Month: April 2022

Biden Convenes Top Military Leaders to Discuss Ukraine

Posted on by SeeEU

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Battle for Mariupol

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted on by SeeUS

In a good month, the Russian-language news site Slavic Sacramento averages around 50,000 readers. But when Russia invaded Ukraine, that figure tripled.

Founded in 2014 and catering to a large Russian-speaking community that has set up home in Sacramento, California, and in other American cities, Slavic Sacramento covers a mix of local and national U.S. news, as well as events back home.

“There is a niche audience [in California] that speaks the Russian language, that doesn’t read or watch American news,” said editor-in-chief Ruslan Gurzhiy.

These are people “who oftentimes feed themselves with disinformation and misinformation” from Russian-sponsored media, Gurzhiy told VOA.

Since its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russia has sought total control over news coverage, issuing laws and directives to local media on how to cover the war and forcing the few remaining independent outlets to shut down or go into exile.

And while Kremlin-backed outlets have been dropped in the U.S. and barred across the European Union, they still have a hold in Russian and Spanish-language markets.

That’s where outlets like Slavic Sacramento come in.

“I noticed that [state-controlled] channels like Russia Today and Channel One Russia are overwhelming,” Gurzhiy said, as he explained the drive to provide more independent coverage.

Born in Belarus to a Belarusian mother and a father from Crimea — the Ukrainian region later annexed by Russia — Gurzhiy moved to the U.S. with his family more than 20 years ago.

The 40-year-old identifies as Ukrainian-Belarusian-American.

While Gurzhiy has a small team working with him in Sacramento, he relies on a network of journalists and military officials in Ukraine to report on the conflict and to counter what he calls Russia’s systematic disinformation campaign.

“It’s really challenging for us because we want to make sure that our coverage remains objective, and so we verify everything that comes from Ukraine, because just like how Russia has a lot of disinformation, it’s wartime and Ukraine has some too,” he said.

For that end, Gurzhiy and his team in California reach out to multiple sources for every story.

Blocks to news

Slavic Sacramento’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed in Russia. In the first days of the war, the country’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, blocked access to the website in Russia along with several other news networks, including VOA’s Russian service, the BBC and others.

But the website continues to reach readers in Russia.

“About 10 percent of our current readership comes from Russia despite the ban, because I published a story about a VPN [virtual private network] service, so I think people are using that proxy to access our website,” Gurzhiy said.

WATCH: How Audiences in Authoritarian Countries Can Bypass Censorship

Back in California, Gurzhiy says, he has received threats via social media over his coverage on the war and previous reporting on corruption in Ukraine.

He is also fighting a 2018 defamation lawsuit over the outlet’s reporting on alleged misuse of humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

“I have many local enemies among the diaspora community in California who’ve been threatening me a lot … threatening to destroy my business,” he said.

“The funny thing is that one side says I’m a Ukrainian agent, while the other calls me a Russian agent,” Gurzhiy said. “Other people even say that I’m an FBI agent, and so it’s really hard to work in this community.”

Videos about war

Still, the coverage is popular, with Slavic Sacramento’s Facebook page gaining more than 70,000 new followers.

Part of that success is due to its livestreams about the war.

Vitaly Ataev Troshin, a Russian journalist based in Los Angeles, California, has been a leading contributor to those videos.

Originally from Moscow, the 33-year-old has been living in the U.S. for six years. In addition to his collaboration with Slavic Sacramento, he broadcasts videos on his own social media accounts.

“I go to Ukrainian rallies, I bring guests from different backgrounds, I try to diversify as much as possible to show my audience in Russia that we are able to talk with Ukrainians,” Troshin told VOA.

Unlike Slavic Sacramento, Troshin’s target audience is primarily in Russia.

“I try to tell people who watch my videos to see what is going on next door in Ukraine,” he said. “Sometimes they don’t believe me, they go against me.”

For these livestreams to be effective, Troshin occasionally conducts high-profile interviews.

This month he hosted Konstantin Borovoy, a liberal Russian politician and former member of the Russian parliament (Duma), to discuss the situation in Ukraine. In another livestream, he brought on the Russian actor Aleksey Panin.

Before he left Russia, Troshin in 2014 founded a bimonthly newspaper called New Moscow, named after a territory incorporated into the Russian capital.

He still manages the publication and its online version from Los Angeles, and uses it to publish news about the war.

“We’re checking the information about who has died or been captured in Ukraine right now from the Russian side,” he said. Many people in Russia “don’t know that these [soldiers] have left the country to go fight the Ukrainians.”

“I know it is against what the government is saying, but I can’t just skip it because these are my people, they are from my city,” Troshin said.

Publishing such news in Russia is risky.

Moscow in March passed a law that carries a 15-year prison term for those found to have spread what it deems false news about the military. Authorities have already charged journalists and activists under the law.

Troshin is planning to visit Russia in the summer, but doesn’t know what awaits him.

“I don’t know what [Russian authorities] will do to me when I go back, but I live here now and I see what is going on,” he said.

“When I go back to Moscow, I will continue to talk about what’s happening [in Ukraine]. I can’t just sit home, close my door and windows and ignore the fact that people are dying.”
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Biden to Attend White House Correspondents’ Association Gala

Posted on by SeeUS

President Joe Biden plans to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner, the first time a sitting president will be at the event since Barack Obama in 2016. 

