Month: June 2022

US Attorney General Visits Ukraine to Support War Crimes Prosecutions

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland visited Ukraine on Tuesday in a show of American support for Kyiv’s prosecution of Russian forces accused of war crimes and other atrocities.

Garland met with Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, who is spearheading the investigation of what Kyiv says are 16,000 reported war crimes since Russia invaded the country almost four months ago.

Russia has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine.

As he headed into the meeting, Garland told reporters, “I’m here to express the unwavering support of the United States for the people of Ukraine in the midst of the unprovoked and unjust Russian invasion.”

He added, “The United States is sending an unmistakable message. There is no place to hide. We will, we and our partners will pursue every avenue available to make sure that those who are responsible for these atrocities are held accountable.”

The U.S. Justice Department, which Garland heads as the country’s top law enforcement official, has launched its own task force called “KleptoCapture,” which is focused on seizing yachts and other luxury assets of Russian oligarchs who are supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Last week, the U.S. took possession of a super yacht it had seized in Fiji.

In the first war crimes trial in Ukraine last month, a Russian soldier pleaded guilty to fatally shooting an unarmed civilian four days after the invasion began February 24.

Vadim Shishimarin, 21, was convicted in the fatal attack on a 62-year-old Ukrainian man and sentenced to life in prison.
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Observer Group Calls for Broader Definition of Conflict Diamonds Amid Russia-Ukraine War

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Botswana’s Minister of Mineral Resources, Lefoko Moagi, says the meeting in the resort town of Kasane needs to candidly discuss issues affecting the diamond industry.

He says those include the Kimberley Process, a system that monitors the sale of “conflict diamonds” — diamonds used to fund armed groups and wars.

“I am hopeful that this inter-sessional meeting will implore you to delve into the rough diamonds related matters, engage and discuss even the most uncomfortable Kimberley Process issues with the sole objective of ensuring that the Kimberley Process remains fit for purpose in these evolving times, whilst maintaining the original mandate of this entity as espoused in the United Nations general resolution.”

Abu Brima is a member of the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition, a group which monitors the diamond body.

He tells VOA the Kimberley Process is losing its relevance and the Coalition made its position known at the meeting.

“All the principles, all the procedures will have to be revised, especially to create a proper agenda for reform, to reform those aspects that make KP an impediment to achieve its own agenda. The whole question of conflict diamonds will have to be opened up and broadened.”

Russia would have been on the agenda at the Botswana meeting only if there was a consensus from all the 85 participating countries.

But Brima says such an arrangement no longer serves its purpose and needs to be revisited.

“The consensus decision making process would veto power by any individual country that is not comfortable with any decision. That does not help KP to move forward. That needs to be changed.”

Despite the criticism, Minister Moagi says the Kimberley Process remains relevant to the global diamond trade.

“Through the KP, in spite of challenges and shortcomings, we continue to give our many stakeholders reasonable assurance that as an industry, we value peace and security. Moreover, we equally recognize the need to ensure that the rough diamond trade optimally contributes to sustainable development.”

Russia’s continued trade in the stones has come under global scrutiny with concerns diamond revenue could be funding the invasion of Ukraine.
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Elon Musk’s $44 Billion Twitter Deal Gets Board Endorsement

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Twitter’s board has recommended unanimously that shareholders approve the proposed $44 billion sale of the company to billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.

Musk reiterated his desire to move forward with the acquisition last week during a virtual meeting with Twitter employees, though shares of Twitter remain far below his offering price, signaling considerable doubt that it will happen.

Shares rose about 3% to $38.98 before the opening bell Tuesday, far short of the $54.20 per-share that Musk has offered for each share. The company’s stock last reached that level on April 5 when it offered Musk a seat on the board before he had offered to buy all of Twitter.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission detailing on Tuesday detailing a litter to investors, Twitter’s board of directors said that it “unanimously recommends that you vote (for) the adoption of the merger agreement.” If the deal were to close now, investors in the company would pocket a profit of $15.22 for each share they own.
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Russia Protests Transit Block to Kaliningrad

Posted on by SeeEU

Russia has summoned the European Union’s envoy to Moscow to “strongly” protest new restrictions on goods shipments to its Kaliningrad exclave through EU member Lithuania while threatening the Baltic state with “retaliation.”

The Foreign Ministry in Moscow said on Tuesday that EU Ambassador to Moscow Markus Ederer was informed of the “inadmissibility of such actions” and warned “retaliation will follow” if the restrictions aren’t removed immediately. It did not elaborate.

Kaliningrad is wedged between Lithuania and Poland, where the Pregolya River feeds into the Baltic Sea. It has about 500,000 inhabitants.

Lithuanian officials said they imposed the restrictions beginning on June 20 in an effort to shore up punitive measures that followed Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Ederer echoed that line after the meeting in Moscow, saying that “Lithuania is not taking unilateral measures, it is implementing EU sanctions.”

He added that there was no blockade of Kaliningrad as the transit of non-sanctioned goods to the enclave continues.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, dispatched one of President Vladimir Putin’s top allies to Kaliningrad, where he warned that “appropriate measures” will be taken by Moscow “in the near future.”

“Russia will certainly respond to such hostile actions,” Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev said at a regional security meeting in Kaliningrad.

“Their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania,” he warned.

Some information came from Reuters, AFP, and AP.
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Australia Urged to Intervene in Long-Running Wikileaks Extradition Case

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Lawyers for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange are urging the Australian government to do more to gain the release of the Queensland-born activist. Assange is to be extradited from Britain to the United States to face espionage charges, in a move approved by the British government late last week.

To his supporters, Julian Assange is a hero who, among other things, exposed U.S. wrongdoing in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. They insist his prosecution is politically motivated.

But officials in Washington have for years said the confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables Assange’s Wikileaks website released had violated U.S. espionage laws and put lives at risk.

The Australian-born activist is in a British prison awaiting extradition to the United States, where he is wanted on 18 criminal charges, including breaking spying laws.

Last Friday, British Interior Minister Priti Patel approved Assange’s extradition.

Assange’s legal team is urging the recently elected government in Canberra to demand Assange’s release from prison. It is reported that Australia is quietly lobbying for his release and has raised the case with senior United States officials.

