Proud Boys Leader Charged With Conspiracy Over Jan. 6

The former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group was arrested and charged Tuesday for his alleged role in the January 6 Capitol riot.

Henry “Enrique” Tarrio wasn’t present at the riot, but the U.S. Justice Department says he was involved in the conspiracy to stop Congress from certifying results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

“Although Tarrio is not accused of physically taking part in the breach of the Capitol, the indictment alleges that he led the advance planning and remained in contact with other members of the Proud Boys during their breach of the Capitol,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

Tarrio, 38, had been arrested two days before January 6 for vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic African American church. He was found guilty and served five months in jail.

More than three dozen Proud Boys members have been arrested and charged for their roles on January 6. Eleven members of another group, the Oath Keepers, have also been charged.   

Around 775 people have also been arrested for their roles.

Tarrio is scheduled to appear at a federal court Tuesday afternoon in Florida.  

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press and Reuters.

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Kenyan Women Protest for End to Harassment

Kenyan women were in the streets of Nairobi Tuesday in protest of motorbike taxi drivers who allegedly assaulted a woman last week.

The protesters, organized by the Federation of Women Lawyers, gave the capital’s police chief a petition seeking assurance of their safety and protection from all forms of harassment.

A video widely circulated on Kenyan social media platforms showed a woman motorcycle driver being manhandled by a dozen angry men and screaming for help in Nairobi last week.

The incident prompted a public outcry, and many women called on police to take action against drivers who act without regard to the law.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta also called for a general crackdown on motorcycle riders. Kenyan radio station Capital FM quoted police chief Hilary Mutyambai saying officers have arrested 229 riders and seized at least 900 bikes over the past two days.

The relationship between motorcycle riders and the public has deteriorated due to a perceived tendency for drivers to not follow traffic rules and to use violence to intimidate motorists and pedestrians.

The Federation of Women Lawyers has called for the creation of a task force to curb rogue riders.

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US Bans Imports of Russian Oil Amid Ukraine Invasion

The U.S. is banning all imports of Russian oil and gas, President Joe Biden announced Tuesday — a move that he said “will deal another powerful blow to Putin’s war machine” as the Russian army continues its assault on Ukraine.

This step, outlined in an executive order, is the latest move by Washington to squeeze Russian President Vladimir Putin. He is one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, accused by critics of filling his pockets with ill-gotten gains from his energy-exporting nation. Under the executive order, the U.S. is also banning all imports of crude oil, petroleum products, natural gas, coal and coal products and banning any American from investing in Russia’s energy sector.

Last year, the U.S. imported nearly 700,000 barrels per day of crude oil and refined petroleum products from Russia — a far cry from the some 4.5 million barrels of Russian oil that Europe imports each day.

“We’re moving forward on this ban understanding that many of our European allies and partners may not be in a position to join us,” Biden said. “The United States produces far more oil domestically than all the European countries combined. In fact, we’re a net exporter of energy. So we can take this step when others cannot.”

Meanwhile, Britain on Tuesday said it would phase out imports of Russian oil and oil products by the end of this year.

Biden also announced Tuesday that International Energy Agency members agreed to a collective release of 60 million barrels of crude oil from strategic petroleum reserves, with the United States committing half of that amount.

Biden said he has received support from his political allies and critics, with Republican U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer, of North Dakota, saying “this action is a necessary step for the world. Vladimir Putin’s war chest is dependent on revenue [that] comes from selling energy — some of it to Americans when we have more than enough oil and gas for ourselves and most of the rest of the world.”

He added “Because of this, oil is a weapon for Putin. It’s about time the Biden administration recognized this weaponization of energy. This import ban is designed to further cripple Putin’s financial stream to wage war on the freedom-loving people of Ukraine and a host of other mischief.”

Biden has repeatedly said he has no intention to send U.S. troops to Ukraine, and that these economic moves are a strong deterrent for Putin.

“Yesterday I spoke with my counterparts in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom about how Russia is escalating violence against Ukraine and the steps that we’re going to take together with our allies and partners around the world to respond to this aggression,” Biden said.

“We are enforcing the most significant package of economic sanctions in history and it’s causing significant damage to Russia’s economy.” 

This report contains information from Reuters.

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Chinese Kenyan Cooks Up Beef Chow Fun and Swahili-Style Kebabs

Even though there has been a wave of immigrants from China to Africa in recent years, some families made that journey decades ago. VOA’s Kang-Chun Cheng has more from Nairobi about a Chinese Kenyan and his restaurant.

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Moderna to Build Facility in Kenya

American biotechnology firm Moderna has announced plans to build a $500 million vaccine production facility in Kenya. Once built, the facility will produce about half a billion doses of vaccines per year, including vaccines for COVID-19 and HIV. Health experts say the U.S. and African Union-supported facility will help address vaccine inequity in Africa.

Speaking Monday in Nairobi, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said the partnership with Moderna can help his country and Africa respond to future health crises.

“The idea of companies in the west coming to set up vaccine production centers in Africa is a move in the right direction because it’s going to ensure that we are close to the rest of the world in terms of disease prevention,” said Rosemary Sang, a virologist based in Kenya.

“I think we have learned what happened in the world during the COVID pandemic, how Africa was also affected when it came to intervention and their distribution mobilization of resources, especially vaccines,” said Sang. “Africa was nowhere, almost nowhere, and we only received vaccines after other regions in the world started to do their vaccination and had almost adequate coverage.”

Moderna has said it will spend at least $500 million to set up the facility at a yet-to-be-determined site in Kenya. The center will be used to supply vaccines to 55 African countries.

African countries have some of the lowest rates of vaccination in the world – a problem caused partly by the absence of vaccine production plants on the continent.

Sang says an African facility will convince more people to get vaccinated against viruses.

“It’s important that we develop this capacity, and we develop the confidence and even to give confidence to the population to accept vaccination as a way of disease control, when they see that vaccines are being made in their own continent, they are not just injected with things that are brought from foreign countries that they may not understand,” said Sang.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been pushing for pharmaceutical companies to set up a manufacturing plant in Africa.

“The more capacity we have to manufacture the vaccines that’s spread across the world, then the faster it is to meet both current but also future demand for vaccines in instances, like the last two years where we had the pandemic and the global supply cannot keep up with the need,” said Catherine Kyobutungi, the head of the African Population and Health Research Center.

“I think the other good thing is that it’s not just focused on the COVID vaccine. The partnership includes consideration for other products such as the HIV vaccine, vaccine around other viruses,” she said. “It may be one way in which Africa is able to meet its demand for those vaccines at some point in future.”

Moderna and Kenya’s leaders have not said when construction on the new facility will begin.

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Situation in Parts of Ukraine ‘Apocalyptic’ as People Run Out of Essential Supplies

U.N. and international aid agencies are calling for an end to hostilities in Ukraine as the number of civilian casualties grows and more people flee in terror to safety in neighboring countries.  The latest U.N. figures put the number of civilian casualties at 1,335, including 474 people killed and 861 injured.

The U.N. office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which compiles the figures, believes the true number of casualties is much higher than what is recorded. That has led U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet to reiterate her call for a quick and peaceful end to the conflict, which she says has triggered a humanitarian crisis.

Her spokeswoman, Liz Throssell, says it is not possible to verify cases of civilian deaths and injuries in many parts of Ukraine because of ongoing hostilities. 

