RIYADMEDIA

American Bohdan Olinares was born in Ukraine and moved to the U.S. with his parents at age two, but when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, he immediately joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. A former U.S. Marine, he spent six months in Ukraine and was almost killed in the Donetsk region. Anna Rice narrates his story. VOA footage and video editing by Bogdan Osyka.
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Badly needed food and medicines were delivered to Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday along two roads simultaneously, a step that could ease mounting tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had sent trucks via the Lachin corridor leading from Armenia into the mountain enclave from the southwest, and the Aghdam road from Azerbaijani government-held territory to the northeast.

“We are extremely relieved that many people reliant on humanitarian aid will finally receive much-needed support in the coming days,” said Ariane Bauer, ICRC’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia.

“People are queuing hours for bread,” she said, adding that she hoped aid convoys would continue “not just today but in the weeks to come, so that we can regularly get aid to those who need it.”

She said the deliveries had been made possible by agreement between the rival authorities.

Azerbaijan had virtually cut traffic from Armenia since December, alleging it was being used to smuggle arms. That triggered food shortages in Karabakh and aggravated tensions with Yerevan.

In a statement on Facebook, the Karabakh administration said around 23 tons of flour as well as medical and hygiene products had arrived in the region.

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it had agreed to the ICRC shipments, and that it was ready to ensure the parallel use of the two roads.

Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but has an overwhelmingly ethnic Armenian population that broke from Baku’s control in the early 1990s after a war, relying on support from Armenia through the Lachin corridor.

In another war in late 2020, Azerbaijan recaptured swathes of land in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, establishing effective control over the corridor.

Baku has insisted that Karabakh must reopen an access route from Azerbaijani territory that has been blocked since 1988, and earlier this month a single Russian aid truck entered Karabakh along that road.

Monday’s delivery fulfilled the other side of an agreement between Yerevan and Baku, but wider tensions remain.

The two countries frequently exchange fire along their closed and heavily fortified border and Armenia has in recent weeks repeatedly accused Azerbaijan of massing troops around Karabakh, an allegation Azerbaijan has denied.

The Armenian state news agency Armenpress said on Sunday that one person in Karabakh had been wounded by firing from Azerbaijani positions. Azerbaijan accused Karabakh forces of building fortifications near the front line and said it had taken “urgent measures” to stop them from doing so.
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Two cargo ships arrived at one of Ukraine’s ports over the weekend, using a temporary Black Sea corridor established by Kyiv following Russia’s withdrawal from a wartime agreement designed to ensure safe grain exports from the invaded country’s ports.

Two Palau-flagged bulk carriers, Aroyat and Resilient Africa, docked Saturday at the seaport of Chornomorsk in the southern Odesa region, according to an online statement by the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority. The vessels are the first civilian cargo ships to reach one of the Odesa ports since Russia exited the grain deal.

Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said in an online statement Saturday that the two ships will be delivering some 20,000 tons of wheat to countries in Africa and Asia.

For months, Ukraine, whose economy is heavily dependent on farming, was able to safely export its grain from Black Sea ports under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to ensure safe shipments. But Russia withdrew from the deal on July 17, with Kremlin officials arguing their demands for the facilitation of Russian food and fertilizer shipments had not been met.

Following the withdrawal, the Russian defense ministry said it would regard any vessels in the Black Sea headed to Ukrainian ports as military targets.

Since then, Kyiv has sought to reroute transport through the Danube River, and road and rail links into Europe. But transport costs that way are much higher. Some European countries have balked at the consequential local grain prices, and the Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports.

The interim corridor in the Black Sea, which Kyiv has asked the International Maritime Organization to ratify, was opened on Aug. 10 as United States and Ukrainian officials warned of possible Russian attacks on civilian vessels. Sea mines also make the voyage risky, and ship insurance costs are likely to be high for operators.

Ukrainian officials said the corridor will be primarily used to evacuate ships stuck in the Ukrainian ports of Chornomorsk, Odesa and Pivdennyi since the war broke out. Kubrakov said Saturday that five vessels have since used the corridor to leave Ukrainian ports.

After tearing up the grain deal, Russia intensified attacks on the southern Odesa region, targeting its port infrastructure and grain silos with missiles and drones.

On Sunday, Ukraine’s Air Force Command reported another attack overnight in which the Odesa region was the main target. Russian forces fired 10 cruise missiles and six Iranian-made Shahed drones, the statement said. All drones and six missiles were downed, while the rest hit an agricultural facility in the Odesa region.
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Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov on Sunday released new video footage in which he smiled and recommended everyone practice sport, in an apparent move to quash speculation about his ill health.

Speculation has swirled for months that the hugely influential 46-year-old head of Chechnya accused by rights groups of running a “totalitarian regime” might be ill. 

On Sunday, two videos appeared on Kadyrov’s Telegram channel.

Wearing a raincoat, he was seen in the first video strolling in an unidentified location. He smiled but his face appeared puffy.

In the second video he was heard speaking Chechen and then saying in Russian, “Practice sport.”

“I strongly recommend that everyone who cannot distinguish the truth from lies on the internet go for a walk, get some fresh air and put their thoughts in order,” said the words accompanying the videos. “The rain can be wonderfully invigorating.”

It was not possible to immediately establish when the videos were recorded but the footage was published following unconfirmed reports on social media that the Chechen leader was in a coma.

Kadyrov has been one of the most enthusiastic supporters of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine and his battalions have fought alongside regular Russian forces there.

The former rebel warlord turned Kremlin ally has long referred to himself as Vladimir Putin’s “footsoldier.”

Elected president of Chechnya in 2007, Kadyrov has ruled majority-Muslim Chechnya with widespread evidence of extra-judicial killings and torture of his opponents.
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Climate activists sprayed orange and yellow paint on the columns of Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate on Sunday to push demands for a stop to the use of fossil fuels by 2030.  

“Members of the so-called ‘Last Generation’ sprayed the columns on the east side of the Brandenburg Gate with orange paint from fire extinguishers during the morning,” Berlin police said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

It added that police officers noticed a hydraulic lift was being operated at the gate and they kept the protesters from scaling the landmark building. They arrested all 14 protesters at the site and launched an investigation into property damage.

The Last Generation, a Germany-based group within the Europe-wide A22 network that includes Britain’s Just Stop Oil, has made headlines in Germany with hundreds of road blocks by protesters who glued themselves to the tarmac.

Their action has triggered a law-enforcement crackdown by Germany’s federal states.  

The Last Generation posted pictures of the spray-painting on X.  

“We will not stop our protest unless a pivot is initiated. We have to exit oil, natural gas and coal by 2030 at the latest,” it said.  