Greg Barns is a member of Assange’s Australian-based legal team. He told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that Canberra had intervened to bring home an Australian terrorism suspect from Guantanamo Bay and a Melbourne-based academic recently detained in Iran.

“There is precedent for Australia doing this. We saw most famously the David Hicks case back in, I think, 2004 when the [former Prime Minister John] Howard government used its good offices with the Bush administration to get David Hicks back to safety from Guantanamo Bay,” said Barns. “We saw it in Kylie Moore-Gilbert, for example. Simply because a case is before other jurisdictions does not mean that Australia cannot get involved.”

In a statement, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Assange’s case has “dragged on for too long and that it should be brought to a close.” She added that the Australian government could not “intervene in the legal matters of another country.”

Since it was founded in 2006, Wikileaks has released hundreds of thousands of secret classified files and diplomatic cables in what has been described as the largest security breach of its kind.

Assange has been fighting extradition to the United States since June 2019 and has indicated he plans to appeal Britain’s expulsion order.

 
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Glencore UK Subsidiary Pleads Guilty to Bribery in Africa 

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A British subsidiary of mining and trading giant Glencore on Tuesday formally pleaded guilty to seven counts of bribery in connection with oil operations in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Sudan.

At a Southwark Crown Court hearing in London, Glencore Energy admitted to paying more than $28 million in bribes to secure preferential access to oil and generate illicit profit between 2011 and 2016. The company will be sentenced on Nov. 2 and 3, the U.K. Serious Fraud Office, or SFO, said.

Glencore, a Swiss-based multinational, has already said it expects to pay up to $1.5 billion to settle allegations of bribery and market manipulation and three subsidiaries in the United States, Brazil and Britain have now pleaded guilty to criminal offenses.

U.S. authorities will see the bulk of those funds after Glencore agreed to a $1.1 billion U.S. settlement last month to resolve a decade-long scheme to bribe foreign officials across seven countries — and separate charges alleging a trading division manipulated fuel oil prices at U.S. shipping ports.

But the guilty plea by a corporate heavyweight in London is a much-needed boost for the SFO, which has faced sharp criticism and awaits the outcome of a “forensic” government-ordered review after senior judges overturned two convictions in its Unaoil bribery investigation because of disclosure failings.

“The SFO’s success with Glencore will certainly not protect it from any flak that comes its way,” said Syed Rahman, a partner at Rahman Ravelli. “But the result it has in this case is an indicator of what the agency is capable of when it does not make mistakes.”

Helen Taylor, a legal researcher at pressure group Spotlight on Corruption, urged the SFO now to investigate and prosecute senior executives who had condoned the wrongdoing.

The SFO said only that its Glencore investigation was ongoing.

Glencore is also paying $29.6 million directly to state-run Brazilian oil company Petrobras in compensation for defrauding the company and roughly $10 million to authorities in civil penalties, prosecutors have said.
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Ukraine Reports Heavy Fighting in Sievierodonetsk 

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Ukraine reported heavy strikes Tuesday in the Sievierodonetsk region as Russian forces push to gain full control of the eastern city. 

A spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said at a daily briefing that fighting in Sievierodonetsk was fierce, with Russia conducting both airstrikes and shelling on Ukrainian positions. 

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai reported heavy fighting at the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, where Ukrainian fighters and about 500 civilians are taking shelter. 

Haidai also said Russian forces had brought “catastrophic destruction” to the city of Lysychansk, located just across a river from Sievierodonetsk. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged difficulties trying to defend the country’s eastern region but said Russian forces would continue to be met with Ukrainian resistance. 

“We have the most difficult fighting there. But we have our strong guys and girls there,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Monday, adding, “the occupiers receive a response to their actions against us.” 

Earlier Monday, Zelenskyy accused Russia of holding Africa “hostage” by blocking wheat deliveries and contributing to rising food prices on the continent. 

In a video speech to African Union leaders, Zelenskyy said, “This war may seem very distant to you and your countries. But catastrophically, rising food prices have already brought it home to millions of African families.” 

He said Ukraine is holding “complex, multilevel negotiations” to try to end Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports. 

“But there is no progress yet. … That is why the global food crisis will continue as long as this colonial war continues,” he said. 

Russia denies it is deliberately blocking wheat exports from Ukraine and blames sanctions imposed by Western nations for rising global food prices. 

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called Russia’s actions “a real war crime.” He told the EU’s top diplomats gathered in Luxembourg on Monday, “It is inconceivable, one cannot imagine that millions of tons of wheat remain blocked in Ukraine while in the rest of the world, people are suffering (from) hunger.” 

Also Monday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland met in Toronto to discuss sanctions and other ways to boost economic pressure against Russia. 

Yellen said at the start of the meeting that the two would also work together to boost energy production to counter high gas and energy prices. 

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
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British Rail Workers Go on Strike

Posted on by SeeEU

British rail workers launched their biggest strike in decades on Tuesday. 

Last-minute talks to avoid the stoppage failed Monday, with the rail management and the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union unable to resolve a dispute about pay and job security. 

Union leaders say pay has failed to keep pace with inflation. 

British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps warned the strike would cause “mass disruption.” 

The union of more than 40,000 workers plans to strike on Thursday and Saturday as well. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Nobel Prize Auction Nets $103.5 Million for Displaced Ukrainian Children

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Dmitry Muratov, editor of one of Russia’s last independent newspapers, auctioned off his 2021 Nobel Peace Prize medal on Monday, bringing in a record-shattering $103.5 million to benefit children displaced by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Organizer Heritage Auctions did not identify the winning bidder of the auction, which took place on World Refugee Day.

The money is going to UNICEF’s humanitarian response for displaced Ukrainian children.

Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines for their work to preserve free speech in their countries.

The previous record price paid for a Nobel Prize medal was $4.76 million in 2014.

Muratov said after Monday’s auction that he hoped “there was going to be an enormous amount of solidarity, but I was not expecting this to be such a huge amount.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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Nigerian Refugees in Niger Thrive in ‘Opportunity Villages’ 

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The west African country of Niger hosts more than 303,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, most fleeing violence from neighboring Nigeria.