She says most of the casualties are from airstrikes and explosive weapons used by Russian forces. She says heavy artillery and multiple rocket systems used in many cities have damaged and destroyed hundreds of residential buildings.

“We are alarmed by numerous reports of threats and actual harm against journalists…We are also concerned by reports of arbitrary detention of perceived pro-Ukrainian people in areas that have recently come under the control of armed groups in the east, and by reports of violence against those considered to be pro-Russian in Ukrainian government-controlled territories,” Throssell said.  

The U.N. refugee agency says more than two million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and other European countries.  However, Ewan Watson, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, says hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the port city of Mariupol are unable to escape.

“We stand ready to act in terms of our neutral intermediary role to facilitate the safe passage of civilians out of the city. But the bottom line today is that this situation is really apocalyptic for people. It is getting worse. They are running out of essential supplies.  And so, our call today is for life-saving aid to reach these people, Watson said.”

A Russian proposal to create “humanitarian corridors” to allow people to safely leave Mariupol failed after a cease-fire agreement was not honored. 

Aid agencies say priority needs include emergency shelter, health care, food, water and sanitation, and psychosocial support to help people deal with what aid groups call an epidemic of trauma and grief.

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‘Some Kind of Terrible Dream’ for Ukrainian Women Refugees

It’s a global day to celebrate women, but many fleeing Ukraine feel only the stress of finding a new life for their children as husbands, brothers and fathers stay behind to defend their country from Russia’s invasion.

The number of refugees fleeing Ukraine reached 2 million on Tuesday, according to the United Nations, the fastest exodus Europe has seen since World War II. One million of them are children, UNICEF spokesman James Elder tweeted, calling it “a dark historical first.”

Polina Shulga tried to ease the journey for her 3-year-old daughter by hiding the truth.

“Of course it’s hard to travel with a child, but I explained to her that we’re going on vacation and that we’ll definitely come home one day when the war is over,” Shulga said.

She didn’t know what would come next after arriving in Hungary from Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, but believed the experience would make her stronger. “I feel like I’m responsible for my child, so it was easier for me to take this step and leave,” she said, as her little girl tugged at the hem of her coat.

Nataliya Levchenko, from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, felt much the same.

“I’m generally in some kind of a terrible dream which keeps going on,” the retired teacher said. “I would be in some kind of abstraction if it wasn’t for my daughter. I wouldn’t be able to come to my senses.”

A decree by Ukraine’s government that prohibits men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the country means that most of those fleeing Ukraine are women and children. The policy is meant to encourage men to sign up to fight against Russia’s invasion or to keep them available for military conscription.

That has led to heartbreaking scenes of separation, and growing worry as some encircled, battered parts of Ukraine slip out of reach.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of International Women’s Day in a video address: “Ukrainians, we usually celebrate this holiday, the holiday of spring. We congratulate our women, our daughters, wives, mothers. Usually. But not today. Today I cannot say the traditional words. I just can’t congratulate you. I can’t, when there are so many deaths. When there is so much grief, when there is so much suffering. When the war continues.”

Women normally receive flowers and chocolates and kisses and speeches. But this time, sugary messages were tinged with sorrow or pleas for peace.

In a refugee camp in Moldova, Elena Shapoval apologized for her tears. She doesn’t hide them from her two children, one 4 and one 8, while recalling their journey from Odesa. The younger one doesn’t understand what’s happening, Shapoval said. The older one tries to calm her, saying, ‘Mom, everything will be all right.'”

She cannot collapse as she thinks about the life they left behind. “I realize that we’ll have to work a lot now,” she said. “I need to get myself together because I have two children and I need to ball up my will like a fist.”

In Romania, Alina Rudakova began to cry as the realized she had forgotten about the holiday. Last year, the 19-year-old from Melitopol received a bouquet of flowers from her father and gifts from other relatives.

“This year, I didn’t even think about this day,” she said. “This day was really awful.”

In a theater at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in the Polish city of Przemysl near the border, women filled makeshift beds. Some checked their phones yet again for news.

“It was difficult to prepare myself for traveling,” said one refugee from near Kyiv who gave only her first name, Natalia. “My sister said that I am very brave, but in my opinion I am a coward. I want to go home.”

And at the Medyka border crossing in Poland, Yelena Makarova said her hurried flight from Kremenchuk with her mother and teenage daughter marked the end of her life as she knew it. Her father, husband and brother all stayed behind.

“I wish that (the war) it would finish as soon as possible, because do you know, for every mother, what can be worse?” she said. “I can’t understand why our children are dying. I don’t know.”

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US Congress Approves Law Making Racially-Targeted Murder a Federal Hate Crime 

The U.S. Senate has given final approval to legislation that would make the act of lynching a federal hate crime.

The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act cleared the Senate Monday night by unanimous consent, a week after it was approved by the House of Representatives by an overwhelming vote of 422-3.

The legislation was named after Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black teenager whose torture and murder in Mississippi in 1955 was one of the galvanizing events of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.

The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act is the latest of more than 200 bills introduced in Congress since 1900 to make lynching, a brutal act of murder carried out specifically against Black Americans across the United States, a federal hate crime. The civil rights group National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) says more than 4,700 Blacks were lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968, while the Equal Justice Initiative says there were nearly 6,500 lynchings between 1865 and 1950.

The House passed an anti-lynching bill in 2020 following the murder of Ahmaud Arbery at the hands of three white men in Georgia, but it was blocked in the Senate by Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, who said it would elevate lesser crimes with lynching.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised the bill’s passage Monday, but said it was “a bitter stain on America” that it took more than a century to do so.

Once it is signed into law by President Joe Biden, a person convicted of lynching could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.

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Ukraine, Russia Agree to Civilian Evacuations from Some Areas

Previous efforts to establish humanitarian corridors in areas hit by Russian forces have collapsed

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As Hershey Raises Prices, Ivory Coast Cocoa Farmers Grapple With Climate Change

Chocolate makers are expected to raise prices this year due to higher costs of cocoa from exporters like Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer.

Hershey, the largest producer of chocolate products in the United States, said last month it will raise prices on its products across the board due to the rising cost of ingredients.   

Meanwhile, chocolate makers like Dana Mroueh said they are seeing cocoa prices rise in Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest cocoa producer.  

“We’ve noticed the price of cocoa is going up these few years, especially organic cocoa. So, from the beginning to today, those five years, we can say the price has risen 20 percent,” Mroueh said.  

Demand for chocolate in America increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and cocoa producers in Ivory Coast are struggling to keep up with that demand.   

Experts say one reason is the impact of climate change.  

Harvard University says that by 2030, parts of West Africa will be too hot and dry to adequately produce cocoa. The West African countries of Ghana and Ivory Coast alone produce 70 percent of global supply.  

Cocoa farmer Raphael Konan Kouassi took VOA to his plantation, a shady orchard where fat green and yellow cocoa pods hung from tree trunks. He said trees are yielding less due to rising temperatures and poor rains.  

“Almost all of the young plants die in the high season. If you have not been able to get water to them, you have no cocoa,” he said.  

Kouassi receives government assistance in the form of cocoa trees, which are more resilient to the fluctuations of climate change, but he said government distributions happen at the wrong time of year for the saplings to survive.  

Christian Bunn of the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, a global scientific organization, said information about how the climate is changing can inform farmers on how to better nurture their crops.  

