RIYADMEDIA

A 5.7-magnitude earthquake rocked southern Bosnia late Friday, killing one person and injuring several others, local media reports said.

A 28-year-old woman who was injured when a rock fell on her house in the town of Stolac, near Mostar, died in hospital, a medical source quoted by media said. Several others were slightly injured, including members of the victim’s family.

The earthquake also toppled walls and caused property damage in several other localities, including Mostar and the town of Ljubinje, according to local and civil defense authorities.

The shallow quake struck at 2107 GMT and was centered 14 kilometers northeast of Ljubinje, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

It was felt across the Balkans as far away as Belgrade, Zagreb and Skopje, more than 400 kilometers from the epicenter, according to AFP correspondents. Reports to the USGS indicated the quake was also felt in Albania and southern Italy.

It was followed by several weaker aftershocks.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre warned that “aftershocks are likely to happen in the coming hours and days.”

The Balkans is prone to seismic activity, and earthquakes are frequent.

A 6.4-magnitude quake on Dec. 29, 2020, in the Petrinja region of Croatia, near the capital Zagreb, killed seven people and destroyed hundreds of buildings and houses.

In March 2020, Zagreb was hit by a 5.3 tremor that caused extensive damage. In November 2019, more than 50 people were killed in Albania by a 6.4 earthquake that also left thousands homeless. 
…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seized Friday on remarks by a Russian general as evidence that Moscow will invade other countries if it succeeds in Ukraine. The general had said Russia aimed to capture all of southern and eastern Ukraine and link it up with a breakaway province in neighboring Moldova.

“This only confirms what I have already said multiple times: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was intended only as a beginning,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening address.

He said the comments earlier Friday by Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russia’s central military district, showed that Russia would not stop with Ukraine.

Russian state news agencies quoted Minnekayev as saying that Moscow wanted to seize Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region, provide a land corridor to link up with the Crimean Peninsula, and capture the country’s entire south as far west as a breakaway, Russian-occupied region of Moldova. That would mean carrying the offensive hundreds of miles past the current lines and to the border with Moldova.

Moldova summoned Russia’s ambassador Friday to express “deep concern” about the general’s comments.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter declined to comment on the Russian general’s statement but said Washington firmly supported Moldova’s sovereignty.

Ukraine’s defense ministry said the comments by the Russian general showed Russia’s previous claims that it has no territorial ambitions were not true.

“They stopped hiding it,” Ukraine’s defense ministry said on Twitter, adding that Russia had “acknowledged that the goal of the ‘second phase’ of the war is not victory over the mythical Nazis, but simply the occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine. Imperialism as it is.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said Russia had no intention of permanently occupying Ukranian cities. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, a move that was widely condemned by the international community.

Russian ship

Russia’s defense ministry, meanwhile, acknowledged Friday for the first time that the crew of the missile cruiser Moskva suffered casualties when it sank last week.

It said one serviceman died and 27 went missing during the ship’s sinking.

Ukraine and the United States said Ukrainian cruise missiles had hit the ship, while Russia blamed the sinking on a fire.

Following the incident, Russia said the entire crew of the ship had been rescued.

Moscow said Friday that 396 crew members had been rescued.

Military meeting

The Pentagon said Friday that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would meet next week in Germany with defense officials and military leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss Ukraine’s defense needs.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said about 40 nations were invited to the meeting and that responses were still arriving.

He said the talks, which will include both NATO and non-NATO countries, would be held Tuesday at Ramstein Air Base.

Zelenskyy said Friday that allies were finally delivering the weapons that Ukraine had sought to defend itself.

Canada announced Friday that it had provided heavy artillery to Ukraine, following a pledge by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

U.S. President Joe Biden authorized another $800 million in U.S. military assistance to Ukraine on Thursday, declaring it was necessary to help Kyiv’s forces repel Russian fighters in the critical battles unfolding in the eastern region of the country.

Diplomatic efforts

In diplomatic activity Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Washington. The State Department said Blinken “reinforced our determination to help Ukraine successfully defend itself against Russia’s brutal and unjustified war of aggression.”

The U.N. announced Friday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would meet Putin in Moscow on Tuesday. He’ll also hold meetings and have a working lunch with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The U.N. chief wrote to Putin on Tuesday requesting a meeting to discuss the next steps toward peace in Ukraine. He also wrote to Zelenskyy. Guterres’ representative said his office was in contact with the government in Kyiv about scheduling a visit there as well.

Guterres also appealed this week for a four-day humanitarian pause to coincide with Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated in Ukraine and Russia. So far, those efforts have failed.

At a Friday press conference in Moscow, Lavrov said talks to end the fighting in Ukraine were at a standstill because Kyiv had not responded to Moscow’s latest proposals.

“Another proposal we passed on to Ukrainian negotiators about five days ago, which was drawn up with their comments taken into account, it remains without a response,” Russia’s top diplomat said.

However, Russia’s lead negotiator at the talks with Ukraine, Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky, confirmed that he’d engaged in several lengthy conversations with the head of the Ukrainian delegation on Friday, The Associated Press reported.

Alleged war crimes

In Geneva, the U.N. human rights office said Friday that there was growing evidence that Russia had committed war crimes in Ukraine.

“Russian armed forces have indiscriminately shelled and bombed populated areas, killing civilians and wrecking hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that may amount to war crimes,” said Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

The U.N. said it appeared that Ukraine had also used weapons with indiscriminate effects.

On Thursday, Putin declared the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol “liberated,” after nearly two months of fighting, even though Russian forces have not been able to penetrate the city’s massive Azovstal steel plant that remains in the hands of Ukrainian fighters and civilians.

Zelenskyy said Russian forces controlled most of Mariupol but that Ukrainian troops did remain in part of the besieged city.

VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

The long-running trial of Turkish activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala nears its end as he and seven other defendants delivered their final defense statements on Friday.

In the trial, known as the Gezi Park trial, Kavala and 15 other defendants face many accusations, including attempting to overthrow the government and organizing the 2013 Gezi Park protests. Kavala denies the charges.

The Gezi Park protests began as an environmental demonstration in an Istanbul park and then turned into nationwide anti-government unrest against then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Eight protesters were killed during the protests.

Kavala, 64, has been in jail for four and a half years without a conviction, and he spent 19 months of this time in pre-trial detention. If convicted, Kavala faces a life sentence.

Speaking to the court Friday by video link from prison, Kavala said, “It is evident that those who issued the indictment did not feel constrained by laws, considering that they will receive political support as they intended to prolong my detention.”

ECHR ruling

In December 2019, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) released a ruling in favor of an immediate release of Kavala, saying there is a lack of reasonable suspicion that he committed a crime. As a member state of the Council of Europe, Turkey is legally bound by ECHR rulings, but it has not complied in the Kavala case.

In February, the Council of Europe (CoE) Committee of Ministers began proceedings against Turkey over its failure to respect the ECHR ruling. The proceedings mean that Ankara faces a suspension of its voting rights in the CoE.

Political case

Many human rights activists assert the case is politically motivated.