In the southern Maradi region, the U.N.’s refugee agency (UNHCR) and aid group Save the Children have set up camps to help refugees stay safe from the border while also easing the burden on their host community.

At a dusty playground at Garin Kaka refugee camp in southern Niger, young children spin on a merry-go-round and clamber on a metal climbing frame.

The camp, in a patch of scrubland in southern Niger, is home to around 4,000 refugees who have fled violence from Islamist militants and bandits in neighboring Nigeria.

It’s one of three camps the U.N.’s refugee agency set up in Niger’s Maradi region since 2019 as what it calls an “opportunity village.”

Refugees at these camps, the first of their kind in Niger, have been moved further from the border, for their safety, and both the refugees and the local population receive aid.

The idea of giving aid to locals is to reduce their burden from the refugee population and ease any tensions that might otherwise arise from competing for resources.

Refugee women are also given small grants to set up shops so they can take care of their families.

Forty-two-year-old Nigerian Hanetou Ali fled her village three years ago on foot with her 11 children after Islamist militants attacked and began killing her neighbors.

She said when militants chased them, she and her family ran. But militants caught a man and his wife, Ali said, and cut him to pieces. You could see the blood streaming, she said, and  people had to collect the pieces to bury him.

Safe in the camp since 2019, Ali used a grant to set up shop selling vegetables, salt, and cooking oil.

Aid group Save the Children runs services in the camp.

The group’s Ilaria Manunza said it’s just as important to support refugees as it is the locals, who are under increasing pressure from climate change.

“We also believe the host population still needs and requires some support, so we cannot forget about the host population, the fact they were hugely welcoming and supportive of the refugees,” Manunza said. “Therefore, all our interventions should always target both the population of refugees and the host populations.”

Aid groups hope refugees in the so-called Opportunity Villages will eventually become self-sufficient.

But some of the refugee women say they are unable to grow their business because there is not enough demand for their services in the camp.

Forty-year-old Nigerian mother of six Jameela Salifou also arrived in Garin Kaka camp three years ago after armed men attacked her village.

She makes a living mending clothes with a sewing machine.

Salifou said sometimes they make enough money to buy cassava flour, but it is not every day that they have business. She said this is how they survive; with the small amount (of money) they get,  they manage because they are proud of their business. Salifou said if she earns something, she can use it to not only buy food but also to protect the dignity of her family.

The U.N.’s refugee agency (UNHCR) said conflict in northwestern Nigeria has forced more than 80,000 Nigerians to flee to Niger’s Maradi region. Nearly 18,000 refugees have been moved into the three camps with the Opportunity Village model.

Aid groups said if the model is successful in helping the refugees to integrate and start news lives, they could soon be set up in other countries in the region.
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Two Detained Americans Endangered Russian Servicemen, Kremlin Says

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Two Americans detained in Ukraine while fighting on the Ukrainian side of the war were mercenaries who endangered the lives of Russian servicemen and should face responsibility for their actions, the Kremlin said Monday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, interviewed by the U.S. television network NBC, also said U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, held in Russia for more than two months, was guilty of drug offenses and not a hostage.

Peskov’s comments were the first formal acknowledgment that the two men, identified in U.S. reports as Andy Huynh, 27, of Hartselle, Alabama, and Alexander Drueke, 39, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, were being held and under investigation.

“They are soldiers of fortune. They were involved in illegal activities on the territory of Ukraine. They were involved in firing at and [the] shelling of our military personnel. They were endangering their lives,” Peskov said.

“And they should be held responsible for those crimes they have committed. Those crimes have to be investigated. … The only thing that is clear is that they have committed crimes. They are not in the Ukrainian army. They are not subject to the Geneva Conventions.”

Family members said last week the two men went to Ukraine as volunteer fighters and had gone missing.

Russian media last week broadcast images of them captured while fighting for Ukraine.

Peskov would not reveal where the men were held.

Two Britons and a Moroccan have already been sentenced by a court under the jurisdiction of separatists in Donetsk on grounds that they were mercenaries and not subject to the Geneva Conventions governing prisoners of war.

Kyiv condemned the court ruling as having no authority and said the fighters were members of the Ukrainian armed forces, and thus subject to Geneva Conventions’ protections.

Moscow calls its actions a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and its allies in the West say the fascist allegation is baseless and the war is an unprovoked act of aggression.

Griner’s prosecution

Peskov said Griner, who had come to promote basketball in Russia, was being prosecuted under laws forbidding the import of drugs.

“Russia is not the sole country in the world to have quite strict laws in that sense … it is prosecuted by law. We can do nothing about that,” Peskov told NBC.

He “strongly disagreed” with any notion that Griner, who arrived in Russia in February, was being held hostage.

“We cannot call her a hostage. Why should we call her a hostage?” he said. “She violated Russian law and now she is being prosecuted. It not about being a hostage.”

Russian customs officials say vape cartridges containing hashish oil were found in Griner’s luggage.

The U.S. State Department determined in May that Griner was wrongfully detained and assigned diplomats to work for her release. Her wife, Cherelle Griner, has said she is a political pawn.
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Shots For Tots: COVID Vaccinations Start for Little US Kids

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Little Fletcher Pack woke up Monday morning and asked: “Is today vaccine day?”

For the 3-year-old from Lexington, South Carolina, the answer was yes.

The nation’s infants, toddlers and preschoolers are finally getting their chance at COVID-19 vaccination as the U.S. rolls out shots for tots this week. Shipments arrived in some locations over the weekend and some spots, including a Walgreens in South Carolina and another in New York City, opened appointments for Monday.

Fletcher’s mother said that once her son is fully vaccinated, he can finally go bowling and visit the nearby children’s museum.

“He’s never really played with another kid inside before,” McKenzie Pack said. “This will be a really big change for our family.”

She began seeking an appointment last week as U.S. regulators took steps to OK the vaccines for kids 6 months to 5 years old.

“It’s just a relief,” said Pack. “With this vaccine, that’ll be his best shot at going back to normal and having a normal childhood.”

