enshrines fundamental principles such as mutual respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and national identity of treaty nations.

It is a measured diplomatic move by 10 ASEAN member states to agree on the accession of Ukraine, a non-Southeast Asian country, to the pact. The bloc will not be required to provide material or financial aid to the embattled country.

“[Acceding] to TAC does not incur any obligation for ASEAN to provide any assistance” to Ukraine, a senior Cambodian official told VOA. “The treaty is the code of conduct in implementing foreign relations, not an agreement to provide any assistance to anyone.”

As of August 2022, there are 49 signatories to the peace pact, including Russia, China, the United States and the European Union.

“I’m happy to say that we have invited [the] Ukraine foreign minister to sign the TAC in Phnom Penh in the next course of two weeks’ time on the sideline of the [ASEAN] meetings,” Cambodia’s Ambassador to the U.S. Keo Chhea said at an October 26 seminar hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Cambodia chairs this year’s ASEAN summit and East Asia Summit. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be in Phnom Penh representing Russian President Vladimir Putin for the East Asia Summit.

In March, Cambodia formally condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and echoed ASEAN-backed calls for an immediate ceasefire. Regional news outlets reported last week that Cambodia’s foreign ministry offered to host Russian-Ukrainian talks at the upcoming summit, but neither side has expressed willingness to engage in dialogue.

“Ukraine’s presence at the East Asia Summit would demonstrate ASEAN’s conflict resolution and peacekeeping leadership in the international community, as well as ASEAN’s long-standing support for respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Daniel Kritenbrink, the U.S. State Department’s top official on Asia during the same event.

Cambodia and Ukraine had agreed to establish a diplomatic relationship after a call between Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hung Sen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on November 1. The two countries will appoint ambassadors to advance diplomatic ties.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen also agreed to send demining teams, in cooperation with Japan, to help Ukraine remove land mines planted by Russian forces during the invasion. Cambodia became one of the world’s most mined countries during almost 30 years of civil war that ended in 1998. In exchange, Ukraine plans to increase grain exports to Cambodia amid the global food crisis.

ASEAN does not have a unified position on Russia’s invasion in Ukraine.

Except for Singapore, ASEAN was largely muted in the early months after Russia’s invasion in Ukraine in late February.

While expressing concern over Russia’s war on Ukraine, ASEAN members that rely on Russian weapons have refrained from an outright condemnation of Putin.

Three ASEAN members (Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos) abstained from an October United Nations General Assembly vote condemning Russia’s attempts to annex additional regions of Ukraine.
…

The captain of Humanity 1, a German charity rescue ship, was ordered to leave the port of Catania Sunday after 144 rescued migrants were allowed to disembark, but 35 people remained on board. The captain refused to leave.

Italy allowed the ship carrying 179 migrants to enter the Sicilian port early Sunday, while rejecting safe harbor for three other ships in the vicinity carrying 900 people, The Associated Press reported.

Amnesty International’s deputy director at Europe’s regional office, Julia Hall said, “the law of the sea is clear,” in a statement.

“A rescue ends with all those rescued, are disembarked in a place of safety. There is no room for creative interpretations of the law when people are suffering and traumatized after risking their lives at sea.” 

Hall said 144 people were allowed to disembark following a brief physical exam.

But she added, “All the people rescued by Humanity 1 departed from Libya, were refugees and migrants are at constant risk of torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary detention and other abuses.”

“By forcing 35 people to remain on board the Humanity 1, Italy is not only violating its international obligations to disembark and protect them under both human rights and maritime law, but also creating a risky situation which endangers the rescued people and the crew of Humanity 1,” Hall said. “We urge the Italian authorities to allow all those still on board to disembark as soon as possible.”

Also Sunday, another migrant rescue ship, the Geo Barents, operated by Doctors Without Borders, a charity commonly known by its French acronym MSF, arrived in Catania. This time 357 of the 572 were allowed off the vessel.”

“Italy legitimately expects other EU Member States to share responsibility for people seeking asylum, Amnesty’s Hall said, “but this does not justify imposing measures that only increase the suffering of already traumatized people.”

“It is disgraceful that the Italian government continues to assist Libyan authorities in violating their people’s human rights,” said Hall. “It adds insult to injury that the Italian government also refuses disembarkation to those who managed to leave that country.”