“This case has been a political case from its very beginning, and it was shaped directly by the president,” Mehmet Durakoglu, head of the Istanbul Bar Association, told VOA.

As a lawyer who has followed all of the hearings in the Gezi Park trial, Durakoglu said the prosecution has not presented a case that would justify a conviction.

“There is not even the slightest bit of evidence. Architects have been prosecuted for doing architecture, city planners for doing city planning and lawyers for practicing law. Under normal circumstances, no sentence should be delivered in this case,” Durakoglu noted.

The court had been expected to reach a verdict on Friday, but it postponed the hearing until Monday to allow defense lawyers to finish their statements.

Prosecutor Edip Sahiner has asked for Kavala and architect Mucella Yapici to be convicted of attempting to overthrow the government through violence, which would carry a sentence of up to life in prison without parole.

The courtroom was packed with some 200 people, including opposition members, rights groups, and Western diplomats.

Soros allegations

The Gezi Park trial indictment alleges that Hungarian-born, U.S.-based financier George Soros and his Open Society Foundation were behind the protests, and that they acted through Kavala, a former member of Open Society’s Turkey branch board.

Both Kavala and the Open Society Foundation deny these accusations. The foundation ceased its operations in Turkey in 2018, saying that it was no longer possible to work in the country.

“The fact that no member of the Open Society Foundation board other than me was summoned to testify and that George Soros is not among the accused shows that people who wrote this indictment do not believe this scenario that Soros organized and financed the Gezi protests through me,” Kavala said in his final defense statement.

Erdogan has publicly called Kavala “Soros scum” and “domestic Soros.”

Kavala’s prolonged detention stirred a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and the embassies of 10 Western countries, including the United States, Canada and Germany, last October.

In response to the embassies calling for Kavala’s release in a letter, Erdogan threatened them to be “persona non grata.” The embassies responded with one-sentence public statements reiterating their “compliance with Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.” The article regulates diplomatic norms against interference in the internal affairs of host states.

After the court hearing, Evren Isler, one of Kavala’s lawyers, told reporters the judicial panel’s actions were detached from the facts.

“Today’s hearing has shown us once again how the judicial panel has lost touch with the facts. No matter what we said, the panel gave the impression that they did not care,” Isler said.

“One of the many violations, in this case, is the violation of the right to a fair trial. The judicial panel is obliged to give the impression that they protect the right to a fair trial,” Isler underscored.

This story was originated in VOA’s Turkish service. Some information in this report came from Reuters.
…

Rights activists in Azerbaijan are accusing the government of manufacturing false charges to arrest critics who have been returned to the country after failing to gain asylum in Germany.

Samir Ashurov was detained on April 19 on charges of assault with a knife, just weeks after he was deported from Germany back to his native country.

Ashurov had fled to Germany in 2018 when he was a member of the opposition REAL Movement. After leaving Azerbaijan, Ashurov continued criticizing the Azerbaijani government.

He was readmitted to Azerbaijan on March 29, after the German government refused to grant him asylum.

His lawyer, Elchin Sadiqov, told VOA that Ashurov had left his house earlier this week planning to renew his passport so that he could again leave the country. Instead, he said, Ashurov was attacked in the street and had a knife planted on him.

“He said that a man approached him near a metro station in Baku, shouting and knocking him to the ground. Samir ran away and shouted, ‘Police,’ and that’s when the police officers immediately detained him,” Sadiqov said.

“They then put a knife in the right pocket of his jacket,” Sadiqov said. “He took the knife out and threw it away. Then they put it back in his left pocket. He was then taken to the 24th Police Station of the Nizami District Police Office.”

Ashurov’s lawyer said he was tortured in custody and now was on a hunger strike, protesting his arrest.

“He said that he was beaten at the police station,” said Sadiqov. “When I met him, he had bruises on his chest and groin. He said he had been on a hunger strike since April 19 to protest his arrest.”

Elshad Hajiyev, spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, called these allegations completely unfounded.

“Samir Ashurov is charged with a specific crime, and what his lawyer says is a defense. And that’s understandable,” he said.

A targeted campaign

Government critics say authorities are using criminal charges to jail political opponents, in particular those who have spoken out while seeking asylum abroad. They say it’s part of a coordinated campaign by President Ilham Aliyev.

“I met Samir Ashurov last week after his deportation from Germany. He told me that he had been summoned to the prosecutor’s office several times, was being monitored and that preparations were being made for his arrest,” Tofiq Yaqublu, deputy chairman of the opposition Musavat Party and a senior politician of the National Council of Democratic Forces, wrote on Facebook.

Ashurov, who spoke with VOA earlier this month following his return from Germany, said he was also questioned at the airport about why he had left the country.

“I said that I was facing political persecution in Azerbaijan,” he said. “I told them that I had been arrested twice under false pretenses. I told them that I would be one of the victims of the government. Just like four political activists before me — Malik Rzayev, Mutalim Orujov, Punhan Karimli and Jafar Mirzayev were arrested.”

He also predicted that he would be detained in the future. “This regime will arrest me again on false charges,” Ashurov told VOA.

In January, Mirzayev, a member of the Germany-based DAS (Elect a Democratic Azerbaijan) group, was detained on charges of drug trafficking and sentenced to four months of pretrial detention. Mirzayev faces between five and 12 years in prison.

Karimli, a member of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA); Rzayev and Orujov have also been charged with drug trafficking.

Some see coordinated campaign

Some rights activists argue that the arrests are part of a coordinated effort aimed at migrants who sought asylum in other countries.

“Political activists deported from Germany were being arrested on drug charges. Now they have switched from drugs to knives,” Afgan Mukhtarli, an investigative journalist, human rights defender and former political prisoner currently living in Germany, said in a Facebook post. “We knew Samir would be arrested. Ilham Aliyev takes revenge on migrants. In his speeches, he repeatedly targeted migrants, calling them agents.”

Zafar Ahmadov, co-founder of a human rights NGO known as “Defense Line,” told VOA that the fate of readmitted political activists continues to be a concern.

“The arrest of all five readmitted political activists is not a coincidence,” said Ahmadov, who is also a member of the Democracy for Azerbaijan (AND) movement. “As a rule, we raise the issue of readmitted human rights activists before the EU Delegation and the embassies of EU member states.”

The German Embassy in Azerbaijan on Thursday told VOA it was monitoring Ashurov’s case.

“We are monitoring such incidents. We hold regular talks with the Azerbaijani government on human rights issues,” the embassy officials said.

Pact on repatriation

The European Union and Azerbaijan in 2014 signed an agreement on the repatriation of persons residing without authorization. Since the signing of the agreement, more than 2,000 people have been returned to Azerbaijan, including 420 in 2021.

International human rights organizations, including Freedom House and Human Rights Watch, report that the government of Azerbaijan frequently arrests individuals exercising their fundamental rights on trumped-up charges.

The Azerbaijani government, on the other hand, says people are not persecuted for their political beliefs.

This story originated in VOA’s Azerbaijani Service.
…

The French military has accused Russian mercenaries of creating a mass grave and falsely blaming it on the French.