“What we’re seeing is that the onset of both dry and wet season can change. It’s less reliable. During the season, there may be breaks in terms of rain during the dry season, or there’s a dry spell during the wet season, and the overall distribution or amounts of rainfall they’re receiving may change,” Bunn said.  

The data shows it may be better for farmers to stop producing cocoa and diversify into other crops, he said.   

However, Olga Yenou, the CEO of an Ivorian company that supplies The Hershey Company, said higher prices for cocoa could be welcomed by farmers.  

“My opinion is that these farmers should have better prices, should earn more, because they work hard. Most are poor,” Yenou said.  

Her wish appears to be coming true. As climate change continues to bite, prices continue to surge.  

 

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Latest Developments in Ukraine: March 8

Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine     

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US Supreme Court Rejects GOP Redistricting Plans in 2 States

In a victory for Democrats, the Supreme Court has turned away efforts from Republicans in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to block state court-ordered congressional districting plans.

In separate orders late Monday, the justices are allowing maps selected by each state’s Supreme Court to be in effect for the 2022 elections. Those maps are more favorable to Democrats than the ones drawn by the states’ legislatures.

In North Carolina, the map most likely will give Democrats an additional House seat in 2023.

The Pennsylvania map also probably will lead to the election of more Democrats, the Republicans say, as the two parties battle for control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the midterm elections in November.

The justices provided no explanation for their actions, as is common in emergency applications on what is known as the “shadow docket.”

Inopportune time

While the high court did not stop the state court-ordered plans from being used in this year’s elections, four conservative justices indicated they want it to confront the issue that could dramatically limit the power of state courts over federal elections in the future. The Republicans argued that state courts lack the authority to second-guess legislatures’ decisions about the conduct of elections for Congress and the presidency.

“We will have to resolve this question sooner or later, and the sooner we do so, the better. This case presented a good opportunity to consider the issue, but unfortunately the court has again found the occasion inopportune,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissent from the Supreme Court’s order, joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh made a similar point but said he didn’t want to interfere in this year’s electoral process, which already is underway. The filing deadline in North Carolina was Friday.

The state courts were involved because of partisan wrangling and lawsuits over congressional redistricting in both states, where the legislatures are controlled by Republicans, the governors are Democrats and the state Supreme Courts have Democratic majorities.

Pennsylvania losing a seat

In Pennsylvania, Democratic Governor Tom Wolf vetoed the plan the Republican-controlled Legislature approved, saying it was the result of a “partisan political process.”

The state, with a delegation of nine Democrats and nine Republicans, is losing a seat in the House following the 2020 census.

Republicans said the map they came up with would elect nine Democrats and eight Republicans. State courts eventually stepped in and approved a map that probably would elect 10 Democrats, the GOP argued.

North Carolina is picking up a seat in the House because of population gains. Republican majorities in the Legislature produced an initial plan most likely to result in 10 seats for Republicans and four for Democrats. The governor does not have veto power over redistricting plans in North Carolina.

After Democrats sued, the state’s high court selected a map that likely will elect at least six Democrats.

Lawsuits are continuing in both states, but the Supreme Court signaled in Monday’s orders that this year’s elections for Congress in North Carolina and Pennsylvania would take place under the maps approved by the states’ top courts.

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UN: Safe Corridors Needed for Civilians, Humanitarians in Ukraine

The United Nations humanitarian chief appealed Monday for safe passage for civilians fleeing Ukraine and for humanitarians delivering urgent assistance to the country.

“The parties must take constant care to spare civilians and civilian homes and infrastructure in their military operations,” Martin Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council. “This includes allowing safe passage for civilians to leave areas of active hostilities on a voluntary basis, in the direction they choose. All civilians, whether they stay or leave, must be respected and protected.”

Efforts by the parties to evacuate about 200,000 people from the southern city of Mariupol collapsed on Saturday and Sunday. Each side blamed the other.

Griffiths also called for safe passage for humanitarian supplies going into conflict areas.

“Civilians in places like Mariupol, Kharkiv, Melitopol and elsewhere desperately need aid, especially lifesaving medical supplies,” he said, urging parties to respect their obligations under the laws of war.

“Third, we urgently need a system of constant communication with parties to the conflict and assurances to enable the delivery of humanitarian aid,” Griffiths said. “A humanitarian notification system can support delivery of aid at the scale needed.”

A small team of U.N. officials from the humanitarian affairs department have arrived in Moscow for talks with officials at the Russian Defense Ministry civil-military cooperation and the sharing of information for the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Despite immense challenges and danger, the U.N. and partner agencies are scaling up their response and delivering food, water, medical supplies, blankets and other items in several parts of Ukraine.

 

 

No Russian guarantees 

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield urged a sustained pause in hostilities to allow for the safe departure of civilians and the distribution of humanitarian supplies.

“We need Russia’s firm, clear, public and unequivocal commitment to allow and facilitate immediate unhindered humanitarian access for humanitarian partners in Ukraine,” she said. “Very specifically, we call for the Russian Federation to agree to and honor in good faith Ukrainian proposals for time-bound humanitarian safe passage in specific agreed upon locations.”

The U.S. ambassador also echoed the call for establishing a notification system to facilitate the safe movement of humanitarian convoys and flights.

Russia’s envoy claimed, without evidence, that it was the Ukrainian authorities who would not let civilians leave towns and cities via humanitarian corridors.

“We want to emphasize that safety for civilians in Ukraine is not a problem for Russia, because we are not bombarding them but rather Ukrainian radicals and neo-Nazis who are holding hostage whole towns and cities and are making use of citizens as human shields,” Vassily Nebenzia said.

He also said that offers for open humanitarian corridors to Russia had been ignored and dismissed by Ukrainian officials.

“Russia is advocating humanitarian corridors towards Russia,” French Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere noted. “I don’t know of too many Ukrainians who wish to seek refuge in Russia. This is hypocrisy.”

Ukraine’s ambassador said that Moscow was blocking attempts to evacuate civilians and disregarding the rules of war.

“They denied access of international organizations to provide humanitarian assistance to the most affected places,” Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said. “It is even more appalling that the Russian troops open fire on evacuees and evacuation vehicles and shell the roads allocated for humanitarian corridors.”

He said Russian forces shelled a bus depot with evacuation buses near Mariupol and blew up a railway near Irpin, a suburb of the besieged capital, Kyiv.

‘A moral outrage’

The council also heard from Catherine Russell, the new executive director of the U.N. children’s agency. She just returned from a mission to the Romania-Ukraine border.

“What is happening to children in Ukraine is a moral outrage,” Russell said.

“I met with mothers and children who had to flee their homes at a moment’s notice,” she said of her trip. “They told me how it felt to leave everything you know behind. To leave husbands, fathers and elderly loved ones, not knowing when or whether they would see each other again.”

UNICEF says that half of the more than 1.7 million people fleeing Ukraine are children. Children have also been casualties of the conflict, with at least 27 confirmed killed and 42 wounded.

“Countless more have been severely traumatized. As the fighting has now reached densely populated areas and across the country, we expect child casualties to increase,” Russell warned.

The U.N. Human Rights Office says that since the start of Moscow’s invasion on February 24, it has verified 1,207 casualties in Ukraine, including at least 406 people killed. Most of the casualties were due to shelling, missiles and airstrikes. Real figures are likely “considerably higher,” the office says. 

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Russian Outlets Seize on Accounts of Racism 

Russian efforts to flood the information environment and rally support for its invasion of Ukraine appear to be hitting a wall as many of Moscow’s media outlets have been blocked in Europe and elsewhere.