Germany aims to reach net-zero emissions by 2045, but it missed annual targets for the last two years.
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European Union Commision President Ursula von de Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni toured a migrant center Sunday on the small Italian island of Lampedusa.

The center was recently overwhelmed with almost 7,000 migrants in a 24-hour period, a total that is nearly equivalent to the number of people who live on the island.

Residents of Italy’s southernmost island say they are frustrated with the steady stream of arrivals on their tiny island.

The island has struggled for years to manage the arrivals.

Lampedusa is less than 160 kilometers from Tunisia, making it a logical first stop for the migrants who are looking for a better life in Europe and elsewhere.

Many make the journey in rickety boats and they are often rescued by the coast guard.  Many do not survive the journey.  The latest victim was a 5-month-old baby, officials say.

Meloni, who was elected last year, promised to end the mass migrations.

Television footage of the politicians’ trip to the island showed them talking to residents.

Italy’s right-wing government recently allocated close to $50 million to help Lampedusa manage the massive influx of migrants. Some residents say that sum is not enough.
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“We must prepare ourselves for a long war in Ukraine,” NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with Germany’s Funke media group published Sunday.

“Most wars last longer than expected when they first begin,” he said. 

“We are all wishing for a quick peace,” Stoltenberg said, “but at the same time, we must recognize if [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians stop fighting, their country will no longer exist.”

Meanwhile, Russia targeted Ukraine’s Odesa region early Sunday with a combined drone and missile attack, hitting an agricultural facility, Ukraine’s Air Forces said on the Telegram messaging app.

The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

Also Sunday, Ukraine launched a drone attack on Crimea and Moscow.

A regional Crimean official said a drone hit a fuel tank, causing a fire that was extinguished.

The drones over Moscow interfered with air traffic over the capital. 

The British Defense Ministry said Sunday in its daily intelligence update on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that Russia is “likely” reinforcing its defenses around the occupied town of Tokmak in southern Ukraine.

The town is 16 kilometers from the front line and Tokmak is being outfitted to become a “lynchpin” of Russia’s second main line of defenses.

Attention to the town’s defenses “likely indicates Russia’s growing concern about Ukrainian tactical penetrations of the main defensive line to the north.”

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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The beer is flowing and millions of people are descending on the Bavarian capital to celebrate the official opening of Oktoberfest.

With the traditional cry of “O’zapft is” — “It’s tapped” — Mayor Dieter Reiter inserted the tap in the first keg at noon on Saturday, officially opening the 18 days of festivities.

Revelers decked out in traditional lederhosen and dirndl dresses trooped to Munich’s festival grounds Saturday morning, filling the dozens of traditional tents in anticipation of getting their first 1-liter mug of beer.

Minutes before the first keg was tapped, to cheers from the crowd, Bavarian Gov. Markus Soeder asked festivalgoers if they were ready for Oktoberfest to begin.

“I can only say one thing: This is the most beautiful, biggest, most important festival in the world,” he said.

The Oktoberfest has typically drawn about 6 million visitors every year. The event was skipped in 2020 and 2021 as authorities grappled with COVID-19, but it returned in 2022.

A 1-liter mug costs between 12.60 euros and 14.90 euros ($13.45 to $15.90) this year, an increase of around 6% from last year.

This year’s Oktoberfest, the 188th edition, runs through Oct. 3. 
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un discussed practical issues in stepping up military cooperation with Russia’s defense minister, state KCNA news agency said Sunday.

During his visit to Russia, Kim inspected Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers, hypersonic missiles and warships Saturday, accompanied by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Kim’s trip comes at a time when “a fresh heyday of friendship and solidarity and cooperation is being opened up in the history of the development of the relations between the DPRK and Russia,” KCNA said, using North Korea’s official name.

Kim met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday and discussed military matters, the war in Ukraine and deepening cooperation.

Kim and Shoigu “exchanged their constructive opinions on the practical issues arising in further strengthening the strategic and tactical coordination, cooperation and mutual exchange between the armed forces of the two countries and in the fields of their national defense and security,” KCNA reported.

Shoigu told Russian media earlier that Moscow is discussing joint military exercises with North Korea.

On Friday, South Korea and the U.S. said military cooperation between North Korea and Russia would violate U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang and that the allies would ensure there was a price to pay.

Russia has gone out of its way to publicize the visit and to drop repeated hints about the prospect of military cooperation with North Korea, which was formed in 1948 with the backing of the Soviet Union.

Kim also toured Russia’s Pacific Sea Fleet equipped with strategic nuclear submarines among other military vessels, KCNA said, quoting him as praising the fleet for its contribution to peace in the region.

Earlier this month, North Korea launched its first operational “tactical nuclear attack submarine.”  
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Ukrainian forces made progress Saturday in their offensive against Russian troops in the east and south, a military spokesperson said, as the two militaries disputed who controlled the village of Andriivka. 

General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s land forces, posted a video to Telegram showing a scorched, desolate landscape that he said proved his forces had captured the village.  

Andriivka is unrecognizable, a correspondent for Ukraine’s Hromadske radio said. It is “so badly destroyed that soldiers do not even know where to place the pole with the Ukrainian flag,” Yanina Lvutina said on the radio’s website. 

Ukraine considers Andriivka crucial to regaining the nearby, also-destroyed city of Bakhmut. 

Russia’s Defense Ministry disputed Ukraine’s claim to Andriivka. Reuters was unable to verify either battlefield report. 

Meanwhile, airstrike alarms sounded at midday throughout Ukraine as the country’s military warned of the threat of ballistic attacks on population centers, including Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and the Zaporizhzhia, and Odesa regions.  

A series of blasts were reported in the Kharkiv region, although information on casualties or damage was not immediately available.  

Also Saturday, Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov told Reuters that Ukraine’s drone production has increased by more than 100 times since last year.   

Ukraine is also testing artificial intelligence systems, he said, that can detect targets kilometers away, as well as guide drones despite disruptions from electronic warfare measures. 

“There will be more drones, more attacks, and fewer Russian ships. That’s for sure,” he said, noting the recent attacks on Russian naval targets in the Black Sea. 

‘We’ve made significant progress’

In his nightly video address on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked his nation’s allies for their continued support in the fight against the Russian invasion. 

“This week, we’ve made significant progress in implementing existing defense agreements and other support packages,” he said. 

“Denmark, thank you for the new defense package, which is already the 12th package. Equipment, ammunition, and missiles for our air defense,” he said. “Germany, thank you for the new batch of military aid. Belgium, your participation in our pilot training is approved. Thank you! Norway, your decision to provide additional funding for Ukraine’s recovery. It’s crucial. Thank you!”   

He also singled out the United States and South Korea for their support. 

President Joe Biden will host Zelenskyy in Washington on Thursday in their third meeting at the White House.  