The French Army says it has drone video, seen by news agencies Associated Press and Agence France-Presse, of Russian mercenaries burying bodies near Gossi, Mali, where the French army withdrew from a military base this week.

Video of what appears to be a similar location circulated Thursday on Twitter, showing a blurred image of what are alleged to be bodies buried in the sand. The accompanying Twitter message says the departing French army left that scene behind in Gossi.

Speaking to AFP and AP, the French Army said the mercenaries created the site to circulate images and blame the French army to stoke anti-French sentiment in Mali.

The drone video was reportedly captured Thursday morning, but the French army left Gossi on Tuesday. France recently said it would withdraw its troops from Mali in a operation expected to take four to six months.

A Twitter account named “Dia Diarra” posted a video Thursday, including what appears to be bodies partially buried in the sand, with the caption, “This is what the French left behind when they left the base at Gossi. These are excerpts from a video that was taken after they left! We cannot keep silent about this!”

“Dia Darra” claims to be a Malian veteran and “patriot” and posts mostly pro-Malian military and pro-Russia content. The original profile photo used for the account could also be seen on the Russian social media website VK on an account of a man believed to be located in Colombia.

After that was pointed out by several Twitter users, the profile picture was changed to a photo of Malian President Assimi Goita. The account has been active since January 2022.

Many governments have accused the Malian army of working with mercenaries from the Russian company the Wagner Group which, critics say, has close ties to the Russian government.

Mali’s government denies the allegation, saying it works only with “Russian instructors.”

In March, Human Rights Watch reported that residents of Moura, in central Mali, said that hundreds of civilians were killed by the Malian army while working with “white soldiers,” who spoke a language not familiar to them.

VOA spoke to a man who saw 12 to 15 men killed and witnessed both Malian and white soldiers in the village during the five-day operation.
…

India and Britain have agreed to boost economic as well as defense ties that could eventually help New Delhi move away from its dependance on Russian arms.   

Following talks in New Delhi between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, who is on a two-day visit to India, the two sides said they will wrap up a free trade deal by October and announced a security partnership.  

“We have agreed a new and expanded defense and security partnership, a decadeslong commitment that will not only forge tighter bonds between us, but support your goal of Make in India,” Johnson said, referring to Modi’s push to expand domestic manufacturing of weaponry.    

Despite pressure from its Western allies, like the United States and Britain, India has taken a neutral position on the Ukraine crisis, refusing to condemn Russia or join sanctions imposed by Western countries.   

Analysts attribute India’s stance partly to the fact that India sources much of its military equipment from its former Cold War ally.   

Britain said it will ensure faster delivery of defense equipment by streamlining licensing rules for exporting military hardware to India. Officials in New Delhi called it a “welcome development.”  

Britain is offering next-generation defense and security collaboration across five domains — land, sea, air, space and cyber — to face complex new threats, according to the British Embassy.   

“What we are looking for is a combination of U.K.’s technology and our production base to make it a win-win situation,” Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla told reporters.   

Indian Prime Minister Modi told reporters that both sides underscored the importance of diplomacy and dialogue to settle the Ukraine crisis.   

Indian Foreign Secretary Shringla said that there was no “pressure” on India over the position it has taken.   

Modi said he also stressed a “free, open, inclusive and rule-based order in the Indo-Pacific,” in an apparent reference to China’s aggressiveness in the region.  

Both leaders sounded an upbeat note on strengthening ties. Using Hindi words, Johnson called Modi a “khaas dost,” or special friend, and said, “Our relations have never been as strong or as good between us as they are now.”  

It was “historic” that Johnson’s visit to India came in the 75th year of its independence, Modi said.  

Johnson said a free trade pact, when signed, could take trade between the two countries “to a whole new level.” The deal is expected to double their current trade of $50 billion by 2030.  

The British prime minister also announced that Britain is to reopen its embassy in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, at a news conference he held after his talks with Indian leaders.     

“The extraordinary fortitude and success of (Ukraine) President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy in resisting Russian forces in Kyiv means I can announce that very shortly, next week, we will reopen our embassy in Ukraine’s capital city,” Johnson said.   

The main British diplomatic mission had been moved to the western city of Lviv in February.    

In response to a question, the British leader said it remained a “realistic possibility” that Russia could win the war in Ukraine.    

“Putin has a huge army. He has a very difficult political position because he has made a catastrophic blunder. The only option he now, he now has is to use his appalling, grinding approach led by artillery, trying to grind the Ukrainians down,” Johnson told reporters.   

Saying that it was important to keep up “wave after wave” of pressure on Russia, he said Britain was seeing what it could do to reinforce the supply of military equipment, such as tanks to Poland, so that it could send heavier weaponry to Ukraine. 

 
…

A Greek prosecutor said on Thursday she had begun an investigation into an allegation by a journalist that his smartphone had been infected by surveillance software in an operation by the country’s intelligence service.

A spokesman for Greece’s EYP intelligence service told Reuters it had no comment on Greek media reports detailing the assertion by Thanasis Koukakis, 43, a financial journalist who works for CNN Greece and has done investigative reporting on financial crimes.

The allegation comes as the European Union (EU) is beginning to follow the United States in taking a harder look at spyware merchants and the use of powerful surveillance software.

“A preliminary investigation has begun on the matter,” the prosecutor, who declined to be identified, told Reuters, adding the probe would seek to determine whether there had been a breach of the country’s telecommunications privacy legislation.

Koukakis told Reuters he believed his phone had been infected by Predator spyware developed by Cytrox, a Europe-based surveillance company. Cytrox Predator spyware is sold in Greece by Intellexa, which did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Koukakis, who first suspected EYP was listening to his calls in July 2020, asked independent telecommunications privacy authority ADAE to determine whether a privacy breach had taken place and if so whether it had been ordered by a prosecutor.

“I could not believe I was being wiretapped,” Koukakis told Reuters.

Koukakis said the authority responded in July 2021, saying it had not found anything violating the law on the confidentiality of communications.

ADAE’s reply came four months after the government passed an amendment to the privacy law barring it from informing individuals subject to eavesdropping for national security reasons. The amendment took effect retroactively.

ADAE had no immediate response. The legal counsel for ADAE, Katerina Papanicolaou, told Reuters she was not authorized to comment on the matter.

After his phone “started acting strangely” in what appeared to be a second spying attempt, Koukakis said he asked for help from Toronto University’s Citizen Lab, which tracks the spyware industry. Citizen Lab researcher Bill Marczak confirmed the Lab analyzed Koukakis’s phone and found traces of Predator spyware.

“We analyzed it and confirmed a Cytrox infection,” he told Reuters. “We identified the SMS on the phone used to target him … it is the first Greek case we have been able to confirm.”

Commenting on the reported bugging of Koukasis’ phone, government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou told reporters this week Greek authorities do not use the spyware allegedly involved in the hacking and do not do business with companies selling it.

The EU considers the use of spyware against journalists unacceptable.