But Russia’s propagandists are still trying to seize on developments that could boost the country’s fortunes in Africa.

Analysts at the Washington-based Alliance for Securing Democracy tell VOA that after initially ignoring the story, Russian-affiliated outlets have tried to amplify reports of Africans and other people of color meeting with racism as they try to flee the fighting in Ukraine.

The effort, so far, appears to be small, but has involved spreading the accounts in English, French and Arabic.

In one tweet February 28, Redfish, which describes itself as a “digital content creator,” shared a compilation video posted to Twitter days earlier of Africans waiting to leave Ukraine, including what appears to be a mother and an infant.

“They have not allowed any Black people to enter outside the gates,” a voice says on the original video.

That same day, Russia’s Sputnik published a story with the headline, “Indians & Africans Fleeing Ukraine Accuse Ukrainian Border Security of Violence, Racism — Videos.”

The article reported on statements from Indian officials and politicians and included videos of Ukranian border guards allegedly harassing Indians and Africans.

Days later, articles about the alleged racism and discrimination at the Ukraine border appeared on Sputnik’s French-language website and RT’s Arabic language site.

Ukrainian officials and others in the West, including the U.S. State Department, have condemned the reported discrimination.

“Any act of racial discrimination, particularly in a crisis, is inexcusable,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA late last month, after the initial reports of racism began to emerge.

“We’re engaging closely with the U.N. agencies on the ground to ensure that every single person crossing into neighboring countries is received equally,” the official added.

 

Analysts say it is too early to tell whether Russia’s efforts to play up racism are resonating with audiences, especially as recent data suggest Moscow’s current influence operations, overall, are having trouble gaining traction.

But U.S. officials and lawmakers note Russia has had some degree of success in its long history of trying to amplify racial divides.

 

“We have seen them exploit racial fissures through a variety of means — including notable examples of Russian-linked disinformation activities that targeted U.S. elections — to undermine the United States and the West by sowing internal societal discord,” the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, told VOA.

Russia could try to use the reports of discrimination against Africans, both verified and unverified, to further divisions in the West. They could also prove useful to Russia in Africa, as Moscow seeks to enlarge its military footprint there at the expense of the United States and other Western nations.

“These incidents could prove to be a propaganda gold mine for Russia,” Schiff said.

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Pentagon Shutting Down Leaking Fuel Tank Facility in Hawaii

The Defense Department will permanently shut down the Navy’s massive fuel tank facility in Hawaii that leaked petroleum into Pearl Harbor’s tap water, and will remove all the fuel, the Pentagon said Monday. 

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the decision by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is based on a new Pentagon assessment, but also is in line with an order from Hawaii’s Department of Health to drain fuel from the tanks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility. The tanks, built into the side of a mountain during World War II to protect them from enemy attack, had leaked into a drinking water well and contaminated water at Pearl Harbor homes and offices. 

Nearly 6,000 people, mostly those living in military housing at or near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam were sickened, seeking treatment for nausea, headaches, rashes and other ailments. And 4,000 military families were forced out of their homes and are in hotels. 

Austin spoke with Hawaii government leaders on Monday to inform them of the decision, which he said will protect the population and the environment and will also lay the groundwork for a more secure military fueling system. 

“This is the right thing to do,” Austin said in a statement. “Centrally located bulk fuel storage of this magnitude likely made sense in 1943, when Red Hill was built. And Red Hill has served our armed forces well for many decades. But it makes a lot less sense now. ” 

He added that, “when we use land for military purposes, at home or abroad, we commit to being good stewards of that resource. Closing Red Hill meets that commitment.” 

U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said she has been encouraging the Pentagon to make that shutdown decision for weeks. 

“I have said from Day One that ensuring the health and safety of the residents of Oahu is my top priority, and I share the community’s big sigh of relief with this news,” said Hirono, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

The Pentagon said it will move to a more dispersed fueling system for military ships and aircraft in the Indo-Pacific. Based on the new assessment, the expanded system will be more cost effective and provide greater security by spreading the fuel supply more broadly across the region. 

The new plan, laid out in recommendations delivered to Austin by a study group, would increase the fuel contracts that the U.S. has with other territories and nations in the Indo-Pacific, and add several more tanker ships that are based at sea. There are currently less than a dozen tanker ships, so several more would have to be built. 

An assessment team that had been studying how to make the tanks safe to operate will now shift and determine how to shut the tanks down and remove the fuel in an environmentally safe way. The team must report back to Austin by the end of April with recommendations. 

Once the facility is able to operate again, the defueling will begin and is expected to take about a year. So, the entire defueling process could be finished sometime next year. Austin has asked the Navy secretary to plan a budget for all necessary corrective action for any prior releases from the facility. 

At the same time, Austin said the department will also work with state, national and local leaders to clean up the contamination and consider other uses for the property once the fueling plant is closed. And the military will also provide help to the families and workers affected. 

“Your health has been impacted, your lives and livelihoods have been disrupted, and in many cases, your very homes have been rendered unavailable to you,” Austin said. “We owe you the very best health care we can provide, answers to your many questions, and clean, safe drinking water. Quite frankly, we owe you a return to normal. And you have my commitment to that end.” 

The tanks can hold 250 million gallons of fuel, and they are at less than half capacity right now. Officials said that 13 of the 20 tanks have fuel in them, two others are permanently closed and five are in repair. 

The giant U.S. government fuel storage installation, which has provided fuel to military ships and planes crisscrossing the Pacific Ocean since World War II, was a secret for years. The 20 fuel tanks were built into the mountain ridge to protect them from aerial attacks. Each tank is about the height of a 25-story building and can hold 12.5 million gallons (47.3 million liters.) 

The tanks are connected to underground pipelines that send fuel about 4 kilometers to Pearl Harbor and to ships and planes used by the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines and Navy. 

The Navy hasn’t determined how petroleum got in the water. Officials are investigating a theory that jet fuel spilled from a ruptured pipe last May and somehow entered a fire suppression system drain pipe. They suspect fuel then leaked from the second pipe on November 20, sending it into the drinking water well. 

Once the leak was discovered, Hawaii state officials and members of Congress immediately began to demand the facility be shut down. 

The Navy in early February appealed that order, and at the time, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said the appeal would give the military time “to make evidence-based and transparent decisions.” 

Kirby on Monday said the department realizes this will not be a quick fix. “We have work to do,” he said. “But we do believe that this decision by the secretary today marks a significant first step in the path forward.” 

 

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As Hershey’s Raises Prices, Ivory Coast Cocoa Farmers Grapple With Climate Change

Chocolate makers are expected to raise prices this year due to higher costs of cocoa from exporters like Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer. Ivorian cocoa farmers say they’ve been forced to raise prices because climate change is making it hard for them to grow their crops. Henry Wilkins reports from Adzope, Ivory Coast.

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South Africa’s Neutral Stance on Russia Risks International Ties: Analysts

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday defended his neutral stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling for talks — not condemnation.

Critics have blasted the government for failing to support Ukraine against its neighbor. Analysts say South Africa is allowing historic political and economic ties with Moscow to risk relations with the rest of the world.

Negotiation rather than weapons or economic pressure is the mechanism Ramaphosa would like to see used to settle the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Ramaphosa’s unwavering stance overruled an earlier call by the country’s international relations department for Russia to withdraw its forces.

