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Category: European Union
European Union news. The place name Euros was first used by the ancient Greeks to refer to their northernmost province, which bears the same name today. The principal river there – Euros (today’s Maritsa) – flows through the fertile valleys of Thrace, which itself was also called Europe, before the term meant the continent
Russia Concert Hall Suspects in Court
Three of the four suspects charged with carrying out the concert hall attack in Moscow that killed more than 130 people have admitted guilt for the incident in a Russian court.
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Russians Mourn Dead Following Deadly Attack on Concert Hall
Russia observed a day of mourning Sunday following a deadly attack on a music venue in a Moscow suburb. Islamic State took credit for the assault that killed 137 people. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us more.
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Fine Gael Party’s Harris to be Ireland’s Youngest Premier
london — Ireland is poised to get its youngest-ever premier next month after Simon Harris secured the leadership of the Fine Gael party Sunday, replacing Leo Varadkar, who announced his surprise resignation last week.
Harris, 37, who has been the coalition government’s further and higher education minister, was the only candidate to put his name forward to succeed Varadkar, who had been Ireland’s previous youngest prime minister, or what Ireland calls its taoiseach.
Harris is expected to be formally elected premier in the Irish parliament in early April after lawmakers return from their Easter break.
In his victory speech in the central Ireland town of Athlone, Harris said this was a “moment for Fine Gael to reconnect” with the people.
“There is a hell of a lot to get done in the time ahead,” he said. “But let me say this: Under my leadership, Fine Gael stands for supporting businesses, especially small businesses.”
Harris said nothing about the coalition government, which came into place at the end of 2020, but has previously said that he would remain fully committed to the program for government agreed upon with partners Fianna Fail and the Green Party. He has stopped short of ruling out a general election this year, but insisted such a poll wasn’t his priority.
Varadkar, 45, has had two spells as taoiseach — between 2017 and 2020, and again since December 2022 as part of a job share with Micheal Martin, the head of Fianna Fail.
He was the country’s youngest-ever leader when first elected at age 38, as well as Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister. Varadkar, whose mother is Irish and father is Indian, was also Ireland’s first biracial taoiseach.
He played a leading role in campaigns to legalize same-sex marriage, approved in a 2015 referendum, and to repeal a ban on abortion, which passed in a vote in 2018.
He led Ireland during the years after Britain’s 2016 decision to leave the European Union. Brexit had huge implications for Ireland, an EU member that shares a border with the U.K.’s Northern Ireland. U.K.-Ireland relations were strained while hardcore Brexit-backer Boris Johnson was U.K. leader but have steadied since the arrival of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
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Moldovan Parliament Backs Bid to Join EU, But Divisions Remain
CHISINAU, MOLDOVA — Moldova’s Parliament on Thursday endorsed an appeal to press on with a drive to join the European Union, but the opposition walked out of the vote and separatists in the Transnistria region urged authorities to drop their claim to the enclave.
President Maia Sandu, who says Russia is the biggest threat to Moldova’s security, has made EU membership the cornerstone of her administration in the ex-Soviet state, which lies between Ukraine and Romania.
A vocal opponent of Russia’s war in Ukraine, she has called for a referendum on EU membership to be held this year.
After a debate coinciding with an EU summit in Brussels, Parliament adopted by a vote of 54-0 a declaration saying, “Only joining Europe can ensure the future of the country as a sovereign, neutral and full-fledged democratic state.”
It identified EU integration as “Moldova’s top priority national project.” Moldova is one of Europe’s poorest countries.
The opposition Bloc of Communists and Socialists, sympathetic to Moscow, walked out of the chamber.
In Transnistria, a sliver of land that broke away from Moldova as the Soviet Union was collapsing, self-styled President Vadim Krasnoselsky called on Moldovan authorities to recognize his territory and renounce all claims to it.
“There is no other way out,” he said on the enclave’s television. “There can be no more talk of autonomy. You must walk away from these territories.”
His region, he said, was “not separatist,” but “a normal neighbor” seeking peace and stability.
Transnistria, heavily dependent on Russia for financial support, has no international recognition, not even from Moscow.
It has remained on Moldova’s eastern border for 30 years with little turmoil, but tension has risen since Moldovan authorities imposed customs duties in January on all goods entering and leaving the region.
Elected officials last month appealed to Moscow for diplomatic measures to protect the region.
An EU summit last year gave the green light for membership talks with both Ukraine and Moldova, but no date for the start of talks has been made public, and there was no announcement on the matter at Thursday’s meeting in Brussels.
Moldova has been engaged in an escalating feud with Russia, with the Ukraine war and Transnistria as the focal points.
Moldova faces disputes with a second region in the south, Gagauzia, whose leader met Russian President Vladimir Putin this month and is linked to a fugitive pro-Russian businessman sentenced to 15 years in absentia for mass fraud.
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Experts See Central Asia Emboldened by Russia’s Struggles in Ukraine
washington — Two years ago, as Russia invaded Ukraine’s heartland, Central Asian countries feared they would be next to feel the impact of President Vladimir Putin’s revanchist obsession.
But as Russia has struggled on the battlefield and suffered massive losses against a determined Ukrainian foe, experts and current and former policymakers in Washington see a more confident and assertive Central Asia that is striving for unity and enjoying greater bargaining power, including with Russia, China and the United States.