Koukakis’ case will be investigated by EU lawmakers tracking the spread of espionage software in Europe, said Sophie in’t Veld, a Dutch member of the European parliament. The Greek case “would very much fall within the scope of our inquiry,” she said.
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol “liberated,” after nearly two months of fighting, even though Russian forces have not been able to penetrate the city’s massive Azovstal steel plant that remains in the hands of Ukrainian fighters and civilians.

Rather than storming the plant, Putin has instead ordered a blockade of the facility, sealing it off “so that not even a fly comes through,” a tactic observers believe will save Russian soldiers’ lives and possibly starve out the fighters and civilians inside the plant.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials say evidence of mass graves outside Mariupol has emerged. Photographs from Maxar Technologies, a U.S. satellite imagery company, appear to show images of at least 200 new graves in the town of Manhush.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the World Bank Thursday that his country needs as much as $7 billion a month in support and will need hundreds of billions to recover from Russia’s invasion.

U.S. President Joe Biden authorized another $800 million in U.S. military assistance to Ukraine on Thursday, declaring it was necessary to help Kyiv’s forces repel Russian fighters in the critical battles unfolding in the eastern region of the country.

“This package includes heavy artillery weapons, dozens of howitzers and 144,000 rounds of ammunition,” Biden said in a short White House speech. He said the new arms shipment was particularly aimed at helping Ukraine’s forces fight in the Donbas region, which is flatter, more open terrain than where earlier fighting had occurred to the west.

Biden said the new assistance, on top of another $800 million package announced last week, “almost” exhausts congressional authorization for U.S. military aid to Ukraine. But the president said he would soon ask Congress for even more money for Ukraine’s forces.

Biden said the United States and its Western allies remain united in their resolve to assist Ukraine in fighting back against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s eight-week invasion.

“The most important thing is holding the world together” against Russia, Biden said. “So far, so good.”

Biden vowed that Putin “will never succeed in occupying all of Ukraine. Putin has failed to achieve his grand ambitions on the battlefield. Kyiv still stands,” the president said.

New refugee aid

In other war-related actions, Biden said he was sending $500 million to Ukraine in new economic aid, streamlining a humanitarian refugee effort to allow Ukrainians escaping the ravages of war in their homeland to move more quickly to the United States if they want and banning all Russian ships from docking at U.S. ports.

Earlier Thursday, Putin ordered his forces not to storm a steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol where the last remaining Ukrainian forces have been holed up in the port on the north coast of the Sea of Azov.

In a televised meeting, Putin told Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that Russian forces should blockade the plant “so that a fly cannot not pass through,” and that going forward with a plan to storm the site would unnecessarily risk Russian troops.

Shoigu told Putin that there were 2,000 Ukrainian troops at the Azovstal plant, but that the rest of Mariupol, a key port city, had been “liberated.”

Biden claimed, “There is no evidence Mariupol has fallen,” but weeks of Russian bombing has all but flattened much of the city.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk demanded Russia allow for the evacuation of civilians and wounded soldiers from the plant through a humanitarian corridor.

“There are about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers there. They all need to be pulled out of Azovstal today,” Vereshchuk said in an online post Thursday.

Vereshchuk also said four buses were able to evacuate civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday.

More than 100,000 Ukrainians are believed to be trapped in Mariupol, where 400,000 people lived before Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24.

“The conditions there are truly horrific,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday at a diplomatic conference in Panama. He underscored that attempted humanitarian corridors to allow Mariupol residents to escape “have fallen apart very quickly.”

The fight over Mariupol is part of a broader Russian offensive in the strategically important Donbas region, where Moscow has been boosting its military presence.

“Moscow’s current objective is to broaden its control in the east and south. Ideally, they would like to grab Kharkiv and Odesa,” John Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told VOA. “But those are tall orders. They may have to settle for Mariupol.”

On March 25, following losses in northern Ukraine, Moscow announced a major shift in strategy and removed forces from the north, including the suburbs of the capital, Kyiv, to consolidate military gains in the Donbas and establish a land bridge to the Crimea Peninsula, which it seized in 2014.

Analysts say if Russian forces gain complete control of the Donbas, their diplomats will hold a stronger hand in peace negotiations and be in a better position to demand autonomy for the region.

“But even if (Putin) makes large gains in the east and south and accepts a settlement that gives him control of his new conquests, that does not mean that he will be satisfied,” Herbst said.

U.S. Defense Department analysts say the battle for the Donbas region, where fighting has been ongoing since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, could last for months more.

The United States slapped new sanctions Wednesday on dozens more individuals and entities accused of evading ongoing financial penalties imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

“The Department of Treasury sanctions Transkapitalbank — a key Russian commercial bank that has offered services to banks globally to evade international sanctions, and more than 40 individuals and entities that are part of a Russian sanctions-evasion network led by Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

Psaki said Washington also has imposed sanctions on companies in Russia’s virtual currency mining industry and applied visa restrictions on more than 600 individuals in response to human rights abuses by Russia and Belarus.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

A Russian tanker impounded by Greece this week and reportedly carrying Iranian oil will be released amid confusion about sanctions on its owners.

“The coast guard has been ordered by the anti-money laundering authority to release the vessel,” a Greek government official said, without providing further details.

On Tuesday, Greek authorities impounded the 115,500-deadweight tonnage Russian-flagged Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members on board, on the southern coast of the island of Evia.

They said the ship was impounded as part of EU sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier this month, the EU banned Russian-flagged vessels from its ports, with some exemptions, as it adopted new sanctions against Russia for what the Kremlin describes as a “special military operation.”

The Pegas tanker was also among five vessels sanctioned by the United States on Feb. 22, 2022 — two days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — as part of broader sanctions against Promsvyazbank, a bank Washington described as critical to Russia’s defense sector.

Promsvyazbank said it and its unit PSB Lizing were not the owners of the tanker as it was bought back by its owner in April 2021.

Promsvyazbank did not name the new owner. PSB Lizing said the owner was TransMorFlot. TransMorFlot was not available for comment.

Greek sources close to the matter said that following checks there were no legal grounds to continue impounding the Pegas as the ship had recently changed ownership and its new owner was not on an EU sanctions list.

Iranian oil

On Tuesday, U.S. State Department welcomed Greece’s efforts to implement the sanctions “initiated in response to Russia’s brutal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine” and said it was aware of reports that the tanker was loaded with Iranian crude oil.

Eikon tanker tracking shows the Pegas has been floating around the Mediterranean since September 2021 after loading in the Gulf in August.

Three industry sources said it had Iranian oil on board but struggled to sell it to a customer in Europe, which alongside the United States has a ban on Iranian oil.

U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which monitors Iran-related tanker traffic, also said the Pegas loaded around 700,000 barrels of crude oil from Iran’s Sirri Island on Aug. 19, 2021.

Prior to this load, the Pegas transported over 3 million barrels of Iranian oil in 2021, with over 2.6 million of those barrels ending up in China, according to UANI analysis.

A Greek coast guard official confirmed it had received the decision made by the anti-money laundering unit, an independent authority, but said the order had not yet been officially served to Pegas.