Leaza Jernberg is a Johannesburg-based independent researcher and consultant on diplomacy.

“The Department of International Relations and Cooperation, [which] is largely the diplomat for South Africa, their initial instinct was to say, ‘Well, this was not acceptable.’ And that was kind of pulled back by the president who I think has this concern about allies and Russian and what this looks like,” Jernberg said. “So even within South Africa, South Africa’s position is very contested, even within government.”

South Africa’s ties to Russia stretch back to the 1960s when the Soviet Union gave support to anti-apartheid freedom fighters.

In subsequent years, politicians, including those from the ruling party, the African National Congress, maintained close ties with Russia.

Which is why analysts said it’s no surprise that a foundation headed by former president Jacob Zuma has voiced support for Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Richard Calland is a public law professor at the University of Cape Town.

“He [Putin] had a very close relationship with our former President, Jacob Zuma,” Calland said. “It was a corrupt relationship. It fueled an illegal in the end, the court said, illegal procurement of Russian nuclear power, which was stopped by the courts. And I fear that that interferes at least with some political attitudes in South Africa. But I don’t believe that it was the direct reason for the position that South Africa has taken.”

Instead, Calland says, South African officials are simply following the country’s standard position on foreign conflicts.

“I’m well acquainted with and in close contact with South Africa’s kind of senior diplomatic officials, and they are very steeped in this tradition of non-alignment,” Calland said. “Political dialogue is their middle name, so to speak. And I think that on this one, they wanted to maintain this kind of nonpartisan position in order to promote that dialogue.”

Another factor at play is the country’s position within the economic bloc, BRICS, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Analysts said South Africa may be attempting to maintain trade relations with Russia and China.

But international relations expert Jernberg said that stance is ultimately counterproductive.

“In that case, we’re actually backing the wrong horse,” Jernberg said. “When you look at the EU, the European Union as a block, South Africa’s combined trade to the European Union is actually far larger. And so then if you’re going to make an economic argument, you should surely be arguing that between the United States and between, and Europe, is actually a greater economic interest.”

Whatever the motives, it has left Western nations siding with Ukraine disappointed, and experts warn there could be implications for South Africa in the future.

Ina Gouws is a political science lecturer at South Africa’s University of the Free State.

“These kinds of things down the road, become problematic,” Gouws said. “If you don’t display that kind of cooperation and sound thinking, and firm condemnation when a country does something like this, down the road, it bites you when you need support from the international community.”

While the ramifications for South Africa remain uncertain, experts agree it’s unlikely the country will change its position any time soon.

 

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US Delegation Travels to Venezuela to Explore Easing Sanctions

A delegation of senior U.S. officials visited Venezuela Saturday for talks with members of President Nicolas Maduro’s government to explore the possibility of easing U.S. sanctions against the major oil producer. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday the U.S. delegation discussed a range of issues, including energy security, as well as the health and welfare of detained U.S. citizens. 

She said those two issues were “separate paths and conversations.” 

Sources who participated in the talks told media outlets the discussions had been in the works behind the scenes for months but took on new urgency with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  

Venezuela’s oil production has plummeted over the last two decades, down from roughly 3 million barrels per day in 2002 to fewer than 800,000 barrels per day at the start of this year, according to OPEC. Even so, the country’s crude exports could offset the fallout from a possible oil embargo against Russia. The South American country is also Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strongest ally in the Western Hemisphere. 

The U.S. under former President Donald Trump broke off diplomatic relations with Venezuela in 2019, after the U.S. recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the country’s legitimate president, accusing Maduro of rigging the presidential reelection. The Trump administration also blocked all U.S. revenue to Venezuela’s national oil company.  

The Wall Street Journal reports that in recent weeks, some U.S. investors have called on the Biden administration to lift sanctions on Venezuela so it can send more crude oil into the market. That would fill the gap if Western nations decide to impose a boycott on Russian oil. Chevron has also lobbied the administration to modify its license to accept and trade oil in Venezuela.  

The sources say the U.S. delegation to Venezuela was led by Juan Gonzalez, National Security Council senior director for the Western Hemisphere; James Story, ambassador to Venezuela; and Roger Carstens, special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. Carstens was the top U.S. diplomat in Caracas when the Trump administration broke off relations with Maduro in 2019.  

Carstens previously traveled to Caracas in December and met in jail with six oil executives from Houston-based Citgo, former U.S. Marine Matthew Heath and two former Green Berets arrested in connection with a failed raid aimed at toppling Maduro that was staged from neighboring Colombia.  

The U.S. State Department and Venezuela’s Information Ministry declined direct comment on the talks. But Reuters reports little progress was made as both sides made what were characterized as “maximalist demands,” reflecting longtime tensions between the Western Hemisphere’s main power and one of its biggest ideological foes.  

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

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Russia a No-show at Court Hearing on Ukraine Conflict 

Russia did not show up to a key international court hearing aimed at putting a legal stop to fighting in Ukraine that is creating Europe’s biggest refugee crisis in years. At issue is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim of “genocide” to justify his invasion of Ukraine.

The empty seats allocated to Russia’s legal team at the International Court of Justice were telling. They gave ammunition to Ukraine’s envoy, Anton Korynevych, as he laid out his country’s arguments against Moscow to The Hague-based body.

“The fact that Russia’s seats are empty speaks loudly. They are not here in this court of law: they are on a battlefield waging an aggressive war against my country,” he said.

The ICJ is the world’s highest court for resolving legal disputes between states. Russia was supposed to present arguments Tuesday, but that won’t be happening.

President Vladimir Putin claims he invaded Ukraine to protect people facing bullying and genocide in the eastern part of the country. Both Russia and Ukraine have signed onto an international genocide treaty. Genocide scholars say Putin’s claim is baseless. And a French member of Russia’s legal team has resigned, accusing Moscow of “cynically” abusing the law.

Ukraine wants the ICJ to use so-called “provisional measures” at its disposal as a way to end the fighting. The measures aim to prevent a situation from becoming worse.

“Russia must be stopped and the court has a role to play in stopping it. That is why the people of Ukraine, the government of Ukraine, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, ask you respectfully but urgently to grant our request for provisional measures,” said Korynevych.

Predicting horrific and long-term human and environmental consequences from the conflict, Ukraine’s legal team also warned that the court’s ruling carried broader repercussions.

“Members of the court, in less than two weeks this case has become much bigger than Ukraine versus Russia. It has become a test of who will prevail — Russia, or the post-war international legal order,” said a Ukrainian team lawyer.

Besides the ICJ, other international bodies are weighing in on the conflict. The International Criminal Court is investigating Putin for possible war crimes. The Council of Europe, the region’s largest rights body based in Strasbourg France, has suspended Russia’s membership.

The International Court of Justice is expected to respond to Ukraine’s request within days.

 

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Russia’s Vaunted Influence Operations Bogged Down with Ukraine

Russia’s efforts to sway the opinions of people across the world about the righteousness of its invasion of Ukraine appears to be mirroring the effort of some of its forces on the ground – despite bringing lots of firepower, the Kremlin’s influence operations seem to be stalling, unable to penetrate key audiences.

Much of Moscow’s influence operation has been carried out in plain sight, with Russian-backed media outlets like RT, Sputnik, Ria Novosti, Izvestia and others pumping out stories and social media posts in Russian, English, Spanish, Turkish and Arabic.