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
…

Some former members of Afghanistan’s special forces who fled to Iran after the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan are now being recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine and for Iran in Yemen, two former senior Afghan security officials told VOA.

The former Afghan army chief, General Haibatullah Alizai, said Tehran is using the vulnerability of former Afghan forces now living in the country to recruit them to strengthen the ranks of Houthi rebels in Yemen.

“When former Afghan military members go to immigration bureaus in Iran to extend their visas, they are told to go to Yemen to fight in support of the Houthis,” Alizai told VOA.

Mohammad Farid Ahmadi, the former commander of Afghanistan’s elite National Army Commando Corps, told VOA that former Afghan special forces now are engaged in “six critical areas” of the world: Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine, Yemen, Iran, Syria and Russia, but “in small groups.”

Afghan commandos who were trained by the U.S. and NATO are considered the most experienced former military personnel in Afghanistan. Before the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, the commandos were led most of the complex combat operations throughout the country.

The Associated Press reported that Russia is now also seeking to recruit former Afghan special forces in Iran to fight alongside their military in Ukraine by offering them “$1,500-a-month payments and promises of safe havens for themselves and their families.”

Officials with the Russian embassy in Washington and Iran’s United Nations representatives have not responded to emailed questions about whether their governments are recruiting former Afghan armed forces and commandos. The Associated Press reported that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group, dismissed claims of recruiting former Afghan soldiers as “crazy nonsense.”

But pressuring Afghans to fight is not a new tactic. In 2016, Human Rights Watch said Iran was using Afghan refugees as soldiers to fight in Syria.

Taliban threat

Former Army Commando Corps leader Ahmadi said there were about 30,000 commandos serving in Afghanistan before the Taliban took control of Kabul.

“Now a big majority of Afghan former commandos are inside Afghanistan, disguising and living in hiding,” said Ahmadi, adding that “a number of them were detained and tortured by the Taliban.”

According to a report published a few months ago by the U.S. Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), former Afghan commandos who have stayed in the country have “almost certainly” joined the fledgling opposition group known as the National Resistance Front or are living in hiding out of fear of being killed or imprisoned by the Taliban.

Ahmadi said some of the former soldiers were held and tortured in Taliban prisons. But he said after tribal elders intervened, many were released after they paid money and vowed never to speak of their treatment in prison.

Ahmadi says Afghan special forces feel betrayed by the country’s former political leaders and he describes many now as “desperate, hopeless and vulnerable.”

He also urged officials in Washington to try to help those Afghans who fought shoulder to shoulder with the U.S. forces for the past 20 years.

“The U.S. should fulfill its promises and not let these forces be hired as mercenaries,” Ahmadi said.

Washington ‘in a difficult position’

At a Washington news briefing on October 31, State Department spokesperson Edward Price responded to questions about the recruitment of Afghan commandos by saying, “I’m aware of those reports. I’m not aware, though, that we have been in a position to confirm that such Afghan commandos have actually been enlisted into President Putin’s war.”

Rand Corporation policy researcher Jason Campbell said that limited U.S. reach in parts of Iran and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan where former Afghan commandos live puts Washington, logistically speaking, “in a difficult position.”

“It’s certainly a hard decision for the U.S. to make in terms of trying to take steps to ensure the safety of all these thousands of commandos, particularly in light of recent developments, where, as we said, certainly Russia but [also] other states might see an opportunity here to recruit some of these … seasoned and well-trained fighters who find themselves living in desperate conditions,” Campbell said.

Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told VOA that the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan created this problem.

“This is one of the unforeseen consequences of the U.S. disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. We left behind tens of thousands of highly trained Afghan soldiers. These are the commandos who are quite capable. They were on the frontlines in the fight against the Taliban,” he said.

Roggio added, “Some [former Afghan commandos] have gone into Iran, but by Russia opening up the opportunity for them to possibly get Russian citizenship and telling them that you fight for us in Ukraine, we will help you and help your family. That is quite appealing.”

Lina Rozbih contributed to this report. This story originated in VOA’s Afghan service.
…

Britain announced Monday that a trade minister was heading to Taiwan for the first in-person talks since the coronavirus in a bid to strengthen ties with the island, a trip that sparked a rebuke from Beijing.

