RIYADMEDIA

Britain’s governing Conservatives will hold a no-confidence vote on Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday that could oust him as Britain’s leader. 

Party official Graham Brady says he has received enough letters from lawmakers demanding a vote on Johnson’s leadership to trigger one. That happens if 54 Tory lawmakers — 15% of the party’s group in the House of Commons — write to Brady. 

“The threshold of 15% has been passed,” Brady said. He said the vote would take place in person in the House of Commons on Monday evening. 

If Johnson loses the vote among the 359 Conservative lawmakers, he will be replaced as Conservative leader and prime minister. If he wins, he can’t face another challenge for a year. 

Johnson has been struggling to turn a page on months of ethics scandals, most notably over rule-breaking parties in government buildings during COVID-19 lockdowns. 

Late last month, an investigator’s report on what has become known as “partygate” slammed a culture of rule-breaking inside the prime minister’s No. 10 Downing St. Office. 

Civil service investigator Sue Gray described alcohol-fueled bashes held by Downing Street staff members in 2020 and 2021, when pandemic restrictions prevented U.K. residents from socializing or even visiting dying relatives. Gray said the “senior leadership team” must bear responsibility for “failures of leadership and judgment.” 

The prime minister said he was “humbled” and took “full responsibility” — but insisted it was now time to “move on” and focus on Britain’s battered economy and the war in Ukraine. 

But a growing number of Conservatives feel that Johnson, the charismatic leader who won them a huge parliamentary majority in 2019, is now a liability. 

If Johnson is ousted it would spark a Conservative leadership contest, in which several prominent government ministers are likely to run. 

Conservative lawmaker Roger Gale, a Johnson critic, said “we have some very good alternatives to the prime minister so we’re not short of choice. 

“Any single one of those people in my view would make a better prime minister than the one that we’ve got at the moment,” he told the BBC. 

Discontent seems to have come to a head over a parliamentary break that coincided with celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. For many, the four-day long weekend was a chance to relax — but there was no respite for Johnson, who was booed by some onlookers as he arrived for a service in the queen’s honor at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Friday. 

Cabinet minister Steve Barclay, a Johnson ally, said toppling the leader now would be “indefensible.” 

“The problems we face aren’t easy to solve,” he wrote on the Conservative Home website. “Democracies around the world are all currently facing similar challenges. But under Boris Johnson’s leadership, our plan for jobs shows how we are navigating through these global challenges. 

“To disrupt that progress now would be inexcusable to many who lent their vote to us for the first time at the last general election, and who want to see our Prime Minister deliver the changes promised for their communities.”
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After making gains in recent days, Ukrainian fighters fighting in the city of Sievierodonetsk have lost some ground back to Russian forces, the region’s governor said. 

“Our defenders managed to undertake a counterattack for a certain time; they liberated almost half of the city. But now the situation has worsened a little for us again,” Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region that includes Sievierodonetsk, said Monday. 

Britain’s defense ministry said Monday that heavy fighting continued in Sievierodonetsk. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a rare trip Sunday away from Kyiv, traveling to eastern Ukraine where he met with troops and refugees.  He made several stops, including in Lysychansk, near Sievierodonetsk. 

“What you all deserve is victory – that is the most important thing. But not at any cost,” Zelenskyy told Ukrainian troops in a video released on Sunday night. 

The British defense ministry also said Russia cruise missiles fired early Sunday hit rail infrastructure in Kyiv, “likely in an attempt to disrupt the supply of Western military equipment to frontline Ukrainian units.” 

The attack on Kyiv was the first in more than a month. 

The Russian defense ministry said its forces had destroyed tanks sent to Kyiv by Western governments. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow would hit targets “we haven’t yet struck” if the West went ahead with plans to send long-range rocket systems to Ukraine.   

U.S. President Joe Biden said last week that the United States plans to send $700 million in new weaponry to the Kyiv government that includes four precision-guided, medium-range rocket systems, helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, radars, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more.   

The U.S. said, however, it will take three weeks to train Ukrainian forces on how to use the rocket systems and deploy them. Washington says it has received assurances from Kyiv it will not use the rockets to target sites inside Russia.   

Putin said in a television interview, “All this fuss around additional deliveries of weapons, in my opinion, has only one goal: To drag out the armed conflict as much as possible.”   

If Ukraine gets longer-range rockets, Putin said, Moscow will “draw appropriate conclusions and use our means of destruction, which we have plenty of, in order to strike at those objects that we haven’t yet struck.”  

He contended that the new weaponry arriving in Ukraine was unlikely to bolster Ukraine’s fortunes and was merely making up for losses of rockets of similar range that they already had.    

Ukraine’s nuclear plant operator, Energoatom, said one cruise missile buzzed the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear plant, about 350 kilometers (220 miles) to the south of Kyiv on its way to the capital, citing the dangers of such a near strike. 

Some material in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press. 
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For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT.

1:45 a.m.: Britain’s defense ministry said that early on Sunday Russian air-launched cruise missiles struck rail infrastructure in Ukraine capital Kyiv.

Heavy fighting continues in the city of Sievierodonetsk and Russian forces are pushing towards Sloviansk, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in a Twitter update.

President Vladimir Putin has warned he would strike new targets in Ukraine if western nations supplied the country with longer-range missiles. In Sievierodonetsk, the main battlefield in the east, where Russia has concentrated its forces recently, Ukraine officials said a counterattack had retaken half of the city.

 

1:20 a.m.: Russia’s government commission on agriculture matters recognized the measures taken by the government to curb the growth of prices for mineral fertilizers as effective and supported extension of export quotas for fertilizers until May 31, 2023, Reuters reported Monday citing the Interfax news agency.

In May, Russia extended quotas for fertilizer exports for July through December, saying the measure aimed to secure sufficient supply for domestic farmers.

12:10 a.m.: The United Nations estimates Ukraine is now one of the most mined countries in the world. In territories no longer occupied by Russian troops, experts from the country’s emergency services are now defusing hundreds of mines a day. VOA’s Lesia Bakalets has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.

12:01 a.m.: The Kyiv Independent reports that, in response to Russia’s attacks on Kyiv, the United Kingdom pledges to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles.

 

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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The United Nations estimates Ukraine is now one of the most mined countries in the world. In territories no longer occupied by Russian troops, experts from the country’s emergency services are now defusing hundreds of mines a day. VOA’s Lesia Bakalets has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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NATO kicked off nearly a two-week U.S.-led naval exercise on the Baltic Sea on Sunday with more than 7,000 sailors, airmen and marines from 16 nations, including two aspiring to join the military alliance, Finland and Sweden.

The annual BALTOPS naval exercise, initiated in 1972, is not held in response to any specific threat. But the military alliance said that “with both Sweden and Finland participating, NATO is seizing the chance in an unpredictable world to enhance its joint force resilience and strength” together with two Nordic aspirant nations.