The Food and Drug Administration greenlighted the Moderna and Pfizer kid shots Friday and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended them Saturday. In the U.S., COVID-19 vaccines were first tested and given in late 2020 to health care workers and older adults. Teens and school-age kids were added last year.

“This is certainly an exciting moment in what has become a very long campaign to vaccinate people against COVID-19,” said Dr. Matthew Harris, an emergency room pediatrician at Northwell Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New York.

Many parents have been anxiously awaiting the rollout, and Harris said shots for his own 9-month-old are a “matter of when, not if.”

Roughly 18 million youngsters under 5 are eligible.

“It’s just a huge step toward normalcy,” said Dr. Debra Langlois, pediatrician at University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

“We’re two-plus years into this pandemic and there’s things that my 4-year-old has never been able to do,” Langlois said.

The family skipped a trip to Disneyland and a popular Michigan vacation island because the ferry ride to Mackinac Island would mean mingling with unmasked passengers.

President Joe Biden, public health authorities and pediatricians hailed the moment. But they also acknowledged that getting some parents on board may be a challenge given disappointing vaccination rates — about 30% — in school-age kids.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and American Medical Association were among physician groups that encouraged doctors and families to get young children vaccinated.

The CDC advises vaccination even for those who already had COVID-19 to protect against reinfection, and says it is OK to get other vaccines at the same time. For the littlest kids, there’s Pfizer’s three-shot series or Moderna’s two shots.

In New York’s largely Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights, Dr. Juan Tapia Mendoza’s clinic has ordered 300 doses of the tot-sized vaccines. He said he needs educational materials that directly address misinformation spreading among parents.

His approach will be to tell parents “If they were my kids, I would vaccinate them.”

“Because the virus is still around. A lot of people are still dying because of coronavirus Kids do get infected and some kids get severely affected and nobody wants to see a child very sick.”

Some hospitals planned vaccination events later this week.

Chicago is among locations that offer COVID-19 shots in people’s homes and planned to open registration this week for home appointments for infants and other young children, said Maribel Chavez-Torres, a deputy commission for the city’s department of public health.

Dr. Pam Zeitlin, director of pediatric medicine at National Jewish Health in Denver, recommends parents get their kids vaccinated as soon as possible.

“Some parents are afraid that the younger the child, the more vulnerable they might be to vaccine side effects,” Zeitlin said, but that’s not what Pfizer and Moderna studies found. Side effects were like what is seen with other childhood vaccines — fever, irritability and fatigue.
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Capitol Riot Panel to Hear How Trump Tried to Thwart Biden Victory

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The congressional investigation of last year’s Capitol riot will focus Tuesday on former President Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to get bogus electors appointed and vote totals changed in states he lost.

Key election officials from the southern state of Georgia and the western state of Arizona, both of which Trump lost, are expected to testify about his efforts to reverse the outcome.

The House of Representatives investigative panel has already heard testimony that key Trump aides told him he had lost the 2020 election and that there were a minimal number of voting irregularities, not enough to overturn the national Electoral College victory for Democrat Joe Biden.

In addition, Trump was told it would be illegal for then-Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally block Biden’s victory, as Trump privately and publicly implored Pence to do.

At the center of Trump’s efforts was an audacious scheme to have fake electors supporting Trump named in states where Biden had narrowly defeated him to certify that Trump had won enough states to keep him in power for another four years.

In the U.S., presidents are effectively chosen in separate elections in each of the 50 states, not through the national popular vote. Each state’s number of electoral votes is dependent on its population, with the biggest states holding the most sway.

About 2,000 Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, for hours, blocking lawmakers from certifying Biden’s eventual 306-232 victory in the Electoral College.

But in the days and weeks ahead of the certification, Trump worked to overturn ballots in states he narrowly lost, hoping to change the overall national result. Much of his effort centered on Georgia, which he lost by 11,779 votes out of the 5 million that were cast. Trump’s defeat in Georgia was the first time a Republican lost the state since 1992.

“We’ll show evidence of the president’s involvement in this scheme,” committee member Adam B. Schiff said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” show. “We’ll also, again, show evidence about what his own lawyers came to think about this scheme. And we’ll show courageous state officials who stood up and said they wouldn’t go along with this plan to either call legislatures back into session (to name Trump electors) or decertify the (Electoral College) results for Joe Biden.”

The January 6 investigative committee is expected to hear testimony from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state’s chief election official, his colleague Gabriel Sterling and Arizona Republican House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who torpedoed a bill that would have let lawmakers reject the results of an election.

While the House committee cannot bring criminal charges, the Department of Justice is closely monitoring the hearings to determine whether anyone, Trump included, should be charged with illegally trying to reverse the election outcome to keep him in power. A prosecutor in Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, has convened a grand jury investigation to probe Trump’s actions to overturn the vote in that state.

In a taped January 2, 2021, call to Raffensperger, Trump pleaded with him to overturn the state’s vote. The ballots had been counted three times, and each time Biden won.

But Trump persisted, telling Raffensperger, “The people of Georgia are angry. The people of the country are angry, and there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you’ve recalculated. All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. … Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”

“There’s no way I lost Georgia,” Trump argued to Raffensperger. “There’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes. And you would be respected, really respected, if this thing could be straightened out.”

Trump continues to contend he was cheated out of another term in the White House and has hinted he might run again for the presidency in 2024.

Over the weekend, he complained on social media about the House investigation and defended his call to Raffensperger.

“My phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State, with many other people, including numerous lawyers, knowingly on the line, was absolutely PERFECT, and appropriate,” Trump wrote. “YES, it was a PERFECT CALL….”

“The highly partisan Unselects (on the investigative committee) are trying to create a FAKE narrative, for whatever reason but only with evil intention, that ‘He (me) knew he lost the election,’” Trump said. “This is completely false. I felt the Election was RIGGED & STOLLEN (sic), have from the very beginning, & have only gotten stronger in that belief with time & large amounts of additional evidence and proof.”
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Women Refugees in Cameroon Struggle to Survive

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Cameroon hosts about 460,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, most of them women and children who escaped violence in the Central African Republic and Nigeria.  But while they have found safety in Cameroon, women refugees are not always welcomed by locals, and struggle to survive.