Trade Policy Minister Greg Hands will co-host annual talks and meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen during his two-day visit, the Department for International Trade said.

The visit “is a clear signal of the UK’s commitment to boosting UK-Taiwan trade ties. Like the UK, Taiwan is a champion of free and fair trade underpinned by a rules-based global trading system,” the department said in its statement.

A spokesperson for Britain’s de facto embassy in Taiwan told AFP that Hands’ official program would start on Tuesday.

Hands said boosting trade with a “vital partner” like Taiwan was “part of the UK’s post-Brexit tilt towards the Indo-Pacific and closer collaboration will help us future-proof our economy in the decades to come”.

Taiwan has seen a flurry of visits by foreign officials and lawmakers in recent months, the most high-profile of which was US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose trip infuriated Beijing.

China claims the self-ruled island democracy as part of its territory to be seized one day, by force if necessary, and opposes any move that might lend Taiwan international legitimacy.

China staged unprecedented military drills in retaliation for Pelosi’s visit in August, sending tensions to their highest level in decades.

Beijing’s foreign ministry criticized the visit by Hands using rhetoric it often employs for such trips.

“China firmly rejects any form of official exchanges with the Taiwan region by any countries having diplomatic ties with China,” spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a daily press conference.

Zhao said Beijing urged Britain to “stop any form of official exchanges with Taiwan and stop sending wrong signals to Taiwan separatist forces”.

Like many countries, Britain diplomatically recognizes Beijing over Taipei, but it maintains unofficial relations with the island through a representative office.

The last time a British minister travelled to Taiwan was in 2018.

Britain said this week’s talks would try to address barriers in some sectors including “fintech, food and drink and pharma” and that trade between the two had risen 14% in the last two years to $9 billion.
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The captain of a charity-run migrant rescue ship refused Italian orders to leave a Sicilian port Sunday after authorities refused to let 35 of the migrants on his ship disembark — part of directives by Italy’s new far-right-led government targeting foreign-flagged rescue ships.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s two-week-old government is refusing safe port to four ships operating in the central Mediterranean that have rescued migrants at sea in distress, some as many as 16 days ago, and is allowing only those identified as vulnerable to disembark.

On Sunday, Italy ordered the Humanity 1 to vacate the port of Catania after disembarking 144 rescued migrants, including children, more than 100 unaccompanied minors, and people with medical emergencies.

But its captain refused to comply “until all survivors rescued from distress at sea have been disembarked,” said SOS Humanity, the German charity that operates the ship. The vessel remained moored at the port with 35 migrants on board.

Later Sunday, a second charity ship arrived in Catania, and the vetting process was being repeated with the 572 migrants aboard the Geo Barents ship operated by Doctors Without Borders. The selection was completed by late evening, with 357 allowed off but 215 people blocked on board.

Families were the first to leave the ship. One man cradling a baby expressed his gratitude, saying “Thank you, Geo Barents, thank you,” as he left. Another man in a wheelchair was carried down by Red Cross workers.

Yet two other boats run by nongovernmental organizations did not find a port willing to accept the people they rescued.

Humanitarian groups, human rights activists and two Italian lawmakers who traveled to Sicily protested the selection process as illegal and inhumane. Italy’s new Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi is targeting nongovernmental organizations, which Italy has long accused of encouraging people trafficking in the central Mediterranean Sea. The groups deny the claim.

“Free all the people, free them,” Italian lawmaker Aboubakar Soumahoro said in an emotional appeal directed at Meloni from the Humanity 1 rescue ship.

The passengers have faced “trauma, they have faced everything that we can define as prolonged suffering,” said Soumahoro, who spent the night on the ship.

Later at the port, he accused Meloni of playing politics at the expense of “newborns, of women, of people who have suffered traumas of all kinds,” including torture in Libyan prisons.

He said neither translators nor psychologists were on hand during Italy’s selection process and many of the migrants were from Gambia, unable to speak French, English or Italian.

“Their fault is to speak another language. Their fault is to have another color,” Soumahoro said, accusing the Italian government of using the migrants to distract from other issues, including high energy prices.

Aboard the Humanity 1, doctors in Italy identified people needing urgent medical care after the ship’s doctor refused to make a selection, said SOS Humanity spokesman Wasil Schauseil. Thirty-six people were declared non-vulnerable and were not permitted to disembark, prompting one to collapse and be taken away by an ambulance.

