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Activists warn a deal between Tunisia and Libya to share responsibility for hundreds of sub-Saharan African migrants once stranded on their shared border risks migrants’ rights and doesn’t solve the core problem. It also raises fresh concerns about Tunisia, where Black migrants have faced a surge of racist attacks. For VOA, Lisa Bryant reports from Tunis, Tunisia.
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In a gloomy, indoor football camp on an industrial estate on the edge of Barcelona, Marta dives into tackles with the boys  without fear.  

The 11-year-old has been playing with teenagers who are older — and stronger — than herself for months, but so far has held her own. 

Her newfound passion for football meant she watched as Spain beat England 1-0 Sunday and carry away the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Sydney, Australia.  

The victory for the Spanish women’s team will have knock-on effects for the next generation of Martas who may dream of sharing the glory, said Sara Otero, Marta’s mother.  

“I think it will raise visibility of football in Spain for women. I don’t think Spain is an especially sexist country but for girls and women, football has never been a very accessible sport. Maybe they thought there was too much contact or it was dangerous,” Otero, 52, a businesswoman, told VOA. “But now there has been much more effort to make football accessible to everyone, which I think is good.”  

Events after the final whistle at the World Cup final perhaps proved there is still much work to be done off the pitch.  

Controversial kiss 

After the celebrations, attention in Spain turned to a row over alleged sexism after Luis Rubiales, the president of the Spanish Football Federation kissed female player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the cup presentation.  

Hermoso was later recorded in the dressing room saying she “did not like it,” Reuters reported, but she later played down the incident in a statement to EFE news agency.  

At first, Rubiales said he was just celebrating the victory and derided critics as “idiots” for making so much of it. He later apologized, Reuters reported.  

The football chief came under fire from Spain’s acting equality minister Irene Montero, who tweeted, “A non-consensual kiss is a kind of sex violence we suffer all women daily, which was until now invisible, and which we cannot normalize. Consent should be at the center.” 

El Pais, a left-wing Madrid newspaper, said Monday in an editorial, “Jenni did not like the kiss, and we didn’t either,” and described it as an “intrusion, an invasion of privacy, an aggression.” 

League still young

Women’s football in Spain, as in many other countries, is still in its infancy.  

The professional league was only set up last season and there are 90,000 registered players which include women and girls, said Maria Rodrigo, a spokeswoman for La Liga Feminine in Spain told VOA.    

Professionals in La Liga are paid on average about $65,000 per year while the elite players can expect around $98,000. It is far cry from the astronomic salaries commanded by the likes of Lionel Messi, the Argentina and Inter Miami striker.   

Maria Tikas, a journalist who covers football for Sport, one of Spain’s biggest daily sport newspapers, said Rubiales’ kiss for Hermoso showed Spain still had a problem of sexism to address.    

“This is a society which has a problem of inherent machoism which is only going to go away through education, cultural changes, politics and legal means. In football this is worse because it has been the territory of men for so, so, long,” she told VOA.  

Hope for change 

But she believes that the victory of La Roja — the name given to the Spain team — may help change things.  

For one thing, there are now role models.  

“Many of the players in the (Spanish) team today did not have references (to famous female players). Now when a girl sees Alexia (Putellas, of Spain and Barcelona) win the World Cup they see that could be Alexia too. They see how it could be possible for them.”  

Dolors Ribalta Alcalde, an expert on female football at the University Ramon Llull in Barcelona who played for FC Espanyol, a team in the second Spanish league, said Spain’s triumph did not happen by “magic.” 

“This has happened firstly because of social changes. With parents seeing it as a positive thing for their daughters to play football instead of discouraging them. Girls have started to see football as something positive,” she said.  

Back at the football camp where Marta plays, there are plenty of photographs of star male players like Messi. 

But even though girls’ teams play there every week, there are no pictures – yet – of the Spanish women’s team.  

Many female players and their fans hope that will change soon. 
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A public kitchen closes early so workers can get home on a day of heavy bombing. Police officers stuff the windows of their station with white sandbags. Every few minutes we hear the boom or thud of weapons being fired into and out of the city.

Each hit could mean a death. The Russian military is drawing closer.

In a golden-domed church on Sunday morning, Valentina, a 70-year-old singer, looks sad when she tells us she will stay in her eighth-floor apartment, despite fears that Russia once again has her city in its sights.

“This year I will plant potatoes in my garden,” she says. “I will harvest tomatoes.”

About two hours later, rockets hit a residential area a block away, burning out cars and sending 10 people to the hospital. Later that day, a nearby bridge is blown up.

In the suburbs, volunteers drive a small green bus from neighborhood to neighborhood, picking up families who want to evacuate. Many people weep as they hug loved ones or neighbors and board the bus.

“Maybe it’s silly,” says a woman in a white dress with teary, red eyes. “But I just can’t go.”

Inside the bus, passengers are eager to get moving.

“We need to get out of here as soon as possible,” says Lydia, 65, as she and her husband wait for the bus to depart.

Another woman, Tatiana, 63, is traveling alone. “We’ve been here since the war began,” she says. “During the winter we had no heat and no windows. During the occupation we had no internet and no grocery store.”

Russia occupied Kupiansk for seven months in 2022, before they were pushed out by Ukrainian forces.

“But now combat is coming closer,” says Tatiana.

Snail mail

Across town, closer to where Russian soldiers are firing off bombs from about 5 to 10 kilometers (3 to 6 miles) away, a post office is tucked behind an open-air market where vendors sell clothes, housewares and dried fish.

Every few minutes a customer comes into the post office, despite the ongoing shelling. Many come with packages to ship.

“I’m sending out my most important things, like electronics,” says Nina, 64, standing at the counter. “I’m planning to leave the city, and I’m afraid my property will be destroyed.”

Within a few days, she says, she will flee to western Ukraine, where she hopes to find her valuables waiting for her.

Other customers come in to pick up their pensions — the only income for most retirees in Kupiansk. Officials tell us they are paying out pensions three months in advance nowadays, in case they lose access to the city.

Carriers used to deliver the mail, but the last time it went out was weeks ago, and then only to the region’s most infirm people, those who couldn’t make it to the post office.

The windows are mostly filled in with plywood, but one rectangle of glass lets in light. “That’s all that’s left of our peacetime windows,” jokes one worker.

Svitlana Oleynikova, 45, the post office manager, says incoming bombs frequently hit a nearby school, but some seem to miss their mark and land outside their office.

When Russia controlled the city, the post office was closed, and it seems inevitable that workers will be forced to abandon their post again, she says.

“I am evacuating my mother this week,” she explains. “But I will keep working until the post office is closed.”

Soldiers standing by

Near a clearing in the bush alongside the Oskil River, about a dozen Ukrainian soldiers relax by the shore in various states of undress — speedos, camouflage pants, underwear. We are about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Russian forces.

“Isn’t this a great place for a holiday?” one man asks us. The rest of the group laughs.

Two beers in cut-off water bottles are stowed under a car bumper, out of the sun. One man swims about 5 meters out to the center of the river. There is a faint smell of cigarettes. The band Måneskin’s version of the 1967 Four Seasons song “Beggin’” blares from somebody’s phone.

“Don’t be afraid of shrapnel,” says one soldier, wearing shorts and dog tags, without a shirt. “This one hit our car” he adds, grinning. He points out a hole in the roof and the side-back window, shattered and covered with lime green tape. “And we were in it.”

Inside the city, at a territorial defense post hidden on the side of the hill, Maxim, a 25-year-old soldier with a hand badly mangled from a mortar attack in the early days of war, mans a grenade launcher. He scans the horizon over the river for approaching Russians, as smoke from recent bombings rises from the forest.

So far, neither side has launched a full-scale attack, says Maxim, but they are preparing for battle.

“They’re not going to be able to take this city like they did in the early days of the war,” he says. “The city was taken without a single shot being fired. But we have a lot of forces here now.”
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A massive wall of flames raced through forests toward a port city in northeastern Greece overnight, prompting authorities to evacuate another eight villages and a city hospital as firefighters battled dozens more wildfires across the country on Tuesday.