The organization said in a tweet that it was pleased to host Biden and first lady Jill Biden at the dinner April 30 that will honor the First Amendment. 

Donald Trump opted to skip the event when he was president, and it was canceled in 2020 and last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Trevor Noah, host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” is serving as the event’s entertainer. In 2018, Michelle Wolf’s biting, after-dinner comedy routine grabbed headlines, even in Trump’s absence. 

After the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington earlier this month, some of those who attended, including Cabinet members, other administration officials and members of Congress tested positive for COVID-19 amid a surge of cases around the nation’s capital. 

Capacity for the upcoming dinner is more than 2,600 and the event is fully booked. 

Ashish Jha, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, suggested last weekend that the correspondents’ dinner should move forward. He told “Fox News Sunday” that “we are at the point in this pandemic” where “I think we can gather safely.” 

“I don’t think events like that need to be canceled,” Jha said. “I think, if people put in good safeguards, they can make it substantially safer, make sure people are vaccinated, make sure you have testing, improve ventilation.” 

The association is requiring that everyone who attends the dinner must be fully vaccinated, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and produce a negative result from a rapid COVID-19 test taken earlier in the day.
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US Defense Secretary Austin Holds Call With Chinese Counterpart

Posted on by SeeUS

The Pentagon says U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had a phone conversation with his Chinese counterpart Wednesday, the first such contact between the two defense chiefs since President Joe Biden took office.  

In a statement, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Austin spoke with Republic of China National Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe as a follow-up to the recent call between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.  

“Secretary Austin and General Wei discussed U.S.-PRC defense relations, regional security issues and Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” the Pentagon statement said, referring to the People’s Republic of China. 

A senior defense department official, speaking on background, told reporters that Austin had no expectations of a major breakthrough on key issues with Wei during the roughly 45-minute call. The official said the two spoke on a secure telephone link that was established in 2008 by the Pentagon and China’s Ministry of National Defense. 

Both Austin and Biden have been outspoken critics of China’s policies since Biden took office. Both have repeatedly criticized China for military provocations against Taiwan, and Biden has accused Beijing of human rights abuses against ethnic minorities and efforts to squelch pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong. 

U.S. and Australian concerns were raised about an apparent security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands. A draft of the agreement, released online, shows it includes a provision that could allow Beijing to send armed police and soldiers to the islands, as well as base its navy ships off the Solomon coast.  

Australia and the United States fear Beijing would establish a military presence in the islands, located less than 2,000 kilometers from Australia. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman who announced the agreement Tuesday dismissed the concerns and accused the U.S. and Australia of “deliberately exaggerating tensions.” 

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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Wimbledon Bans Russian, Belarusian Entrants Because of Ukraine Invasion  

Posted on by SeeEU

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wimbledon begins June 27 and runs through July 10.

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

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

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

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

“I think this decision is wrong, but there is nothing we can change,” Tarpischev said. “The [Russian] Tennis Federation has already done everything it could.”
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Ethiopians Line Up at Russian Embassy as Officials Deny Recruitment Effort

Posted on by SeeAF

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Contacted by VOA, the Ukrainian embassy in Addis Ababa declined to say anything about the lines. The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
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South Africa Floods Could Hurt China Trade 

Posted on by SeeAF

Some of the worst flooding in South Africa’s history has left more than 400 people dead and some 40,000 displaced, dealing a devastating blow to the eastern city of Durban, which has a seaport that has also been badly affected.

With the port not fully functioning, there are supply chain concerns and China — South Africa’s biggest trading partner — and other nations, are likely to see their imports and exports disrupted.

Earlier this week, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster because of the flooding — which he blames on climate change but which some critics blame on poor infrastructure and the fact that most of the people affected were living in makeshift shacks in informal settlements.

Ramaphosa stressed the importance of quickly fixing the situation at the port, saying, “The Port of Durban — which is one of the largest and busiest shipping terminals on the continent and which is vital to our country’s economy — has been severely affected.”

The road to the port, which handles some 13,000 heavy vehicles a day, has been severely damaged, he added.

On Tuesday, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan Pravin Gordhan visited the port, which has reopened, and concluded it would take more a week to clear some backlogs. The rail network to the site had been affected by landslides and still needs to be repaired, he said, adding that 9,000 containers have accumulated at the port and would be cleared in the next nine days.

Logs and debris also ended up in the harbor due to the floods, which he said had disrupted shipping.

One of the countries likely to be affected by problems at the port is China, said Cobus van Staden, senior China-Africa researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs.

“In relation to the situation in Durban, it’s very serious for the whole of China-Africa trade, rather than just for South Africa; this is because of the centrality of Durban port to Chinese exports,” he told VOA.

“About 20 percent of total China-Africa trade goes out through Durban and this includes resources like cobalt, copper and lithium coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe particularly,” he added.

Maersk, the world’s biggest container line, halted operations at the port last week and told VOA by email its warehouse had been affected and was still not operational. While vessel operations had resumed, the company said problems with road access were affecting all cargo entering or leaving the terminal.