“You can imagine the condition of the people. It is very devastating,” he said.

Both SOS Humanity and Doctors Without Borders issued statements declaring that all their passengers were vulnerable after being rescued at sea and deserving of a safe port under international law. SOS Humanity said it plans to file a civil case in Catania to ensure that all 35 survivors on board have access to formal asylum procedures on land.

Doctors Without Borders emphasized that “a rescue operation is considered complete only when all of the survivors have been disembarked in a safe place.”

Two other charity ships carrying rescued migrants remained stuck at sea, with people sleeping on floors and decks and spreading respiratory infections and scabies as food and medical supplies drew low.

The German-run Rise Above, carrying 93 rescued at sea, sought a more protected position in the waters east of Sicily due to the weather, but spokesperson Hermine Poschmann said Sunday that the crew had not received any communications from Italian authorities.

Poschmann described cramped conditions on the relatively small 25-meter (82-foot) ship.

The Ocean Viking, operated by the European charity SOS Mediterranee, with 234 migrants on board, remained in international waters, south of the Strait of Messina, and got no instructions to proceed to an Italian port, a spokesperson said Sunday. Its first rescue was 16 days ago.

“Agitation is evident among the survivors,” a charity worker named Morgane told The Associated Press Sunday. Cases of seasickness were soaring after high waves tossed the ship through the night.

“Today, the weather considerably deteriorated, bringing strong winds, rough seas and rain on deck. … these extreme conditions added [to their] suffering,” she said.

The confrontational stance taken by Meloni’s government is reminiscent of the standoffs orchestrated by Matteo Salvini, now Meloni’s infrastructure minister in charge of ports, during his brief 2018-2019 stint as interior minister. Italy’s new government is insisting the countries whose flags the charity-run ships fly must take in the migrants.

In a Facebook video, Salvini repeated his allegations that the presence of the humanitarian boats encourages smugglers.

Nongovernmental organizations rejected that claim, saying they are obligated by the law of the sea to rescue people in distress and that coastal nations are obligated to provide a safe port as soon as feasible.

Amnesty International called Italy’s stance “disgraceful.”

“Italy legitimately expects other EU member states to share responsibility for people seeking asylum, but this does not justify imposing measures that only increase the suffering of already traumatized people,” the group said.
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Several thousand ethnic Serbs rallied in Kosovo Sunday as a dispute over vehicle license plates heightened ongoing tensions between Serbia and its former province.

The government’s decision to gradually ban Serbia-issued license plates has angered Kosovo Serbs, most of whom do not recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence. Members of the ethnic Serb minority left their government jobs Saturday in a protest over the directive.

The Serbian government, with support from China and Russia, also has refused to acknowledge Kosovo’s statehood. The United States and its allies recognize Kosovo as an independent country.

During Sunday’s protest in the northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica, Serb political leaders said the police officers, judges and other public employees would not return to their jobs unless Kosovo’s government reversed its license plate policy.

“We are on our land, and we will not give up,” Serb politician Goran Rakic said. “There is no withdrawal. Long live Serbia.”

The issue of Kosovo’s independence sparked a 1998-99 war in which some 13,000 people died. Serbia launched a brutal crackdown to curb a separatist rebellion by ethnic Albanians. NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 to end the war.

Both Serbia and Kosovo have been told they must normalize relations in order to advance in their effort to join the European Union. However, EU-mediated talks have stalled, triggering concerns of instability more than two decades after the conflict.

Further dashing hopes of a quick resolution, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Sunday that the country’s leadership has rejected the latest proposal. It reportedly offered Serbia a faster track to EU membership in exchange for Kosovo’s membership in the United Nations.

Dacic told pro-government broadcast Prva TV that proposals submitted by France and Germany “starts from the position that the independence of Kosovo is already a foregone conclusion.”

“Serbia cannot accept that,” he said.

Watch related video by Leonat Shehu and Artan Haraqija:

Kosovo’s government previously postponed until November 1 a requirement for vehicles holding old or Serbian license plates to replace them with Kosovar ones. Serbia has required the reverse for vehicles coming in from Kosovo for 11 years.