Finland and Sweden both have a long history of military non-alignment before their governments decided to apply to join NATO in May, a direct result of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. Over the past years, Moscow has repeatedly warned Helsinki and Stockholm against joining the Western military alliance and warned of retaliatory measures if they did.

Ahead of the naval drill, which involved 45 vessels and 75 aircraft, the top U.S military official said in Sweden — the host of the BALTOPS 22 exercise — that it was particularly important for NATO to show support to the governments in Helsinki and Stockholm.

“It is important for us, the United States, and the other NATO countries to show solidarity with both Finland and Sweden in this exercise,” U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Saturday during a news conference aboard the large amphibious warship USS Kearsarge, which was moored in central Stockholm.

Milley, speaking with the Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, stressed that the Baltic Sea is a strategically important body of water — “one of the great seaways of the world.”

He said from Moscow’s perspective, Finland and Sweden joining NATO will be “very problematic” and leave Russia in a difficult military position as the Baltic Sea’s coastline would be almost completely encircled by NATO members, except for Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad and the Russian city of St. Petersburg and its surrounding areas.

Turkey, a NATO member that has had good relations with Russia, has objected to Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance, citing their alleged support for a Kurdish group that Turkey labels as terrorist. NATO’s chief has been trying to resolve the dispute.

The United States has never before moved such a large warship as the 843-foot USS Kearsarge in the Swedish capital, where it sailed through narrow passages in the Stockholm archipelago, Milley said.

As NATO’s close partners, Finland and Sweden have participated in the naval drill since the mid-1990s.

BALTOPS 22 is scheduled to end in the German port of Kiel on June 17.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Serbia has been canceled after countries around Serbia closed their airspace to his aircraft, a senior foreign ministry source told the Interfax news agency on Sunday.

The source confirmed a Serbian media report that said Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro had closed their airspace to the plane that would have carried Moscow’s top diplomat to Belgrade on Monday.

“Our diplomacy has yet to master teleportation,” the source said.

There was no immediate comment from the Russian foreign ministry.

Serbia, which has close cultural ties with Russia, has fended off pressure to take sides over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has not joined Western sanctions against Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic, agreed last month that Russia would continue supplying natural gas to Serbia, while other countries have been cut off for refusing to pay for Russian gas in rubles.
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Ukraine missed out on qualifying for the World Cup Sunday after the war-disrupted team was beaten 1-0 by Wales in the European playoff final for the FIFA soccer showpiece.

Andriy Yarmolenko inadvertently headed the ball into his own net while trying to clear Wales captain Gareth Bale’s first-half free kick.

While Wales heads to a first World Cup in 64 years — opening against the United States in November — this was an agonizing end to Ukraine’s emotionally charged mission to qualify for Qatar while remaining under invasion by Russia.

The right leg of Wales goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey kept out Viktor Tsyhankov’s poked shot 10 minutes into the second half as Ukraine searched in vain for an equalizer. Artem Dovbyk’s header in the 84th minute looked destined for the corner of the net until it was pushed away by Hennessey’s left hand.

Back home, on the 102nd day of the war, Ukrainians took respite from the pain and suffering by watching the game from Cardiff in bars, including in the capital Kyiv which had been hit by Russian airstrikes earlier in the day.

The specter of the war was evident in the Welsh capital with a message of peace in English and Ukrainian on the screens in the Cardiff City Stadium. Rivalries were put aside when the Ukrainian national anthem was played, and it was applauded by the home fans.

Of the 1,800-seat allocation for Ukraine, 100 free tickets were given to refugees who have been forced to flee Ukraine since the invasion began in February, which led to Russia being disqualified from World Cup qualifying.

There were protests by the Russian Football Union Sunday against the jersey being worn in Wales because Ukraine featured Crimea — which Russia annexed in 2014 — as being part of its map.
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In a crowning moment for her Platinum Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II appeared at the balcony of Buckingham Palace Sunday, delighting fans who had hoped to catch a glimpse of her during the final day of festivities marking the monarch’s 70 years on the throne.

The 96-year-old monarch has curtailed her schedule in recent months due to problems moving around. Prior to Sunday, the queen had only appeared in public twice during the four-day holiday weekend celebrations. Officials said she experienced “discomfort” during those events on Thursday.

Thousands massed outside Buckingham Palace for the climax of a boisterous, colorful pageant cheered as the monarch appeared on the balcony with her son and heir, Prince Charles, his wife Camilla, and her eldest grandson Prince William and his family.

The queen, dressed in bright green, waved and smiled after the crowds belted out “God Save The Queen.” Her appearance, which only lasted a few minutes, was followed by a crowd-pleasing performance of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”

It was an uplifting finale to a massive street pageant celebrating the queen’s life and highlighting Britain’s diversity. Thousands of people turned out on the streets of London, many speaking with excitement and pride about their queen and country.

Sunday’s pageant began with a spectacular military parade featuring 200 horses marching down the Mall to Buckingham Palace. They flanked the gold state coach, a gilded carriage that transported the queen to her coronation 69 years ago. A virtual version of her, drawn from archival video from her 1953 coronation, was shown at the coach’s windows.

After the pomp and pageantry came a mélange of acts celebrating the diversity of modern Britain and the Commonwealth, from hip hop and Bollywood dancers to drag queens and Mardi Gras style floats. Some 6,000 performers paraded along a three-kilometer (nearly two-mile) route lined with a sea of Union flags, telling the story of the queen’s life with dance, vintage cars, vibrant costumes, carnival music and giant puppets.

Some of Britain’s best-loved cultural exports were here, from the Daleks in “Doctor Who” to James Bond’s sleek Aston Martins. Celebrities including singer Cliff Richard danced and sang from open-top double-decker buses designed to represent the sights and sounds of each decade, beginning with the 1950s.

“It’s a massive honor to be part of this, we’ve got the best queen in the world, don’t we? Best country in the world,” said Warren Jobson, a biker who took part in the parade.

Organizers expected the pageant was watched by 1 billion people around the world.

The keenest royal fans braved the wet, chilly weather and camped out on the Mall overnight to secure the best view of the pageant. Some came to see the celebrities who performed — like Ed Sheeran, who sang his song “Perfect” while a huge video screen showed pictures of the queen and her family — while others just wanted to be part of a historical moment.

“It’s part of history; it’s never going to happen again. It’s something special, so if you are going to do it you’ve got to go big or go home,” said Shaun Wallen, 50.

The queen did not join her family in the royal box watching the pageant. Nor did Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, who made their first family trip to the U.K. since they stepped away from royal duties and moved to the U.S. in 2020. The couple came to the U.K. for the big holiday weekend, but largely stayed out of the limelight during the Platinum Jubilee events.