“We continue to assess the damages and monitor the situation as it evolves, customers are being updated daily on the progress and the contingency plans so that we may get the supply chains moving again as quickly as possible,” it said.

Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist for the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, told VOA he thought it would take some time before activities at the port were back to normal.

“There’s been great devastation by these excessive rains and it’s a major risk to commerce and all goods: automobile, agriculture and other sectors of the economy that are dependent on trade,” he said.
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Majority of Americans Want Masks for Travelers, Poll Shows

Posted on by SeeUS

A majority of Americans continue to support a mask requirement for people traveling on airplanes and other shared transportation, a new poll finds. A ruling by a federal judge has put the government’s transportation mask mandate on hold. 

The poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that despite opposition to that requirement that included verbal abuse and physical violence against flight attendants, 56% of Americans favor requiring people on planes, trains and public transportation to wear masks, compared with 24% opposed and 20% who say they’re neither in favor nor opposed. 

Interviews for the poll were conducted Thursday to Monday, shortly before a federal judge in Florida struck down the national mask mandate on airplanes and mass transit. Airlines and airports immediately scrapped their requirements that passengers wear face coverings. 

The Transportation Security Administration stopped enforcing the mask requirement, and the Justice Department announced on Tuesday that it will not appeal the ruling unless the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determines it’s still necessary. 

The poll shows a wide partisan divide on the issue. Among Democrats, 80% favor and 5% oppose the requirement. Among Republicans, 45% are opposed compared with 33% in favor, with 22% saying neither. 

Vicki Pettus, who recently moved from Frankfort, Kentucky, to Clearwater, Florida, to be near her grandchildren, said she enjoys the view of Old Tampa Bay but doesn’t like the “very lackadaisical attitude” by Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, about masking. She said she will continue to wear her mask to protect against the coronavirus, including around her 55-and-older home community and on the plane when she travels to Kentucky in a few weeks. 

“Especially in a plane where that air is recirculating,” said Pettus, 71, an independent who leans toward the Democratic Party. “I think people are really dumb not to wear their mask. But, hey, that’s their decision, and if they want to get sick that’s fine. I’m not going to.” 

But Kriste Lee, who works in sales in South Florida, can’t wait to fly mask-free the next time she travels next month. 

“I really wish I was on a plane when they made that announcement,” said Lee, 47. “I would have been dancing up and down the aisle.” 

The continued support among Americans overall for mandating masks on transportation comes even as worries about COVID-19 are among their lowest points of the past two years. Just 20% now say they’re very or extremely worried that they or a family member will be infected. That’s down slightly since 25% said the same a month ago and from 36% in December and January as the omicron variant was raging. Another 33% now say they are somewhat worried, while 48% say they’re not worried at all. 

Count Betty Harp, of Leitchfield, Kentucky, as among the “very worried” and not because she’s turning 84 next month. She said she takes care of her large house and yard by herself, does a lot of canning and is in “fantastic health for my age.” But she’s lost a lot of friends and family to the virus, which has killed nearly 1 million people in the United States. 

“I know COVID is still here. It’s still around,” said Harp, who described herself as a Republican-leaning independent. “I think we should all be wearing masks for a little while longer.” 

In another AP-NORC poll conducted last month, 44% of Americans still said they were often or always wearing face masks outside their homes, though that was down significantly from 65% who said that at the beginning of the year. 

The latest poll also shows about half of Americans favor requiring masks for workers who interact with the public, compared with about 3 in 10 opposed. Support is similar for requiring people at crowded public events such as concerts, sporting events and movies to wear masks. 

On these, too, there are significant partisan divides. Seventy-two percent of Democrats favor requiring people attending crowded public events to wear masks, while among Republicans, 25% are in favor and 49% are opposed. The numbers are similar for requiring masks for public-facing workers. 

Lee, who said she doesn’t “do politics,” wondered aloud why people are complaining about the judge’s ruling and said nobody is stopping anyone from wearing masks if they want to. 

“We all have our beliefs and obviously different views,” said Lee, who is unvaccinated. “Mine are definitely different from the people who are angry and upset.” 

Employed Americans are divided on whether people working in person at their own workplaces should be required to wear masks. Thirty-four percent say they’re in favor of that requirement, 33% are opposed and 33% are neither in favor nor opposed. Among workers who are Democrats, 48% are in favor and 18% are opposed. Among workers who are Republicans, 53% are opposed and 18% are in favor. 

Mike Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said messaging over the mask mandate would have been more effective if it required N95 or KN95 respirators, which are more effective at preventing transmission of the virus. 

“But you have actually created a real challenge with yourself with the public who are now being selective if not outright angry about these mandates,” said Osterholm, who added that he will continue to wear his N95 mask on planes. 

The AP-NORC poll of 1,085 adults was conducted April 14-18 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. 

 
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Turkey Formally Arrests Journalist Over Posts on Personal Information Leak

Posted on by SeeEU

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Istanbul police was not immediately available for comment.