Gale-force winds and high summer temperatures have hampered the efforts of hundreds of firefighters backed by dozens of water-dropping aircraft as they tackle wildfires breaking out across Greece.

The fire risk level for several regions, including the wider Athens area, was listed as “extreme” for the second day Tuesday. Authorities have banned public access to mountains and forests in those regions until at least Wednesday morning and ordered military patrols.

On Monday, the blazes left two people dead and two firefighters injured in northern and central Greece.

About 65 of the more than 100 patients in the Alexandroupolis hospital in northeastern Greece were transported to a ferry boat docked in the city’s port as the country’s largest wildfire currently burning out of control entered its fourth day. Others were taken to other hospitals in northern Greece.

The flames turned the sky over the city and across the region red, hiding the sun as choking smoke and swirling flecks of ash filled the air.

A school, several homes and a cemetery were damaged in two villages near Alexandroupolis, where more than 200 firefighters were battling the flames, supported by four airplanes and three helicopters. Dozens more houses were damaged by another wildfire in the Kavala region, local authorities said, while a separate fire in the Evros border region was burning through forest in a protected national park.

The coast guard evacuated 14 people by sea overnight from a nearby coastal area to the port of Alexandroupolis.

A new fire broke out in the Aspropyrgos area on the western fringes of the Greek capital Tuesday morning, prompting authorities to issue evacuation orders for two villages in the area.

Romania sent 56 firefighters and Cyprus send two water-dropping aircraft to help fight the wildfire in Alexandroupolis, while French firefighters helped tackle a separate fire on the island of Evia.

Greece suffers destructive wildfires every summer. Its deadliest wildfire killed 104 people in 2018, at a seaside resort near Athens that residents had not been warned to evacuate. Authorities have since erred on the side of caution, issuing swift mass evacuation orders whenever inhabited areas are under threat.

Last month, a wildfire on the resort island of Rhodes forced the evacuation of some 20,000 tourists. Days later, two air force pilots were killed when their water-dropping plane crashed while diving low to tackle a blaze on Evia. Another three wildfire-related deaths have been recorded this summer.
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Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin posted his first video address since leading a short-lived mutiny in late June, appearing in a clip — possibly shot in Africa — on Telegram channels affiliated with the Wagner group on Monday. 

Prigozhin is seen standing in a desert area in camouflage and with a rifle in his hands. In the distance, there are more armed men and a pickup truck. 

Reuters was not able to geolocate or verify the date of the video, but Prigozhin’s comments and some posts in the pro-Wagner channels suggested it was filmed in Africa. 

“The temperature is +50 — everything as we like. The Wagner PMC makes Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa — more free. Justice and happiness — for the African people, we’re making life a nightmare for ISIS and al-Qaida and other bandits,” Prigozhin says in a video. 

He then says Wagner is recruiting people and the group “will fulfill the tasks that were set.” The video is accompanied by a telephone number for those who want to join the group. 

The future of Wagner and Prigozhin has been unclear since he led a short mutiny against the Russian defense establishment in late June and the Kremlin said he and some of his fighters — who have fought in some of the fiercest battles of the Ukraine war — would leave for Belarus. 

Since the mutiny, some Wagner fighters have moved to Belarus and started training the army there. In comments published in late July, Prigozhin also said Wagner was ready to further increase its presence in Africa. 
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Ukraine’s president has described the decision by the Netherlands and Denmark to supply his country with F-16 fighter jets as “historic and inspiring.” The Western allies will supply dozens of the technically advanced jets after Washington’s approval. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described the decision by the Netherlands and Denmark to supply his country with F-16 fighter jets as “historic and inspiring.”

The Western allies will supply dozens of the U.S.-made jets in the coming months, after Washington gave its approval.

F-16 jets

Zelenskyy visited the Dutch city of Eindhoven on Sunday to meet Prime Minister Mark Rutte, before visiting Copenhagen on Monday. At an airfield outside the Danish capital, Zelenskyy climbed into the cockpit of an F-16, alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

Zelenskyy later addressed the Danish parliament. “We’re here to say thank you, personally. Thank all of you for helping us in our fight, difficult fight for freedom. For helping us in this war which Russia brought to our land. And which it wants, so much, still wants to throw into homes of other nations,” Zelenskyy told Danish lawmakers.

Outside, thousands of people had gathered to show their support, as the Ukrainian president repeated his message of gratitude. “I thank you and the whole of Denmark, all the weapons you are giving to protect freedom — and for the F-16s we agreed on. Thank you so much,” he told the crowd.

News reports cite Russia’s ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, as saying the transfer of the jets will lead to the conflict’s escalation.

Delivery

Denmark plans to provide 19 F-16s, with the training of Ukrainian pilots already under way. It’s hoped the first jets will arrive by the end of the year.

The Netherlands said it had 42 F-16s available, although a final number had yet to be agreed upon. Both allies are upgrading their fleets to more modern fifth-generation fighter jets.

The invading Russian forces currently enjoy vast air superiority, although Ukraine’s air defenses, bolstered by modern Western systems, have proven effective.

Firepower

Ukraine’s existing air force fleet is made up of aging Soviet-era aircraft. The F-16s will offer far greater firepower, helping to defend against Russian jets, missiles and drones, said defense analyst Patrick Bury, of Britain’s University of Bath.

“It can go toe to toe with (Russian) MiGs and would have a good chance against them. So, you’re talking about trying to establish, first of all, some sort of local air superiority, which the Ukrainians just don’t have at the moment. If you look at their flying ops, they’re flying one to two aircraft at really low level(s), trying to avoid the very formidable Russian air defenses and the Russian air force,” Bury told VOA.

The F-16 also offers Ukraine the ability to safely strike targets hundreds of kilometers away, deep in Russian-controlled territory. That’s vital if any ground offensive is to succeed, Bury added.

“To get any momentum on the ground, really in the old sort of blitzkrieg sense, you need to have that ground attack capability from the air — so air-to-surface attack capability. And the F-16 can do that as well. And finally — and a really important role in this as well — is the F-16 is pretty good at doing suppression or destruction of enemy air defenses,” Bury told VOA.

Western hesitation

Ukraine has been asking for F-16s since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, but Western allies held off, fearing an escalation of the war.

It will take months for Ukrainian pilots to be trained. The delay could prove costly.

“I still think it’s coming too late to be honest with you. Politics is moving. We’ll see what happens. Whether Ukraine can come round and have these F-16s ready — enough of them, trained up and ready to go, to basically go for version two of a summer offensive next summer — if the political appetite and the fiscal appetite is there for that, we’ll see,” Bury said.

Ukrainian reaction

On the streets of Kyiv, Ukrainian citizens welcomed the Dutch and Danish decisions to supply the jets.

“Finally! Thank God, I think every Ukrainian was waiting for it for a long time,” said Larysa Shymko, who is originally from the town of Skadovsk in the Russian occupied territories. “I strongly believe and hope that this decision will help our country to achieve the long-awaited victory,” Shymko told The Associated Press.

Lawyer Yurii Lymar urged the West to act more swiftly. “It is obvious that every Ukrainian feels that Europe and the entire world could approve such decisions a little faster, because every day in this great war means lots of Ukrainian people dying,” he told the AP.

For now, Ukraine’s summer ground offensive grinds on slowly, with minimal air support. Analysts say the West’s decision to supply F-16s aims to bolster Ukraine’s longer-term capabilities to fend off Russian aggression.
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Major wildfires were burning in Greece and on one of Spain’s Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa Monday, with hot, dry and windy conditions hampering the efforts of hundreds of firefighters battling the blazes, two of which have been burning for several days.

European Union officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017.

In Greece, authorities ordered the evacuation of two villages in the central Viotia region, about 100 kilometers northwest of Athens, after a forest fire broke out Monday morning. The coast guard put two patrol boats and several fishing boats and private vessels on standby in case an evacuation by sea was necessary.

Authorities said the body of a man was recovered from a sheep pen in the area under evacuation, with local media reporting the man apparently died of smoke inhalation while trying to save his livestock.