Thousands of people ran out into the Mall after the parade ended in a bid to see the queen, filling the enormous expanse within minutes.

The monarch delighted the country when she appeared in a surprise comedy video that opened a concert Saturday staged in front of Buckingham Palace. In the video, the monarch had tea with a computer-animated Paddington Bear — and revealed that, just like the furry character, she was partial to marmalade sandwiches and liked to keep them in her handbag.

Diana Ross and the rock band Queen headlined the star-studded tribute concert Saturday night, which also featured Rod Stewart, Duran Duran, Alicia Keys and Andrea Bocelli.

Prince Charles, the queen’s eldest son and heir to the throne, highlighted his mother’s role as a symbol of unity and stability through the decades.

Addressing the queen as “Your Majesty, Mummy,” Charles said, “You laugh and cry with us and, most importantly, you have been there for us for these 70 years.”

On Sunday, Charles and his wife, Camilla, mingled with crowds at The Oval cricket ground in London for a “Big Jubilee Lunch.”

Millions across the country likewise set out long tables, balloons and picnic fare for similar patriotic street parties and barbecues.

 
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Pope Francis added fuel to rumors about the future of his pontificate by announcing he would visit the central Italian city of L’Aquila in August for a feast initiated by Pope Celestine V, one of the few pontiffs who resigned before Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013.

Italian and Catholic media have been rife with unsourced speculation that the 85-year-old Francis might be planning to follow in Benedict’s footsteps, given his increased mobility problems that have forced him to use a wheelchair for the last month.

Those rumors gained steam last week when Francis announced a consistory to create 21 new cardinals scheduled for Aug. 27. Sixteen of those cardinals are under age 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect Francis’ successor.

Once they are added to the ranks of princes of the church, Francis will have stacked the College of Cardinals with 83 of the 132 voting-age cardinals. While there is no guarantee how the cardinals might vote, the chances that they will tap a successor who shares Francis’ pastoral priorities become ever greater.

In announcing the Aug. 27 consistory, Francis also announced he would host two days of talks the following week to brief the cardinals about his recent apostolic constitution reforming the Vatican bureaucracy. That document, which goes into effect Sunday, allows women to head Vatican offices, imposes term limits on priestly Vatican employees and positions the Holy See as an institution at the service of local churches, rather than vice versa.

Francis was elected pope in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Roman Curia. Now that the nine-year project has been rolled out and at least partially implemented, Francis’ main task as pope has in some ways been accomplished.

All of which made Saturday’s otherwise routine announcement of a pastoral visit to L’Aquila carry more speculative weight than it might otherwise have.

Notable was the timing: The Vatican and the rest of Italy are usually on holiday in August to mid-September, with all but essential business closed. Calling a major consistory in late August to create new cardinals, gathering churchmen for two days of talks on implementing his reform and making a symbolically significant pastoral visit suggests Francis might have out-of-the-ordinary business in mind.

“With today’s news that @Pontifex will go to L’Aquila in the very middle of the August consistory, it all got even more intriguing,” tweeted Vatican commentator Robert Mickens, linking to an essay he had published in La Croix International about the rumors swirling around the future of the pontificate.

The basilica in L’Aquila hosts the tomb of Celestine V, a hermit pope who resigned after five months in 1294, overwhelmed by the job. In 2009, Benedict visited L’Aquila, which had been devastated by a recent earthquake and prayed at Celestine’s tomb, leaving his pallium stole on it.

No one at the time appreciated the significance of the gesture. But four years later, the 85-year-old Benedict would follow in Celestine’s footsteps and resign, saying he no longer had the strength of body and mind to carry on the rigors of the papacy.

The Vatican announced Saturday Francis would visit L’Aquila to celebrate Mass on Aug. 28 and open the “Holy Door” at the basilica hosting Celestine’s tomb. The timing coincides with the L’Aquila church’s celebration of the Feast of Forgiveness, which was created by Celestine in a papal bull.

No pope has travelled to L’Aquila since to close out the annual feast, which celebrates the sacrament of forgiveness so dear to Francis, noted the current archbishop of L’Aquila, Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi.

“We hope that all people, especially those harmed by conflicts and internal divisions, might [come] and find the path of solidarity and peace,” he said in a statement announcing the visit.

Francis has praised Benedict’s decision to retire as “opening the door” for future popes to do the same, and he had originally predicted a short papacy for himself of two to five years.

Nine years later, Francis has shown no signs he wants to step down, and he has major projects still on the horizon.

In addition to upcoming trips this year to Congo, South Sudan, Canada and Kazakhstan, in 2023 he has scheduled a major meeting of the world’s bishops to debate the increasing decentralization of the Catholic Church, as well as the continued implementation of his reforms.

But Francis has been hobbled by the strained ligaments in his right knee that have made walking painful and difficult. He has told friends he doesn’t want to undergo surgery, reportedly because of his reaction to anesthesia last July when he had 33 centimeters of his large intestine removed.

This week, one of his closest advisers and friends, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, said talk of a papal resignation or the end of Francis’ pontificate was unfounded.

“I think these are optical illusions, cerebral illusions,” Maradiaga told Religion Digital, a Spanish-language Catholic site.

Christopher Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, noted that most Vatican watchers expect Francis will eventually resign, but not before Benedict dies. The 95-year-old retired pope is physically frail but still alert and receiving occasional visitors in his home in the Vatican gardens.

“He’s not going to have two former popes floating around,” Bellitto said in an email. Referring to Francis’ planned visit to L’Aquila, he suggested not reading too much into it, noting that Benedict’s gesture in 2009 was missed by most everyone.

“I don’t recall a lot of stories at the time saying that Benedict’s visit in 2009 made us think he was going to resign,” he said, suggesting that Francis’ pastoral visit to l’Aquila might be just that: a pastoral visit.
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Officials in British prime minister Boris Johnson’s ruling Conservative Party expect a challenge to his leadership this week and have penciled in a vote for Wednesday, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

A growing number of Conservative lawmakers have said they have lost faith in Johnson’s government over a “partygate” scandal, with some saying they have submitted letters to officially call for a vote of confidence in their leader.

At least 54 Conservative members of parliament are required to formally request a confidence vote to the chairman of the party’s 1922 Committee for one to be triggered. The letters are confidential so only the chairman of the committee knows how many have been submitted.

More than 25 lawmakers have gone public with their letters so far and the Times said party officials and rebel lawmakers believed they were on the verge of the 54 threshold, with one believing the key number had already been passed.

“Officers of the 1922 executive have already penciled in Wednesday as the day for the leadership vote,” the newspaper reported.

Johnson’s Conservatives are defending two parliamentary seats in by-elections later this month after the sitting lawmakers were forced to resign – one for watching pornography in parliament and the other after being convicted of sexually abusing a boy.

A poll for the paper found the opposition Labour Party was 20 points ahead of the Conservatives in one of these.