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

Turkey is one of the world’s top jailers of journalists and mainstream media is controlled by those close to Erdogan’s government. Turkey’s government denies accusations by human rights groups that it muzzles the media.
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Giving for Ukraine’s Victims Slows Even as War Intensifies

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As Russia doubles down on its war on Ukraine, the country’s humanitarian needs are growing exponentially. Trouble is, U.S. charities are seeing a slowdown in donations at the same time. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias looks at how these nonprofits and their volunteers are adapting.
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Moscow Court Rejects Ekho Moskvy’s Appeal Against Broadcasting Restrictions

Posted on by SeeEU

A court in Moscow has rejected an appeal by the independent radio station Ekho Moskvy against moves by the government to restrict the broadcaster’s reach, which led to its decision to close.

The Taganka district court on April 20 refused to recognize as illegal the decision by Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, to restrict access to Ekho Moskvy’s website on March 1 at the Prosecutor-General’s request.

Judge Nadezhda Kiselyova said statements by Ekho Moskvy’s lawyers — which maintained that the Prosecutor-General’s request failed to specify which programs at the station violated Russian laws — were baseless and thus the appeal had been turned down.

In its March request, the Prosecutor-General’s Office said the broadcaster, known to be critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was distributing what authorities deemed information “calling for extremist activities, violence, and premeditated false information” about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian government has instructed media in the country to refrain from calling Russia’s actions in Ukraine a war or an invasion and should instead be referred to as a “special military operation.”

Soon after the move by the Prosecutor-General’s Office, Ekho Moskvy’s board decided to liquidate the radio station and its website.

Ekho Moskvy first aired on August 22, 1990, in Moscow.

Before Russia launched its war with Ukraine on February 24, the station had been taken off the air only once, during the State Committee for the Emergency Situation (GKChP) coup in 1991.

Several Russian media outlets have chosen to suspend operations rather than face heavy restrictions on what they can report. The Kremlin has also blocked multiple foreign news outlets, including RFE/RL, for their independent coverage of the war.
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Media Center Offers Emotional Lifeline for Nigeria’s Journalists 

Posted on by SeeAF

A journalism center offers support and resources to Nigerian journalists exposed to trauma
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Study: During Omicron Surge, Hospitalization Rate of Unvaxxed Children Twice That of Vaxxed 

Posted on by SeeUS

A U.S. study released Tuesday shows that during the surge of the COVID-19 omicron variant, hospitalization rates of unvaccinated children ages 5-11 were twice those of children who had received shots. 

The study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at nearly 400 cases in 14 states between mid-December and late February. 

Among the 397 children who were hospitalized with COVID-19 during the omicron wave, 87% were unvaccinated, the study found. 

The average length of hospital stay for unvaccinated children was three days, compared with two days for vaccinated children with COVID-19.  

The vaccinated children who were hospitalized did not require high degrees of breathing support such as nasal oxygen tubes or mechanical ventilation, according to the CDC. 

The omicron variant set records for coronavirus infections in the United States in January, causing more infections than the original SARS-CoV-2 strain of the virus and an increase in hospitalizations among those younger than 18. 

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine had been authorized by U.S regulators for children ages 5-11 before the omicron surge in October.   

During the omicron surge, unvaccinated children in the age group had a hospitalization rate 2.1 times higher than vaccinated children, according to the study. 

According to CDC data, only 28% of children between 5-11 are fully vaccinated, amounting to about 8 million nationwide.  

The study also found that hospitalization rates among children in the age group were higher during the omicron wave than during the delta wave.  
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Somali Government, US Company Dispute Legality of Oil Deal

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The Somali government and a U.S. company are locked in a dispute over the validity of an oil exploration agreement reached in February in Istanbul.  

Abdirashid Mohamed Ahmed, Somalia’s minister of petroleum and mineral resources, and Richard Anderson, chief executive officer of Coastline Exploration Ltd., signed the agreement. But in separate statements, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmaajo, and Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble rejected the deal, declaring it “null and void.” 

 

Both leaders cited government decrees and directives banning all ministries and government agencies from signing agreements with foreign governments and organizations until ongoing parliamentary elections are finalized. The elections are expected to conclude next month with the election of a new president. 

In addition, the government has instructed Attorney General Suleiman Mohamed Mohamud to investigate the contract and take appropriate legal measures.  

The government’s position is that the agreement is in contravention of a presidential decree dated August 7, 2021, and a Council of Ministers directive on December 6, 2018. The mandate of the current legislative and executive branches expired more than a year ago. The government said correct procedures have not been followed; therefore, the agreement is “null and void,” according to a February 21 letter sent by the Foreign Affairs Ministry to Coastline Exploration and obtained by VOA.  

Anderson disagrees with the letter and disputes the government’s interpretation of the legality of the agreement.  

“I won’t go into the legal details of the analysis, but we believe quite firmly that our PSAs (production-sharing agreements) we signed are legally valid and that they’re in full effect,” he said in an interview.  

VOA asked Anderson why the company ignored the Somali president’s decree and a letter from a joint parliamentary committee on natural resources that instruct government agencies not to enter agreements during the election period.   

“We did not ignore anything,” Anderson said. “Before we signed the PSAs in February, we consulted with the ministry and with the SPA (Somali Petroleum Authority), and we were assured that both the president and PM were aware of the process and they were fine with the signing.”  

He admitted Coastline Exploration did not directly communicate with either the president or the prime minister, but said the minister of petroleum and members of the SPA assured them that both leaders were aware of it. Ahmed, the petroleum minister, refused repeated VOA requests for an interview for this report.  