European Union and U.S. officials have stepped up efforts to bring Serbia and Kosovo closer to an agreement on fully normalizing their relations. The West fears Russia could try to destabilize the Balkans to avert at least some attention from its invasion of Ukraine.
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In Kherson, residents were without lights and water Sunday as the city’s Russian-installed officials accused Ukraine of “sabotage” without evidence.

The Kremlin-installed administration in Kherson said an airstrike — the “result of an attack organized” by Ukraine — damaged “three concrete poles of high-voltage power lines.”

The authorities said energy specialists were working to “quickly” resolve the issue, according to Agence France-Presse.

However, Yaroslav Yanushevych, the head of the Kherson regional administration, blamed Russia for the power outages.

Yanushevych wrote on Telegram: “In temporarily occupied Beryslav, Russian troops blew up high-voltage power lines. About one and a half kilometers of utility poles and lines were destroyed.”

The “damage is quite extensive,” he added, according to AFP.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials have said in the past month that between 30% and 40% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed by Russian airstrikes.

He said in his nightly video address Sunday, “As of this evening, stabilization blackouts continue in Kyiv and six regions. More than 4.5 million consumers are without electricity. Most of them are now in Kyiv and the Kyiv region. It’s really difficult.”

Residents told to prepare for worst

In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned the city’s residents Sunday that they must prepare for the worst this winter — such as having no electricity, water or heat in the freezing cold — if Russia keeps striking the country’s energy infrastructure.

“We are doing everything to avoid this. But let’s be frank, our enemies are doing everything for the city to be without heat, without electricity, without water supply, in general, so we all die. And the future of the country and the future of each of us depends on how prepared we are for different situations,” Klitschko told state media.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly referred to as COP27, opened in Egypt Sunday with the summit being overshadowed by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

U.K. representative Alok Sharma, who was the president of COP26, said at the ceremonial opening speech at COP27: “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s brutal and illegal war in Ukraine has precipitated multiple global crisis, energy and food insecurity, inflationary pressures and spiraling debt.

“These crises have compounded existing climate vulnerabilities and the scarring effects of the pandemic,” Sharma added.

Sameh Shoukry, incoming COP27 president and Egyptian foreign minister, expressed concern Sunday that crises related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should not overshadow action on climate change.

Ukrainians cautious in Kherson

In Kherson, Russia is increasing its evacuation of residents from the conflict zone and acknowledging the deteriorating situation in the region. At least 70,000 civilians have been moved from Kherson, which fell to Russian forces within days of the start of the conflict in February.

While a bloody battle for the city is predicted, the “situation in Kherson is clear as mud,” Michael Kofman, the director of Russian studies at CNA, a research institute in Arlington, Virginia, wrote in an analysis this week, The New York Times reported. “Russian forces seemed to withdraw from some parts, evacuated and drew down, but also reinforced with mobilized personnel.”

Residents of the city report abandoned checkpoints and no more Russian patrols, but Ukrainian officials are cautious, believing Moscow is setting a trap.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said, in reference to the Iranian regime, that everyone who helps Russia prolong this war must bear responsibility for the consequences of this war.

“If it was not for the Iranian supply of weapons to the aggressor, we would be closer to peace now. And this means closer to a complete solution to the food crisis. Closer to solving the cost-of-living crisis. Closer to stabilization at the energy market. Closer to reliable security against radiation blackmail, which Russia does not give up,” Zelenskyy said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian admitted for the first time Saturday that Iran sent drones to Russia, but he said that was before the war.

In his Sunday night video address, Zelenskyy dismissed Iran’s admission of providing only a limited number of drones to Russia. He said Ukrainian forces are downing unmanned aerial vehicles daily.

The United States and its Western allies on the U.N. Security Council have called on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to investigate whether Russia has used Iranian drones to attack civilians in Ukraine.

Also Sunday, Britain’s defense ministry said in its daily intelligence report about Ukraine that there has been a “series of dismissals of senior Russian military commanders since the onset of the invasion in February 2022.”

The report said, “These dismissals represent a pattern of blame against senior Russian military commanders for failures to achieve Russian objectives on the battlefield. This is in part likely an attempt to insulate and deflect blame from Russian senior leadership at home.”

In its intelligence update Saturday, however, the British defense ministry said “Russia is probably struggling to provide military training for its current mobilization drive and its annual autumn conscription intake. The Russian Armed Forces were already stretched providing training for the approximate 300,000 troops required for its partial mobilization, announced in September.