British warn of cruise missiles

Finally, in its daily intelligence update Saturday, the British Defense Ministry warned of the “realistic possibility” that Russia will resume using air-launched cruise missiles against Ukrainian infrastructure targets in the winter.   

The ministry said Russia has likely created a “significant stockpile” of the missiles, since open-source reports indicate that Russia began reducing its use of the missiles in April. 

The report also said the missiles “were at the heart” of most strike missions that Russia launched against Ukraine’s national energy infrastructure between last October and March. They allowed Russia to release munitions “from deep within Russian territory.”  

Some information in this article came from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Two cargo vessels were bound for Ukrainian ports on Saturday, becoming the first ships to use a temporary corridor to sail into Black Sea ports and load grain for African and Asian markets, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said. 

Ukraine last month announced a “humanitarian corridor” in the Black Sea to release ships trapped in its ports since the start of the war in February 2022 and to circumvent a de facto blockade after Russia abandoned the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allowed Kyiv to export grain. 

Five vessels have so far left the port of Odesa, using the corridor that hugs the western Black Sea coast near Romania and Bulgaria. 

Ukraine, a leading global food producer and exporter, also wants to use the corridor for its food exports. 

The bulk carriers, Resilient Africa and Aroyat, were making their way through the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports to load almost 20,000 tons of wheat for Africa and Asia, Kubrakov said. 

Data from ship tracking company MarineTraffic showed that the Aroyat was at Ukraine’s Chornomorsk port, while the other vessel was en route in the Black Sea.  

Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry said on the Telegram messaging app that the wheat would be shipped to Egypt and Israel. 

“While the U.N. is not involved in the movement of those vessels, we welcome all efforts for the resumption of normal trade, especially of vital food commodities that help supply and stabilize global food markets,” a U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. 

“We continue our efforts to facilitate exports for agricultural products from both Ukraine and the Russian Federation,” the official said. 

The loadings are a test of Ukraine’s ability to reopen shipping lanes at a time when Russia is trying to re-impose its de facto blockade, having abandoned the grain deal in July. Moscow has launched frequent drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian grain export infrastructure.  

The Black Sea grain deal was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey in July 2022 to combat a global food crisis worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s top grain exporters. 

Ukraine made several attacks in recent days using sea drones and missiles on Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet in and around the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014. 
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Hundreds gathered in central London on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran last year, sparking worldwide protests of the country’s conservative Islamic theocracy.

Chanting “Women! Life! Freedom!,” the crowds held her portrait and rallied around the memory of a young woman who died on September 16, 2022, after she was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory headscarf law. Similar protests took place in Italy, Germany and France.

“We’re calling on everyone to remember those killed, but also continue the fight, because this fight has to go to the end. Mahsa Jina Amini and the many others cannot have died in vain,″ said Maryam Namazie, an Iranian human rights activist in the U.K.

“We have to have a better society as the result of this huge, Herculean fight.″

In Iran, authorities sought to prevent the anniversary from reigniting the protests that gripped the country last year. Amini’s father was detained outside his home after the family indicated that they planned to gather at her grave for a traditional service of commemoration, the Kurdish rights group Hengaw said. People in downtown Tehran reported a heavy security presence, and security forces were seen in western Iran, where the Kurdish minority staged large protests last year.

Hengaw reported a widespread general strike in Kurdish areas on Saturday, circulating video and photos that appeared to show streets largely empty and shops shuttered. Human Rights Activists in Iran, another group that closely follows events within the country, also reported the general strike. There was no acknowledgement of the strike in state media.

Videos on social media purported to show tear gas being fired in Mashhad and Karaj, a satellite city of Tehran. The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran also reported the tear gas being used. Iranian state media did not acknowledge any such incidents.

Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman from the western region, died three days after she was arrested by morality police, allegedly for violating laws that require women to cover their hair in public. While authorities said that she suffered a heart attack, Amini’s supporters said she was beaten by police and died as a result of her injuries.

Her death triggered protests that spread across the country and rapidly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s four-decade-old Islamic theocracy.

Authorities responded with a violent crackdown in which more than 500 people were killed and upwards of 22,000 others were detained, according to rights groups. The demonstrations largely died down early this year, but there are still widespread signs of discontent. For several months, women could be seen openly flaunting the headscarf rule in Tehran and other cities, prompting a renewed crackdown over the summer.

Activists around the world sought to renew the protests on the anniversary of Amini’s death.

On Saturday, about 100 protesters gathered in front of the Iranian Embassy in Rome under the “Women, life, freedom,” banner.

“Now it is important that all the world start again to demonstrate in the streets, because what we want is to isolate this regime and, in particular, we want to push all the states not to have political and economic agreements with Iran,” protester Lucia Massi said.

In Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced that a garden in the French capital now carried Amini’s name. The mayor called Amini an Iranian resistance hero and said Paris “honors her memory and her battle, as well as those of women who fight for their freedom in Iran and elsewhere.”

The Villemin Garden that now also bears Amini’s name is in Paris’ 10th district, next to a canal with popular boat tours for tourists.

Iran blamed last year’s protests on the United States and other foreign powers, without providing evidence, and has since tried to downplay the unrest even as it moves to prevent any resurgence.

The protests were partly fueled by the widespread economic pain Iranians have suffered since then-President Donald Trump withdrew from a nuclear deal with world powers and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran. But that suffering also may have made it difficult to sustain prolonged demonstrations, as many Iranians struggle to make ends meet.

President Joe Biden issued a lengthy statement on Friday acknowledging the anniversary of Amini’s death, and the United States announced new sanctions on Iranian officials and entities. U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also noted the anniversary and imposed new sanctions on Iranian officials.

Soheila Sokhanvari, an Iranian-British artist, moved to the U.K. to study a year before the 1979 revolution that brought Iran’s conservative Islamic leaders to power. She was in London preparing for a solo exhibition on pre-revolutionary feminist icons last year when she heard about Amini’s death.

The protests that followed marked the first time the world has seen “a revolution which is instigated by women,” she told The Associated Press earlier this month.

“But I think what’s really important about this protest is that Iranian men, for the first time in the history of Iran, they’re actually standing with women and they’re supporting the women and they’re showing respect for the women,” she said. “That’s very original, and it’s never happened in the history of Iran.”
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A Ukrainian minister told Reuters that the future of Ukraine’s battle against Russia holds “more drones, more attacks and fewer Russian ships.”  

Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Ukraine’s drone production has increased by more than 100 times since last year.   

Fedorov also told the news agency that Ukraine is testing artificial intelligence systems that can detect targets kilometers away, as well as guide drones despite disruptions from electronic warfare measures.  

Meanwhile, the British Defense Ministry, in its daily intelligence update on Ukraine, said there is a “realistic possibility” that Russia will resume using air-launched cruise missiles against Ukrainian infrastructure targets in the winter.   