Thirty-five-year-old Mairama Abba cleans her goat house at the Ngam refugee settlement on Cameroon’s eastern border with the Central African Republic, C.A.R.

Mariama said she fled armed conflicts in the C.A.R in March 2015, after her husband and two children were killed in a crossfire between rebels and government troops.

Mairama said she and her remaining two children live peacefully at the Ngam refugee settlement in northern Cameroon and are not considering going back to their war- ravaged village called Nyem in the north of the C.A.R. Mairama said money she raises from the sale of chicken and sheep enables her to feed her children and to take care of the children’s health needs.

Mairama said her first two years in Cameroon were among the most difficult in her life, as she and her children would go without food and water for days. She said the U.N. Children’s Fund in 2016 saved her children from dying of malnutrition.

The U.N. and humanitarian agencies say Mairama is one of at least 350 women and girls in the Ngam refugee settlement who have since been trained to be self-reliant.

Ohandja Claire Lydie is an official of a charity, the International Medical Corps. She said besides healthcare services, her organization provides training that help refugee women and girls to become less dependent on aid.

She said several hundred refugee women and girls now know embroidery, how to make soap, sew dresses and raise animals at home. She said before training, the women are educated on self-reliance and psychologically prepared to save incomes that will enable the women to improve their living conditions and take good care of their families when they start working.

The World Bank and the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, have been providing what they call targeted support for refugees in the form of cash, under a program called social safety nets.

Amma Kouto said she was given $70 from the safety nets scheme in 2018. She said she invested the money in selling palm oil and salt to refugees and Ngam villagers.

Koutok said she saved $300 in three years and bought a maize and rice flour grinding machine. She said their camps women association, assisted by the World Bank and UNICEF has been instrumental in improving the living conditions of refugee women especially widows and women who do not know if their husbands are dead or alive.

Host communities complain that refugees steal food and cattle, provoke conflicts over water resources, lodging and farmlands and cut down trees for firewood.

Helen Ngoh is communication associate of UNHCR Cameroon. She said on this year’s World Refugee Day, UNHCR attempted to persuade host communities to sympathize with the refugees.

“Greater majority of Central African Refugees, about 330,000 Central African refugees are still here and they have safety here in Cameroon. If you are forced to flee your home, you should be able to find safety, so this year’s theme (of World Refugee Day) is drawing attention to the importance of people who are forced to flee their homes to be able to have safety,” said Ngoh.

Speaking on Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV, Ngoh refugees from both the C-A-R and Nigeria are scared to return home because of violence in their native countries.

Meanwhile, UNHCR says less than 15 percent of the $154 million needed this year to help displaced Nigerians and Central Africans has been raised.
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Biden Says He’s Considering a Gasoline Tax Holiday  

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President Joe Biden said Monday that he’s considering a federal holiday on the gasoline tax, possibly saving Americans as much as 18.4 cents a gallon.

“Yes, I’m considering it,” Biden told reporters after taking a walk along the beach. “I hope to have a decision based on the data — I’m looking for by the end of the week.”

The administration is increasingly looking for ways to spare Americans from higher prices at the pump, which began to climb last year and surged after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Gas prices nationwide are averaging just under $5 a gallon, according to AAA.

The Biden administration has already released oil from the U.S. strategic reserve and increased ethanol blending for the summer, in additional to sending a letter last week to oil refiners urging them to increase their refining capacity. Yet those efforts have yet to reduce price pressures meaningfully, such that the administration is now considering a gas tax holiday. Taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel help to pay for highways.

The Penn Wharton Budget Model released estimates Wednesday showing that consumers saved at the pump because of gas tax holidays in Connecticut, Georgia and Maryland. The majority of the savings went to consumers, instead of service stations and others in the energy sector.

On Sunday in an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expressed an openness to a federal gas tax holiday to give motorists some relief.
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Locals in Ethiopia’s Oromia ‘Waiting to Die’ After Latest Mass Killing

Posted on by SeeAF

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has condemned the killing of more than 200 people, most of them ethnic Amhara, in the eastern Oromia region. Locals have blamed the killings Saturday on the rebel Oromo Liberation Army, which has denied responsibility. 

The federal government has reportedly deployed security personnel to the Oromia region but locals say it is not enough.

Ahmed Hassen from the Amhara community lost his brother and sister-in-law. Speaking to VOA by phone, Hassen said that fighters circled their village and butchered the residents.

According to him, the militia came with guns and machetes. Hassen said while there’s calm in Oromia today, many families are too scared to bury loved ones.  

Ahmed said there were 250 dead, and that this was just in one village. Many of the bodies still haven’t been buried, he said, simply because families are afraid to bury them.

“In the afternoon, yesterday when we tried to bury our loved ones, there were lots of snipers shooting, we couldn’t bury our family members,” he said. “We are not alive, we are waiting to die.”

In a tweet, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the Federal Government’s key priority is to restore peace and security in affected communities.

He condemned the killings, saying the attacks on innocent civilians, destruction of livelihoods by illegal and irregular forces is unacceptable.

Both the government and locals blame the rebel Oromo Liberation Army for Saturday’s attack.  

The group denies responsibility. Odaa Tarbii, the group’s spokesperson, told VOA it was government forces and the Oromia state-created militia Gaachina Sirna, which means “shield of order,” that were near Gimbi town where the attack happened. 

He said it is not clear which armed group carried out the atrocity.

Odaa said many of those killed were not necessarily ethnic Amharas, noting that members of other tribes such as the Oromo and Afars are also residents of the town.

“We are also wondering what transpired, what led to any shootout or any conflict between the local civilians and the government’s forces,” he said. “Of course, you know, it is very painful for us to hear about civilians, unarmed, living their lives being killed in such a manner. There’s a danger that this country will grow numb to these things and not really even take action or demand for justice.”

The Oromo Liberation Army is calling for an independent investigation into the killings.

Meanwhile, as more federal security personnel are deployed in Oromo to quell the violence, Prime Minister Abiy said there will be zero tolerance for horrific acts claiming lives. 
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East African Bloc Discusses Troop Deployment to Congo

Posted on by SeeAF

Kenya on Monday hosted leaders from the East African Community bloc for discussions on how to stop renewed fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The insecurity in the region is heightening tension between Congo and Rwanda. Congo accuses its neighbor of supporting the M23 rebel group, a claim denied by Rwanda.