The Pegas, which was renamed Lana in March, had earlier reported an engine problem. It was headed to the southern Peloponnese peninsula to offload its cargo onto another tanker but rough seas forced it to moor just off Karystos where it was seized, according to the Athens News Agency.
…

Onstage, they dance through hoops and perform acrobatics with smiles on their faces. Off it, they hold anguished phone calls with family back in Ukraine.

Dancers Anna and Olga have found a sense of calm performing in a circus near New York, but they are still living the war they fled thousands of miles away.

“I spent a month without a full night’s sleep. We couldn’t go out to buy food — we were stressed and shaken all the time. It was scary,” recalls Anna Starykh, who left Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February.

Now the 21-year-old is performing with the Flip Circus in the New York City suburb of Yonkers, where she can sleep without being woken by explosions.

More than 4,500 miles away from Kyiv, in a parking lot near the banks of the Hudson River, Starykh and her friends prepare to perform with colleagues from across Europe and South America.

The stage has become their sanctuary.

“Work really helps (us) to calm down and stay positive,” she tells AFP.

Their concern for their family members back home is palpable, though.

“I don’t know in which situation they will be next day, next week, next month. I cry about this,” says 22-year-old Olga Rezekina, who also fled Ukraine after the invasion began and whose parents and brother live in Odesa.

Rezekina and Starykh arrived in the United States with 20-year-old Anastasiia Savych, a Flip Circus veteran who had returned to Ukraine with other circus members to renew her visa when Russian tanks crossed the border Feb. 24.

All are graduates of the Bingo Circus Theater, a circus academy in Ukraine. Rezekina and Starykh joined Flip to replace two of Savych’s male colleagues, who were mobilized to fight and stayed in Ukraine.

On the day of the invasion, Savych left Kyiv for Poland on the train.

“I never saw the capital so empty. No cars, no people outside. Everything was closed. It was like in a horror movie,” she tells AFP.

Two other Ukrainian dancers in their troupe fled via Romania and joined up with them in America on March 10.

‘Leave problems backstage’

They are among more than 5 million people who have left Ukraine since the invasion, according to United Nations estimates.

“When I just arrived here, I felt guilty,” says Savych, whose mother convinced her that she would not be able help the family by staying in Ukraine.

Now she waits to hear that the war is over and that “we won,” Savych says.

“I’m 20 years old and want stay young and not speak about the war,” she tells AFP.

The three friends all have similar but different dreams for the future.

“Live and be safe,” says Starykh, when asked hers. “Traveling around the world,” says Rezekina, while Savych hopes to live permanently in the U.S.

Alexa Vazquez, who helps run Flip — the circus was founded by her family in Mexico more than 50 years ago — says it was difficult getting the women out of Ukraine with airports closed.

“To have these girls here with right now safe means a world to us, especially to me, because they are friends, they are family. We can support them in any way possible,” she tells AFP.

The Ukrainians appear several times in the show, in which animals do not perform.

“People come and they want to look at a good show. You can leave your problems backstage,” concludes Rezekina. 
…

The British government is facing strong backlash from opposition parties and human rights groups after announcing plans earlier this month to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda for processing, in a bid to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats.

The British government says the prospect of being sent to Rwanda will deter migrants from embarking on the treacherous journey.

Record numbers

More than 4,500 migrants have crossed the English Channel from France to Britain in small boats this year, four times more than the total this time last year. There have been dozens of fatalities, including 27 migrants who drowned when their boat capsized off the northern French coast in November.

There is broad political agreement that the dangerous treks must stop, along with bitter debate about how that can be accomplished.

Britain’s latest plan is to fly migrants more than 6,000 kilometers to Rwanda, where they will be put in holding centers while their asylum claims are processed. Britain’s home secretary, Priti Patel, signed the policy alongside Vincent Biruta, Rwanda’s minister of foreign affairs, during a visit to Kigali earlier this month.

“The persistent circumventing of our laws and immigration rules and the reality of a system that is open to gain and to criminal exploitation has eroded public support for Britain’s asylum system and those who genuinely need access to it,” Patel told reporters. “Putting evil people, smugglers, out of business is a moral imperative. It requires us to use every tool at our disposal and also to find new solutions.”

“Working together, the United Kingdom and Rwanda will help make the immigration system fairer, ensure that people are safe and enjoy new opportunities to flourish. We have agreed that people who enter the U.K. illegally will be considered for relocation to Rwanda to have their asylum claims decided and those who are resettled will be given the support, including up to five years of training, with the help of integration, accommodation, [and] health care so that they can resettle and thrive,” the British home secretary said on April 14.

Britain has paid Rwanda an initial $156 million for a five-year trial plan. Britain will also pay Rwanda for each migrant the African nation accepts.

“This [plan] will not only help them, but it will benefit Rwanda and Rwandans and help to advance our own development,” Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vincent Biruta told reporters.

Bitter backlash

The policy has prompted a furious response in Britain and elsewhere. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby — the most senior cleric in the Anglican Church — criticized the policy in his Easter sermon. “Subcontracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well, like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God,” Welby said.

Migrant support groups say Britain should not be outsourcing refugee processing to Rwanda, a country where London itself has flagged human rights concerns.

“We think it’s inhumane, it’s going to be very expensive, and it won’t be effective,” James Wilson, deputy director of the group Detention Action, told VOA. “The U.K. is a signatory to the refugee convention. We have a legal and moral obligation to be assessing any asylum claims to the U.K. in the U.K.”

Wilson said the government should provide safe routes for refugees to reach Britain. “A humanitarian visa system, so that those who have reached France and are looking to claim asylum in the U.K. and having some grounds for doing that would be able to apply for a visa to come to the U.K. to have their asylum claim considered. If we put that kind of scheme in place, which we think is entirely practicable, it would end the need for Channel crossings,” he told VOA.

Patel says Rwanda is “a safe and secure country with the respect for the rule of law and clearly a range of institutions that evolved and developed over time.” She also said Rwanda already has resettled almost 130,000 refugees from multiple countries.

UN objections

Britain says asylum-seekers should apply for refugee status in the first safe country they arrive in, including France. The United Nations disagrees. “There’s nothing in international law that says you have to ask in the first country you encounter,” said Larry Bottinick, a senior legal officer for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

“UNHCR understands the frustration of the U.K. government on that and is not in favor of Channel crossing, of course. We think there’s more effective ways and more humane ways to address this,” Bottinick told The Associated Press.

Australia lessons

Until 2014, Australia sent thousands of migrants to offshore processing centers in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island of Nauru. Many asylum-seekers are still being held in these facilities. The policy failed to deter migrants, says analyst Madeline Gleeson, a senior research fellow at the Kaldor Center for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

“In the first year of offshore processing being in place, more people arrived in Australia by boat than at any other time in recorded history of asylum-seekers arriving that way,” she said.

Gleeson says Britain has indicated that only some migrants will be sent to Rwanda, and they are likely to be single men.