In an interview with VOA in February, Ahmed said the president knew about the signing, but the presidential palace denied his claim.  

Agreement details

Providing details of the agreement for the first time, Anderson said it was a “fair deal” for Somalia.  

“There is a 5% royalty that comes right off the top. Profit is split 50-50. There is a 30% income tax on whatever profits the contractor — i.e., Coastline — makes,” he said. There are various other financial benefits for Somalia in the agreement, he added.  

According to Anderson, all the terms of the PSAs, including the profit-sharing percentage, are fixed for its 30-year term and will not change during the life of the contract.  

Somali oil experts criticized the agreement. Jamal Kassim Mursal, former permanent secretary of the Somali Petroleum Ministry, said the agreement was “unfair.”  

“A fixed oil royalty rate of 5% and a fixed gas royalty rate of 3%, government share becomes 59.8%,” he said. “However, if prices fall to $70 a barrel, government share stands at 50%. Any price below $70, government loses money to the contractor. Sixty dollars a barrel, government share becomes just 42%.”  

Mursal said other key terms such as the discount rate, the R-factor (ratio of cumulative revenues to cumulative costs), the cost recovery ceiling, the exploration period and capital gains determine the overall government take.  

“So, we cannot say it’s fair,” Mursal said.  

“The fact that all was done in secret itself makes it unfair. Current government term has ended, and the two statements from the office of PM and president stated no government official signs a contract up until new government is installed. So they do not have a mandate to sign such a deal.”  

Last year, the Somali government was warned of entering oil agreements by the Financial Governance Committee (FGC), a group of experts comprising the Somali Finance Minister, parliamentarians and a member of the World Bank.  

In an advisory, the FGC said it identified two main concerns in the government’s approach to oil and gas contracts: incomplete compliance with the government’s legal framework, and inadequate protection of the state’s financial interests.  

“Incomplete compliance significantly raises the risk of future legal and/or compensation claims against FGS (Federal Government of Somalia), while inadequate protection of FGS’s financial interests risks poor value for money over the lifetime of awards that may last for 40 years or more,” said the advisory obtained by VOA. The signed agreement was for 30 years.  

The FGC also said no PSAs should be signed until an extractives industries income tax is enacted. No such law has been enacted in Somalia.  

Coastline Exploration, founded in 2018, has contractual possession of Soma Oil & Gas, a company that collected seismic data off Somalia’s shore. 

Soma Oil & Gas was previously investigated by the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office but was later cleared of wrongdoing because of “insufficient evidence.” Some of the board members of Soma Oil & Gas, including Anderson and Alexander Djaparidze, a Russian billionaire, are board members of Coastline Exploration.  

“I want to tell everybody upfront that we are not corrupt. We don’t need to be corrupt,” Anderson said. “No Somali government official has ever asked me to make any kind of illegal payment. It has never happened. I would also like to stress that no Somali politician is a shareholder of Coastline. We are independent of the government.”  

He confirmed that Coastline paid for the flights to Istanbul and hotels for members of the Somali delegation, who flew to Turkey to sign the agreement.  

“I want to make very clear before we do anything and pay anything that has anything to do with anybody in the government of Somalia, it’s always reviewed by our anti-bribery and corruption council before we make any such payments or any such commitments,” Anderson said.  

“This was reviewed by them, and they determined that it was, you know, that it was fine under U.S. law and under Somali law, again out of convenience.” 

Anderson said he was confident that the investigation by the Somali attorney general would find that Coastline had complied with Somali law, and that Coastline would be cleared to start work. 

This report originated in VOA Somali Service’s “Investigative Dossier” program. 

 
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Western Sanctions on Russia May Have Repercussions for Azerbaijan

Posted on by SeeEU

As Western sanctions against Russia continue to mount, observers in Azerbaijan are concerned about the potential ramifications in a country with close economic ties to Moscow.

Some experts believe Russia’s worsening economic position will harm Azerbaijan’s trade relations and money transfers with the country, which is Azerbaijan’s main import partner and home to over 2.5 million Azerbaijani migrant laborers.

Economist Natig Jafarli told VOA that economic sanctions on Russia will create problems for the banking sector of Azerbaijan and could create certain obstacles to international money transfers, since Azerbaijan does not have a separate money transfer system with Russia.

“If Russia is completely excluded from the international money transfer system, at the very least, interbank money transfers and transfers between Azerbaijan and Russia will become impossible,” Jafarli said.

According to Gubad Ibadoglu, senior economist and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan will be the most affected by the rapid changes in the Russian economy.

“SOFAZ’s investments in Russia have exceeded $903 million,” he said. “These investments are currently at risk, which will ultimately lead to exchange rate losses for SOFAZ. In other words, there will be an increase in extra-budgetary expenditures, which will increase its foreign exchange earnings,” suggesting that SOFAZ and other Azerbaijani government bodies must sell their assets before “the economic catastrophe” in Russia and withdraw their investments.

In addition to SOFAZ, Ibadoglu said Azerbaijan’s trade relations with Russia will be affected, considering that Russia is Azerbaijan’s main import partner.