M23 has fought for years to control rich gold and platinum mines found in eastern Congo, where other rebel groups from Rwanda and Uganda are also active.

Tension moved higher recently when a Congolese army soldier was killed inside Rwanda, after firing at security forces at the border post.

Joel Baraka is a conflict and resolution researcher at the Pole Institute, a Congolese think tank. He says Congo’s government sees the EAC as the best route for easing regional tensions.

President Felix Tshikedi, he says, is putting political trust and importance in the East African Community to bring a solution to the crisis and peace in the eastern DRC. He adds Congo also sees Kenya as a mediator between the three countries, including Rwanda and Uganda.

At the meeting in Nairobi, leaders will discuss sending troops from East Africa to help quell the violence.

Last week Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta called on deploying regional forces from EAC members, which include Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda and Congo, which joined in March.

Researcher and political analyst Ntanyoma Rukumbuzi says the Congolese army cannot be left alone to solve the armed conflict in the country.

“In case this should be a well-coordinated force under the watch of the UN but also the AU, at some point we need to end the crisis in the eastern DRC. We won’t expect the Congolese national army to tackle the crisis because largely it’s part of the crisis,” he said.

The regional bloc is considering a plan to deploy troops in three Congolese provinces — North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri.

Baraka says Congolese will not accept the troops in its territory.

“I don’t think people will accept the troops because there is some opposition to these forces in the parliament, civil society groups are opposing it and they won’t accept any forces that involve Rwanda and Ugandan troops,” he said.

Amani Tom, a social justice activist agrees. He says regional leaders have denied his country peace.

“We have security forces from the United Nations Peacekeeping mission and many times forces from Rwanda and Uganda come here to find peace but there has been no peace. I think for us to get peace in eastern DRC and the entire country, hypocrisy from the Great Lake leaders must stop and the economic war must stop so that we can build long-lasting peace,” he said.

The humanitarian agencies say more than 25,000 people have fled their homes and 5,000 displaced persons and returnees fled to Uganda in the last five days.

The security situation has made it difficult for aid agencies to assess the humanitarian needs of those affected by the conflict.
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In Poland and Far From Family, Woman Returns to Ukraine

Posted on by SeeEU

According to United Nations estimates, since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, some 2.5 million Ukrainians have crossed the Polish border and gone back to Ukraine. Iryna Martynenko was among those who returned to her native city of Sumy, in the northeast. Olena Adamenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera and video editing by Mykhailo Zaika.
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Legislative Setback Leaves Difficult Path Forward for France’s Macron  

Posted on by SeeEU

Two months after French President Emmanuel Macron won reelection, his second term is now threatened with gridlock and a possible political crisis after his centrist party lost its ruling majority in the lower house of the National Assembly Sunday. Legislative vote saw a surging far left and far right — and near-record abstention.

France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne acknowledged the message from Sunday’s vote that gave the centrist Ensemble or Together coalition the largest number of seats in the lower house — but stripped it of a ruling majority. She called the situation unprecedented and vowed to cobble a working majority.

Meanwhile, the far left and far right were celebrating. Leader Jean-Luc Melenchon of the new left-wing NUPES coalition, which placed second in the voting, called the results an electoral defeat for President Emmanuel Macron.

However, his alliance didn’t do as well as he’d hoped — earning only 131 of the 577 legislative seats, compared to 245 for Macron’s centrists.

In many ways, the biggest win went to the far-right National Rally party, which scooped up 89 seats, an historic high. Leader Marine Le Pen noted that effectively makes hers the biggest opposition party, as Melenchon’s NUPES is an alliance of four different leftist parties.

What’s clear is the results present a major challenge to Macron’s second-term ambitions, which include passing major fiscal and retirement reforms. In the near term, it may also force him to concentrate less on foreign policy goals — including helping to end the war in Ukraine — as he looks for a way to govern effectively at home.

Political analyst Jean Petaux outlines several political scenarios for Macron moving forward — from hoping the NUPES coalition will divide and weaken, to seeking alliances with the center-right Les Republicains and other parties on a case-by-case basis. And possibly even orchestrating a political crisis that would allow the President to call for new legislative elections next year, hoping they might produce more favorable results. All suggest a complicated political path ahead.

Petaux believes Prime Minister Borne will likely keep her job.

But the NUPES vow to bring a no-confidence motion against her up for vote in early July. More immediately, three of Macron’s ministers lost their legislative bids. Under his rules, that means they must resign.
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Fitzpatrick Wins US Open

Posted on by SeeUS

British golfer Matt Fitzpatrick held onto a one-shot lead on the final hole Sunday to win the U.S. Open.

The victory at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts was the first major title for the 27-year-old from Sheffield, England.

He won the U.S. Amateur at the same course in 2013.

Sunday’s win netted Fitzpatrick $3.15 million.

By shooting a two-under-par 68 in the final round, including a dramatic par on the 18th hole, Fitzpatrick held off Americans Scottie Sheffler and Will Zalatoris, who tied for second place.

Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama finished fourth, while American Collin Morikawa and Britain’s Rory McIlroy tied for fifth place. 
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Black Americans Living Abroad Reflect on Juneteenth Holiday

Posted on by SeeUS

As the United States marks only the second federally recognized Juneteenth, Black Americans living overseas have embraced the holiday as a day of reflection and an opportunity to educate people in their host countries on Black history. 

President Joe Biden moved quickly last year to federally recognize the day Black Americans have been celebrating since the last enslaved people were told they were free in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.

In Liberia, Saqar Ahhah Ahershu, 45, from Jersey City, N.J., is organizing the country’s first “Journey Home Festival.”

“Because this is part of that hidden African American history that still hasn’t been completely unpacked,” he said in Monrovia.

Liberia, Africa’s oldest independent republic, was founded by freed slaves repatriated to West Africa from the United States in 1822, exactly 200 years ago this year. This weekend’s event will include a trip to Providence Island, where former slaves settled before moving into what is now mainland Monrovia.