Asked if there would be a vote of confidence in Johnson this week, transport minister Grant Shapps told BBC TV: “No I don’t,” saying governments often suffered poor polling in mid-term.

He said Johnson would win any vote.

Johnson has repeatedly apologized for his conduct after an official report found both he and Downing Street officials broke stringent laws that his government made during the pandemic, holding alcohol-fueled gatherings at the height of lockdowns.

He was jeered by the public when he arrived at a service of thanksgiving for Queen Elizabeth on Friday.

Johnson has said he will not resign because there are too many challenges facing the government and it would not be responsible to walk away. 
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Explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Sunday as a regional governor said Ukrainian forces were pushing back against Russian troops in the strategic eastern city of Sievierodonetsk.

The battle for Ukraine’s eastern city of Sievierodonetsk was being waged street by street, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, while explosions rocked the capital early Sunday.

“Several explosions in Darnytsky and Dniprovsky districts of the city. Services are extinguishing,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram shortly after air raid warnings sounded in Kyiv and several other cities.

“There are currently no dead from missile strikes on infrastructure. One wounded was hospitalized.”

Ukrainian officials said railway infrastructure was targeted in the first strikes on Kyiv since April 28 when a Russian missile killed a producer for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Separately, at least 11 civilians were reported killed in the Lugansk region where Sievierodonetsk is located, the nearby Donetsk region and in the southern city of Mykolaiv.

“The situation in Sievierodonetsk, where street fighting continues, remains extremely difficult,” Zelensky said in his daily address Saturday evening.

Cities in the eastern Donbas area at the heart of the Russian offensive were under “constant air strikes, artillery and missile fire” but Ukrainian forces were holding their ground, he said.

Sievierodonetsk is the largest city still in Ukrainian hands in the Lugansk region of the Donbas, where Russian forces have been gradually advancing in recent weeks after retreating or being repelled from other areas, including around the capital Kyiv.

A city divided

Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said Sunday that Russian forces had lost ground in the city.

“The Russians were in control of about 70% of the city, but have been forced back over the past two days,” he said on Telegram.

“The city is divided in two. They are afraid to move freely around the city.”

Russia’s army on Saturday claimed some Ukrainian military units were withdrawing from Sievierodonetsk but Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said Ukrainian forces were fighting to retake the city.

“We are currently doing everything necessary to re-establish total control” of the city, he said in an interview broadcast on Telegram.

For its part, Moscow claims to have destroyed two Ukrainian command centers and six ammunition depots in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

“Ukrainian forces are successfully slowing down Russian operations to encircle Ukrainian positions in Luhansk (region) as well as Russian frontal assaults in Sievierodonetsk through prudent and effective local counterattacks in Sievierodonetsk, ” the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment late Saturday.

‘Put Russia in its place’

Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions forced to flee and towns turned into rubble since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an all-out assault on his pro-Western neighbor on Feb. 24.

Western powers have imposed increasingly stringent sanctions on Russia and supplied arms to Ukraine, but divisions have emerged on how to react.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday Putin had committed a “fundamental error” but that Russia should not be “humiliated” so that a diplomatic solution could be found.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reacted Saturday by saying such calls “only humiliate France” and any country taking a similar position.

“It is Russia that humiliates itself. We all better focus on how to put Russia in its place,” he said.

Despite diplomatic efforts, the conflict has raged in the south and east of the country.

Ukraine reported two victims from a Russian missile strike on Odessa in the southwest, without specifying if they were dead or wounded.

Russia’s defense ministry said it had struck a “deployment point for foreign mercenaries” in the village of Dachne in the Odessa region.

It also claimed a missile strike in the northeastern Sumy region on an artillery training center with “foreign instructors.”

Putin warned Sunday that Moscow will strike new targets if the West supplies long-range missiles to Ukraine and said new arms deliveries to Kyiv were aimed at “prolonging the conflict.”

If Kyiv is supplied with long-range missiles, “we will draw the appropriate conclusions and use our arms…. to strike targets we haven’t hit before,” Putin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying, without specifying which targets he meant.

Fears over food

Apart from the human toll, the conflict has caused widespread damage to Ukraine’s cultural heritage.

On Saturday, Ukrainian officials reported a large Orthodox wooden church, a popular pilgrim site, was on fire and blamed Russia.

Moscow continues to prove “its inability to be part of the civilized world,” Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said in a statement.

Russia’s defense ministry blamed “Ukrainian nationalists” for the blaze.

Russian troops now occupy a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, according to Kyiv, and Moscow has imposed a blockade on its Black Sea ports, sparking fears of a global food crisis. Ukraine and Russia are among the top wheat exporters in the world.

The United Nations said it was leading intense negotiations with Russia to allow Ukraine’s grain harvest to leave the country.

Putin said Friday there was “no problem” to export grain from Ukraine, via Kyiv- or Moscow-controlled ports or even through Central Europe.

The UN has warned that African countries, which normally import over half of their wheat consumption from Ukraine and Russia, face an “unprecedented” crisis.

Food prices in Africa have already exceeded those in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings and the 2008 food riots.

The head of the African Union, Senegalese President Macky Sall, said Saturday he intended to visit Ukraine after meeting Putin the day before to discuss the wheat shortage.

‘Game of survival’

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov repeated the government’s appeal for the swift delivery of heavy artillery Saturday.

If Kyiv receives requested equipment, he said, “I cannot forecast definitely what month we will kick them out, but I hope — and it’s absolutely a realistic plan — to do it this year.”

Away from the battlefield, Ukraine will be fighting for victory over Wales in Sunday’s play-off final as they aim to reach their first football World Cup since 1958.

“We all understand that the game with Wales will no longer be about physical condition or tactics, it will be a game of survival,” said Ukraine player Oleksandr Zinchenko.

“Everyone will fight to the end and give their all, because we will play for our country.”
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British pop superstar Ed Sheeran was on Sunday set to bring the curtain down on four days of momentous nationwide celebrations to honor Queen Elizabeth II’s historic Platinum Jubilee.

The multi-award-winning singer-songwriter will perform at the finale of a daylong pageant lauding the 96-year-old monarch’s record seven decades on the throne, as a long weekend of festivities across the U.K. concludes.

Sheeran is one of numerous “national treasures” poised to perform a “special tribute” to the queen against the backdrop of Buckingham Palace to mark the milestone never previously reached by a British sovereign.

Meanwhile, millions of people are expected to attend Big Jubilee Lunch picnics, including an attempted world record for the longest street party.

It remains unclear if the queen will make any in-person appearances at the pageant, after being forced to skip several Platinum Jubilee celebration appearances due to mobility issues.

The four-day extravaganza began Thursday with the pomp and pageantry of the Trooping the Color military parade to mark her official birthday, followed by beacon-lighting ceremonies across the country.