The ministry’s update said that Russia has likely created a “significant stockpile” of the missiles, since open-source reports indicate that Russia began reducing its use of the missiles in April. 

“Russian leaders have highlighted efforts to increase the rate of cruise missile production,” the ministry said.  

The report also said the missiles “were at the heart” of most strike missions that Russia launched against Ukraine’s national energy infrastructure between last October and March. They allowed Russia to release munitions “from deep within Russian territory.”  

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock spoke Friday in Washington, and both reiterated their long-term support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. 

Speaking to reporters following their talks, Blinken said Germany and the U.S., along with dozens of other nations around the world, are committed to providing military, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. He said they also discussed Ukraine’s long-term ability not only to survive but to thrive following Russia’s invasion. 

Baerbock echoed Blinken’s remarks, saying support for Ukraine goes beyond arms deliveries to include humanitarian issues and repairing infrastructure. She said she discussed with Blinken how the U.S. and Germany can coordinate their assistance to Ukraine even more closely. 

The two top diplomats were asked about Ukraine’s ongoing requests for long-range missile systems that could reach deep into Russia and the West’s reluctance to provide them.  

Baerbock said Germany and other NATO allies have told Ukraine from the beginning of Russia’s invasion that arms supplies would be limited to Ukraine’s self-defense and reclaiming territory within Ukraine.  

The German foreign minister has been in the United States much of this week. She traveled to Texas on Tuesday and Wednesday, visiting an air base where German pilots are trained. She met Thursday with U.S. lawmakers to discuss their continued support for Ukraine.

Ukraine grain shipments 

Blinken said he and Baerbock also discussed the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which Russia ended in July, and alternatives to getting grain out of Ukraine and to developing nations that need it.  

Following a meeting on Friday in Bucharest with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, Romanian Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu said the nation planned to double the monthly transit capacity for Ukrainian grain through its Constanta port to 4 million metric tons in the coming months.  

Speaking at a joint news conference, Kubrakov said they hope to double the port’s capacity by the beginning of October, which could help Ukraine solve at least 50% of its export issues. 

Ukraine military advances 

Ukraine’s military said Friday it has recaptured the village of Andriivka, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of the key front-line, Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut, following intense battles with Russian troops. 

The latest victory in Ukraine’s protracted, multipronged counteroffensive comes just days ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s expected visit to Washington. 

Also Friday, Britain’s Defense Ministry confirmed that a missile strike targeting the naval headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Crimea earlier this week delivered a blow that may have crippled portions of the facility for weeks or possibly months to come. 

The landing ship Minsk and the Kilo 636.3 class submarine Rostov-on-Don were undergoing maintenance at the Sevmorzavod shipyard in the base’s dry docks when the missiles hit during a predawn strike Wednesday. 

Open-source evidence, the ministry said, “indicates the Minsk has almost certainly been functionally destroyed, while the Rostov has likely suffered catastrophic damage.”

According to the ministry’s report, any effort to get the submarine up and running would likely take many years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. 

In addition, the British ministry said there is also “a realistic possibility” that the intricate task of removing the damaged vessels from the dry docks could put the docks out of commission for months and present Russia “with a significant challenge in sustaining fleet maintenance.” 

According to the British ministry, the Rostov was one of the four Black Sea fleet’s cruise-missile capable submarines that “have played a major role in striking Ukraine and projecting Russian power across the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean.” 

Zelenskyy White House visit 

Friday’s developments precede Zelenskyy’s anticipated arrival in Washington next week as the U.S. Congress continues to debate $21 billion more in aid to Ukraine to support its fight against Russia. 

U.S. lawmakers are increasingly divided over whether to provide Ukraine with more aid. President Joe Biden is seeking $13 billion in military aid and $8 billion in humanitarian aid, but some Republican lawmakers oppose sending more aid to Ukraine. 

Zelenskyy is expected to meet with Biden next week at the White House after the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York. 

Although Ukraine’s counteroffensive push against the Russian invasion has been slower than expected, Zelenskyy celebrated Thursday what he described as Ukraine’s destruction of a Russian air defense system on the annexed Crimean Peninsula. 

“A special mention should be made to the entire personnel of the Security Service of Ukraine as well as our naval forces,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video message. “The invaders’ air defense system was destroyed. Very significant, well done!” 

Some information in this article came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers and other warplanes Saturday from Russia’s Pacific fleet.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other leading military officials gave Kim a tour of the bombers and warplanes after the North Korean leader’s arrival in the Far Eastern Russian city of Artyom.

The items the Russians showed Kim are weapons that Russia has used in its invasion of Ukraine.

Later Saturday, Kim and Shoigu traveled to Vladivostok to inspect more inventory, including a weapons-laden frigate.

Kim’s trip to Russia has included more than four hours of talks with President Vladimir Putin and raised alarms about what the two countries want from each other and what kinds of deals the two will strike.
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The war in Ukraine is likely to be the big topic for a second year when leaders gather at the U.N. General Assembly next week, but many developing countries are hoping to shine a light on issues important to them, including development, the economy and climate.

This year’s general assembly will take place after Asian countries met in Indonesia for the ASEAN summit, G20 leaders gathered in India, and developing countries in the Group of 77 plus China met in Cuba. After a busy September, several high-profile leaders are skipping New York, but more than 140 heads of state and government are attending.

With the world literally on fire in places, there will be plenty to talk about.

“We will be gathering at a time when humanity faces huge challenges – from the worsening climate emergency to escalating conflicts, the global cost-of-living crisis, soaring inequalities and dramatic technological disruptions,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters ahead of the high-level week. “People are looking to their leaders for a way out of this mess.”

War in Ukraine

Guterres said the war in Ukraine is aggravating geopolitical divisions.

“And so, the solution — a peace in Ukraine, in line with [the] U.N. Charter, and in line with international law — would be very important to allow for geopolitical divisions to be reduced,” he said. “But those geopolitical divisions have other dimensions. And one of my main concerns is that we see the risk of fragmentation.”

The war is certain to be a feature during the week, with media attention on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is scheduled to attend the U.N. General Assembly in person for the first time since Russia invaded his country in February 2022. Last year a special exception was made for him to address the gathering in a prerecorded video because he could not travel to New York.

In addition to his General Assembly speech Tuesday, he is expected to attend a high-level U.N. Security Council meeting the next day on Ukraine. Zelenskyy has previously only briefed the council remotely since the war started. There is also potential for some diplomatic drama, if Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov represents his country at the meeting and the two leaders come face-to-face in the same room.

Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group, says Zelenskyy is likely to get a lot of press attention, but he should be careful not to overshadow the priorities of other leaders, especially from the developing world.