“If that is the case, what you might find is that the next boats coming across the Channel belonged to those groups which are not going to go to Rwanda — so you might see increased numbers of women and children coming on that boat,” she said. “And the concern there is if those boats sink or if they run into trouble, you’re likely to have a much higher human toll if there are more women and children on the boat.

“There will be a cap on how many people can go to Rwanda. And so, the U.K. risks running into the problem we found here in Australia, which is very quickly — within 12 weeks of this policy starting — we had already maxed out the full capacity offshore,” Gleeson told VOA.

There are further concerns the migrants sent to Rwanda will simply try again to reach Britain, thereby fueling the human trafficking gangs that operate from Africa to Europe and on toward the English Channel.
…

Britain plans to send asylum-seekers thousands of miles away to Rwanda for processing, in a bid to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the policy has triggered a backlash in Britain.
…

Turkey has one of the worst records in Europe when it comes to the number of women murdered, or femicides. One of the most prominent groups challenging this phenomenon is called the “We Will Stop Femicide Platform.” But a court case could soon shut the group down, prompting outrage and protests across Turkey. For VOA, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
…

Tensions between Jerusalem and Moscow are rising over the contested Alexander Nevsky Russian church property in Jerusalem’s Old City. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently sent a personal letter to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett demanding Israel immediately hand over control of the church. The issue is one of the latest flashpoints in the increasingly contentious relations between the two countries during the Russian war against Ukraine. Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem. Camera – Ricki Rosen.
…

France decides on its next president April 24, when incumbent Emmanuel Macron faces his far-right rival Marine Le Pen in runoff elections — just as they did five years ago. For the past two decades, the small town of Chateaudun, southwest of Paris, has voted in line with the rest of the country. So which candidate will its citizens back this time around? For VOA, Lisa Bryant went to find out.
Camera: Lisa Bryant Produced by: Jon Spier
…

Cameroon’s energy ministry has said Western sanctions on Russia have driven up the cost of fuel imports and led to a fuel shortage.  The lack of diesel fuels this week left hundreds of trucks taking goods to the neighboring Central African Republic and Chad stranded at the borders. 

Cameroon says thousands of buses, trucks and cars have been stranded in the central African country for two weeks by diesel fuel shortages.  The shortage has left them unable to deliver goods to Cameroon’s landlocked neighbors.

Brilliant Chaba, a 43-year-old truck driver, said his truck transporting computers imported by Chad’s government through Cameroon’s Douala seaport has been stuck in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde for three days because of lack of diesel fuel. He said he is not sure he will arrive in the Chadian capital, N’djamena, within a week as expected. Chaba said he is running short of money to settle parking fees for his truck, buy food and pay for his lodging in Yaounde.

Moise Vokeng, president of the Cameroon Professional Transporters Network, said transporters are surprised that the government of Cameroon has not been able to provide diesel in the country for close to two weeks. He said perishable goods are going bad on their way to Chad and the Central African Republic.  He added that the government should immediately import fuel, or the economic consequences of a fuel shortage will be difficult to contain.

Cameroon says Western sanctions on Russia imposed because of its invasion of Ukraine have created the fuel shortage. 

The sanctions hindered Cameroon’s trade with Russia, which normally supplies more than half of Cameroon’s gasoline imports. 

The government has not revealed the extent of the fuel shortage, but said it will import the necessary quantities from Africa and Europe. 

Simon Pierre Omgba Mbida, an international relations specialist at Cameroon’s External Relations Ministry, said most African countries will be victims of the war of influence between Moscow and European nations, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will have disastrous consequences on Africa’s economy. He said some European countries erroneously think that the 57 member states of the African Union and the 27 member states of the European Union should take common positions on topical issues affecting the world. He said each African state, like European nations, has its interests that guide decisions it takes.

The United Nations says since the start of the year, oil prices have gone up by more than 60% and natural gas and fertilizer prices have more than doubled because of Russia’s war on Ukraine. The U.N. says the war risks tipping up to 1.7 billion people, over one-fifth of humanity, into poverty, destitution and hunger.
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered his forces not to storm a steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol where the last remaining Ukrainian forces have been holed up.  

Putin told Sergei Shoigu, his defense minister, in a televised meeting that Russian forces should blockade the plant “so that a fly cannot not pass through,” and that going forward with a plan to storm the site would unnecessarily risk Russian troops.  

Shoigu told Putin that there were 2,000 Ukrainian troops at the Azovstal plant, but that the rest of Mariupol, a key port city, had been “liberated.”  

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk demanded Russia allow for the evacuation of civilians and wounded soldiers from the plant through a humanitarian corridor. 

“There are about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers there. They all need to be pulled out of Azovstal today,” Vereshchuk said in an online post Thursday. 

Vereshchuk also said four buses were able to evacuate civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday.   

More than 100,000 Ukrainians are believed to be trapped in Mariupol, where 400,000 people lived before Russia invaded the country on February 24.        

“The conditions there are truly horrific,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday at a diplomatic conference in Panama. He underscored that attempted humanitarian corridors to allow Mariupol residents to escape “have fallen apart very quickly.”      

The fight over Mariupol is part of a broader Russian offensive in the strategically important Donbas region, where Moscow has been boosting its military presence.        

“Moscow’s current objective is to broaden its control in the East and South. Ideally, they would like to grab Kharkiv and Odesa,” John E. Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told VOA. “But those are tall orders. They may have to settle for Mariupol.”    

On March 25, following losses in northern Ukraine, Moscow announced a major shift in strategy and removed forces from the north, including the suburbs of the capital, Kyiv, to consolidate military gains in the Donbas and establish a land bridge to Crimea.      

Analysts say if Russian forces gain complete control of the Donbas, their diplomats will hold a stronger hand in peace negotiations and be in a better position to demand autonomy for the region.     

“But even if he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] makes large gains in the East and South and accepts a settlement that gives him control of his new conquests, that does not mean that he will be satisfied,” Herbst said.    

U.S. Defense Department analysts say the battle for the Donbas region, where fighting has been ongoing since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, could last for months more.      

U.S. President Joe Biden is due to speak Thursday about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including U.S. aid for Kyiv as his administration prepares another round of security assistance that is expected to total about $800 million.   

The United States announced a similarly sized package last week, and the new aid is expected to include more artillery and tens of thousands more artillery rounds, which will likely be critical to the fighting in the eastern Donbas region.   

Earlier in the week, Biden confirmed to reporters that he will send more artillery to Ukraine.     

“Out of the $3.5 billion in drawdown authority Congress granted for this fiscal year, we have used over $2.4 billion to provide Ukraine the military equipment and capabilities they need to defend themselves,” a senior administration official told VOA. “We are continuing to look at additional security assistance we can provide to Ukraine, and there are additional authorities we can draw on if needed.”      

The $3.5 billion is part of the $13.6 billion Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act Congress approved in March.      

The United States slapped new sanctions Wednesday on dozens more individuals and entities accused of evading ongoing financial penalties imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.     

“The Department of Treasury sanctions Transkapitalbank — a key Russian commercial bank that has offered services to banks globally to evade international sanctions, and more than 40 individuals and entities that are part of a Russian sanctions-evasion network led by Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.      