In the northeast of the country near the border with Turkey, strong winds rekindled flames on several fronts in a major wildfire burning for a third day across forests and farmland near the town of Alexandroupolis.

Several homes were destroyed over the weekend. Thirteen villages were evacuated, while more than 200 firefighters, assisted by 16 water-dropping planes and seven helicopters, volunteers and the armed forces were battling the fire, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said.

Cyprus was sending two firefighting aircraft to help tackle the Alexandroupolis blaze, including four crew and five ground support staff.

With gale-force winds blowing in several parts of the country, authorities set the fire risk level in several regions, including that of the Greek capital, to “extreme.”

“The (firefighting) system is on alert, and we must be too. The risk of wildfires remains high,” Marinakis said.

Every summer, Greece suffers destructive wildfires, which officials say have been exacerbated by climate change.

The deadliest Greek wildfire on record killed 104 people in 2018, in a seaside resort near Athens that residents had not been warned to evacuate. Since then, authorities have erred on the side of caution, issuing swift mass evacuation orders whenever inhabited areas are under threat.

Last month a wildfire on the resort island of Rhodes forced the evacuation of some 20,000 tourists. Days later, two air force pilots were killed when their water-dropping plane crashed while diving low to tackle a blaze on the island of Evia. Another three wildfire-related deaths have been recorded this summer.

In Spain’s Canary Islands, a wildfire that police say was started deliberately last Tuesday on Tenerife continued to burn out of control, although the worst seemed to have passed. More than 12,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and nearly 13,000 hectares of pine forest and scrubland have burned.

Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was to visit the area Monday to review the damage. Canary Island regional President Fernando Clavijo told Spain’s Cadena SER radio “the worst is over,” adding that the hundreds of firefighters deployed had made some progress for the second night in a row.

The fire in the northeast of the island is not near any of the islands’ main tourist areas. The blaze has come close to some 10 municipalities, but there have been no injuries or burned homes so far.

In Portugal and Italy, two other southern European countries often plagued by wildfires in the summer months, temperatures were predicted to soar this week.

Italian authorities issued heat warnings for eight cities from Bolzano in the north to Rome in central Italy on Monday as temperatures were forecast to hit 38 degrees Celsius. Storm warnings were in effect in the southern regions of Calabria, Basilicata and Sicily.

In Portugal, temperatures were forecast to reach 44 degrees Celsius in some southern parts of the country.
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Spaniards erupted in joy after La Roja won the Women’s World Cup on Sunday, with some following coach Jorge Vilda’s call to take to the streets and celebrate Spain’s first major soccer title in more than a decade. 

Fans in Madrid, Barcelona and around the country cheered when the final whistle blew in Australia following Spain’s 1-0 win over England to clinch the women’s world title for the first time. 

The women’s triumph came 13 years after the men’s national team won its only World Cup title in South Africa. The men’s team also won the 2008 and 2012 European Championships. 

“They made it possible for people to watch women’s soccer the same way that they watch men’s soccer,” said 20-year-old Erika Macarro at a viewing party in Madrid. “This is great for young girls who are being able to experience this. We never expected this team to get this far and they did. It shows that you always have to believe.”

The match commentator on Spanish television lauded that “the dream of an entire country became reality and, 4,788 days later, Spain is a world champion again,” adding that “The women’s team has won a star just like the men’s team in 2010.” 

Xavi, a men’s World Cup winner with Spain and Barcelona’s current coach, said he was moved by the women’s team victory. 

“They played very well, we are very happy for all of them,” he said. “They have suffered a lot to be able to play soccer and deserve a lot of credit.” 

The celebrations were not comparable to those after the men’s World Cup title, but the gatherings to support the women’s team were still significant. 

There were viewing parties organized by local officials in more than 100 cities across Spain. In Madrid, fans watched the final in bars throughout the city and at an arena where a big screen was set up for nearly 7,000 people who signed up in advance for free tickets. 

Some went out to the nearby plaza to celebrate, sporting the nation’s red-and-yellow colors, waving flags and chanting despite the high temperatures in the Spanish capital. 

“It’s a historic moment, it shows that our women also have their worth in soccer,” said fan Esther Ros. “What they’ve done is amazing.” 

Spain’s Queen Letizia was in Sydney to cheer on La Roja and received a jersey from the players after the match. 

“You are the best soccer players in the world,” Spain’s royal family said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This is FOOTBALL and it is HISTORY!” 

After the final, Olga Carmona — who scored what turned out to be the winning goal in the first half — learned of her father’s death. The federation did not say when Carmona’s father died or give a cause of death. It also did not say exactly when Carmona was informed about the news or who told her. She had appeared to celebrate normally with her teammates after the final whistle. 

The federation said earlier that title celebrations were set to take place after the squad’s arrival in Madrid on Monday night, with a big screen and attractions set up for fans in the Spanish capital. 

Spain’s coach had said after the semifinals that the women’s team was making the entire nation proud and had called for fans to take to the streets on Sunday. 

“Now they can celebrate,” Vilda said. “I can only imagine what Spain looks like right now.” 

There was still mixed reaction about Vilda after some players rebelled against him less than a year ago. Fifteen players stepped away from the national team for their mental health and demanding a more professional environment. 

Many fans jeered Vilda at the viewing party in Madrid when his name was announced. 

“You feel that the issue hasn’t been fully resolved yet, but that doesn’t change what they’ve achieved,” Macarro said. “The credit has to go to the players, because they are the ones out there making it happen.” 

Spain’s women had never advanced past the round of 16 at a World Cup, and expectations were not too high this time following the problems involving Vilda and some of the players. 

Spain was playing in only its third Women’s World Cup. Four years ago, it advanced to the knockout rounds but lost to eventual champions the United States. 

 
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Russian officials said Monday that Ukraine used drones in attack directed at the Moscow and Kaluga regions.

The officials said Russia’s air defenses downed the drones and that there was no reported damage.

The aerial assault temporarily disrupted operations at multiple Russian airports, but service later resumed.

Both Russia and Ukraine have employed drones to target the opposing side, with damage on the ground often caused by debris from downed aircraft.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Danish lawmakers as he addressed them Monday, a day after Denmark and the Netherlands announced they would provide Ukrainian forces with U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen pledged 19 F-16s to Ukraine and said she hoped the first six could be delivered around the start of the 2024.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte did not detail how many F-16s his country would provide, nor when any deliveries might take place. He said the timing depends on how soon Ukrainian crews and infrastructure are ready.

“The F-16s will not help immediately now with the war effort. It is anyway a long-term commitment from the Netherlands,” Rutte said Sunday. “We want them to be active and operational as soon as possible. … Not for the next month, that’s impossible, but hopefully soon afterward.”

The Dutch and Danish governments are involved in a coalition that is working to train Ukrainian pilots to fly the advanced fighter jets.

The fighter jets are not likely to affect the trajectory of the war anytime soon, according to U.S. officials.

U.S. Air Force General James Hecker told reporters Friday at a virtual meeting of the Defense Writers Group that there are no prospects currently for either Ukraine or Russia to gain the upper hand in the air.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to get air superiority as long as the number of surface-to-air missiles stays high enough,” Hecker said, responding to a question from VOA.

“Both Ukraine and Russia have very good integrated air and missile defense systems,” he said. “That alone is what has prevented [Russia or Ukraine] from getting air superiority.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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The swimming leg of a triathlon test event ahead of next year’s Olympic Games in Paris was canceled on Sunday due to poor water quality in the River Seine, the third such decision this month. 

“Water quality tests … do not provide the necessary guarantees to properly hold the swimming event,” organizers said in a statement. 

The mixed relay triathlon test event was switched to a duathlon format as was the case on Saturday for the Para triathlon event. 

Organizers also canceled the Open Water Swimming World Cup in Paris this month after heavy rainfall caused the water quality in the river to dip below minimum health standards. 

The city has been working on clean-up efforts to make the Seine swimmable again, as it was during the 1900 Paris Olympics. 
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The Netherlands and Denmark announced Sunday they will give F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

During a visit to the Netherlands, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the “historic” announcement making Denmark and the Netherlands the first countries to donate F-16 jets to Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia.