“I think this is a great opportunity for Zelenskyy to talk to the wider world about Ukraine’s situation and try and push back against some of the Russian propaganda about the war,” he told VOA. “However, Zelenskyy has to be conscious that there are a lot of leaders from developing countries who have problems of their own – such as debt and poor economic growth – and they want to talk about those topics, and not just the war between Russia and Ukraine.”

Push for SDGs

What leaders from developing nations are hoping for is real action on sustainable development, climate mitigation and adaptation, and pandemic prevention and preparedness. There will be separate summits on all those issues during the week.

Guterres will kick off the high-level week with a two-day summit on Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs.

In 2015, leaders pledged to work toward progress on 17 goals that aim to end hunger and extreme poverty. Now at the half-way point to the 2030 deadline, only 15% of the SDGs are on track. The rest are either making too little progress or backsliding to pre-2015 levels.

“This is in part due to the lingering drag of the COVID-19 pandemic, the highest level of armed conflict globally since 1945, and climate-related disasters, as well as inflation and the rising cost of living,” said Astra Bonini, U.N. senior sustainable development officer.

The number of people living in extreme poverty rose for the first time in a generation with the onset of the pandemic. The U.N. says if present trends continue, a staggering 575 million people will remain trapped in extreme poverty by the end of this decade and 600 million will be facing hunger.

Guterres told reporters that getting the SDGs back on track is his main objective during the week. A big part of that is financing, and he hopes to secure an ambitious commitment of $500 billion a year from nations to help “rescue” the SDGs.

“I’m very hopeful that the SDG Summit will indeed represent a quantum leap in the response to the dramatic failures that we have witnessed until now in relation to the implementation of the SDGs,” he said.

Leaders are expected to adopt a political declaration at the start of Monday’s summit committing “to bold, ambitious, accelerated, just and transformative actions” to meet the targets by the end of this decade.

On Wednesday, the secretary-general is convening a climate ambition summit, bringing together government leaders with representatives from business and civil society. He has repeatedly warned that time is running out to prevent a climate catastrophe.

On the health front, leaders will discuss lessons learned from COVID-19 during the pandemic prevention, preparedness and response meeting, also on Wednesday. In addition to focusing on elements like vaccination programs and supporting healthcare systems, the meeting will look at the health inequalities and inequities among countries that need attention.

“If COVID-19 taught us nothing else, it’s that when health is at risk, everything is at risk,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization director-general, of the social, economic and political impacts of the pandemic.

Out of the spotlight

“The gathering itself isn’t the game, the game is what happens on the sidelines and behind-the-scenes that matters when everyone is in town,” said Richard Goldberg of the Washington-based research group Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

To that point, there will be hundreds of meetings on the sidelines of the General Assembly. There will be bilateral meetings between leaders – Secretary-General Guterres usually has more than a hundred of those himself. Smaller meetings on pressing issues will also take place. Look for the humanitarian situation in Sudan, the security crisis in Haiti, and how to help Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh to be a focus in smaller format sessions.

There will also be a ministerial meeting Monday hosted by the European Union, Saudi Arabia and the Arab League to see what’s possible on relaunching the stalled Middle East peace process. Israel and the Palestinians have not been invited.

U.S. President Joe Biden is the only leader from the five U.N. Security Council powers attending this year’s General Assembly. The British prime minister and the French, Russian and Chinese presidents are sitting out the gathering for various reasons.

“That’s a missed opportunity for the U.S.,” FDD’s Goldberg says.

President Biden will speak Tuesday morning, laying out U.S. priorities.

“He will address the General Assembly, where he will reaffirm our country’s leadership in countering threats to international peace and security, protecting human rights, and advancing global prosperity and development,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters Thursday.

She said the United States will also reaffirm its commitments to the SDGs and discuss how they are working to meet them.

With a packed week and much on the line, the world’s citizens will be looking to leaders to take action to improve their daily lives and safeguard their future.
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A global hunger crisis has left more than 700 million people not knowing when or if they will eat again, and demand for food is rising relentlessly while humanitarian funding is drying up, the head of the United Nations food agency said Thursday.

World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain told the U.N. Security Council that because of the lack of funding, the agency has been forced to cut food rations for millions of people, and “more cuts are on the way.”

“We are now living with a series of concurrent and long-term crises that will continue to fuel global humanitarian needs,” she said. “This is the humanitarian community’s new reality — our new normal — and we will be dealing with the fallout for years to come.”

The WFP chief, the widow of the late U.S. senator John McCain, said the agency estimates that nearly 47 million people in over 50 countries are just one step from famine — and a staggering 45 million children younger than 5 are now estimated to suffer from acute malnutrition.

According to WFP estimates from 79 countries where the Rome-based agency operates, up to 783 million people — one in 10 of the world’s population — still go to bed hungry every night. More than 345 million people are facing high levels of food insecurity this year, an increase of almost 200 million people from early 2021 before the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency said.

At the root of the soaring numbers, WFP said, is “a deadly combination of conflict, economic shocks, climate extremes and soaring fertilizer prices.”

The economic fallout from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have pushed food prices out of the reach of millions of people across the world at the same time that high fertilizer prices have caused falling production of maize, rice, soybeans and wheat, the agency said.

“Our collective challenge is to ramp up the ambitious, multi-sectoral partnerships that will enable us to tackle hunger and poverty effectively, and reduce humanitarian needs over the long-term,” McCain urged business leaders at the council meeting focusing on humanitarian public-private partnerships. The aim is not just financing, but also finding innovative solutions to help the world’s neediest.

Michael Miebach, CEO of Mastercard, told the council that “humanitarian relief has long been the domain of government” and development institutions, and the private sector was seen as a source of financial donations for supplies.

“Money is still important, but companies can offer so much more,” he said. “The private sector stands ready to tackle the challenges at hand in partnership with the public sector.”

Miebach stressed that “business cannot succeed in a failing world” and humanitarian crises impact fellow citizens of the world. A business can use its expertise, he said, to strengthen infrastructure, “innovate new approaches and deliver solutions at scale” to improve humanitarian operations.

Jared Cohen, president of global affairs at Goldman Sachs, told the council that the revenue of many multinational companies rivals the GDP of some of the Group of 20 countries with the largest economies. And he said five American companies and many of their global counterparts have over 500,000 workers — more than the population of up to 20 U.N. member nations.

“Today’s global firms have responsibilities to our shareholders, clients, staff, communities, and the rules-based international order that makes it possible for us to do business,” he said.

Cohen said businesses can fulfill those responsibilities during crises first by not scrambling “to reinvent the wheel every time,” but by drawing on institutional memory and partnering with other firms and the public sector.

He said businesses also need “to act with speed and innovate in real time,” use local connections, and bring their expertise to the humanitarian response.