She made two public appearances to huge crowds on the Buckingham Palace balcony that day, and then launched the beacon-lighting at Windsor Castle.

Friday’s focus was a traditional Church of England service of thanksgiving led by senior royals — and returning Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan — in the hallowed surroundings of St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Then on Saturday, the tone turned more celebratory as Motown legend Diana Ross and Italian opera legend Andrea Bocelli led a star-studded Platinum Party outside Buckingham Palace.

Spectacle

Sunday’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant will kick off with a military spectacle celebrating Britain’s armed forces along with personnel from many of the other 53 Commonwealth countries.

The Mounted Band of the Household Cavalry — the largest regular military band in the U.K. — will lead the Gold State Coach along a crowd-thronged route to Buckingham Palace.

A cast of 10,000 will then stage a street performance showcasing popular culture over the seven decades of the queen’s reign featuring music, dance, fashion, youth culture and classic cars.

Performers from street theater, carnival and other genres will also join in to celebrate her extraordinary life.

Highlights will include an aerial artist suspended under a vast helium balloon, known as a heliosphere, bearing the sovereign’s image.

The carnival will include a giant oak tree flanked with maypole dancers, a huge moving wedding cake sounding out Bollywood hits, a towering dragon and 3-story-high beasts.

The spectacle will culminate in the singing of Britain’s national anthem, God Save the Queen, and Sheeran’s much-anticipated performance.

Earlier on Sunday, up to 10 million people are expected to take part in the Big Jubilee Lunch picnics nationwide.

More than 70,000 had registered to host such picnics in villages, towns and cities, with families, neighbors and entire communities set to come together to share food and drink.

More than 600 lunches have also been planned throughout the Commonwealth and beyond, from Canada to Brazil, New Zealand to Japan and South Africa to Switzerland.

A flagship feast with specially invited guests will take place at The Oval cricket ground in London.

‘Full circle’

Sheeran, 31, will wrap up the Platinum Jubilee celebrations by singing his 2017 hit Perfect.

Ahead of his appearance, the Shape of You singer-songwriter revealed that the 2002 Party at the Palace to mark the queen’s Golden Jubilee actually inspired his phenomenally successful musical career.

Watching on television, he saw Eric Clapton play his classic song Layla and decided “that’s what I wanna do,” he wrote on Instagram.

Sheeran went on to perform at the queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert 10 years ago.

“Life is weird how it keeps coming full circle in lovely ways,” he added.

His headline performance will follow Saturday night’s Platinum Party, which featured an array of stars on stage outside Buckingham Palace, with Prince Charles and his son Prince William paying personal tribute to the queen’s decades of service.

“You pledged to serve your whole life — you continue to deliver,” Charles said in his poignant message to “Mummy,” which he capped by calling for “three cheers to Her Majesty.”

The nearly three-hour concert, watched on TV by the monarch from Windsor, came after two packed days of celebrations Thursday and Friday, which were designated public holidays.

Longer pub opening hours, the various street parties and other events celebrating the queen’s central place in the life of most living Britons have been credited with temporarily lifting the gloom of a worsening cost-of-living crisis.
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Albania’s parliament on Saturday elected a top military official as the country’s new president after no candidates were nominated in three rounds of voting.

General-Major Bajram Begaj won the post after the 140-seat Parliament voted 78 in favor, four against and one abstained.The governing left-wing Socialist Party nominated and voted for Begaj, 55, after failing to reach a compromise with the opposition on a candidate to replace President Ilir Meta, and no independent candidate was nominated.

Most of the opposition boycotted the voting.

Begaj is post-communist Albania’s eighth president and the third from the military ranks. The five-year presidency has a largely ceremonial role and the chosen candidate is expected to stand above partisan divisions. The president holds some authority over the judiciary and the armed forces and is limited to two terms.

Begaj was elected among six candidates, according to Socialists’ leader and Prime Minister Edi Rama, adding that no candidates of the governing majority were taken into consideration.

“We gave Albania a normal president, an indisputable personality in his integrity, humanity and commitment for the country and its people,” Rama said.

Begaj was released from his army post in a decree from the president, who was on a visit Saturday to Turkey. Meta, who clashed regularly with the government, congratulated the new president. A handover ceremony is planned for July 24.

Begaj has been the army’s chief-of-staff since July 2020. Before that, he held several army posts, including ones in public and military hospitals, and trained in the U.S. on strategic medical leadership and defense management.

The European Union, the United States and other Western countries congratulated Begaj in his new post.

“We look forward to working together for a prosperous, secure and solid EU-#Albania relationship, as members of one European family,” tweeted EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. 
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As designer Clary Salandy pushes open the kitchen door at a nondescript community center in west London, her visitors pause at the sight.

A dozen giraffe heads, crafted in shades of orange and brown with top hats and flowing eyelashes, smile in a tidy row atop the commercial-grade stove, while a pair of zebras peer out from a corner near the refrigerator.

That sense of surprise is exactly what Salandy hopes people will experience Sunday, when the giraffes and zebras join a troupe of dancing elephants and flamingos outside Buckingham Palace as part of the pageant that will cap off four days of festivities celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne. In the meantime, the plastic foam beasts will remain locked in the kitchen for safekeeping.

Salandy and her team at Mahogany Carnival Arts want their playful reimagining of the setting where the young Princess Elizabeth learned she was queen in 1952, while on a wildlife expedition in Kenya, to spark a sense of fun and fantasy in a nation recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.

They want, in short, to inspire joy.

“When you see it, you should go, ‘Wow! You know, that’s amazing!’” Salandy said. “We’re going to lift people out of COVID and take them forward when they finish. People should feel positive that life is coming back and we’re going to move forward and back into enjoying our lives.”

That message will be delivered by a group of 250 artists and performers from the African-Caribbean community, which was particularly hit hard by the pandemic and is now being squeezed by the cost-of-living crisis.

But the performers want to reach out to everyone with a presentation that celebrates the diversity of Britain and the Commonwealth.

Children will become swans, older people will zoom around in mobility scooters decked out as flamingos and dancers will bring the giraffes and zebras to life, perhaps even to mingle with the crowds.

Another group of dancers will unite to form the queen’s coronation robe, with the symbols of every major faith and nods to all 54 of the Commonwealth nations woven into its purple and white fabric.

The dances and costumes — really wearable sculptures — grow out of the traditions of Carnival as it is celebrated in the Caribbean. That heritage inspired the Notting Hill Carnival, a celebration of Caribbean culture that has grown into Europe’s largest street festival. The end-of-summer party was canceled the last two years because of the pandemic.

Artist Carl Gabriel, who is collaborating with Mahogany, is still putting the finishing touches on an 85-kilogram bust of the queen, complete with crown and diamond necklace, that will form the centerpiece of the performance. On its plinth, it is 4 meters tall.