“These issues,” the ministry said, “will be compounded by the additional regular autumn annual conscription cycle” that begins in November for about 120,000 conscripts.

Russia has resorted to training troops in Belarus, the ministry said, “due to a shortage of training staff, munitions and facilities in Russia.” The intelligence update said that “deploying forces with little or no training provides little additional offensive combat capability.”

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

The mayor of Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv is warning residents that they must prepare for the worst this winter if Russia keeps striking the country’s energy infrastructure — that means there might not be any electricity, water or heat when temperatures fall below freezing.

“We are doing everything to avoid this. But let’s be frank, our enemies are doing everything for the city to be without heat, without electricity, without water supply, in general, so we all die. And the future of the country and the future of each of us depends on how prepared we are for different situations,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko told state media.

Russia has focused on striking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure over the last month, causing power shortages and rolling outages across the country. Kyiv was scheduled to have hourly rotating blackouts Sunday in parts of the city and the surrounding region.

Rolling blackouts also were planned in the nearby Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv and Poltava regions, Ukraine’s state-owned energy operator, Ukrenergo, said.

Kyiv plans to deploy about 1,000 heating points but noted that this may not be enough for a city of 3 million people.

Russian forces ‘occupying and evacuating’ Kherson

As Russia intensifies its attacks on the capital, Ukrainian forces are pushing forward in the south. Residents of Ukraine’s Russian-occupied city of Kherson received warning messages on their phones urging them to evacuate as soon as possible, Ukraine’s military said Sunday. Russian soldiers warned civilians that Ukraine’s army was preparing for a massive attack and told people to leave for the city’s right bank immediately.

Russian forces are preparing for a Ukrainian counteroffensive to seize back the southern city of Kherson, which was captured during the early days of the invasion. In September, Russia illegally annexed Kherson as well as three other regions of Ukraine and subsequently declared martial law in the four provinces.

The Kremlin-installed administration in Kherson already has moved tens of thousands of civilians out of the city.

Russia has been “occupying and evacuating” Kherson simultaneously, trying to convince Ukrainians that they’re leaving when in fact they’re digging in, Nataliya Humenyuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Southern Forces, told state television.

“There are defense units that have dug in there quite powerfully, a certain amount of equipment has been left, firing positions have been set up,” she said.

Russian forces are also digging in in a fiercely contested region in the east, worsening the already tough conditions for residents and the defending Ukrainian army following Moscow’s illegal annexation and declaration of martial law in Donetsk province.

‘Destruction is daily, if not hourly’

The attacks have almost completely destroyed the power plants that serve the city of Bakhmut and the nearby town of Soledar, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, the region’s Ukrainian governor, said. Shelling killed one civilian and wounded three, he reported late Saturday.

“The destruction is daily, if not hourly,” Kyrylenko told state television.

Moscow-backed separatists have controlled part of Donetsk for nearly eight years before Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. Protecting the separatists’ self-proclaimed republic there was one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justifications for the invasion, and his troops have spent months trying to capture the entire province.

While Russia’s “greatest brutality” was focused in the Donetsk region, “constant fighting” continued elsewhere along the front line that stretches more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

Between Saturday and Sunday, Russia launched four missiles and 19 airstrikes hitting more than 35 villages in nine regions — from Chernihiv and Kharkiv in the northeast to Kherson and Mykolaiv in the south, according to the president’s office. The strikes killed two people and wounded six, the office said.

In the Donetsk city of Bakhmut, 15,000 remaining residents were living under daily shelling and without water or power, according to local media. The city has been under attack for months, but the bombardment picked up after Russian forces experienced setbacks during Ukrainian counteroffensives in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions.

The front line is now on Bakhmut’s outskirts, where mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian military company, are reported to be leading the charge.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the group who has typically remained under the radar, is taking a more visible role in the war. In a statement Sunday he announced the funding and creation of “militia training centers” in Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions in the southwest, saying that locals were best placed to “fight against sabotage” on Russian soil. The training centers are in addition to a military technology center the group said it was opening in St. Petersburg.

In Kharkiv, officials were working to identify bodies found in mass graves after the Russians withdrew, Dmytro Chubenko, a spokesperson for the regional prosecutor’s office, told local media.