Psaki said Washington also has imposed sanctions on companies in Russia’s virtual currency mining industry and applied visa restrictions on more than 600 individuals in response to human rights abuses by Russia and Belarus.     

Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow and director of research in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, told VOA that in addition to military assistance and economic sanctions, Washington must start thinking about plausible end states of the conflict.     

“And then, think of what we can do to encourage the parties, working with other outside actors, even the Chinese perhaps, to try to get to some kind of a place we can all live with, compared to the alternative of this turning into a multimonth or even multiyear conflict,” O’Hanlon said. “But for the short term, we’re just trying to help the Ukrainians not lose.”         

VOA’s Anita Powell and Steve Redisch contributed to this report.  Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
…

French President Emmanuel Macron and far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Thursday prepared for a final rush of campaigning before France’s presidential election after an acrimonious debate where they clashed over relations with Russia and the Islamic headscarf.

France faces a stark choice in Sunday’s second-round run-off between the centrist Macron and the anti-immigration Le Pen, who will seek to become the country’s first far-right head of state in an outcome that would send shockwaves around Europe.

There are just two days of campaigning left as Saturday is a day of calm with no campaigning allowed.

On Thursday, Macron was due to meet voters in the north of Paris and Le Pen to hold a rally in the northern city of Arras.

Wednesday’s bruising three-hour live televised debate saw Macron repeatedly seeking to land punches on Le Pen over her record, while she sought to keep the focus on the government’s performance.

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine overshadowing the campaign, Macron angrily zeroed in on a loan Le Pen’s party had taken from a Czech-Russian bank ahead of her 2017 election campaign.

“You are dependent on the Russian government, and you are dependent on Mr. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” Macron said. “When you speak to Russia you are speaking to your banker.”

Macron also referred to Le Pen’s past recognition of Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. “Why did you do this?” he asked.

Le Pen replied that she was “an absolutely and totally free woman,” arguing that her party had only taken that loan as it could not find financing in France where banks refused to lend to her.

Macron adopted a variety of poses to express skepticism at her arguments, raising his eyebrows, leaning his chin on his fists and lamenting in apparent bewilderment “Madame Le Pen… Madame Le Pen!”

 ‘Civil war’ 

The most explosive clash came when Le Pen confirmed she was sticking to her controversial policy of banning the wearing of the Islamic headscarf by women in public, describing it as a “uniform imposed by Islamists.”

Macron responded: “You are going to cause a civil war if you do that. I say this sincerely.”

She also vowed to put an end to “anarchic and massive” immigration into France, claiming it was worsening crime, which she said was becoming “unbearable” for people all over the country.

The priority for Le Pen was to avoid a repeat of the 2017 run-off debate where Macron managed to make her look flustered and sometimes not on top of her brief.

She sought to put heat on the president, mocking how the “Mozart of finance” had left a “bad” economic legacy that included an extra 600 billion euros ($650 billion) in national debt.

“It’s not Gerard Majax (on TV) this evening,” retorted Macron, referring to a well-known French television conjurer. “You never explain how you will finance your projects and you are not honest with people.”

Turning to Europe, Le Pen insisted she wanted to stay in the European Union but reform the bloc into an “alliance of nations.”

“Your policy is to leave Europe,” Macron responded, describing the election as a “referendum for or against the EU.”

There were also intense exchanges on daily concerns such as the rising cost of living, which Le Pen has made a major feature of her campaign.

Both candidates have their eyes on voters who backed third-placed hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round. He has refused to urge his supporters to vote for Macron in order to keep Le Pen out of the Elysee Palace.

Le Pen said she had seen people “suffering” over the first five years of Macron’s rule and that “another choice is possible.”

Macron replied that “we must and should improve people’s daily lives through major projects for the school and health systems.”

Tighter race

Macron is favored to win the run-off, with most polls showing an advantage of more than 10 percent, which would make him the first French president to win a second term since Jacques Chirac in 2002.

But analysts and allies of the president have warned the result is far from a foregone conclusion, with polls indicating that more than 10 percent of French people who intend to cast their ballots have yet to decide who to vote for.

Supporters of both camps celebrated the performances of their candidates, with Macron brandishing his trademark self-confidence and Le Pen avoiding the pitfalls of 2017.

But the challenger did not at any moment cause Macron discomfort, while the president adopted a much more aggressive approach.

“Macron on the attack, Le Pen on the defensive,” headlined the Le Parisien daily in its Thursday edition. The left-leading Liberation said Le Pen was “vague on numerous subjects” and Macron “arrogant.”

A snap opinion poll by Elabe for BFM TV said 59 percent of viewers found Macron the most convincing and that 39 percent plumped for Le Pen.

“Such a waste,” tweeted Melenchon. “The country deserved better.
…

The United States is imposing new sanctions on dozens more individuals and entities accused of evading financial penalties imposed on Moscow
…

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he will visit Israel on May 24 amid increasing efforts between the regional rivals to mend ties, four years after they expelled ambassadors.

Turkey and Israel have in recent weeks been working to mend their long-strained ties, and energy has emerged as a potential area of cooperation.

President Tayyip Erdogan said last month he was “very, very hopeful” for energy cooperation with Israel, and he hoped to discuss the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

On Tuesday, Erdogan said he told his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog that he was “very upset” by Palestinians injured or killed in the West Bank and Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The two countries expelled ambassadors in 2018 and have often traded barbs over the Palestinian conflict, Turkish support of the Hamas militant group, which runs Gaza, and other issues.

Speaking to broadcaster CNN Turk, Cavusoglu said he will travel to Israel and Palestine with Energy Minister Fatih Donmez on May 24 and would discuss the appointment of ambassadors with his Israeli counterpart during the visit.
…

As Russia launched new attacks Wednesday on the embattled Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, President Joe Biden convened his military leadership to get the latest assessment of the Russian invasion.

“I want to hear from all of you and your assessments on what you’re seeing in the field and across our forces,” Biden said to his top military brass at the White House before his meeting. “The strategic environment is evolving rapidly in the world, but that means our plans and force posture have to be equally dynamic.”

Biden met with combatant commanders, including Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and approximately two dozen other military leaders and national security advisers.

Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. slapped fresh sanctions on dozens more individuals and entities accused of evading ongoing financial penalties imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

“The Department of Treasury sanctions Transkapitalbank — a key Russian commercial bank that has offered services to banks globally to evade international sanctions, and more than 40 individuals and entities that are part of a Russian sanctions-evasion network led by Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

Psaki said Washington also has imposed sanctions on companies in Russia’s virtual currency mining industry and applied visa restrictions on more than 600 individuals in response to human rights abuses by Russia and Belarus.

A day earlier, reports emerged that Biden’s administration was preparing another large military aid package for Ukraine. The size would be similar to the $800 million package announced just last week and is expected to include more artillery and tens of thousands more artillery rounds, which will likely be critical to the fighting in the eastern Donbas region.

Earlier in the week, Biden confirmed to reporters that he will send more artillery to Ukraine.