Gabriel has spent months building the sculpture using the traditional technique of wire-bending together with his own innovations. Created by painstakingly bending bits of wire around a metal frame using an assortment of pliers and hammers, the almost finished work resembles a giant macrame project. After he donned safety glasses and a leather apron at his studio in London, he said he wants the work to have meaning for the queen — and many others besides.

“I feel a lot of people are suffering,” Gabriel said. “The least I could do is provide those who suffered a hard time some enjoyment by presenting the work to them.”

At its heart, the performance is a celebration of the queen’s 70 years of service, said Nicola Cummings, a costume-maker and a teacher at Queen’s Park Community School, who is working with 24 young dancers. The queen is at the heart of it all.

“Every visit that she’s ever been on, every time that she’s come out, she’s always represented the country at its best. We’ve never seen her looking scruffy,” Cummings said. “For that alone, you know, we’ve got to give back now. Here we are. We’re showing her our best.”

But the performance also carries a message of rejuvenation.

Mahogany’s community was an epicenter of the first outbreak of COVID-19, and the months of preparation for the jubilee have lifted the performers, many of whom lost family members during the pandemic.

Just as the queen promised the nation at the height of the pandemic that people would meet their friends and families again, so the performers are celebrating the ability to dance again as part of a community — a group even tighter now than before.

Cummings will be thinking about her father, who was also involved in carnivals. He died of COVID-19 last year.

“I feel like I’m representing him in a way,” she said, unable to hold back the tears. “This is almost like a tribute to him.” 
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As images of Elizabeth’s reign were displayed onto the walls, Charles, 73, said the Jubilee had given the country the chance to say thank you
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Queen Elizabeth’s son and heir Prince Charles and her grandson Prince William will pay tribute to the record-breaking monarch at a pop concert at Buckingham Palace on the third day of nationwide celebrations for her 70 years on the throne.

The “Party at the Palace,” which will feature singers Alicia Keys and Diana Ross, is the main Platinum Jubilee event Saturday.

By early evening, tens of thousands of people had gathered on the Mall, the grand boulevard that runs up to the palace, and in a nearby park to watch the concert on big screens, while those with tickets surrounded the stage on a warm evening.

The 96-year-old monarch was not present, having missed a number of Jubilee events because of “episodic mobility problems” that have caused her to cancel engagements recently.

Other acts to appear include rock band Queen + Adam Lambert, singer Rod Stewart and veteran U.S. musician Nile Rodgers. Elton John recorded a special performance.

Queen guitarist Brian May, who played the national anthem from the roof of the palace at a concert for Elizabeth’s golden jubilee in 2002, hinted at another memorable moment.

“There was a moment when I wondered … after Buckingham Palace roof where can you go? Well … you will see,” he said.

Andrew Singleton, a 56-year-old window fitter from northern England who was in the queue for the concert, said the Jubilee had helped to bring the country together.

“People have traveled from as far as America to actually come here and just enjoy the celebrations,” he said.

Earlier in the day the queen also missed the Epsom Derby horse race.

Her daughter Princess Anne, who competed in the three-day equestrian event in the 1976 Olympics, stood in for her mother, who has rarely missed the race during her record-breaking reign and watched on television from her Windsor Castle home.

Four days of celebrations to mark the monarch’s 70 years on the throne began with a military parade, a Royal Air Force fly-by, and the lighting of beacons across Britain and the world, with tens of thousands of people joining the festivities.

During Friday’s National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell used a horse racing analogy in his sermon to pay tribute to the queen.

“Your Majesty, we are sorry that you’re not here with us this morning, but we are so glad that you are still in the saddle,” he said. “And we are glad that there is still more to come. So, thank you for staying the course.”

A sideshow to the main celebrations has been Prince Harry and his American wife Meghan making their first public appearance together in Britain since quitting official duties to move to Los Angeles two years ago, during which time their relationship with other royals has become strained.

Notably Saturday, the official Twitter accounts for the monarch, Charles and William all sent messages almost simultaneously to mark the first birthday of Lilibet, the couple’s daughter who is named after the queen.

Elizabeth had not met her great-granddaughter before the trip, and Buckingham Palace has not commented on newspaper reports that they have finally been introduced.

Harry and Meghan have become divisive figures, with supporters regarding them as a breath of fresh air for the tradition-bound monarchy, while critics and many newspapers pour scorn on their commercial activities such as striking a deal with global streaming service Netflix.

“So Far Apart,” the Daily Mail newspaper said on its front page about the lack of any obvious interaction between Harry and elder brother William at Friday’s thanksgiving service.
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The death toll from a German train derailment near a Bavarian Alpine resort climbed to five on Saturday as another body was recovered from the wreckage, police said.  

Investigators were combing the overturned carriages for victims and clues as to the cause of Friday’s accident near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a region gearing up to host the G-7 summit in late June.  

“At the moment we do not believe there were further victims, but I cannot yet say for sure,” regional deputy police chief Frank Hellwig told reporters.  

He said four of the dead were women, with another 44 people injured, some of them children.  

The accident occurred just after midday on Friday as school holidays were starting in the two southern German regions Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria.  

Police said the regional train was “very crowded” with about 140 people on board as a new  9 euro ($10) monthly public transport ticket valid across Germany also boosted demand.  

Federal transport minister Volker Wissing visited the site of the accident Saturday, saying he was “very moved” to see the “dramatic” extent of the damage.  

“We will continue to investigate and get to the bottom of what happened,” he told reporters.  

The head of the German rail company Deutsche Bahn, Richard Lutz, also at the scene of the crash, said he was “saddened” by the deaths and pledged a thorough probe.  

The train had just left the popular mountain resort Garmisch-Partenkirchen for the Bavarian state capital Munich when the accident took place in the Burgrain district.  

The region has begun preparations to host the G-7 summit of world leaders later this month.  

From June 26-28, the heads of state and government, including U.S. President Joe Biden, are scheduled to meet at Schloss Elmau — 11 kilometers from Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has met with Finland’s prime minister and spoken to Turkey’s president as he seeks to overcome Turkish resistance to Finland and Sweden joining the alliance.

Stoltenberg, who visited Washington this week, tweeted late Friday that he met with Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin while there and discussed “the need to address Turkey’s concerns and move forward” with the Finnish and Swedish membership applications.

Russia’s war in Ukraine pushed the Nordic countries to apply to join NATO, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Sweden and Finland of supporting Kurdish militants deemed by Turkey to be terrorists.

Stoltenberg said he had a “constructive phone call” with Erdogan, calling Turkey a “valued ally” and praising Turkish efforts to broker a deal to ensure the safe transportation of grain supplies from Ukraine amid global food shortages caused by Russia’s invasion. Stoltenberg tweeted that he and Erdogan would continue their dialogue, without elaborating.