While there are no official statistics tracking Black Americans moving abroad, many are discussing it more openly after the police killing of George Floyd. In the aftermath, many African Americans saw the U.S. “from the outside in” and made up their minds not to return. Tashina Ferguson, a 26-year-old debate coach, was living in New York at the time of Eric Garner’s death.

She moved to South Korea in 2019 and will celebrate Juneteenth on Sunday with a group of drag performers at a fundraising brunch for the Marsha P. Johnson Institute.

She has mixed feelings about the newest federal holiday.

“The commerciality of Juneteenth has become this like whole, ‘Put it on a T-shirt, put it on ice cream tubs’ type of thing,” she said. “But as a Black person within the Black community I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s celebrate us.’”

She said that only a powerful change would make her consider returning to the U.S. 

Chrishan Wright in New Jersey regularly speaks with Black Americans who plan to or already have made the move abroad.

Wright, 47, hosts a podcast “Blaxit Global” and said many of her guests are tired of the U.S.

“They’ve done all the things to achieve what is supposed to be the American dream, and that yardstick keeps moving. They don’t feel like they’re on solid ground in terms of being able to retire comfortably or pay off student debt or just cover their bills.” 

Wright plans to move in 2023 to Portugal. Through her podcast, she already knows of Juneteenth celebrations this weekend in Lisbon, the capital.

In some places with larger populations of Black Americans, Juneteenth is already part of the program.

LaTonya Whitaker, from Mississippi, has lived in Japan for 17 years. She is executive director of Legacy Foundation Japan, which hosted a Juneteenth gathering of about 300 people at the ritzy Tokyo American Club on Saturday.

She and her husband David didn’t plan to live in Japan.

Like Whitaker, many Black Americans at the Juneteenth event came to Japan almost by coincidence, as Christian missionaries or Peace Corps volunteers. But they made Japan their home.

She now wants to raise their son there because she worries about gun violence in the U.S. 

“I realized we really need a community,” said Whitaker.

Michael Williams teaches African American history at Temple University in Tokyo and left the U.S. when he was 22. He’s now 66 and had lived abroad for much of his adult life, but returned to the U.S. for graduate school in Boston and Baltimore.

America has changed so much, he feels like a tourist when he visits, he laughed.

Williams said he knows about Juneteenth from teaching history.

“I would always end my presentations that hopefully, someday, this would be a national holiday. And so now it is, and it feels great,” he said.

In Taipei, Toi Windham and Casey Abbott Payne are holding multiple events to celebrate Juneteenth. The two, part of Black Lives Matter Taiwan, are hosting performances by Black artists and musicians.

Both have celebrated with their families long before it was a federal holiday.

Windham has lived in Taiwan for five years, and had always celebrated Juneteenth growing up in Texas. For her, it’s an opportunity to educate people about a different part of American culture, even the darker parts.

“A lot of people tend to enjoy hip-hop culture and the attire and certain parts of our culture, but I feel like it’s important to acknowledge all parts of Black culture,” she said.

Payne, an organizer, has lived in Taiwan for 11 years and said he also celebrated Juneteenth growing up in Milwaukee, which has one of the oldest celebrations nationwide. 

“As a kid, I remember the street being lined with street vendors, and there’s music going on and there’d be the Juneteenth parade rolling through,” he said.

Still for others, the day is a chance to joyfully kick back and rest.

In Bangkok, a group called Ebony Expats organized a silent movie screening, a bike ride in a nature reserve and a dinner for at a Jamaican restaurant serving jerk chicken and pumpkin soup.

Restaurant owner Collin Clifford McKoy served 20 years in the U.S. Army before eventually opening his restaurant during the pandemic in Thailand. He said the Juneteenth holiday is a chance for Black people to share their culture while being so far from home, American or not.

“Overall, it’s about coming together regardless of where we are, and it tells how much blood runs deep as a community to come together and enjoy ourselves,” he said.
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Russian Journalist Sells Nobel Prize for Ukrainian Children 

Posted on by SeeEU

What’s the price of peace? 

That question could be partially answered Monday night when Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctions off his Nobel Peace Prize medal. The proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine. 

Muratov, awarded the gold medal in October 2021, helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was the publication’s editor-in-chief when it shut down in March amid the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

It was Muratov’s idea to auction off his prize, having already announced he was donating the accompanying $500,000 cash award to charity. The idea of the donation, he said, “is to give the children refugees a chance for a future.” 

In an interview with The Associated Press, Muratov said he was particularly concerned about children who have been orphaned because of the conflict in Ukraine. 

“We want to return their future,” he said. 

He added that it’s important international sanctions levied against Russia do not prevent humanitarian aid, such as medicine for rare diseases and bone marrow transplants, from reaching those in need. 

“It has to become a beginning of a flash mob as an example to follow so people auction their valuable possessions to help Ukrainians,” Muratov said in a video released by Heritage Auctions, which is handling the sale but not taking any share of the proceeds. Muratov shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year with journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines. 

Honored for perseverance

The two journalists, who each received their own medals, were honored for their battles to preserve free speech in their respective countries, despite coming under attack by harassment, their governments and even death threats. 

Muratov has been highly critical of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and the war launched in February that has caused nearly 5 million Ukrainians to flee to other countries for safety, creating the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II. 

Independent journalists in Russia have come under scrutiny by the Kremlin, if not outright targets of the government. Since Putin came into power more than two decades ago, nearly two dozen journalists have been killed, including at least four who had worked for Muratov’s newspaper. 

In April, Muratov said he was attacked with red paint while aboard a Russian train. 

Muratov left Russia for Western Europe on Thursday to begin his trip to New York City, where live bidding will begin Monday afternoon. 

Online bids began June 1 to coincide with the International Children’s Day observance. Monday’s live bidding falls on World Refugee Day. 

As of early Monday morning, the high bid was $550,000. The purchase price is expected to spiral upward, possibly into the millions. 

“It’s a very bespoke deal,” said Joshua Benesh, the chief strategy officer for Heritage Auctions. “Not everyone in the world has a Nobel Prize to auction and not every day of the week that there’s a Nobel Prize crossing the auction block.” 

Uniqueness item, unique circumstances.