Lana Nusseibeh, the United Arab Emirates ambassador, said the U.N. appealed for over $54 billion this year, “and until now, 80% of those funds remain unfulfilled,” which shows that “we are facing a system in crisis.”

She said public-private partnerships that were once useful additions are now crucial to humanitarian work.

Over the past decade, Nusseibeh said, the UAE has been developing “a digital platform to support a government’s ability to better harness international support in the wake of natural disasters.” The UAE has also established a major humanitarian logistics hub and is working with U.N. agencies and private companies on new technologies to reach those in need, she said.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the funding gap has left the world’s most vulnerable people “in a moment of great peril.”

She said companies have stepped up, including in Haiti and Ukraine and to help refugees in the United States, but for too long, “we have turned to the private sector exclusively for financing.”

Businesses have shown “enormous generosity, but in 2023 we know they have so much more to offer. Their capacities, their know-how, and innovations are tremendously needed,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “The public sector must harness the expertise of the private sector and translate it into action.”
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Ukrainian business magnate Ihor Kolomoisky has been served with notice of a third set of allegations following his detention on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said Friday.

A new court hearing on the case in Kyiv on Friday also significantly raised the bail demanded from Kolomoisky, who made his first court appearance earlier this month.

News reports from the court said the judge agreed to raise the bail to be posted to the equivalent of $105 million — from an original amount equivalent to under $14 million.

Kolomoisky’s lawyers had previously said they would appeal his detention and would post no bail.

The new allegations against one of Ukraine’s richest men were first reported on Thursday by Serhiy Leshchenko, a former investigative journalist and parliamentarian who now works as an adviser in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office.

The SBU, acting with Ukraine’s Economic Security Bureau and the prosecutor general’s office, said Kolomoisky was suspected of receiving 5.8 billion hryvnias from an alleged scheme to embezzle funds from PrivatBank, which he founded and was a shareholder of.

The sum, currently worth $157 million, was the equivalent of more than $700 million at the time, the SBU said.

Kolomoisky is suspected of setting up an organized group of bank employees to obtain the funds from 2013 to 2014, it said.

Reuters could not immediately reach Kolomoisky or his lawyers for comment on the new allegations. Kolomoisky has in the past denied any wrongdoing.

Kolomoisky is among the tycoons who built their fortunes in the ashes of the Soviet Union and amassed political power in Ukraine’s fragile democracy. He is under U.S. sanctions and was once a backer of Zelenskyy, whose election he supported in 2019.

Kolomoisky is a former owner of PrivatBank, which was nationalized in late 2016 as part of a cleanup of the Ukrainian banking system.

He was first served notice of suspicion of fraud and money laundering this month and ordered to be held in custody until the end of October.

Within days, Kolomoisky was identified by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) as one of six people suspected of embezzling 9.2 billion hryvnias ($250 million) from PrivatBank.

Zelenskyy is trying to root out corruption and restrict the influence of business magnates as Ukraine strives for membership in the European Union.  
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Poland, Slovakia and Hungary will impose their own restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports, the governments said on Friday, after the European Commission decided not to extend a ban affecting Ukraine’s five EU neighbors.

Restrictions imposed by the European Union in May allowed Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia to ban domestic sales of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds, while permitting transit of such cargoes for export elsewhere.

“We will extend this ban despite their disagreement, despite the European Commission’s disagreement,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a rally in the northeastern town of Elk. “We will do it because it is in the interest of the Polish farmer.”

Polish development minister Waldemar Buda said in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he had signed the Polish ban regulation, which would run for an indefinite period of time from midnight.

Hungary imposed a national import ban on 24 Ukrainian agricultural products, including grains, vegetables, several meat products and honey, according to a government decree published Friday.

Slovakia’s agriculture minister followed suit announcing its own grain ban. All three bans only apply to domestic imports and do not affect transit to onward markets.

EU plea

EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Friday countries should refrain from unilateral measures against imports of Ukrainian grain. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it would respond in a “civilized fashion” if EU members break the rules.

The EU created alternative land routes, so-called Solidarity Lanes, for Ukraine to use to export its grains and oilseeds after Russia, which invaded in 2022, backed out of a U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal in July that allowed safe passage for the cargo ships.

The EU Commission said existing measures would expire as originally planned Friday after Ukraine agreed to introduce any legal measures (including, for example, an export licensing system) within 30 days to avoid grain surges.

“It has concluded that thanks to the work of the Coordination Platform and to the temporary measures introduced on 2 May 2023, the market distortions in the 5 Member States bordering Ukraine have disappeared,” the European Commission said in a statement.

The EU said it will refrain from imposing any restrictions as long as the effective measures by Ukraine are in place and fully working.

Product glut

Farmers in the five countries neighboring Ukraine have repeatedly complained about a product glut hitting their domestic prices and pushing them towards bankruptcy.

The countries, except Bulgaria, had been pushing for an extension of the ban beyond its Friday expiry.

Poland, Hungary and Slovakia previously said they may extend the restrictions unilaterally while Bulgaria on Thursday voted to scrap the curbs.

Romania’s government, which unlike its peers did not unilaterally enforce a ban before May, said on Friday it “regretted that a European solution to extend the ban could not be found.”

It added it was waiting for Ukraine to present its action plan of measures to prevent an import surge by Monday before deciding how to protect Romanian farmers.

Romania sees over 60% of the alternate grain flows pass through its territory mainly via the Danube River, and its farmers have threatened protests if the ban is not extended.

For the last year, Ukraine had been moving 60% of its exports through the Solidarity Lanes and 40% via the Black Sea thanks to the deal.

In August, about 4 million tons of Ukraine grains passed through the Solidarity Lanes of which close to 2.7 million tons were through the Danube. The Commission wants to increase exports through Romania further, but the plan has been complicated by Russian drone attacks on Ukraine’s grain infrastructure along the Danube and near the Romanian border. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock spoke Friday in Washington, both reiterating their long-term support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia.

Speaking to reporters following their talks, Blinken said Germany and the United States, along with dozens of other nations around the world, are committed to providing military, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. He said they also discussed Ukraine’s long-term ability not only to survive but to thrive following Russia’s invasion.

Baerbock echoed Blinken’s remarks, saying support for Ukraine goes beyond arms deliveries to include humanitarian issues and repairing infrastructure. She said she discussed with Blinken how the U.S. and Germany can dovetail their assistance to Ukraine more closely.

The two top diplomats were asked about Ukraine’s ongoing requests for long-range missiles systems that could reach deep into Russia and the West’s reluctance to provide them.

Baerbock said Germany and other NATO allies have told Ukraine from the beginning of Russia’s invasion that arms supplies would be limited to Ukraine’s self-defense and reclaiming territory within Ukraine.