Erdogan’s office released a statement in which it said the president had emphasized that Sweden and Finland should “make it clear that they have stopped supporting terrorism,” have lifted defense export restrictions on Turkey and are “ready to show alliance solidarity.”

The Nordic states, among other countries, imposed limitations on arms sales in the wake of Turkey’s 2019 military incursion into northern Syria.

The NATO chief’s diplomatic efforts came before a gathering of senior officials from Sweden, Finland and Turkey next week in Brussels, where NATO is based, to discuss Turkey’s opposition to the applications. 
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent a message of congratulations to Queen Elizabeth, the reclusive state’s foreign ministry said, as Britain celebrates her Platinum Jubilee.

Friday marked the second of four days of pomp, parties and parades to celebrate the 96-year-old monarch’s record-breaking 70 years on the throne.

“I extend my congratulations to you and your people on the occasion of the National Day of your country, the official birthday of Your Majesty,” Kim said in a message dated June 2.

Britain and North Korea established diplomatic relations in 2000.

North Korea is one of the few countries that the queen, who is also head of state of 14 other nations including Australia, Canada and New Zealand, has never visited during her long reign.

She has however paid a state visit to South Korea.
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For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT.

1:04 a.m.: The New York Times, citing a report by the United Nations Development Program, says that Ukraine has removed 127,393 explosive devices, mostly in urban areas.

12:02 a.m.: Volunteers have carried out the largest evacuation from Ukraine’s Kharkiv region to date. Around 1,500 people were evacuated from the occupied territory in just one day on May 30 after five volunteer organizations came together and organized a humanitarian corridor to safety. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has the story.
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Fighting raged in two key eastern Ukrainian cities on the 100th day of Russia’s war, with both Moscow and Kyiv claiming progress on the battlefront. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Russian troops had succeeded in their main stated task of “protecting civilians” in the separatist-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine. 

He added that Russian forces had “liberated” parts of Ukraine and that “this work will continue until all the goals of the special military operation are achieved.”

Russian forces have been trying to encircle the cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk province. 

The Ukrainian head of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Gaidai, told national television Friday that Ukraine had recaptured a large piece of territory in Sievierodonetsk. He said Ukrainian troops had retaken about 20% of the ground they previously lost to the Russians.

Gaidai said that Russian troops were making advances only with heavy artillery, and that once Ukraine had enough Western long-range weapons, it would be able to force the Russians to retreat.  

The United States and Britain pledged this week to send Ukraine advanced missile systems. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Friday that soldiers had already begun training in Europe to operate the weapons. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday: “We have defended Ukraine for 100 days already,” adding, “Victory will be ours.” 

The U.N. crisis coordinator for Ukraine issued a statement Friday to mark the 100th day of the war.  

  

“This war has taken an unacceptable toll on people and engulfed virtually all aspects of civilian life,” Assistant Secretary-General Amin Awad said. “This war has and will have no winner. Rather, we have witnessed for 100 days what is lost: lives, homes, jobs and prospects. We have witnessed destruction and devastation across cities, towns and villages. Schools, hospitals and shelters have not been spared.”  

  

Awad added, “The war must end now.”

On Thursday, Zelenskyy said Russian forces occupied about 20% of Ukrainian territory. He said there had been “some progress” in the battle for Sievierodonetsk but did not give specifics. 

  

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Russia had taken control of most of the city. It said Ukrainian forces controlled the main road into Sievierodonetsk, with Russia making “steady local gains, enabled by a heavy concentration of artillery.”  

The ministry also said Russia controlled more than 90% of the Luhansk region. 

In neighboring Donetsk province, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Reuters that Russian troops were just 15 kilometers outside the city of Sloviansk. 

Earlier this week, U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States was providing Ukraine with a $700 million package of “more advanced rocket systems and munitions” to help fight off Russia’s invasion, now in its fourth month. White House officials said Ukraine had vowed not to fire those rockets into Russian territory.    

  

 “This new package will arm them with new capabilities and advanced weaponry, including HIMARS with battlefield munitions, to defend their territory from Russian advances,” Biden said in a statement, using the acronym for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. “We will continue to lead the world in providing historic assistance to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom.”  

  

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Two Reuters journalists were injured and a driver was killed on Friday after the vehicle they were in came under fire while heading to the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, the latest battle line in Russia’s assault on its neighbor.

Photographer Alexander Ermochenko and cameraman Pavel Klimov were traveling in a car provided by Russia-backed forces on the Russian-held part of the road between Sievierodonetsk and the town of Rubizhne, 10 kilometers (6 miles) to the north.

Reuters could not immediately establish the identity of the driver, who had been assigned to Reuters by the separatists for the reporting trip. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry did not respond to a telephone call seeking comment on the incident.

Ermochenko and Klimov were taken to a hospital in Rubizhne where they received initial treatment, Ermochenko for a small shrapnel wound and Klimov for an arm fracture.

“Reuters extends its deepest sympathies to the family of the driver for their loss,” a Reuters spokesperson said in a statement.

In recent weeks, Russia has poured its forces into the battle for Sievierodonetsk, a small factory city in the east, which Russia must capture to achieve its stated aim of holding all of Luhansk province.

Both sides have been taking punishing losses there in a street-by-street battle that could set the trajectory for a long war of attrition. Moscow describes its presence as a “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine.
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For some Afghans who were evacuated as their country fell to the Taliban last summer, the journey to the United States has stalled, and perhaps ended, at a sun-baked cluster of tents and temporary housing on an American base in the Balkans. 

While more than 78,000 Afghans have arrived in the U.S. for resettlement since August, the future for those who have been flagged for additional security vetting and diverted to Camp Bondsteel, in the small nation of Kosovo, remains up in the air. The U.S. won’t force the dozens there to return to Afghanistan, where they could face reprisals. 

Their frustration is growing. Some Afghans at the base, which has been shrouded in secrecy, took the unusual step this week of staging a protest, holding up signs with messages such as “we want justice,” according to photos sent to The Associated Press. 

“They just keep repeating the same things, that it takes time and we must be patient,” one of the Afghans, Muhammad Arif Sarwari, said in a text message from the base. 

Their complaints open a window into an aspect of the evacuation and resettlement of Afghans that has gotten little attention because U.S. authorities, and the government of Kosovo, have been reluctant to say much about the people sent to Bondsteel. 

The base houses a mix of adults and children, because some of the people who have so far failed to get a visa to the U.S. are traveling with family. Sarwari, a former senior intelligence official with the Afghan government, said there are about 45 people there, representing about 20 or so individual visa cases, after a flight to the U.S. left with 27 of the refugees on Wednesday. 

The Biden administration won’t provide details but acknowledges that some of the evacuees did not make it through what it calls a “a multi-layered, rigorous screening and vetting process” and won’t be permitted to enter the U.S. 