Azerbaijan bought $2.1 billion worth of goods and sold $920.8 million on the Russian market in 2021. More than 95% of those goods were non-oil products. Ibadoglu said problems with bank settlements with Russia, which is the traditional market of the non-oil sector, and the devaluation of the ruble this year could create serious difficulties for exporters.

“Those who export goods from Azerbaijan to Russia will face losses due to the sharp depreciation of the ruble against the Azerbaijani manat, which will reduce the income of producers and exporters, especially in the non-oil sector, mainly in agriculture,” he said.

Remittances sent from Russia by the approximately 2.5 million Azerbaijanis living there will be another area affected by the situation in Russia, Ibadoglu said.

In most Azerbaijani districts, Azerbaijani labor migrants play an important role in determining household income. Ibadoglu said tensions in the Russian labor market, as well as the decline and devaluation of earnings as a result of the tensions, matched with the ruble’s depreciation, will result in a decrease in remittances to Azerbaijan.

“According to the data from the Central Bank of Azerbaijan for the first nine months of 2021, about 60% of remittances came from migrants living in Russia. This means that last year, remittances sent through banks by migrants living in Russia amounted to $680 million. A sharp decline in this transfer is expected this year,” Ibadoglu said.

Azerbaijani parliament member Rasim Musabeyov agrees that remittances will be affected.

“Russia’s sanctions will significantly limit banking operations. With the economic downturn in Russia, it will be difficult to send money to families,” he said.

He also argues that sanctions will have a negative impact on Azerbaijan’s foreign trade with Russia.

“We used to import very important food products from the Russian market. But it is difficult to say to what extent it will be possible to import them now,” Musabeyov said.

Yet the lawmaker says Russia’s economic downturn also creates opportunities. He claims that since communication routes through Russia are restricted, and Ukraine’s borders are closed due to the war, trade that was previously carried out through Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, will now mainly pass through the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars route.

“The importance of our transport routes will increase significantly. Both the Southern Gas Corridor and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline will be heavily loaded. It is estimated that a large part of Kazakh oil will be exported to the markets, not through Novorossiysk, but through Azerbaijan, and it is likely to significantly increase our capacity,” Musabeyov said.

This story originated in VOA’s Azerbaijani Service.
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Russia Announces Expulsion of 15 Dutch Diplomats

Posted on by SeeEU

Russia said Tuesday it will expel 15 Dutch diplomats, saying they have two weeks to leave the country. The retaliatory move following the Netherlands’ expulsion last month of 17 Russians whom Dutch officials said were intelligence officers posing as diplomats. 

In response to Tuesday’s announcement, Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Wopke Hoekstra said in a statement, “It was to be expected that Russia would take countermeasures. Nevertheless, this is a regrettable step.” The envoys will be leaving the Dutch embassy in Moscow and consulate-general in St. Petersburg.  

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was also going to expel four Austrians and 12 Belgians, both in retaliation. 

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, some 300 Russian diplomats have had to leave various countries. 

Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland and the United States have expelled Russian envoys.  

Russia has taken similar moves against envoys from the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and the European Union.  

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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Disaster Looms for Millions in Horn of Africa as Rains Fail

Posted on by SeeAF

The World Food Program warns an estimated 20 million people in drought-affected parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia could face catastrophic levels of hunger if the region is hit with a fourth consecutive year of drought. 

The rains have failed to come to the Horn of Africa nearly a month into the current rainy season, which lasts through May. The past three years of drought have taken a heavy toll. The World Food Program reports crop failure in Ethiopia has plunged 7.2 million people into acute hunger and killed more than a million livestock. 

The situation is no better in Kenya, where escalating drought has left more than three million people short of food, including half a million who are facing emergency levels of hunger. In Somalia, the WFP says six million people, or 40 percent of the population, are food insecure, with more than 80,000 on the brink of famine. 

Speaking from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, the WFP regional director for East Africa, Michael Dunford, says the number of hungry people could spiral from an estimated 14 million to 20 million, if the rains fail to come yet again. 

“The situation is bad. It continues to deteriorate. We are desperate for these rains to succeed,” he said. “But even if they do … these populations are exhausted. The water sources are exhausted. The livestock are dying. The crops are failing. And we are heading to a very severe situation unless we are able to pull it back from the precipice.” 

Dunford says there is anecdotal evidence that children already are dying from malnutrition-related causes because they are not able to get the nutritional feeding that could save their lives. 

He says the WFP is severely underfunded. It has received 13 percent of a required $370 million. Since that appeal was launched in January, he says the number of people needing help has increased, as have the costs. The WFP now requires $473 million to scale up its operations over the next six months. 

“Funding gap means that WFP is having to prioritize in such a way that the prevention of malnutrition, we are now going to have to focus primarily on the treatment,” Dunford said. “And at some point, even these programs will not have sufficient funding if the current trends continue. And we will have to focus exclusively on humanitarian feeding programs.” 

Dunford says the fallout from the conflict in Ukraine is compounding the problems in the Horn of Africa, with food and fuel prices soaring to unprecedented highs. 
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South Africa Declares National Disaster After Deadly Floods

Posted on by SeeAF

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a state of disaster late Monday following deadly floods in the country’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province. Record floods have left more than 440 people dead, an estimated 40,000 people homeless and damaged critical infrastructure and hundreds of schools.