The German foreign minister has been in the United States much of this week, traveling on Tuesday and Wednesday to Texas, where she visited an air base where German pilots are trained and meeting Thursday with U.S. lawmakers to discuss their continued support for Ukraine.

Ukraine grain shipments

Blinken said he and Baerbock also discussed the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which Russia ended in July, and alternatives to getting grain out of Ukraine and to developing nations that need it.

Following a meeting on Friday in Bucharest with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, Romanian Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu said the nation planned to double the monthly transit capacity for Ukrainian grain through its Constanta port to 4 million metric tons in the coming months.

Speaking at a joint news conference, Kubrakov said they hope to double the port’s capacity by the beginning of October, which could help Ukraine solve at least half of its export issues.

Ukraine military advances

Ukraine’s military said Friday it has recaptured the village of Andriivka, about 10 kilometers south of the key front-line, Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut, following intense battles with Russian troops.

The latest victory in Ukraine’s protracted, multipronged counteroffensive comes just days ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s expected visit to Washington.

Also Friday, Britain’s Defense Ministry confirmed that a missile strike targeting the naval headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea this week delivered a blow that might have crippled portions of the facility for weeks or possibly months to come.

The landing ship Minsk and the Kilo 636.3 class submarine Rostov-on-Don were undergoing maintenance at the Sevmorzavod shipyard in the base’s dry docks when the missiles hit during a predawn strike Wednesday.

Open-source evidence, the ministry said, “indicates the Minsk has almost certainly been functionally destroyed, while the Rostov has likely suffered catastrophic damage.”

According to the ministry’s report, any effort to get the submarine up and running would likely take many years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

In addition, the British ministry said there is also “a realistic possibility” that the intricate task of removing the damaged vessels from the dry docks could put the docks out of commission for months and present Russia “with a significant challenge in sustaining fleet maintenance.”

According to the British ministry, the Rostov was one of the four Black Sea fleet’s cruise-missile capable submarines that “have played a major role in striking Ukraine and projecting Russian power across the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean.”

Zelenskyy to visit White House

Friday’s developments precede Zelenskyy’s anticipated arrival in Washington next week as the U.S. Congress continues to debate $21 billion more in aid to Ukraine to support its fight against Russia.

U.S. lawmakers are increasingly divided whether to provide Ukraine with more aid. President Joe Biden is seeking $13 billion in military aid and $8 billion in humanitarian aid, but some Republican lawmakers oppose sending more funding.

Zelenskyy is expected to meet with Biden next week at the White House after the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.

Although Ukraine’s counteroffensive push against the Russian invasion has been slower than expected, Zelenskyy celebrated Thursday what he described as Ukraine’s destruction of a Russian air defense system on the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

“A special mention should be made to the entire personnel of the Security Service of Ukraine as well as our naval forces,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video message. “The invaders’ air defense system was destroyed. Very significant, well done!”

Some information in this article came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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One American and two Russian space crew members blasted off Friday aboard a Russian spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a mission to the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub lifted off on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft at 8:44 p.m. local time. O’Hara will spend six months on the ISS while Kononenko and Chub will spend a year there.

Neither O’Hara nor Chub has ever flown to space before, but they will be flying with veteran cosmonaut and mission commander Kononenko, who has made the trip four times already. The trio should arrive at the ISS after a three-hour flight.

When they get to the ISS, their module will dock and when the hatches open they will be met by seven astronauts and cosmonauts from the U.S., Russia, Denmark and Japan. Later in September, three of the ISS crew will depart, including NASA astronaut Frank Rubio who will have been there for more than a year.

According to NASA, when mission commander Kononenko finishes his tour to space in a year’s time, he will hold the record for the person who has spent the longest amount of time — more than a thousand days — in space.
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The European Union on Friday threw its weight behind a plan to protect the Amazon rainforest, pledging to coordinate financial contributions from EU members and make sure the money was spent as intended under its Global Gateway investment plan.

Team Europe, which includes EU members states and institutions such as the European Investment Bank, will coordinate 260 million euros ($277 million) already pledged by Spain, Italy, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands to curb deforestation in the Amazon.

On top of that, the EU will add an undisclosed amount to protect the forest from logging. It will come from the EU’s Global Gateway plan of investment in Latin America, where Amazon rainforest protection is one of the flagship projects.

Under the Global Gateway project, the EU pledged in July to invest 45 billion euros ($48 billion) in Latin America by 2027, and the plan will be discussed in more detail on Friday among EU and Latin American finance ministers in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

The ministers are looking to ensure the money is delivered and spent as intended, a source with direct knowledge of the negotiations said, asking not to be named.

In the past, the European Commission has been criticized for pledging large amounts of investment to developing regions without any mechanisms to verify that the money was actually disbursed.

Now the commission will take the lead in coordinating the flow of cash, integrating individual country donations into a donor platform launched by the Inter-American Development Bank on Friday on the sidelines of the ministers’ meeting.

More than half of global destruction of old-growth tropical rainforests has taken place in the Amazon and bordering forests since 2002. Rainforests, in particular the Amazon, absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide and are key in shaping the Earth’s climate, making them vital to address climate change.
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Britain, France and Germany announced Thursday they will keep their sanctions on Iran related to the Mideast country’s atomic program and development of ballistic missiles. The measures were to expire in October under a timetable spelled out in the now defunct nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

In a joint statement, the three European allies known as E3 and which had helped negotiate the nuclear deal, said they would retain their sanctions in a “direct response to Iran’s consistent and severe non-compliance” with the accord, also known by its official name as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.

The measures ban Iran from developing ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and bar anyone from buying, selling or transferring drones and missiles to and from Iran. They also include an asset freeze for several Iranian individuals and entities involved in the nuclear and ballistic missile program.

Iran has violated the sanctions by developing and testing ballistic missiles and sending drones to Russia for its war on Ukraine.

The sanctions will remain in place until Tehran “is fully compliant” with the deal, the E3 said. The sanctions, according to the accord from eight years ago, were to expire Oct. 18.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the European decision an “illegal, provocative action” that will hamper cooperation, in comments quoted by the country’s official news agency IRNA.

“The actions of the European parties will definitely have negative effects on the efforts to manage the tension and create a suitable environment for more cooperation between the JCPOA parties,” the ministry said.

The 2015 nuclear deal was meant to ensure that Iran could not develop atomic weapons. Under the accord, Tehran agreed to limit enrichment of uranium to levels necessary for nuclear power in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the United States out of the accord, saying he would negotiate a stronger deal, but that did not happen. Iran began breaking the terms a year later and is now enriching uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels, according to a report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.

Formal talks to try to find a roadmap to restart the deal collapsed in August 2022.