“Out of the $3.5 billion in drawdown authority Congress granted for this fiscal year, we have used over $2.4 billion to provide Ukraine the military equipment and capabilities they need to defend themselves,” a senior administration official told VOA. “We are continuing to look at additional security assistance we can provide to Ukraine, and there are additional authorities we can draw on if needed.”

The $3.5 billion is part of the $13.6 billion Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act that Congress approved in March.

Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow and director of research in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, told VOA that in addition to military assistance and economic sanctions, Washington must start thinking about plausible end states of the conflict.

“And then, think of what we can do to encourage the parties, working with other outside actors, even the Chinese perhaps, to try to get to some kind of a place we can all live with, compared to the alternative of this turning into a multimonth or even multiyear conflict,” O’Hanlon said. “But for the short term, we’re just trying to help the Ukrainians not lose.”

Battle for Mariupol

More than 100,000 Ukrainians are believed to be trapped in Mariupol, where 400,000 people lived before Russia invaded the country Feb. 24.

“The conditions there are truly horrific,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday at a diplomatic conference in Panama. He underscored that attempted humanitarian corridors to allow Mariupol residents to escape “have fallen apart very quickly.”

The fight over Mariupol is part of a broader Russian offensive in the strategically important Donbas region, where Moscow has been boosting its military presence.

On March 25, following losses in northern Ukraine, Moscow announced a major shift in strategy and removed forces from the north, including the suburbs of the capital, Kyiv, to consolidate military gains in the Donbas and establish a land bridge to Crimea.

Analysts say if Russian forces gain complete control of the Donbas, their diplomats will hold a stronger hand in peace negotiations and be in a better position to demand autonomy for the region.

U.S. Defense Department analysts say the battle for the Donbas region, where fighting has been ongoing since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, could last for months more.  
…

The Wimbledon tennis tournament announced Wednesday it is banning Russian and Belarusian players from this year’s matches starting in late June because of what officials said was Russia’s “unjustified” invasion of Ukraine.

The ban will keep some of the world’s top players from competing at one of the world’s premier tournaments at London’s All England Club.

Among them are Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, currently ranked second globally, and No. 8 Andrey Rublev in the men’s draw and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, ranked 15th on the women’s side.

Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, No. 4 in the world, was a Wimbledon semifinalist last year. Her compatriot Victoria Azarenka is a former top-ranked player and currently is No. 18.

“It is our responsibility to play our part in the widespread efforts of government, industry, sporting and creative institutions to limit Russia’s global influence through the strongest means possible,” the All England Club said in a statement. “In the circumstances of such unjustified and unprecedented military aggression, it would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players” with the Wimbledon championships.

The officials said they would reconsider the ban “if circumstances change materially between now and June.”

Wimbledon begins June 27 and runs through July 10.

The ban on the Belarus contenders was included because the country is a key staging area for the Ukraine attack, which Russia calls a “special military operation” rather than an invasion or war.

Wimbledon has not banned athletes from countries since after World War II, when players from Germany and Japan were not allowed to compete.

The French Open has decided to let Russian and Belarusian players compete at its tournament starting May 22, but as neutral athletes not aligned with their homelands.

Russian Tennis Federation president Shamil Tarpischev told the country’s Sport Express newspaper that there was nothing it could do about the Wimbledon ban.

“I think this decision is wrong, but there is nothing we can change,” Tarpischev said. “The [Russian] Tennis Federation has already done everything it could.”
…

Hundreds of Ethiopians reportedly have been been lined up for days outside the Russian embassy in Addis Ababa this week in hopes of being recruited to fight for Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine. But the embassy has dismissed claims it is recruiting foreign fighters and says the Ethiopians are there to show their solidarity with Russia.   

Witnesses say the embassy is not bringing the hopefuls inside but say staffers have come outside to take documents. 

Feleke Gebrekidan was among the Ethiopians who have spent long hours waiting outside the embassy. He has military experience, he said, having served in the Ethiopian military for over a decade.

He said the would-be recruits are former members of the Ethiopian army, who do not have jobs at the moment. Having heard that the Russian embassy is currently recruiting, he said he and other came with their credentials. He said he even brought the clearance he received after serving in the military.  

Feleke said he has been at the gate of the embassy for three days but has not managed to get inside. He said he plans to come back and try again.  

Tewodros Sime, who lives next to the Russian embassy in Addid Ababa, said he is not happy to see his fellow citizens volunteering for the war.   

“Why would I fight on behalf of a foreign nation?” he asked. “I was so angry when people poured in for registration to the embassy. Many did not show up when the Ethiopian ministry of defense was calling [men] to join our army. They are now bowing for Russians and I am so sad about it. We should prioritize peace in our country.”

Some of the volunteers are motivated by economics.  They are desperate to get a job, even a potentially deadly job overseas, because they are unemployed.

Also, most Ethiopians see Russia as a friendly nation politically.  In the 1980s, Ethiopia was under communist leadership, and there are thousands of Ethiopian military personnel who were trained in what was then the Soviet Union. 

Maria Chernukhina, the press attache for the Russian embassy in Addis Ababa,  speaking to VOA, acknowledged that some of those in line are carrying documents but said that this reflects their own willingness and hope. She said the Russian embassy is not recruiting people for any purpose, as that would not comply with its responsibility as a diplomatic mission.  

Since the war began, she added, Ethiopians have been calling and emailing the embassy to voice their solidarity with Russia. Chernukhina said the line outside the embassy is also part of that.  

Contacted by VOA, the Ukrainian embassy in Addis Ababa declined to say anything about the lines. The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
…

Turkish authorities jailed a journalist on Tuesday pending trial after he announced hackers had stolen personal information from government websites and shared some of it with him, including President Tayyip Erdogan’s ID card, as proof, his lawyer said. 

The independent journalist, Ibrahim Haskologlu, posted the announcement on Twitter, illustrating it with a partially obscured photo of what he said was Erdogan’s ID.

His lawyer, Emrah Karatay, said his client was arrested on a charge of illegally obtaining and disseminating personal information due to his social media posts.

In his Twitter posts last week, Haskologlu said that a group of hackers had contacted him two months ago and told him that they had obtained Turks’ personal information from government websites.

As well as sharing the purported photo of Erdogan’s ID, Haskologlu also published an image of what he said was the ID card of Hakan Fidan, head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency. Most of the information on the cards was concealed.

“The reason for his formal arrest was that he did not notify prosecutors,” Karatay said, adding that Haskologlu had warnedvarious authorities but no action was taken.

“He thought he had to warn people as a journalist and posted these. Now he’s arrested – that’s all,” Karatay said, adding that police had searched Haskologlu’s house when they detained him last night. 

Istanbul police was not immediately available for comment.

Broadcaster NTV said the interior ministry had filed a complaint about Haskologlu after his posts, prompting an investigation by the Istanbul prosecutor’s office.

Turkey is one of the world’s top jailers of journalists and mainstream media is controlled by those close to Erdogan’s government. Turkey’s government denies accusations by human rights groups that it muzzles the media.
…