But research by Omelas, a Washington-based firm that tracks influence operations in the digital environment, finds that as Russian forces started moving into Ukraine, these media operations began to lose traction with their target audiences.

“Up until February 24, Russian media outlets were dominating the narrative around Ukraine in all languages and a lot of the content was getting a lot of engagements, as well,” Omelas Chief Executive Officer Evanna Hu told VOA.

In the weeks since, however, it has been a different story.

Russian media’s reach

According to Omelas, Russian-supported media published 12,300 posts on social media in the span, garnering 1.3 million engagements.

In contrast, Western media outlets published 116,000 posts related to Ukraine during that span, attracting 44.8 million engagements.

“Russian media is still dominant in content published in the Russian language, but it has definitely ceded information dominance to Western media outlets in the English language,” Hu said.

That space is also shrinking.

The 27-member European Union last week banned Russian state-controlled media outlets like RT and Sputnik, suspending broadcasting licenses for the Russian companies and their European affiliates.

Social media block

Social media companies like Meta, which owns Facebook, Google, YouTube and TikTok are also blocking RT and Sputnik in the EU.

RT’s U.S.-based network, RT America, announced last Thursday it was ceasing operations immediately and laying off almost all of its staff due to what it called “unforeseen business interruption events” in a memo first obtained by CNN.

Meta also announced earlier it had also taken down a network of about 40 accounts, groups and pages on Facebook and Instagram that targeted people in Ukraine.

“This network used fake accounts and operated fictitious personas and brands across the internet — including on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, Odnoklassniki and VK — to appear more authentic in an apparent attempt to withstand scrutiny by platforms and researchers,” Meta said in a blog post.

For its part, Google said it was “taking extraordinary measures to stop the spread of misinformation and disrupt disinformation campaigns online.”

“We have also significantly limited recommendations globally for a number of Russian state-funded media outlets across our platforms,” Google’s president of global affairs, Kent Walker, wrote in a blog post. “And in the past few days, YouTube has removed hundreds of channels and thousands of videos for violating its Community Guidelines, including a number of channels engaging in coordinated deceptive practices.”

Still, questions remain as to how much the crackdown by social media companies will ultimately dent Russia’s disinformation efforts.

“It’s too early to tell,” Bret Schafer, a digital disinformation fellow with the Washington-based Alliance for Securing Democracy, told VOA via email.

“Currently, RT and Sputnik’s subscriber numbers and interactions are remaining pretty constant across Facebook/Twitter, but again, it’s a very, very small sample size,” he said. “Over time you’d have to think it will take a toll, but … a lot of the messaging will shift to their influencers, who I do not believe will be restricted.”

Influencers

In some cases, those influencers have built and maintained substantial followings, going all the way back to the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

One such personality is Rania Khalek with more than 246,000 followers on Twitter.

In 2020, Khalek posted videos for a Russian-backed media outlet called InTheNow. Currently, Khalek is affiliated with an organization called BreakThrough News, which describes itself as “independent journalism for and by working-class people.”

Khalek’s accounts and those of BreakThrough News, do not carry any alerts about connections to Russia.

“As you know, Russia invaded Ukraine and the Western response has been to escalate and escalate some more while ignoring the NATO role in provoking this war,” Khalek said during a March 1 episode of her show, Dispatches, on the BreakThrough News website and on YouTube, which has so far racked up almost 73,000 views.

Another influencer who rose to prominence during the 2020 U.S. presidential elections is Lee Camp, who hosted “Redacted Tonight” for RT, which he described on Twitter as venue for “anti-war, anti-corporate comedy.”

Yet despite being cancelled as part of RT America’s sudden shutdown, episodes of Camp’s shows are still available on YouTube, including a February 28 episode about Ukraine, during which Camp was critical of those calling out Russia without what he said was context and historical perspective.

“Basically, you have to be ignorant to get the true virtue signalling, stamp of approval,” he said. “You just have to act like Russia invaded Ukraine in a void.”

That type of take from Camp and others is becoming commonplace, according to some observers.

“There is a lot of whataboutism happening,” the Alliance for Securing Democracy’s Schafer told VOA. “The influencer crowd—especially those targeting the left—have really struggled to message around this, as it’s tough to maintain a posture as an anti-war/anti-imperialist while the people signing your checks are attacking Ukrainian cities.”

U.S. far-right media

Some of the same sentiments are also making their way into far-right-leaning social media in the United States.

“I’m not taking a stance on war,” Joe Oltmann, one of the hosts of the Conservative Daily Podcast said on his show Friday, after playing a YouTube video titled purportedly from a Ukrainian man.

VOA could not independently confirm the authenticity or origin of the video, titled, “Save the Crocodile Tears for Ukraine,” which called out Western hypocrisy and echoed Russian talking points about NATO expansionism and Nazi influences in Ukraine.

But a VOA analysis found that the video, which has now been labeled with a warning that it “may be inappropriate for some users,” had been modified to erase data on when it was made. It also found that the Ukrainian man talking in the video bears a close resemblance to a man with an online profile that says he is an actor from Moscow.

Regardless of the video’s origin, Oltmann used it to segue to his views on Russia’s actions.

“There’s no part of me that wants Russia to go in and invade Ukraine,” Oltmann said on his podcast in response to the video. “But when you have military installations and biolabs, and by the way let’s talk about Zelenskyy jailing his opposition leaders. Let’s talk about him shutting down nationalized TV stations.”

“Are you going to find people in Ukraine who actually believe that Russia is bad? The answer is yes,” Oltmann added. “Are you also going to find people in Ukraine that say that Russia is doing what Russia should do, and that they’re ending the corruption within their own state environment?”

Researchers have also seen Russian propaganda find its way onto far-right websites such as ZeroHedge or The Duran. And narratives sympathetic to Russia have also appeared on websites like The Grayzone, described by researchers as an outlet favored by both Russian and Chinese propagandists for its willingness to push anti-American and “anti-imperialist” views.”

VOA has reached out to both Rania Khalek and Joe Oltmann for comment on their roles in promoting what appear to be Russian narratives but has not yet heard back from either of them.

VOA also reached out to Meta, Google and Twitter about how the social media companies plan to handle Russian propaganda and disinformation coming from influencers who may not have direct connections to Russia or Russian-affiliated media.

Meta and Google have not responded as of publication of this article. Twitter shared a list of steps it has already taken to address disinformation and influence operations linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including the suspension of more than a dozen accounts and the blocking of several links.

“Our investigation is ongoing; however, our initial findings indicate that the accounts and links originated in Russia and were attempting to disrupt the public conversation around the ongoing conflict in Ukraine,” Twitter said in the statement.

Other Russia-affiliated media, however, remain active, including Redfish, which bills itself as a “digital content creator” with accounts on Twitter and Instagram.

Redfish’s Twitter account, with almost 151,000 followers, pushed back against being banned from YouTube in Europe, tweeting it expected “a full ban on all platforms soon,” while promoting its accounts on TikTok and Telegram.

How much influence Russian-affiliated media will be able to have going forward and the degree to which Russia’s social media influencers will be able to sway the information environment is uncertain.

But researchers say it is unlikely Russia will give up on trying to weaponize the information space and will likely learn from the way its influence operations have been outflanked, at least so far, by Western governments and independent media.

“Any IO [information operation] campaign you put out has to be matched by the truth on the ground,” Omelas’ Evanna Hu told VOA. “This is something that the U.S. military learned the hard way in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Now in Ukraine, where its military advances have stalled, “Russia is starting to see that consequence,” she said.