“It makes me proud that Denmark, together with the Netherlands, will donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine’s fight for freedom against Russia and its senseless aggression,” Zelenskyy said after his visit to a Dutch air base with Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Zelenskyy said that the F-16s will be an important motivation for his country’s forces that are embroiled in a difficult counteroffensive against Russia.

After the announcement the Ukrainian president headed to Denmark for a visit with host Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

Ukraine says these modern U.S. fighter jets are necessary to counter the air superiority of the Russians.

The delivery of the powerful U.S.-made fighter jets will depend on how soon Ukrainian crews and infrastructure will be ready for them, Rutte told Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel that Ukraine would get 42 jets, but the Netherlands and Denmark, in a joint statement announcing the deliveries, did not specify numbers.

“The F-16s will not help immediately now with the war effort. It is anyway a long-term commitment from the Netherlands,” Rutte said. “We want them to be active and operational as soon as possible. … Not for the next month, that’s impossible, but hopefully soon afterward,” he said.

The Dutch and Danish governments are also involved in a coalition that is working to train Ukrainian pilots to fly the advanced fighter jets.

Zelenskyy declined to say how many Ukrainian pilots would undergo training in Denmark and later in Romania, citing security reasons.

Denmark, however, said Friday that the training is starting this month.

Officials have previously said that Ukrainian pilots will need six to eight months of training.

The training includes technical language training in English because most technical manuals are written in English.

The fighter jets are not likely to affect the trajectory of the war anytime soon, according to U.S. officials.

U.S. Air Force General James Hecker told reporters Friday at a virtual meeting of the Defense Writers Group that there are no prospects currently for either Ukraine or Russia to gain the upper hand in the air.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to get air superiority as long as the number of surface-to-air missiles stays high enough,” Hecker said, responding to a question from VOA.

“Both Ukraine and Russia have very good integrated air and missile defense systems,” he said. “That alone is what has prevented [Russia or Ukraine] from getting air superiority.”

In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said, “We welcome Washington’s decision to pave the way for sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.”

The British defense ministry said Sunday in its daily report about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that Ukraine is striking deep inside Russia and the leadership of Russia’s Aerospace Forces is “highly likely” being pressured to improve its defenses over western Russia.

The ministry said Russian President Vladimir Putin “almost certainly” invaded Ukraine believing that it “would have little direct effect on Russians.” Uncrewed aerial vehicles are regularly hitting Moscow, the ministry’s report said.

There have been “increasing reports” of SA-5 GAMMON missiles hitting Russia. The ministry said the 7.5-ton Soviet-era GAMMON had been retired from Ukraine’s defense inventory but has been apparently resurrected “as a ground attack ballistic missile.”

Russia’s defense ministry said Sunday it jammed a Ukrainian drone headed toward Moscow, causing it to crash. Afterward, flights at Moscow’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports were temporarily suspended as a precaution.

Officials say a fire broke out when a Ukrainian drone hit a train station in the Russian city of Kursk. Five people were injured in the incident. Kursk borders Ukraine.

In his daily address, Zelenskyy vowed retaliation for a deadly Russian missile attack Saturday on the historic city of Chernihiv, about 145 kilometers north of Kyiv. The attack Saturday killed seven people, including a 6-year-old, and injured 144 others.

I am sure,” the president said, “our soldiers will respond to Russia for this terrorist attack. Respond tangibly.”

The missile struck while people were heading to church to celebrate a religious holiday. Fifteen of the wounded were children and 10 were police officers, according to the interior ministry.

Zelenskyy posted a video on the Telegram messaging app showing images from the aftermath of the attack, including a body in a car surrounded by debris.

“A Russian missile hit right in the center of the city, in our Chernihiv. A square, the polytechnic university, a theater,” Zelenskyy wrote while visiting Sweden to discuss a new military aid package of more than $313 million from the Nordic country.

During his visit to Stockholm, Zelenskyy asked Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson for Swedish-made Gripen fighter jets to help Ukraine boost its air defenses.

In June, the Swedish government said it would give Ukrainian pilots the opportunity to test its Saab-made jet, but it also has said it needs all its planes to defend Swedish territory.

Zelenskyy said Saturday that Ukrainian pilots have begun training on the aircraft.

During a joint news briefing, Kristersson did not comment on the Gripens, but he condemned the Russian missile attack on Chernihiv.

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

 
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Greek authorities Sunday evacuated another five villages near the northeastern border with Turkey where a large summer wildfire that has already destroyed several homes over the weekend drew dangerously close.

There were no reports of serious injuries to firefighters or residents from the forest blaze near the town of Alexandroupolis, that forced the evacuation of another eight villages Saturday.

Strong winds whipped on the flames, and civil protection authorities warned of an “extreme” fire risk Monday in the region around the capital, Athens, and other parts of southern Greece.

Some 200 firefighters, assisted by 16 water-dropping aircraft, volunteers and police, were battling the blaze near Alexandroupolis.

Local authorities said about half a dozen outlying houses and outbuildings were badly damaged in two of the evacuated villages, as well as a church. Sections of a major highway were closed for a second day as smoke reduced visibility, while Alexandroupolis residents were advised to keep their windows shut.

Greece’s minister for civil protection, Vassilis Kikilias, said Sunday that firefighters, police, army personnel and volunteers were “waging an intense battle” in the Alexandroupolis area, and called for extreme public vigilance throughout the country Monday.

“No outdoors work that could trigger a fire will be permitted,” he said. “We must all protect our country.”

Every summer, Greece suffers destructive wildfires which officials said have been exacerbated by climate change.

The deadliest Greek wildfire on record killed 104 people in 2018, in a seaside resort near Athens that residents had not been warned to evacuate. Since then, authorities have been erring on the side of caution, issuing swift mass evacuation orders whenever inhabited areas are under threat.

Last month a large wildfire on the resort island of Rhodes forced the evacuation of some 20,000 tourists. Days later, two air force pilots were killed when their water-dropping plane crashed while diving low to tackle a blaze on the island of Evia. Another three wildfire-related deaths have been recorded this summer.
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It’s mid-afternoon in late summer and a fresh North Sea breeze blows through the vines at Kullabergs Vingård, a vineyard and winery at the vanguard of producers seeking to redefine what Swedish wine can be.

Scandinavia isn’t exactly what connoisseurs would define as prime wine country and commercial vineyards are still tiny compared to France, Italy or Spain. But with climate change making for warmer and longer growing seasons, and new varieties of grapes adapted to this landscape, the bouquet of Swedish wines is maturing nicely.

As drought, rising heat and other extreme weather events are forcing traditional wine-growing regions to reassess their methods, Swedish winemaking is shifting from mostly small-scale amateurs to an industry with growing ambition.

Kullabergs Vingård stretches over 14 hectares (about 34 acres) and most of the vines were planted less than a decade ago. By 2022, the winery had reached an annual output of over 30,000 bottles — mostly whites that can be found in high-end restaurants from Europe to Japan to Hong Kong and that have won multiple international prizes.

“Where vineyards in more traditional countries are suffering, we are gaining momentum,” said Felix Åhrberg, a 34-year-old oenologist and winemaker who returned to Sweden in 2017 to lead Kullabergs Vingård after working in vineyards around the world.

Grapevines can tolerate heat and drought, and farming without irrigation is traditionally practiced in parts of Europe. But the past decade has seen the planet’s hottest years on record, and more warming is expected. That can hit wine, where even minor weather variations can change grapes’ sugar, acid and tannin content.

Climate change can make areas once ideal for certain grapes more challenging. Extreme heat ripens grapes faster, leading either to earlier harvests that can diminish quality, or to stronger, less balanced wines if left to ripen too long.

In recent years, grapevines have been planted farther and farther north, with commercial vineyards appearing in Norway and Denmark and others, including in the American West, expanding into cooler zones. The United Kingdom, famous for its ales and bitter beers, expects the area under vines to double in the next 10 years fueled by demand for its sparkling wines.