Since its inception in 1901, there have been nearly 1,000 recipients of the Nobel Prizes honoring achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and the advancement of peace. 

The most ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal was in 2014, when James Watson, whose co-discovery of the structure of DNA earned him a Nobel Prize in 1962, sold his medal for $4.76 million. Three years later, the family of his co-recipient, Francis Crick, received $2.27 million in bidding run by Heritage Auctions, the same company that is auctioning off Muratov’s medal. 

Melted down, the 175 grams of 23-karat gold contained in Muratov’s medal would be worth about $10,000. 

The ongoing war and international humanitarian efforts to alleviate the suffering of those affected in Ukraine are bound to stoke interest, Benesh said, adding it’s hard to predict how much someone would be willing to pay for the medal. 

“I think there’s certainly going to be some excitement Monday,” Benesh said. “It’s it’s such a unique item being sold under unique circumstances … a significant act of generosity, and such a significant humanitarian crisis.” 

Muratov and Heritage officials said even those out of the bidding can still help by donating directly to UNICEF. 

Press writer Andrew Katell contributed to this report.
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IMF Delegation Visits Crisis-hit Sri Lanka With Time Running Out 

Posted on by SeeAF

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team arrives in Sri Lanka on Monday for talks on a bailout program, but time is short for a country just days from running out of fuel and likely months from getting any relief money. 

Sri Lanka is battling its worst financial crisis since independence in 1948, as decades of economic mismanagement and recent policy errors coupled with a hit from COVID-19 to tourism and remittances, shriveling foreign reserves to record lows. 

The island nation of 22 million people suspended payment on $12 billion debt in April. The United Nations has warned soaring inflation, a plunging currency and chronic shortages of fuel, food and medicine could spiral into a humanitarian crisis. 

The IMF team, visiting Colombo through June 30, will continue recent talks on what would be Sri Lanka’s 17th rescue program, the IMF said on Sunday. 

“We reaffirm our commitment to support Sri Lanka at this difficult time, in line with the IMF’s policies,” the global lender said in a statement. 

Colombo hopes the IMF visit, overlapping with debt restructuring talks, will yield a quick staff-level agreement and a fast track for IMF board disbursements. But that typically takes months, while Sri Lanka risks more shortages and political unrest. 

“Even if a staff-level agreement is reached, final program approval will be contingent upon assurances that official creditors, including China, are willing to provide adequate debt relief,” said Patrick Curran, senior economist at U.S. investment research firm Tellimer. “All considered, the restructuring is likely to be a protracted process.” 

Waiting for guess, for 

But the crisis is already overwhelming for average Sri Lankans, like autorickshaw driver Mohammed Rahuman, 64, who was recently standing in line for gasoline for more than 16 hours. 

“They say petrol will come but nothing yet,” he told Reuters. “Things are very difficult. I cannot earn any money, I cannot go home and I cannot sleep.” 

Snaking lines kilometers long have formed outside most fuel pumps since last week. Schools in urban areas have closed and public workers have been asked to work from home for two weeks. 

Bondholders expect the IMF visit to give clarity on how much debt Sri Lanka can repay and what haircuts investors may have to take. 

“This IMF visit is very important – the country will need every help and support it can get,” said Lutz Roehmeyer, portfolio manager at Berlin-based bondholder Capitulum Asset Management. “For many international bondholders, this will be a key requirement to ensure they come to the table and talk about a debt restructuring in the first place.” 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said this month an IMF program is crucial to access bridge financing from sources such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. 

Representatives from Sri Lanka’s financial and legal advisers, Lazard and Clifford Chance, are in Colombo.
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Zelenskyy Expects Increase in Russian Hostility Ahead of EU Vote

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “we should expect greater hostile activity from Russia” this week as European Union leaders consider whether to support candidate status for Ukraine in the EU.

“And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries. We are preparing. We are ready. We are warning partners,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Sunday.

The European Commission recommended last week that Ukraine receive candidate status. The 27 member states will discuss the issue and give their votes during a summit Thursday and Friday. If Ukraine does advance to candidate status, the process for joining the EU in full could take several years.

Zelenskyy said, “fierce fighting continues in Donbas,” the eastern region of Ukraine that has been the focus of Russian efforts in recent months.

Leaders implore West for support

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Sunday that Russia’s war in Ukraine could be long-lasting, but said Western allies should not curb their support for Kyiv’s forces.

“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years,” Stoltenberg told the German weekly Bild am Sonntag. “We must not let up in supporting Ukraine, even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday with an offer of training for Ukrainian forces, also warned against the risk of “Ukraine fatigue” as the war grinds on toward the four-month mark in the coming days.

In an opinion piece in London’s Sunday Times, Johnson said this meant ensuring “Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader.”

Zelenskyy said he had visited forces in the southern Mykolaiv region, about 550 kilometers south of Kyiv.

“Their mood is assured: they all do not doubt our victory,” he said in a video Sunday that appeared to have been recorded on a moving train. “We will not give the south to anyone, and all that is ours we will take back” from the Russians.

Zelenskyy said Russian forces had destroyed parts of the Mykolaiv and Odesa regions.

“The losses are significant,” he said. “Many houses have been destroyed; civilian logistics have been disrupted.”

Battles continue in east

While Russia failed early in the war to topple Zelenskyy’s government and capture the capital, Kyiv, intense fighting rages in the eastern part of the country, centering on the embattled industrial city of Sievierodonetsk in Luhansk province, which is part of the broader Donbas region that Russia is trying to control.

Shelling continues, but Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai told Ukraine television, “All Russian claims that they control the town are a lie. They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town.” But he said the battles made evacuations from the city impossible.

Haidai said that in Sievierodonetsk’s twin city of Lysychansk, residential buildings and private houses had been destroyed. “People are dying on the streets and in bomb shelters,” he said.

Russia’s defense ministry said its forces have taken control of Metolkine, just southeast of Sievierodonetsk, with Russian state news agency TASS claiming that many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered there. Ukraine’s military acknowledged that Russia had “partial success” in the area.

Analysts at a Washington-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said in a note that “Russian forces will likely be able to seize Sievierodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of their available forces in this small area.”

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