DNA samples have been collected from 450 bodies discovered in a mass grave in the city of Izium, but the samples need to be matched with relatives and so far only 80 people have participated, he said.

In one sliver of good news, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was reconnected to Ukraine’s power grid, local media reported Sunday. Europe’s largest nuclear plant needs electricity to maintain vital cooling systems, but it had been running on emergency diesel generators since Russian shelling severed its outside connections.
…

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Sunday in its daily intelligence report about Ukraine that there has been a “series of dismissals of senior Russian military commanders since the onset of the invasion in February 2022.”

The report said, “These dismissals represent a pattern of blame against senior Russian military commanders for failures to achieve Russian objectives on the battlefield. This is in part likely an attempt to insulate and deflect blame from Russian senior leadership at home.”

Heavy fighting and explosions were reported Saturday by authorities in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region.

Over the previous 24 hours Ukrainian forces attacked nine locations, including an ammunition depot in the Kherson region, using Russian military equipment that they had seized.

“[Ukrainian forces] prepare for another stage of an offensive on the Kherson Region. Artillery brigade groups, mortar batteries, tactical aviation planes and army aviation helicopters inflict massive fire within their preparation for an assault,” the Moscow-installed Deputy Governor Kirill Stremousov said on his Telegram channel Saturday.

Russia continues to target the country’s energy and water infrastructure, reportedly destroying 30% to 40% of its energy system, leading to increased rolling blackouts meant to protect the county’s power grid from failing.

Meanwhile, external power lines have been repaired and reconnected to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant two days after it was taken off the power grid when Russian shelling damaged high voltage lines, the International Atomic Energy agency said Saturday.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi again called for a nuclear safety and security protection zone to be set up around the plant to prevent a nuclear accident.

“We can’t afford to lose any more time. We must act before it is too late,” he said.

Russia is increasing its evacuation of residents from the conflict zone and acknowledging the deteriorating situation in the Kherson region. At least 70,000 civilians have been moved from Kherson, the only regional capital captured by Moscow since February.

Pro-Kremlin media members have reported that Russian troops have moved their headquarters 80 kilometers to the southeast, destroying infrastructure and looting the city as they leave, residents and Ukrainian officials said, according to The New York Times.

While a bloody battle for the city is predicted, the “situation in Kherson is clear as mud,” Michael Kofman, the director of Russian studies at CNA, a research institute in Arlington, Virgina, wrote in an analysis this week, the Times reported. “Russian forces seemed to withdraw from some parts, evacuated and drew down, but also reinforced with mobilized personnel.”

Residents of the city report abandoned checkpoints and no more Russian patrols, but Ukrainian officials are cautious, believing Moscow is setting a trap.

In its intelligence update Saturday, however, the British defense ministry said that “Russia is probably struggling to provide military training for its current mobilization drive and its annual autumn conscription intake. The Russian Armed Forces were already stretched providing training for the approximate 300,000 troops required for its partial mobilization, announced in September.

“These issues,” the ministry said, “will be compounded by the additional regular autumn annual conscription cycle” that begins in November for about 120,000 conscripts.

Russia has resorted to training troops in Belarus, the ministry said, “due to a shortage of training staff, munitions and facilities in Russia.” The intelligence update said that “deploying forces with little or no training provides little additional offensive combat capability.”

Iranian drones

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian admitted for the first time Saturday that Iran sent drones to Russia, but he said that was before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where Russia has been using drones to target power stations and civilian infrastructure.

However, in a video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Iran’s admission of providing only a limited number of drones to Russia before the war on Ukraine. He said Ukrainian forces are downing at least 10 or the unmanned aerial vehicles daily.

The U.S. and its Western allies on the U.N. Security Council have called on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to investigate whether Russia has used Iranian drones to attack civilians in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is providing about $400 million in additional security assistance to Ukraine as the fight against Russia’s invasion enters its ninth month.

The U.S. military assistance includes refurbishing HAWK air defense missiles, funding for 45 refurbished T-72B tanks with advanced optics, communications, and armor packages, 1,100 Phoenix Ghost tactical unmanned aerial systems, 40 armored riverine command boats, funding to refurbish 250 M1117 armored security vehicles, as well as tactical secure communications systems and surveillance systems, along with funding for training, maintenance, and sustainment.