“This is the new frontier of winemaking and grapes grow best on their coolest frontier,” Åhrberg said as he walked through Kullabergs Vingård’s newly built winery, an Instagram-friendly gem worthy of design magazines that was built with sustainability in mind and capacity of three times the current volume.

Temperatures in southern Sweden have increased by about 2 degrees Celsius over the past 30 years compared to the 30 years before that, according to data from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute. And the growing season has lengthened by about 20 days. 

The widespread adoption of new varieties of disease-resistant grapes is also credited with Swedish wine’s growth. Most vineyards have planted a grape called Solaris, developed in Germany in 1975, that is adapted to the cooler climate and more resistant to diseases. That enables most vineyards to avoid using pesticides.

“Solaris is like the national grape variety here in Sweden,” said Emma Berto, a young French oenologist and winemaker at Thora Vingård on the Bjäre peninsula, about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) north of Kullabergs Vingård.

She and her partner, Romain Chichery, moved to Sweden shortly after finishing their viticulture studies in France, attracted by the chance to run a vineyard and winery so early in their careers. They’re intent on combining traditional winemaking with updated environmental practices like avoiding pesticides and using extensive cover crops to improve soil quality and encourage beneficial insects and biodiversity.

They say they face fewer extreme climate incidents in Sweden than in France, where warming winters can cause grape vines to produce early buds vulnerable to frost, and violent hailstorms can destroy a year of work in minutes. And Chichery said they have greater freedom to experiment in Sweden than in countries steeped in tradition and regulations, like France.

But working in cooler and damper conditions has meant learning new methods. While vineyards in hot climates would protect their grapes with more leaf canopy, here it’s the opposite. Leaves are picked from the bottom of the plant to let more sunshine reach the grapes and reduce humidity.

Attracting trained wine professionals is a hurdle, too, along with difficulty getting wine barrels and other equipment to scale up. 

Thora Vingård owners Johan and Heather Öberg said Swedish universities offer little on winemaking or viticulture, something they hope will change soon.

For now, lots of the talent comes from abroad — like Iban Tell Sabate, who comes from the wine-growing Priorat region in Spain and has spent decades in the industry.

He had read about Sweden’s wine industry but said most people he spoke to back home didn’t know of it. He’s working the season at the Kullabergs Vingård alongside colleagues from France and Austria. 

“Italy, Greece, Spain, all these countries are going to face problems. There’s not enough water, and the winters are too warm,” Sabate said.

“With global warming, Sweden’s in a good position and it’s a good wine too.”

Maarten van Aalst, director general of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and a professor in climate and disaster resilience at the University of Twente, saw the optimism for growth in Swedish wine as an indicator of how quickly the world’s climate is changing. Businesses “have good feelers for that,” he said, and called it positive that “climate change is partly something we can adapt to.”

But van Aalst noted the days of torrential rains that battered Scandinavia in early August, overwhelming dams, destroying roads, forcing thousands to evacuate and causing more than $150 million in damage. Human-caused climate change is making such extreme and destructive weather events more common.

Both Kullabergs Vingård and Thora came through that storm without major damage, free to turn their attention to what businesses do — try to grow.
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The British Defense Ministry said Sunday in its daily report about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that Ukraine is striking deep inside Russia and the leadership of Russia’s Aerospace Forces is “highly likely” being pressured to improve its defenses over western Russia.

The ministry said Russian President Vladimir Putin “almost certainly” invaded Ukraine believing that it “would have little direct effect on Russians.”  Uncrewed aerial vehicles are regularly hitting Moscow, the ministry’s report said.

There have been “increasing reports” of SA-5 GAMMON missiles hitting Russia.  The ministry said the 7.5-ton Soviet-era GAMMON had been retired from Ukraine’s defense inventory but has been apparently resurrected “as a ground attack ballistic missile.”

In his daily address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed retaliation for the deadly attack Saturday on a historic city that killed seven people, including a child.  “I am sure,” the president said, “our soldiers will respond to Russia for this terrorist attack.  Respond tangibly.”

The Russian missile attack Saturday killed seven people, including a 6-year-old child, and injured 144 near the central square in the historic Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, about 145 kilometers north of Kyiv.

The missile struck while people were heading to church to celebrate a religious holiday. Twelve of the wounded were children and 10 were police officers, according to the interior ministry.

Zelenskyy posted a video on the Telegram messaging app showing harrowing images from the aftermath of the attack, including a body in a car surrounded by debris.

“A Russian missile hit right in the center of the city, in our Chernihiv. A square, the polytechnic university, a theater,” Zelenskyy wrote while visiting Sweden to discuss a new military aid package of more than $313 million from the Nordic country.

During his first visit to Stockholm since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskyy asked the Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson for Swedish-made Gripen fighter jets to help Ukraine boost its air defenses.

In June, the Swedish government said it would give Ukrainian pilots the opportunity to test its Saab-made jet, but it also has said it needs all its planes to defend Swedish territory.

Zelenskyy said Saturday that Ukrainian pilots have begun training on the planes.

During a joint news briefing, Kristersson did not comment on the Gripens, but -condemned the Russian missile attack on Chernihiv.

Sweden changed its long-established policy of military nonalignment to back Ukraine with weapons and other support in the war against Russia. Sweden has applied for NATO membership and is in the process of joining the alliance.

Ukrainian pilots also have begun training on U.S. F-16 fighter jets, a process that would take at least six months and possibly longer, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Saturday, two days after a U.S. official said F-16s would be transferred to Ukraine once its pilots were trained.

Reznikov said in a TV interview that six months of training was considered the minimum for pilots, but it was not yet clear how long it would take to train engineers and mechanics.

Ukraine says these modern U.S. fighter jets are necessary so it can counter the air superiority of the Russian invaders.

“Therefore, to build reasonable expectations, set a minimum of six months in your mind, but do not be disappointed if it is longer,” Reznikov said.

Washington has approved sending F-16s to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands to defend against Russia as soon as pilot training is completed, a U.S. official said.

Reznikov did not disclose where and when the training was taking place.

The training included technical language training because most of the technical manuals are written in English.

The fighter jets are not likely to affect the trajectory of the war anytime soon, according to U.S. officials.

U.S. Air Force General James Hecker told reporters Friday at a virtual meeting of the Defense Writers Group that there are no prospects currently for either Ukraine or Russia to gain the upper hand in the air.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to get air superiority as long as the number of surface-to-air missiles stays high enough,” Hecker said, responding to a question from VOA.

Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and U.S. Air Forces Africa, did note that if Ukraine runs out of its integrated air and missile defense ammunition, “then it becomes a problem.”

“Both Ukraine and Russia have very good integrated air and missile defense systems,” he said. “That alone is what has prevented [Russia or Ukraine] from getting air superiority.”

In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said: “We welcome Washington’s decision to pave the way for sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.”

Camp David

At a trilateral summit Friday, the leaders of the United States, Japan and South Korea pledged to “stand with Ukraine against Russia’s unprovoked and brutal war of aggression.”

Meeting at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David, President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said their countries would continue to help Ukraine.

They also pledged to continue sanctions on Russia and to accelerate their countries’ “reduction of dependency on Russian energy.”

Kishida said “the free and open international order based on the rule of law is in crisis,” and pointed the blame at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the continuing North Korean nuclear and missile threats, and a “unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force in the East and South China Seas” — referring lastly to China.

VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer and VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this story. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Firefighters battling a vast wildfire on Tenerife are facing another difficult night after severe weather conditions worsened the blaze, forcing thousands to flee their homes on the Spanish holiday island, regional officials said. 

The huge blaze that broke out late Tuesday in a mountainous northeastern area of the island quickly morphed into the Canary Islands’ biggest-ever fire. 

“It is a devastating fire … a fire on a completely different scale, a scale that the Canary Islands has never experienced before,” said Rosa Davila, head of the government of Tenerife. 

So far the blaze, which now has a perimeter of 70 kilometers (43 miles), has burned through 8,400 hectares (20,800 acres), the equivalent of just more than 4% of Tenerife’s overall surface area of 203,400 hectares. 

In an update late Saturday, Fernando Clavijo, Canary Islands regional president, said the wildfire had so far displaced nearly 12,300 people, citing figures provided by the Guardia Civil police. 