“While the vast majority of Afghan evacuees have been cleared through this process, the small number of individuals who have been denied are examples of the system working exactly as it should,” said Sean Savett, a spokesperson for the National Security Council. 

In all, about 600 Afghans have passed through Bondsteel, according to the government of Kosovo, which initially authorized use of the base for evacuees for a year but recently agreed to extend that until August 2023. 

Kosovo, which gained independence from Serbia in 2008 with U.S. support, has also provided little information about the Afghans at Bondsteel, citing the privacy of the refugees. Prime Minister Albin Kurti said in a statement that the government is proud of its role providing temporary shelter to them. 

Afghans are housed in a section of Bondsteel called Camp Liya, named for an Afghan child handed to the U.S. Marines over a fence at the Hamid Karzai International Airport during the evacuation, according to a U.S. military publication. 

It was the chaotic nature of that evacuation that led to the need for an overseas facility in the first place. As the Afghan government collapsed, thousands of people made it onto military transport planes with minimal screening before they arrived at one of several overseas transit points. 

The people sent to Bondsteel were stopped and diverted for a host of reasons, including missing or flawed documents or security concerns that emerged during overseas vetting by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, officials have said. 

At the same time, some in Congress have criticized the administration for what they say has been inadequate vetting of Afghan refugees. 

Sarwari made it to Kuwait from Afghanistan in early September with his wife and two of his daughters and says he doesn’t know why he’s been held up. He was a prominent figure in Afghanistan, serving as the former director of intelligence after the U.S. invasion in 2001. Before that, he was a top official with the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. 

Both positions would make him a target of the Taliban if he were to return. 

“The vetting team keeps telling us sorry, Washington is just deciding some political issues,” he said. 

Sarwari has applied for a special immigrant visa, which is issued to people who worked for the U.S. government or its allies during the war. He has not received a response, according to his lawyer, Julie Sirrs. 

“In theory, he is free to leave, but it’s not clear where he could go,” Sirrs said. “He obviously cannot return to Afghanistan. He’s clearly in danger if he returns.” 

He and others live a circumscribed existence on Bondsteel. Although technically not detained, they cannot leave the arid, rocky base and have spent months in tents, which were adorned with handwritten signs during this week’s protest. One said, “unfair decision,” while another said, “children are suffering.” 

The Biden administration says authorities have determined that some — it won’t say how many — simply cannot be allowed to enter the U.S. It is working to find other countries that don’t harbor the same security concerns and are willing to accept them for resettlement. No one will be forcibly returned to Afghanistan, the NSC spokesperson said. 

 
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “victory will be ours” Friday as the conflict with Russia entered its 100th day.

Zelenskyy appeared in a video filmed outside the presidential palace in Kyiv, flanked by the same officials who appeared in a similar video on the day of the invasion, February 24.

“Our team is much bigger. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are here. The most important — the people, the people of our state are here. Defending Ukraine for 100 days already. Victory will be ours,” he said.

European leaders also voiced solidarity with Ukraine. “100 days ago Russia unleashed its unjustifiable war on Ukraine. The bravery of Ukrainians commands our respect and our admiration. The EU stands with Ukraine,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter.

Invasion

Russia began building up troops along the border in the fall of 2021 but repeatedly denied it planned to attack its neighbor. Then, on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a televised address announcing what he called a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

“We will strive to de-militarize and de-Nazify Ukraine and will bring to justice those who committed multiple bloody crimes against civilians, including Russian citizens,” Putin said.

That night, explosions echoed across Kyiv. Russian tanks and armored vehicles began crossing the border. A sovereign European nation had been invaded, triggering the continent’s worst conflict since 1945.

U.S. President Joe Biden said it was a pre-meditated attack. “The Russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of Ukraine, without provocation, without justification, without necessity,” Biden said.

Russian failures

A 64-kilometer-long Russian armored column approached Kyiv from the north. But tactical mistakes saw the Russian advance on Kyiv stall as Ukraine’s armed forces put up fierce resistance, aided by Western weapons, including anti-tank missiles and drones.

By April, Russian forces were in retreat from the capital. They left behind scenes of horror. In towns like Bucha, advancing Ukrainian forces uncovered mass civilian graves and widespread evidence of torture and mass rape by Russian soldiers. Moscow claimed the evidence was fabricated.

War crimes

Visiting the site of the mass graves in Bucha, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said the world must take action. “These are war crimes and they will be recognized by the world as genocide,” he said.

The atrocities prompted NATO and Western countries to beef up their deployments in eastern Europe and increase weapons supplies to Ukraine. “We agreed that we must further strengthen and sustain our support to Ukraine so that Ukraine prevails in the face of Russia’s invasion,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said April 7.

The United States has so far pledged $53 billion in military, economic and humanitarian aid.

Finland and Sweden – which for decades have remained neutral – applied to join NATO in the face of Russia’s aggression.

Refugee exodus

Meanwhile, the war prompted a huge exodus of Ukrainian refugees, with some six million fleeing to neighboring countries so far, and a further eight million internally displaced within Ukraine.

Russia is weaponizing refugees, says Afzal Ashraf, a professor of international affairs at Britain’s Loughborough University. “The shelling of civilian areas and driving out large amounts of civilian populations may well be part of the Russian plan, because that serves them well. It puts pressure, long term economic and political pressure, on Western governments,” Ashraf told AFP.

Western sanctions have tightened the economic noose on Russia, causing its currency to plummet. The U.S. banned imports of Russian energy. Europe – which is far more reliant on such imports – agreed to phase out Russian coal by the end of 2022 and ban most oil imports. However, European countries have so far failed to agree on a gas embargo and continue to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Russia every day.

Eastern offensive

Facing mounting military losses, the Kremlin had redirected its forces to the eastern Donbas region by early May and began a new offensive to take the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which had been partly controlled by pro-Russian rebels since Moscow’s forceful annexation of Crimea in 2013.

The strategic port of Mariupol was all but destroyed. It fell to Russian forces in late May, after the last 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers sheltering in the giant Azovstal steelworks surrendered. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the city under indiscriminate Russian shelling and missile strikes.

Fighting continues to rage in the east and south of Ukraine. The governor of the Luhansk region said Friday that Russia now controls around 70 percent of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. Russian forces have been making steady gains across Donbas in recent days.

New weapons

The U.S. is to begin sending long-range GPS-guided artillery systems to Ukraine, something Kyiv has long demanded, says Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington.

“If you combine Ukrainian bravery and skill and a willingness to defend their homes against this unprovoked invasion with Western support, which frankly we’re going to have to be able to provide for the long haul, then I think over the long run this will be a grand strategic disaster for Putin. But in the short term, let’s be clear, the picture is mixed,” Bowman told VOA.
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