Fatima Tlis contributed to this story.

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Al-Qaida Leader Killed in Mali, France Says

The French army says it has killed one of the leaders of al-Qaida in Mali. The news comes as French forces are preparing to withdraw from the country.

The French army said in a press release Monday that Algerian Yahia Djouadi, one of the leaders of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, was killed during the night of February 25-26.

The press release says he was “neutralized” during a ground operation supported by a helicopter and two drones, north of Timbuktu, Mali.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for several attacks in the Sahel region, including the 2015 terrorist attack on a Bamako hotel and a 2016 attack on a hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and has taken several Western hostages.

Mali’s military government, which seized power in a coup ten months ago, asked France last month to withdraw its troops from Malian territory immediately, following an announcement from French President Emmanuel Macron that the troops would be pulled out over a period of four to six months.

The French military first intervened in Mali in 2013 in an operation to take back control of northern Mali from Islamist militants in Operation Serval. The Operation was replaced by Operation Barkhane in 2014.

But the ongoing insurgency has continued and violence has moved from the north into the center of the country. On Monday morning, two U.N. peacekeepers were killed when their convoy ran over an improvised explosive device in Mali’s central Mopti region.

The French press release Monday said that even though Operation Barkhane is being moved off Malian territory, operations against “armed terrorist groups” continue.

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‘It’s Home Now’: Defiant US Couple Stick in Kyiv

In the deserted center of Kyiv where the blasts of war echo, an American couple quietly walk their dogs after deciding to stay put in the city they call home.

John and Natasha Sennett heard the war sirens for the first time in their old district of Kyiv after Russian forces invaded Ukraine last month.

Panic ensued. “We threw things into backpacks, we took the dogs and rushed to the basement,” said Natasha, 42.

A false alarm, the first in this part of Kyiv which remains spared from bombardments by Russian forces, 10 days after the invasion began. But they are at the gates of the capital, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) away

The bombardments, deafening and regular, often disturb the couple’s peaceful two-room apartment which has a New York style with American photos, exposed bricks and glass interior.

Elsewhere in the city, thousands of people fled by train or by car, fearing Russia will turn Kyiv into a new Aleppo or Grozny.

But John and Natasha decided to stay.

“You hear explosions, but they’re far away. After a while you get used to it,” said 57-year-old John, wearing a T-shirt with tattoos underneath, crew-cut hair and a trimmed beard.

On this weekend afternoon, John and Natasha take their dogs, Samantha, 7, and Philly, 6, for a walk. They brought the dogs over from the United States when they moved to Kyiv in late 2020.

They put a small black winter jacket on each canine to protect them from the biting cold and walk them on a leash in the deserted streets, where the war thunders from afar.

The couple give several reasons for wanting to stay.

In Kyiv, they say they feel “at home” for the first time in their lives. They initially moved to the city to be close to the family of Natasha, who was born in Belarus.

‘It’s all we have’

“We fell in love with this city, it feels like freedom here,” said John, who like his wife, says he feels “more Ukrainian than anything else” today.

Here he can also truly live his Orthodox faith which he converted to eight years ago.

The couple said they had found balance in Kyiv, far from the United States, where they felt like they spent all their lives working without being able to save much.

They bought their run-down apartment on the top floor and entirely renovated it. “We put all our savings into it. These 54 square meters are all we have,” John said.

“This is where we came to establish our lives,” he added, “and if it is our destiny to die, then I guess it is.”

Both work remotely. John runs a taxi-limousine service in his native city of Philadelphia and Natasha is an English teacher.

“We don’t have huge salaries, but it’s enough for us to live well here,” John said.

Inspiration

Other factors played a role in their decision to stay.

“We don’t have kids, we don’t have a car,” Natasha said, and one of the dogs, Samantha, is “very sick and cannot travel easily”.

The two Americans are more supportive than ever of the Ukrainian forces.

John, who was in the army between the ages of 19 to 21, publishes poems on social media glorifying the struggle of local fighters in their blue and gold national colors.

“These people are ready to die for their country, they’re an inspiration,” John said. He said he was ready, like his wife, “to use a weapon” if necessary.

But they do not rule out fleeing with their dogs, “if things go very badly”.

At the entrance to their apartment, they keep two small backpacks ready just in case.

In his bag, John put a laptop, chargers and blanket — as well as a crowbar and hammer, to “force doors (open) or break windows” to find shelter.

In the meantime, John looks to his faith. He goes once a week to the nearby church, to pray for Ukrainian soldiers and to confess.

Because when “death is close,” he said, “it’s best to go with a clean soul.”

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Ghanaian Students Say Flight from Ukraine Hampered by Discrimination

It took two days for Janet and some other Ghanaian students to reach Lviv from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Then they spent another 13 hours waiting to cross the border, the third-year engineering student explains.

Even her mask couldn’t hide the agitation and fear she felt traveling across war-wracked Ukraine last week. Nor did it shield the surprise and anguish she felt as she recalled being segregated from white women and their children at Lviv’s railway station and blocked from boarding a train to Poland.

VOA interviewed half-a-dozen Ghanaian students Friday after they had reached the safety of Budapest, Hungary, and another dozen African students, Ghanaian and Nigerian, in Lviv and in Uzhhorod, a Ukrainian town near the border with Slovakia. Four students said they hadn’t encountered any discrimination in their frantic journeys west from Kharkiv, Sumy or Kyiv, where they had been studying mainly medicine and engineering.

The others said racism had hindered their flight and endangered them — although without exception they all said they looked on Ukraine as their second home and reported acts of kindness toward them.

Last week, Ukraine’s government set up a special hotline for Africans and other foreign students trying to flee the country, after reports mounted they were being blocked from boarding trains and buses. Representatives from several African countries — including Gabon, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria – said they were disturbed by what they were hearing from the students they helped to flee.

Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, told a news conference, “There should be absolutely no discrimination between Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians, Europeans and non-Europeans. Everybody is fleeing from the same risks.” He cautioned any unfair treatment Africans experienced wasn’t the result of any Ukrainian government policies.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, stressed in a tweet that everyone regardless of origin must be treated fairly. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has affected Ukrainians and non-citizens in many devastating ways. Africans seeking evacuation are our friends and need to have equal opportunities to return to their home countries safely. Ukraine’s government spares no effort to solve the problem,” he said.

His ministry has been urging all government agencies to assist foreigners, emphasizing there must be no discrimination at the borders against Africans, while blaming Russian disinformation for exaggerating reports of color discrimination.

Nonetheless, for all of the Ukrainian government’s efforts, the Ghanaians whom VOA interviewed said they did experience harassment and aggression, creating more stress and fear as they tried to escape the shelling and blasts.

Janet and her friends say they left Kyiv two days after the invasion started. They slept in shelters as they plotted their exits assisted by a network that was quickly set up by the National Union of Ghana Students-Ukraine, led by its president, Philip Ansah.

The association also helped to fund the dash to safety of some of the students. Additionally, the Ghanaian government quickly swung into action, too, trying to find ways to get funds into Ukraine, dispatching diplomats from other European cities to border crossings with Ukraine to coordinate with the student association to be ready to assist Ghanaians once they had reached Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.

Ukraine’s education ministry calculates there were some 16,000 African students in Ukraine when Russia invaded. Nine hundred were Ghanaians, and among them, Janet, a PhD engineering student, who, with some other Ghanaians drove to Lviv. It was a hair-raising and exhausting drive, she said, made worse by some abuse she says they experienced when stopping at gas stations for fuel and food.