In his nightly address Friday, Zelenskyy thanked the United States for its latest military assistance and said it is the armored vehicles in particular that “we very much need to move forward at the front.”

“I am grateful to President Biden, the U.S. Congress and the entire American people for the continued and vital assistance,” he said.

The Associated Press and Reuters provided information for this report.
…

The German version of the television show The Voice had a special guest Saturday on its final episode of the season.

Rana Mansour, an Iranian American singer, performed the protest song For, (Baraye) a song dedicated to Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian woman who died recently after being arrested by Iranian police. Amini was detained for wearing her headscarf “improperly.”

Mansour performed the song in English so that it could be understood by an international audience.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets across Iran since Amini’s death, protesting not only her death, but the restrictions that many, especially women, face in Iran.

At the end of her performance, Mansour held up her fingers in the Victory sign and said, “Woman, life, freedom,” a phrase chanted by Iranian protesters.

Mansour received a standing ovation.
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The Biden administration is privately encouraging Ukraine’s leaders to signal an openness to negotiate with Russia and drop their public refusal to engage in peace talks unless President Vladimir Putin is removed from power, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

The paper quoted unnamed people familiar with the discussions as saying that the request by American officials was not aimed at pushing Ukraine to the negotiating table, but a calculated attempt to ensure Kyiv maintains the support of other nations facing constituencies wary of fueling a war for many years to come.

It said the discussions illustrated the complexity of the Biden administration’s position on Ukraine, as U.S. officials publicly vow to support Kyiv with massive sums of aid “for as long as it takes” while hoping for a resolution to the eight-month conflict that has taken a big toll on the world economy and triggered fears of nuclear war.

The paper said U.S. officials shared the assessment of their Ukrainian counterparts that Putin is not for now serious about negotiations but acknowledged that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s ban on talks with him had generated concern in parts of Europe, Africa and Latin America, where the war’s effects on costs of food and fuel are felt most sharply.

“Ukraine fatigue is a real thing for some of our partners,” the Post quoted one unnamed U.S. official as saying.

The White House National Security Council had no immediate comment when asked if the report was accurate, while a spokesperson for the State Department responded by saying: “We’ve said it before and will say it again: Actions speak louder than words. If Russia is ready for negotiation, it should stop its bombs and missiles and withdraw its forces from Ukraine.

“The Kremlin continues to escalate this war. The Kremlin has demonstrated its unwillingness to seriously engage in negotiations since even before it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.”

The spokesperson also noted remarks by Zelenskyy on Friday, in which he said: “We are ready for peace, for a fair and just peace, the formula of which we have voiced many times.”

In his nightly address to the Ukrainian people on Friday, Zelenskyy added: “The world knows our position. This is respect for the UN Charter, respect for our territorial integrity, respect for our people.”

U.S. National Security adviser Jake Sullivan said during a visit to Kyiv on Friday that Washington’s support for Ukraine would remain “unwavering and unflinching” following next Tuesday’s midterm congressional elections.
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Hundreds of environmental activists wearing white overalls stormed an area holding private jets at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and stopped aircraft from leaving for hours by sitting in front of their wheels Saturday.

Military police moved in and were seen taking dozens of the protesters away in buses. More than 100 activists were arrested, national broadcaster NOS reported.

The protest was part of a day of demonstrations in and around the air hub organized by Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion in the buildup to the COP27 climate talks in Egypt.

No delays to commercial flights were reported.

“We want fewer flights, more trains and a ban on unnecessary short-haul flights and private jets,” Greenpeace Netherlands campaign leader Dewi Zloch said.

The environmental group says Schiphol is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the Netherlands, emitting 12 billion kilograms annually.

Hundreds of other demonstrators in and around the airport’s main hall carried signs saying, “Restrict Aviation” and “More Trains.”

Responding to the protest, Schiphol said it aims to become an emissions-free airport by 2030 and supports targets for the aviation industry to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Military police tasked with airport security said in a statement they had “made a number of detentions of persons who were on airport property without being allowed.”

The Dutch government announced plans in June for a cap on annual passengers at the airport at 440,000, around 11% below 2019 levels, citing air pollution and climate concerns.

Transportation Minister Mark Harbers told parliament last month his office could not control growing private jet traffic, and the government is considering whether to include the issue in its climate policy.
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