The declaration is expected to speed up much-needed aid to the flood-hit area in a crisis that comes just two weeks after South Africa lifted its disaster declaration for the coronavirus pandemic.

The national government is immediately directing $68 million to clean up what officials have called catastrophic flooding that has left people homeless and without water or electricity.

Imtiaz Sooliman, head of the charity Gift of the Givers, described the organization’s work to distribute aid since the floods hit last week.

“We’re getting the job done,” Sooliman said. “We’re getting delivery done. Hot meals, hygiene packs, sanitary pads, diapers, and blankets and mattresses and water.”

Sooliman said there was a need for water in the areas because water pipes had washed away.

“We tried to get as much water to as many people as possible,” Sooliman said.

While the city of Durban and the surrounding province of KwaZulu-Natal was the worst hit, other provinces like the Eastern Cape also saw flooding and deaths.

Officials are still quantifying the damage to critical infrastructure like the Durban Port, highways and telecommunications.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs who is leading the response, told a media briefing Tuesday the scale of the disaster requires a national response.

“In a way it gives hope and also is a vessel for coordination and rallying the entire nation, the entire government and also the international support,” Dlamini-Zuma said.

Climate change was highlighted as a cause of the flooding’s severity. But poor infrastructure and city planning — with many informal settlements located in vulnerable low-lying areas — was another factor.

Dlamini-Zuma said while the disaster brought a great deal of sorrow, it also poses an opportunity.

“We should be building back better,” Dlamini-Zuma said. “Nobody should build back in the riverbanks and in floodplains but also in some of the areas that are geographically not right for residential areas.”

But people living in the worst-hit communities, particularly informal settlements in low-lying areas, say they doubt promises of better housing will be kept.

The settlement called Mega Village in south Durban had been hit by floods in 2017 and 2019. Cosmos Khanyeza, a community volunteer, helped victims in the earlier floods and last week’s.

“Those people are looking at the proper way to be away from that river so that they won’t become victims again,” he said. “Those people from 2019 floods didn’t get any help. They were just in their transition camp houses. There was a budget for them but they never even seen a cent of that budget.”

Khanyeza said most people can’t afford to rebuild, let alone look for safer areas to erect a new metal shack.

For now, he said, foam mattresses and blankets were delivered by the government Monday so victims can sleep more comfortably at a temporary shelter in a community hall.

Sooliman, who leads Gift of the Givers, said recovering the dead and basic humanitarian needs remain the focus before larger infrastructure can be considered.

“People have lost everything, all their material values,” Sooliman said. “So basically the funding is, right off, the simple stuff. And then of course you repair the schools and the hospitals.”

Officials said the port of Durban, the busiest in southern Africa, has been severely disrupted by the weather but will be cleared and operational again in the next six days. Other timelines for rebuilding roads and repairing more than 600 schools have yet to be announced.

Officials said the overall disaster declaration is expected to remain in place for three months to provide enough time and resources to rebuild.
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British PM Johnson Apologizes Over Attending Illegal Parties During COVID Lockdowns

Posted on by SeeEU

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a “wholehearted” apology Tuesday for attending parties that were banned during COVID-19 lockdowns. 

However, he did say he didn’t know he was breaking the rules. 

Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak have been under investigation for 12 parties at both 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, some of which were attended by the ministers and their staff. 

Police said some 50 people could face fines or other penalties over the parties. 

The political opposition in Britain has called for Johnson’s resignation over the scandal. This week, there will be a parliamentary debate and vote on whether to censure Johnson. 

Johnson previously apologized over one incident saying he thought it was a work event. 

The parties were held during 2020 and 2021, according to news reports. 

One event captured in a photo published by the BBC, shows Johnson and others gathered at the Downing Street garden drinking wine in May 2020 when other Brits were not allowed leave their homes without a reason, and outdoor gatherings were limited to two for exercise. 

Investigations into other parties could lead to more fines for Johnson, which could lead to more pressure on him from his own party. 

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press.
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Blinken, Mayorkas Head to Panama to Discuss Migration, Other Issues

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas were set to travel to Panama Tuesday for a two-day summit to discuss migration and other bilateral issues. 

Panama has become a transit point for migrants seeking to come to the United States, with record numbers entering the country, Reuters reported. 

The U.S. saw a record number of migrants trying to cross the southern border in the first year of President Joe Biden’s administration. 

An even higher number is expected this year. 

Early in the administration, Biden promised to address the root causes of migration and promised $1.2 billion in assistance to Central American countries. 

“The United States is the largest humanitarian donor to international organizations in Panama, whose work complements the Government of Panama’s efforts to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to vulnerable migrants and refugees,” Blinken said in a statement.  

Some information in this report comes from Reuters. 
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IMF Predicts Slower Economic Growth Due to Russia-Ukraine War

Posted on by SeeEU

The world economy will grow at a slower pace because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund said in a report Tuesday.

The organization forecasts growth of 3.6% this year, compared to 6.1% last year. Originally, it had predicted 4.4% growth this year.

“The economic effects of the war are spreading far and wide,” the IMF said in its report.

The war has exacerbated negative economic trends such as disrupted commerce and price hikes for fuel and food.