Janet was clearly sad to narrate her experience. “Ukraine is like my second home. I came as a teenager and it’s unfortunate. I never thought it [skin color] would be a problem as we ran for our lives.” On one occasion they were blocked at the pumps. But it was worse at Lviv railway station where they were shoved aside “even when the police came in to check what was going on.”

That was Nana’s experience, too, at the railway stations at Lviv and Kharkiv, where she was just months away from finishing her medical degree. When the bombing started, she headed to the train station and took refuge in a subway nearby, remaining there for three days, where people shared their food and water with her. As the explosions and blasts intensified, she and another Ghanaian student realized they had try to leave the city.

“Everybody was trying to get on the train as well and we had to wait outside,” she said. She then added, “And as I was waiting, I could hear the shelling and the explosions, but you couldn’t run to take cover because if the train arrived it would leave without you. So even though I was scared out of my mind, I had to stand there and when the time came, try to force my way through with the others,” she explains. “I was crying and tearing away to get on to the train and so were other women, crying and pushing and the kids were crying.”

The 29-year-old said preference was given to Ukrainian women and their children and she kept telling people, “But I’m a woman as well.” She and some other African students grouped together to try to board the train, but a Ukrainian man appeared with a shotgun and ordered the African men to go back to the end of the line. “He scared … everybody before four policemen pinned him down and took him away.”

A lanky Nigerian footballer, Golden, whom VOA interviewed last week just after he had crossed into Slovakia, said much of what he had seen was due to general chaos and fear, downplaying color discrimination. “Look, everyone was being aggressive to catch trains and cross borders. Everyone was scared and pushing and shoving and trying to get to the front of lines,” he said.

Other Africans disagree. Nana said at the Lviv station, “I was standing for hours and they kept putting Ukrainian women on the trains and not us and they were even laughing,” she said. “They even tried to use the language as a barrier to get rid of me and ignore me,” she said.

One Ghanaian student, Philip, says his most terrifying moments were when he came face-to-face with Russian soldiers as he worked his way out of Sumy, where was studying medicine. “There were a lot of Russians and they scared us and pointed their guns at us and threatened to shoot us,” he said.

The joint effort by the student association and the Ghanaian government has paid off — of the 900 students in Ukraine when war erupted, only 39 still remain inside, according to a Ghanaian official.

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Macron Keeps an Open Line to Putin as War in Ukraine Rages 

NICE, FRANCE— While most of the world is shunning President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the few leaders keeping an open line of communication is French President Emmanuel Macron. 

Macron’s diplomatic efforts to prevent the war failed, but he’s not giving up: the two men have spoken four times since Russian forces attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24, and 11 times over the past month. 

The French leader, whose country holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, is now one of the few outsiders with a view into Putin’s mindset at the time of the largest military invasion in Europe since World War II. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is also becoming a mediator, meeting Putin on a surprise visit to Moscow on Saturday and speaking with him again by phone on Sunday. 

Macron’s relentless push for dialogue reflects France’s post-World War II tradition of carving out its own geopolitical path and its refusal to blindly follow the United States. 

After Russian troops pushed deep into Ukraine, Macron’s resolve to maintain communication channels with Putin is providing Western allies with insight into the Russian leader’s state of mind, his intentions on the battlefield and at home in Russia as the Kremlin cracks down on opponents. 

“He is keeping a diplomatic channel open for the West in case Putin might want to de-escalate and look for a way out of this crisis,” said Benjamin Haddad, a senior director for Europe at the Atlantic Council in Paris and a member of Macron’s party. 

Macron has also spoken to Putin on behalf of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Haddad said, trying to extract some mercy from Putin: local cease-fires, safe passage for trapped civilians and access to humanitarian aid. 

During their most recent call on Sunday that came at Macron’s request, the French leader and Putin focused for nearly two hours on the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear plants. 

Putin said he doesn’t intend to attack them and agreed on the principle of “dialogue” between the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ukraine and Russia on the issue, according to a French official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the French presidency’s practices. 

There is “absolutely no illusion at the Elysee that Putin will keep his word on anything he promises,” Haddad said, or that Putin will change his mind about the invasion. But Haddad said that it’s important that Macron keeps trying to engage Putin even as the West punishes Russia and strengthens Ukraine’s defenses. 

And breaking with the diplomatic norm of keeping such conversations secret, the French presidency has widely shared the content of Macron’s talks with Putin. Macron’s advisers and the president himself detailed the excruciating efforts to prevent the war and then laid bare Putin’s broken promises of peace. 

That helped Macron galvanize support for the toughest sanctions against Russia, uniting the notoriously divided 27-member EU and revive NATO’s geopolitical role. 

Macron has played the dual role of admonishing Putin, but also lending him a diplomatic ear. 

The French president has been clear from the start: Putin alone is to blame for the death and destruction in Ukraine and the major consequences of the war for France and Europe. But on the other hand if Putin wants to talk, he will listen. 

Putin called on Thursday. The number of refugees fleeing Ukraine had already topped 1 million and several towns in the east were in ruins. Macron picked up and they talked for 90 minutes. 

An official in the French presidency rushed to brief reporters on the conversation. Putin told Macron the military operation in Ukraine is “going according to plan” and he will continue “until the end,” the official said. 

Putin claimed that “war crimes” were being committed by Ukrainians. He called them “Nazis,” the official said. There’s no need to negotiate, Putin said. He will achieve the “neutralization and disarmament of Ukraine” with his army. The official couldn’t be named in keeping with Elysee practices. 

Macron “spoke the truth” to Putin, the official said, and explained how his war on Ukraine is perceived by the West. “I spoke to President Putin. I asked him to stop attacks on Ukraine. At this point, he refuses,” Macron tweeted. 

He said dialogue will continue. “We must prevent the worst from happening.” 

Since he was elected president in 2017, Macron has shown a keen interest in forging personal relationships with world leaders, including those who value a degree of pragmatism when discussing democracy and human rights while pursing business opportunities. 

His business-friendly diplomacy paid off in the Persian Gulf in December when he signed a multi-billion euro weapons contract with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nayhan. Macron drew fierce criticism on that trip for traveling to Saudi Arabia to become the first Western leader to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 

“Macron stands out among European Union leaders with his willingness to be in the spotlight, to drive the foreign policy and push things ahead,” said Silvia Colombo, an expert on EU foreign relations at the International Institute in Rome. 

There is no other foreign leader that Macron has tried to bring closer to his corner than Putin. Macron, a staunch European, was confident that a mixture of personal charm and the splendor of France’s past would convince Putin to keep Russia within the European security habitat. 

Macron first hosted Putin in the sumptuous Place of Versailles in 2017. Two years later they discussed stalled Ukraine peace talks in Macron’s summer residence at the Fort de Bregancon on the French Riviera as Macron tried to build on European diplomacy that had helped ease hostilities in the past. 

It’s become clear over the past several weeks that Putin was on the war path even as he denied it, sitting across from Macron at a very long table during his last visit to Moscow. 

Macron wanted to believe him, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said after critics claimed the French president has fallen into the old European trap of appeasing Putin’s Russia. 

“The president is not naive,” Le Drian said on the eve of Russia’s invasion. “He knows the methods, the character and the cynical nature of Putin.”  

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