The E3 have informed the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, about their decision, the statement said. Borrell, in turn, said he had forwarded the E3 letter to other signatories of the 2015 deal — China, Russia and Iran.

The development comes at a delicate moment as the United States is preparing to finalize a prisoner swap with Iran that would include the unfreezing of Iranian assets held in South Korean banks worth $6 billion.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that Washington was in touch with the European allies over “the appropriate next steps.”

“We are working closely with our European allies, including members, of course, of the E3, to address the continued threat that Iran poses including on missiles and arms transfers with the extensive range of unilateral and multilateral tools that are at our disposal,” he said.

Iran has long denied ever seeking nuclear weapons and continues to insist that its program is entirely for peaceful purposes, though Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, has warned that Tehran has enough enriched uranium for “several” nuclear bombs if it chose to build them.

Under the terms of the nuclear deal, a U.N. arms embargo against Tehran will expire on Oct. 18, after which countries that do not adopt similar sanctions on their own as the E3 — likely Russia and perhaps also China — will no longer be bound by the U.N. restrictions on Iran.

However, Iran has lately slowed the pace at which it is enriching uranium, according to a report by the IAEA that was seen by The Associated Press earlier this month. That could be a sign Tehran is trying to ease tensions after years of strain between it and the U.S.

“The decision makes sense,” Henry Rome, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said of the European decision. “The real question is how Iran will react. Given the broader de-escalation efforts under way, I would expect Iran not to act rashly, but we never know.”
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China, watching this week’s historic Russia-North Korea summit from the sidelines, is likely to welcome a boost for President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine but worry that its longtime client state in Pyongyang could be slipping from its grasp, experts say.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s green bulletproof train headed to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, a city in Russia’s far Khabarovsk region, on Thursday after his rare summit with Putin a day earlier, according to Yonhap News in Seoul.

In Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Kim is expected to meet with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and visit a manufacturing facility that produces Sukhoi fighter jets. From there, he will head toward Vladivostok to inspect Russia’s Pacific fleet before returning to Pyongyang.

China and Russia, autocratic socialist states, have supported each other for decades. The two have become closer than ever as they seek to counter the United States and its allies in Europe and Asia. But experts say the shift by North Korea, their junior partner and socialist neighbor, toward Moscow may make Beijing feel as if Kim has found a new suitor.

Kim’s summit with Putin on Wednesday at the Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s far eastern Amur region reset Pyongyang’s strategic ties with Moscow based on their common military needs and goals, experts said.

Putin needs artillery shells and ammunition to sustain his war in Ukraine. Kim needs technological help to send a spy satellite into orbit after failed attempts in May and August.

Their converging needs brought them together for the first time since April 2019.

‘That’s why we came here’

Although specifics about this week’s summit were not announced in public, both Kim and Putin seem to have suggested they would meet each other’s needs in defiance of international sanctions and concerns.

“The relationship between Russia and North Korea that’s moving forward now is in violation of numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a podcast on Wednesday. “We don’t want to see Russia be in a position where it can strengthen the capabilities it’s bringing to dealing with the aggression on Ukraine, and we also don’t want to see North Korea benefiting from whatever technologies it might get from Russia.”

Before their meeting, Putin gave Kim a tour of the spaceport and suggested he would provide satellite technology that Kim has been trying to hone. “That’s why we came here,” he said.

Prior to their closed-door, one-on-one meeting, Kim said Pyongyang would stand with Moscow in its “just fight against hegemonic forces” and pledged to provide “full and unconditional support for all measures” taken by Russia in its war in Ukraine.

Kim also said Pyongyang’s relationship with Moscow was its “top priority.”

Putin said before the one-on-one meeting that he planned to discuss with Kim issues including the economy, humanitarian aid and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

At a reception following their talks, Putin accepted Kim’s offer to visit Pyongyang, according to North Korea’s state media KCNA.

As North Korea’s primary aid provider and top trading partner, China has for years held considerable leverage over Pyongyang. But now, experts say, Beijing might feel anxious that Pyongyang is leaning too much toward Moscow and starting to slip from its influence.

Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, said China probably feels ambivalent about the arms deals.

“On one hand, Beijing wants Putin to survive the Ukraine war, so it probably welcomes North Korean military aid to Russia,” Samore said. “On the other hand, Beijing may be nervous that Russian transfer of advanced military technology to North Korea could increase tensions on the Korean Peninsula and strengthen the U.S.-[South Korea]-Japan alliance.”

South Korea, Japan, US reflect on pledge

In August, Washington, Seoul and Tokyo agreed to bolster their defenses against North Korea at their summit at Camp David. They agreed to hold regular multidomain trilateral exercises and share live ballistic missile defense warning data.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on Thursday about the Putin-Kim meeting and stressed the importance of their commitment to consult against common threats — a pledge made at Camp David — and to cooperate in their efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Experts said China is reluctant to match Russia in providing advanced weapons technologies to North Korea, at least explicitly. They said Beijing does not want to taint its international image by aiding a pariah state, risk further straining its relations with the U.S., and be on the road to become isolated like Russia.

China increasingly wants to be “a world power” and is thinking “globally, not just regionally,” said Ken Gause, director of special projects for the Strategy and Policy Analysis Program at research group CNA and an expert on North Korean leadership.

“They can’t go overboard in terms of the defense stuff in Northeast Asia because it can have negative effects on what they’re doing in the world,” including Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative, Gause said.

Gause said Beijing is likely to use its economic leverage over Russia to discourage Moscow from jeopardizing the security of Northeast Asia by giving Pyongyang “all kinds of sensitive technology.”

He said what North Korea gets from Russia will indicate Moscow’s stance toward Beijing. If Pyongyang gets advanced military technology such as submarine technology, it shows that “Russia is extremely desperate” and “Russia doesn’t care about what the Chinese say.”

Economic cooperation with China

Russia has become economically dependent on China since its invasion of Ukraine, which triggered multiple sanctions by the U.S. and its allies and partners.

Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Tuesday that Moscow’s economic cooperation with Beijing had “reached a very high level,” according to Russian state-run TASS news agency.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is planning to visit Moscow on Monday to hold talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Wednesday, according to Interfax news based in Moscow.

Despite differences that might exist among the three autocratic states, Zack Cooper, former deputy national security adviser at the National Security Council and current fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said it would be difficult to drive “a serious wedge” into Beijing-Moscow-Pyongyang relations as they “increasingly” move in the direction of opposing the U.S. and its key allies.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press briefing in Beijing on Thursday that “China and Russia have been in close communication on bilateral ties and international and regional issues.”
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The new trade corridor linking India and the Mideast to Europe is being hailed as a modern version of the Spice Route, the road of yore that connected East and West — and as a way to counter China’s modern Belt and Road Initiative. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington on how the U.S. and allies are promoting the rail and maritime route.
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