“In the matter of a few weeks, the world has yet again experienced a major, transformative shock,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas wrote in the foreword to the fund’s World Economic Outlook report. “Just as a durable recovery from the pandemic-induced global economic collapse appeared in sight, the war has created the very real prospect that a large part of the recent gains will be erased.”

The IMF predicts the Russian economy will shrink by 8.5% this year, and Ukraine’s will fall by a whopping 35%.

The United States, China and Europe were also expected to see slower growth as a result of the war.

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press.
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Why Are Solomon Islands Newest Battleground in US-China Geopolitics?

Posted on by SeeUS

Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is heading to Brussels on Tuesday to consult with European allies on China and a strategy to ramp up diplomatic outreach to ensure a free and open Asia-Pacific region.

Sherman is leading the delegation on U.S.-EU Dialogue on China on Thursday, and the U.S.-EU consultations on the Indo-Pacific on Friday.

Meanwhile, senior U.S. officials are heading to the Solomon Islands as a security agreement between the island country and China renews concerns over Beijing’s increasing influence in the Pacific.

This week, White House Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific Kurt Campbell, and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink will lead officials from the Defense Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to deepen “enduring ties with the region” and ensure the U.S. partnerships “deliver prosperity, security, and peace across the Pacific Islands and the Indo-Pacific.”

The implications of a security agreement between the Solomon Islands and China are expected to be high on the agenda. According to a leaked draft of the agreement, China could send armed police and military forces if requested by the Solomon Islands government. China could also be allowed to base its navy ships off the coast of the Pacific Island nation.

“We understand the Solomon Islands and the PRC [People’s Republic of China] are discussing a broad security-related agreement building on recently signed police cooperation,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during a briefing Monday. “Despite the Solomon Islands government’s comments, the broad nature of the security agreement leaves open the door for the deployments of PRC military forces to the Solomon Islands. We believe that signing such an agreement could increase destabilization within the Solomon Islands and will set concerning precedent for the wider Pacific Island region.”

Australia and New Zealand have had long-standing law enforcement and security ties with the Solomon Islands. An Australia-led multinational peacekeeping force from Fiji, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea was sent to Honiara, the island nation’s capital, following the outbreak of riots last November.

A goal of the visit will be to share perspectives and concerns about how the security agreement between the Solomons and China may threaten current regional security paradigms, Price added.

Former U.S. officials said the U.S. must increase its support to the Asia-Pacific region to fend off China’s growing influence.

In an interview with VOA Mandarin, Catherine Ebert-Gray, the former U.S. ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, highlighted the strategic location of the Solomon Islands.

“Solomon Islands is a transit point for a lot of cargo that moves throughout the south part of the Pacific,” she said. “It is also important to the navigation not only of those sea vessels, but of aircraft, many of which from Australia and New Zealand need to go through that territory to go north to Asia, or from the United States, to go to parts of the Pacific and parts of Asia.”

“More than half of the tuna fish of the world come from that region of the world. So the freedom of navigation of fishing vessels is critical,” she added.

The U.S. is also ramping up people-to-people ties with the Solomon Islands as the Peace Corps resumes operations in the South Pacific nation after nearly a 20-year pause.

VOA Mandarin contributed to this report.
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WHO: Ukraine Conflict Prevents Medical Aid from Reaching Those in Need 

Posted on by SeeEU

The World Health Organization says escalating fighting in Ukraine is preventing emergency medical supplies and health personnel from reaching many people in need of help.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two months ago, the World Health Organization has delivered some 218 metric tons of emergency medical supplies. Roughly two-thirds have reached their intended destinations, mostly in the east and north of the country where the need is greatest.

WHO has released 15 generators from its warehouse in Lviv Tuesday with plans to deliver them this week to hospitals across the country. Speaking from Lviv, WHO spokesman, Bhanu Bhatnagar, says three will be sent to Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. That is where heavy fighting is underway, and the power supply is badly affected.

Other generators, he says are destined for places such as Kharkiv, which has been devastated by Russian shelling, and the besieged city of Mariupol.

“We will only move the generators to their final destinations when we can ensure the safety of our personnel and the precious cargo they are transporting. These generators will help meet the sort of minimum energy needs of medical and surgical units of referral hospitals, where power supply is either limited or non-existent,” he said.

Bhatnagar says access to a reliable power supply is critical, noting even a momentary power failure can have serious consequences for patients. He says providing care in this dangerous environment is becoming ever more difficult.

As of now, he says WHO has verified 147 attacks on health care facilities, ambulances, and medical personnel. He adds at least 73 people have been killed and 52 injured. Attacks such as these, he says are hampering efforts to reach the people who need help.

“An increase in fighting in certain parts of the country could really threaten our supply chains in and out of some of the affected areas. To mitigate this risk, we are ramping up our donations to the Ministry of Health. We are also assessing the possibility of pre-positioning supplies in additional locations to sort of build a network of warehouses to reach affected areas,” said Bhatnagar.

Mariupol has been subjected to heavy bombardment by Russian forces since the start of the war. The city has been demolished, thousands of people reportedly have been killed and thousands more remain trapped.

Bhatnagar says WHO fears the worst for the health system of Mariupol. He says no one has access to the city. But he adds WHO is positioning generators and other supplies nearby. This, so it can bring in life-saving medicines and equipment the moment this becomes possible.
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