Earlier, regional officials had given a figure twice as high, with emergency services officials saying, “provisional estimates suggest that more than 26,000 people may have been evacuated,” which government officials later clarified was a number “based on census figures” from the areas subjected to evacuation orders. 

And they did not rule out further evacuations, warning of a difficult night ahead.  

“Last night was very complicated and tonight is likely to be just as bad, if not worse,” said Clavijo of an overnight battle with “severe weather” characterized by strong winds and higher-than-expected temperatures that saw the flames spreading to the north, forcing a fresh wave of evacuations.  

“Tonight’s work is going to be very difficult but it will be vital for containing the fire,” he said. 

As the fire spread down the mountainside toward the northern town of La Matanza de Acentejo, Candelaria Bencomo Betancor, a farmer in her 70s, looked on in anguish. 

“The fire is close to our farm, we’ve got trucks, vans, chickens, everything. … It’s a business that is going well but if the fire comes, it will totally ruin us,” she told AFPTV, on the verge of tears. “They have to do something because the fire is right there.” 

So far the blaze has affected 11 municipalities on Tenerife, the largest of the seven Canary Islands.  

Pedro Martinez, who is in charge of firefighting efforts, told reporters the blaze was “behaving like a sixth-generation wildfire,” a term that refers to a mega forest fire. 

“The fire is beyond our capacity to extinguish it, maybe not in all sectors, but in a large part of them,” he admitted, saying efforts to tackle the flames were being hampered by the huge clouds of smoke and the wind. 

Maria del Pilar Rodriguez Padron, another resident of Matanza, said she was sleeping in her car by the house.  

“They offered us a place to stay but we prefer to stay in the car because we can watch the house and see whether it burns or not. Being elsewhere we just wouldn’t be able to sleep,” she told AFPTV.   

The blaze has generated a vast pillar of smoke that now stretches about 8 kilometers into the air, rising far above the summit of Mount Teide, the volcano that towers over the island. 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is expected to visit the island on Monday.  

Last year Spain suffered more than 500 blazes that destroyed more than 300,000 hectares, making it the worst-hit country in Europe, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). 

So far this year, it has had 340 fires, which have ravaged almost 76,000 hectares, EFFIS figures show.   
…

Large wildfires are ravaging northeastern Greece near the border with Turkey. Local authorities have evacuated residents from eight villages where out-of-control flames have reportedly damaged homes and other property. So far, no deaths or injuries have been reported.  

Strong winds have fueled the fires by the village of Melia east of the city of Alexandroupolis, scorching farmland.  

More than 130 firefighters, 14 water-dropping planes and three helicopters are struggling to contain the blaze while reinforcements arrived from other parts of Greece. 

Earlier, Greek Fire Service spokesperson Yiannis Artopoios said the wildfires, that broke out Saturday, were “strong, aggressive and difficult to contain” as strong winds blowing from different directions intensified the flames and fueled new outbreaks.  

Difficult night ahead

Thick smoke from the fires is reducing visibility in the area, making it even harder for the firefighters to bring the wildfires under control.  

Local authorities are advising the residents of Alexandroupolis to stay indoors and keep their windows shut to avoid respiratory issues from the smoke from the forest land burning nearby. 

Officials of the Greek Fire Service are anticipating a difficult night ahead of them and said, they are expecting equally difficult weather conditions with continuing high winds Sunday.  

The fire service has issued a high wildfire alert for the weekend. 

“We have not seen such large wildfires in the area for years,” said the regional governor of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Christos Metios. He stressed that authorities are doing all they can to protect human life and, if possible, people’s homes and livelihoods.  

The mayor of Alexandroupolis said that so far authorities have evacuated people from residential areas where the flames in some instances reached yards and houses.  

Another smaller wildfire was burning outside Thessaloniki, in the north, the second-largest city in Greece. Earlier, firefighters brought under control a blaze on the western island of Cephalonia. 

Last month, deadly wildfires in central Greece forced the evacuation of about 20,000 tourists on the resort island of Rhodes. Shortly after, two air force pilots were killed when their water-dropping plane crashed while diving low to tackle a blaze on the island of Evia. 

European Union officials have attributed climate change as the main cause for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe. 
…

This year’s World Humanitarian Day is being commemorated at a time of increased risk for the thousands of aid workers who put their lives on the line every day to help millions of people affected by conflict and natural and human-made disasters.

The United Nations says humanitarian workers are in far greater danger today than 20 years ago, when the U.N.’s headquarters in the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, was bombed. The attack killed 22 staffers, including Special Representative Sergio Vieira de Mello, and injuring some 150 others.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, says so far this year, 62 humanitarian workers have been killed in crises around the world, a 40% increase from the same period in 2022. Another 84 aid workers have been wounded and 34 kidnapped.

“The statistics are grim,” said Ramesh Rajasingham, head of OCHA’s office in Geneva. “Every year, nearly six times more aid workers are killed in the line of duty than were killed in Baghdad on that dark day.”

“International law is clear,” he said. “Aid workers are not targets. Perpetrators must be held to account. Impunity for these crimes is a scar on our collective conscience.”

OCHA says the highest number of attacks against aid workers is in South Sudan, followed closely by Sudan. Aid worker casualties also have been recorded in the Central African Republic, Mali, Somalia and Ukraine.

World Humanitarian Day was established in response to the attack in Iraq 20 years ago on Aug. 19, 2003. Survivors and family members of victims, as well as U.N. senior officials, diplomats and members of the public, attended a ceremony Friday at U.N. headquarters in Geneva to pay tribute to the workers who have lost their lives in humanitarian service.

“Far from the spotlight and out of the headlines, humanitarians work around the clock to make our world a better place,” said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“Against incredible odds, often at great personal risk, they ease suffering in some of the most dangerous circumstances imaginable.”

Personal stories

Ahmad Fawzi, who acted as master of ceremonies at the event, was spokesman for Sergio Vieiro di Mello when the terrorist attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad occurred. He escaped death because he was away on mission. However, the scars remain to this day.

“It has been said time heals all wounds. I do not agree,” said Fawzi.

Quoting Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, who lost two of her children to assassins’ bullets, he said that while “the pain lessens, it is never gone.”

With his voice breaking, Fawzi shared a painful memory of accompanying the remains of his lifelong friend Nadia Younus, who was killed in the Baghdad terrorist attack, to her final resting place in Cairo.

“It seems like only yesterday that Nadia and I shared our last dinner together in Baghdad,” he said.

Another emotion-filled memory was conveyed by Mujahed Mohammed Hasan, a survivor of the Canal Hotel bombing. He said he was happily planning his wedding on the day he was injured. He recounted years of painful treatment, of shattered dreams, of fighting for survival.

He told the room full of dignitaries that the support of his family gave him the strength and empowered him “to stand before you now, proudly reflecting on a 20-year journey of my life that has changed me into an ambitious, happy, proud individual determined to make a difference in the lives of those in need.”

“My journey is ongoing, and I continue to heal and grow every single day as I choose not to be a victim,” he said.

The United Nations says 362 million people in the world need humanitarian assistance.

In the face of skyrocketing humanitarian needs and despite security and other challenges, OCHA has vowed that “the U.N. and its partners aim to help almost 250 million people in crises around the world — 10 times more than in 2003.”
…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is visiting Sweden on Saturday — his first visit to the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, the Swedish government said.

It said Zelenskyy will meet Swedish government officials in Harpsund, about 120 kilometers west of Stockholm. He will also meet Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia at a palace in the area.

Sweden abandoned its longstanding policy of military nonalignment to support Ukraine with weapons and other aid in the war against Russia. It also applied for NATO membership but is still waiting to join the alliance.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited top military officials in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don near the Ukrainian border.

The Kremlin said that Putin listened to reports from Valery Gerasimov, the commander in charge of Moscow’s operations in Ukraine, and other top military brass at the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District.

The exact timings of his visit were not confirmed, but state media published video footage that appeared to be filmed at night, showing Gerasimov greeting Putin and leading him into a building. The meeting itself was held behind closed doors.

Putin’s visit was the first since the Wagner mercenary group ‘s attempted mutiny in June, which saw the group’s fighters briefly take control of Rostov-on-Don.

During June’s short-lived revolt, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin repeatedly denounced Gerasimov, who serves as chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for denying supplies to his fighters in Ukraine.

Prigozhin claimed that the uprising was not aimed at Putin but at removing Gerasimov and other top brass who he claimed were mismanaging the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine this week has claimed counteroffensive gains on the southeastern front, regaining control of the village of Urozhaine in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region Wednesday.

The leader of the Russian battalion fighting to maintain control of Urozhaine called for “freezing the front” on Thursday, claiming his troops “cannot win” against Ukraine.

“Can we bring down Ukraine militarily? Now and in the near future, no,” Alexander Khodakovsky said in a video posted to Telegram.

Overnight into Saturday, Ukraine’s air force said, it shot down 15 out of 17 Russian drones targeting Ukraine’s northern, central and western regions.

The deputy governor of the western Khmelnytskyi region, Serhii Tiurin, said two people were wounded and dozens of buildings damaged by an attack.

In the northwestern Zhytomyr region, a Russian drone attack targeted an infrastructure facility and caused a fire, but no casualties were reported, said Gov. Vitalii Bunechko.
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Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Ukraine, with 17 of the unmanned vehicles directed to locations in northern, central and western Ukraine, Ukraine’s air force said Saturday.

The Ukrainian air force said it was able to shoot down 15 of the 17 Iranian-made Shahed drones. It was not clear what happened to the two drones that were not shot down.

Ukraine meanwhile hailed a U.S. decision to allow allies Denmark and the Netherlands to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.  

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov called the development Friday “great news from our friends in the United States.”

It was not immediately clear when Ukraine might receive the jets, and Ukrainian pilots will need extensive training before they can fly them.

The fighter jets are not likely to affect the trajectory of the war anytime soon, according to U.S. officials.

Air Force General James Hecker told reporters at a virtual meeting with the Defense Writers Group on Friday that there are no prospects currently for either Ukraine or Russia to gain the upper hand in the air.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to get air superiority as long as the number of surface-to-air missiles stay high enough,” Hecker said, responding to a question from VOA.

Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and U.S. Air Forces Africa, did note that if Ukraine runs out of its integrated air and missile defense ammo, “then it becomes a problem.”

“Both Ukraine and Russia have very good integrated air and missile defense systems,” he said. “That alone is what has prevented [Russia or Ukraine] from getting air superiority.”

In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said: “We welcome Washington’s decision to pave the way for sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.”

Camp David

At a trilateral summit Friday, the leaders of the United States, Japan and South Korea pledged to “stand with Ukraine against Russia’s unprovoked and brutal war of aggression.”

Meeting at the U.S. president retreat of Camp David, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said their countries would continue to provide assistance to Ukraine.

They also pledged to continue their sanctions on Russia and to accelerate their countries’ “reduction of dependency on Russian energy.”

Kishida said “the free and open international order based on the rule of law is in crisis,” and pointed the blame at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the continuing North Korean nuclear and missile threats, and a “unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force in the East and South China Seas” — referring lastly to China.

Ukraine grain

Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta has emerged as the best shipping route for Ukraine’s grain exports since Russia left the U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal, leaving ships traveling the Black Sea corridor vulnerable to Russian attacks.

“We hope that over 60% of the total volume of Ukrainian grain exports will transit Romania,” Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said after meeting Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Bucharest.

Constanta has been one of the best alternative seaports for Ukrainian grain shipping even before the Black Sea grain deal was canceled.

Ukraine exported 8.1 million metric tons of grain through Constanta in the first seven months of this year, and 8.6 million metric tons throughout 2022.

While Romania is looking at boosting the transit of Ukrainian grain through Constanta to international markets, it is also looking at ways to protect local farmers from a surge of Ukrainian grain that could depress local grain prices.

Protests from farmers in Romania and four other eastern EU countries prompted the EU to approve temporary trade restrictions of Ukrainian grain imports to the nations.

The import ban expires Sept. 15, and the five states have asked for it to be extended, at least until the end of the year.

Climbing casualties

The number of Ukrainian and Russian troops killed or wounded since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 is nearing 500,000, The New York Times reported Friday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

The officials cautioned that casualty numbers are not accurate because Moscow is believed to routinely underreport its war dead and injured, and Kyiv does not provide official figures, the newspaper said.

However, the newspaper estimated that Russia’s military casualties are approaching 300,000, including as many as 120,000 deaths and 170,000 to 180,000 injuries. Ukrainian deaths were close to 70,000, with 100,000 to 120,000 wounded, it said.

The Times cited the officials as saying the casualty count had risen after Ukraine began its counterattack earlier this year.

The Ukrainian military on Thursday claimed gains in its counteroffensive against Russian forces on the southeastern front. Kyiv said its forces had liberated the village of Urozhaine, about 90 kilometers north of the Sea of Azov and about 100 kilometers west of Russian-held Donetsk city.

The advance is part of a drive toward the Sea of Azov and an effort to split Russia’s occupying forces in half.

However, Kyiv says its counteroffensive is advancing more slowly than it had hoped for because of vast Russian minefields and heavily fortified Russian defensive lines.

“Nothing ever goes as well as you would hope. They put mines everywhere. In a square meter, they’re [Ukrainian soldiers] finding five and six mines,” U.S. Air Force General James Hecker said Friday.

U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer and VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this story. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

The city where Anne Frank wrote her World War II diary while hiding with her family from the brutal Nazi occupation is hosting an exhibition about the Ukraine war with grim echoes of her plight more than three-quarters of a century later.

The exhibition that opened Thursday at Amsterdam City Hall offers a vision of the war in Ukraine as experienced by children caught in the devastating conflict.

“This exhibition is about the pain through the children’s eyes,” Khrystyna Khranovska, who developed the idea, said at the opening. “It strikes into the very heart of every adult to be aware of the suffering and grief that the Russian war has brought our children.”

“War Diaries” includes writings like those that Anne Frank penned in the hidden annex behind an Amsterdam canal-side house, but also modern ways Ukrainian children have recorded and processed the traumatic experience of life during wartime, including photos and video.

Among them is the artwork of Mykola Kostenko, now 15, who spent 21 days under siege in the port city of Mariupol.

The relentless attack on the southern port city became a symbol of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s drive to crush Ukraine soon after Russia invaded its neighbor in February last year, but also of resistance and resilience of its 430,000 population.

His pictures from that time are in blue ballpoint pen on pieces of paper torn out of notebooks — that’s all Kostenko had. One of them shows the tiny basement where he and his family sheltered from the Russian shells before finally managing to flee the city.

“I put my soul into all of these pictures because this is what I lived through in Mariupol. What I saw, what I heard. So this is my experience, and this is my hope,” Kostenko said through an interpreter.

A way to cope

Curator Katya Taylor said the diaries and art are useful coping mechanisms for the children.

“We talk so much about mental health and therapy, but they know better than us what they have to do with themselves,” she said. She called the diaries, art, photos and videos on display in Amsterdam “a kind of therapeutic work for many of them.”

The plight of children caught in the war in Ukraine has already attracted widespread international condemnation. More than 500 have been killed, according to Ukrainian officials.

Meanwhile, UNICEF says an estimated 1.5 million Ukrainian children are at risk of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues, with potentially lasting effects.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in March for Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, holding them personally responsible for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

A way to remember

For Kostenko, drawing and painting is also therapeutic — a way of processing the traumatic events and recording them so they are never forgotten.

“It also was an instrument to save the emotions that I lived through. For me to remember them in the future, because it’s important,” he said.

The youngest diarist, 10-year-old Yehor Kravtsov, also lived in besieged Mariupol. In text on display next to his diary, he writes that he used to dream of becoming a builder. But his experience living through the city’s siege changed his mind.

“When we got out from the basement during the occupation and I was very hungry, I decided to become a chef to feed the whole world,” he wrote. “So that all the people would be happy and there would be no war.”
…

German authorities have said they are investigating an apparent poisoning of an exiled Russian journalist in Munich.

Elena Kostyuchenko, who had worked for the independent Russian media outlet Novaya Gazeta, fell ill with symptoms of being poisoned while traveling from Munich to Berlin last October.

Authorities reopened the investigation into the case in July, according to the British newspaper The Guardian. The inquiry comes as details emerged that two other female journalists or critics experienced similar symptoms.

The independent Russian media outlet The Insider this week revealed that at least three exiled Russians, including Kostyuchenko, appear to have been targeted with poisonings.

About a week after Kostyuchenko reported symptoms, Ekho Moskvy journalist Irina Babloyan had a similar experience while in Georgia, and Natalia Arno, head of the Free Russia Foundation, was affected by what The Insider described as a neurotoxic substance while she was in Prague.

In an interview this week with VOA’s Russian Service, Roman Dobrokhotov, founder and editor in chief of The Insider, said his team’s work on the case was just the beginning.

“Our publication is dictated by the desire to warn [exiled] Russian journalists and activists so that they realize that they need to think about their safety, that there is a real threat to their life and health,” Dobrokhotov said.

Reporters covered war in Ukraine

Kostyuchenko had reported on Russia’s war in Ukraine, including in Kherson, until one of her sources in the Ukraine military warned her of a possible assassination attempt, according to media reports.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called on authorities in Georgia and Germany to treat the suspected attacks “with the utmost seriousness.”

“Reports that Russian journalists Elena Kostyuchenko and Irina Babloyan may have been poisoned in Germany and Georgia are extremely alarming, and must be investigated at once,” CPJ’s Carlos Martinez de la Serna said in a statement.

He called on both countries to “do all they can to safeguard the lives of journalists living in exile.”

Russian journalists fled after edicts

Many independent Russian journalists have fled since the war in Ukraine began, after Moscow imposed heavy sanctions and edicts on how media can report the war.

Moscow has also targeted foreign journalists. American reporter Evan Gershkovich marked his 20th week in prison this week.

The Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested while on assignment on March 29 and was accused of espionage — a charge he and his media outlet denied.

And this week, Russia declined to renew media accreditation for two foreign journalists: Eva Hartog, who works for Politico and a Dutch weekly news publication, and Anna-Lena Lauren, a Finnish reporter who had worked in Russia for 16 years.

In Hartog’s case, a spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on social media that its decision to not extend a visa for someone from the Netherlands should not raise questions “given the harassment of Russian journalists and media outlets by the EU.”

Moscow has also previously cited treatment of Russian journalists, including for media accreditation, for its decision to limit U.S. consular visits to Gershkovich.

VOA’s Russian Service contributed to this report.
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A British nurse who described herself as a “horrible evil person” was found guilty on Friday of murdering seven newborn babies and trying to kill another six in the neonatal unit of a hospital in northwest England where she worked.

Lucy Letby, 33, was convicted of killing five baby boys and two baby girls at the Countess of Chester hospital and attacking other newborns, often while working night shifts, in 2015 and 2016.

The verdict, following a harrowing 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court, makes Letby Britain’s most prolific serial child killer in modern history, local media said.

She was found not guilty of two attempted murders while the jury, who spent 110 hours deliberating, were unable to agree on six other suspected attacks.

“We are heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb, we may never truly know why this happened,” the families of Letby’s victims said in a statement.

Prosecutors told the jury Letby poisoned some of her infant victims by injecting them with insulin, while others were injected with air or force-fed milk, sometimes involving multiple attacks before they died.

“I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them,” said a handwritten note found by police officers who searched her home after she was arrested. “I am a horrible evil person,” she wrote. “I AM EVIL I DID THIS.”

Some of those she attacked were twins — in one case she murdered both siblings, in two instances she killed one but failed in her attempts to murder the other.

The youngest victim was just 1 day old.

‘Malevolent presence’

Letby will be sentenced on Monday and faces a lengthy prison term, possibly a rare full life sentence.

Her actions came to light when senior doctors became concerned at the number of unexplained deaths and collapses at the neonatal unit, where premature or sick babies are treated, over 18 months from January 2015.

With doctors unable to find a medical reason, police were called in. After a lengthy investigation, Letby, who had been involved in the care of the babies, was pinpointed as the “constant malevolent presence when things took a turn for the worse,” said prosecutor Nick Johnson.

Pictures of Letby on social media portrayed a happy and smiling woman with a busy social life, and in one photo she was seen cradling a baby. But, during months of often distressing evidence, her trial heard she was a determined killer.

The jury was told how Letby had tried on four occasions to murder one baby girl before she finally succeeded. When another of the victim’s mothers walked in on her attacking twin babies, she said “Trust me, I’m a nurse.”

At her home after her arrest, detectives found paperwork and medical notes with references to the children involved in the case. She had also carried out social media searches for the parents and families of the murdered babies.

Letby wept when she gave evidence over 14 days, saying she had never tried to hurt the babies and had only ever wanted to care for them, blaming unsafe staffing levels on the hospital ward and its dirty conditions.

She also claimed four doctors had conspired to pin the blame on her for the unit’s failings and said she had written the “I am evil” message because she had felt overwhelmed.

‘They could have stopped it’

But the prosecution said she was a cold, cruel, calculating liar who had repeatedly changed her account of events and said her notes should be treated as a confession.

Detectives said they had found nothing unusual about Letby’s life and could not determine any motive.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll ever know unless she just chooses to tell us,” said Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, who led the investigation.

One senior doctor at the neonatal unit, Stephen Brearey, told the BBC that hospital bosses had failed to investigate allegations against Letby and failed to act on his and his colleagues’ concerns.

“Our staff are devastated by what has happened, and we are committed to ensuring that lessons continue to be learned,” said Nigel Scawn, medical director at Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The government said it had ordered an independent inquiry, which would include how concerns raised by clinicians were dealt with.

The father of twins who survived Letby’s attempts to kill the children demanded answers from the hospital.

“They could have stopped it,” said the father, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Police are carrying out further investigations into all the time Letby had worked as a nurse at the hospital and at another hospital in Liverpool where she had trained, to identify if there were any more victims.

“There is a number of cases that are active investigations that parents have been informed of,” Hughes said.
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The World Health Organization and U.S. health authorities said Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.

The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance “due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries,” it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.

So far, the variant has been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control confirmed it is also closely monitoring the variant, in a message on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

There are four known sequences of the variant, the WHO has said.

“The potential impact of the BA.2.86 mutations are presently unknown and undergoing careful assessment,” the WHO said.

Francois Balloux, professor of computational systems biology at University College London, said the attention attracted by the new variant was warranted.

“BA.2.86 is the most striking SARS-CoV-2 strain the world has witnessed since the emergence of Omicron,” he said in a comment published Friday, referring to the variant that exploded onto the global stage in the winter of 2022, causing a surge in COVID cases.

“Over the coming weeks we will see how well BA.2.86 will be faring relative to other Omicron subvariants,” he said.

He stressed, though, that even if BA.2.86 caused a major spike in infections, “we are not expecting to witness comparable levels of severe disease and death than we did earlier in the pandemic when the Alpha, Delta or Omicron variants spread.”

“Most people on earth have now been vaccinated and/or infected by the virus,” he said, pointing out that even if people were reinfected with the new variant, “immune memory will still allow their immune system to kick in and control the infection far more effectively.”

The WHO is currently monitoring upwards of 10 variants and their descent lineages.

Most countries that had established surveillance systems for the virus have since dismantled operations, determining it is no longer as severe and therefore could not justify the expense — a move the WHO has denounced, calling instead for stronger monitoring.

In the last reporting period between July 17 and Aug. 13, more than 1.4 million new cases of COVID-19 were detected and more than 2,300 deaths were reported, according to a WHO statement.

The case load represents a rise of 63% from the previous 28-day period, while deaths were down by 56%. 

As of Aug. 13, there were more than 769 million cases of COVID-19 confirmed and more than 6.9 million deaths worldwide, although the real toll is thought to be much higher because many cases went undetected.
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