Some longtime observers warn that the region may yet fall prey to the Kremlin’s ambitions. They argue that the West must understand its challenges and help expand its opportunities.
In their view, the best outcome for Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan would be to emerge from the Ukraine-Russia conflict as a more independent and consolidated region.
Russian threat in decline
Frederick Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute in Washington, advocates for greater political and economic integration in the region. He observes that the region’s governments have been using “China to balance Russia … and America, to balance them.”
In an interview with VOA, Starr noted that Russian chauvinists have even called for the annexation of Central Asia. “It’s as if they’re announcing to the world that whatever happens in Ukraine, we aren’t done.”
He urges the region to recognize that Putin’s savage attack on Ukraine “has demonstrated, above all, Russia’s weakness.”
“This stripped bare the mask that all those fancy parades in Red Square created, and now we realize that Russia’s military is a farce,” he said. “All it has is numbers and brutal leaders who are willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of Russian lives for an objective that is unattainable.”
Starr argued that countries in Central Asia should demonstrate to Russia that they live in a big world, “have friends east, west, north and south. Russia can no longer be treated as a single player on a chessboard.”
This sentiment is echoed by many in the region, who note that the things that make Central Asia dependent on Russia, such as energy, trade and labor migration, make Russia dependent on it as well.
Starr also believes younger Central Asians have a broader worldview and don’t care about Russia as much as the older elite, for whom Russia is “a kind of hangover from Soviet times.”
Better Western ties
The Atlantic Council’s John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan and Ukraine, says Central Asians are interested in a closer relationship with the West “because they are pretty good at geopolitics. Their neighborhood demands nothing less.”
“Given [the region’s] adjacency to China and Russia, the West needs to be far more active in Central Asia than it is,” he said in an address to foreign diplomats, U.S. officials and scholars at George Washington University in Washington. “Russia’s revisionist agenda extends to Central Asia.”
According to Herbst, the most important development in the region is that Central Asia has maintained its independence and stability since the breakup of the Soviet Union, despite internal tensions and the threat of terrorism.
“You need to find ways to make our role in Central Asia more inviting,” Herbst said, appealing to the region. “You will have friends here, who will be making the case publicly along with you and privately.”
Sanctions vs. geopolitical interests
Russian scholar Vladislav Inozemtsev, speaking at the same conference, argued that transport corridors bypassing Russia will increase the strategic importance of Central Asia at a time when the West is seeking ways to minimize Moscow’s economic options.
But Inozemtsev warned that Western sanctions on Russia can have a negative spillover effect on its Central Asia neighbors. “Russians will still find ways to evade them,” he said. “This issue disturbs Central Asian governments and prevents much more fruitful cooperation with the Europeans and Americans.”
His suggestion: “Maybe it’s better not to focus on sanctions and, sorry to say, even on the human rights issues, but fostering just geopolitical goals in the region when we are in times of war.”
Diminished Russian threat?
Allan Mustard, Washington’s former ambassador to Turkmenistan, emphasizes the “discreditation” of Russia as a military threat to its neighbors.
“A few years ago, I talked to some friends in Kazakhstan and asked them what the position was of Kazakh people writ large towards Russia as a security guarantor for Central Asia,” he said at the GWU forum.
“And they said, ‘We’ve never viewed Russia as a security guarantor. We have always viewed Russia as a security threat to Central Asia.’ But that threat is diminishing because we can see what even the Ukrainians can do in terms of destroying the Russian military machine,” he said.
The region has a collective capacity to expand trade, Mustard said. He foresees a bolder Central Asia in the near term, especially with the expansion of a Middle Corridor trade route via the Caspian Sea, which would reduce Russia’s leverage over the region.
Jamestown Foundation’s Margarita Assenova agrees, saying “the primary challenge” for Central Asia and its Western partners is to improve connectivity through the region. But she is optimistic about the prospects for greater collaboration among Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Russia’s war on Ukraine has strengthened Central Asia, Assenova said, “accelerating the original integration and seeking greater Western engagement.”
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UN: Belarus Runs Campaign of Violence, Repression to Crush Dissent
GENEVA — A report by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights accuses the government of Belarus of running a campaign of violence and repression to crush political dissent and maintain its grip on power.
“Considering the range of human rights violations committed against the population of real or perceived political opponents in discriminatory fashion, the office’s report describes reasonable grounds to believe that the crime against humanity of persecution may have been committed,” said Christian Salazar Volkmann, director of the field operations and technical cooperation division at the OHCHR.
The report Volkmann presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council Wednesday examines all alleged human rights violations committed in Belarus related to the run-up to the 2020 presidential elections and its aftermath.
The report is based on information and evidence from first-hand interviews with 657 people supported by more than 5,400 items, as well as 229 written submissions from victims, witnesses and nongovernmental organizations.
Volkmann said information gathered last year “substantiates the scale and patterns of the violations” identified in previous reports and finds that since May 1, 2020, Belarus has “effectively deprived people in Belarus of their ability to exercise” their civic rights.
The 2020 election of incumbent Alexander Lukashenko to a sixth term in office was decried by international monitors as “neither free nor fair.” Lukashenko denied this.
In his presentation to the council, Volkmann said that opposition parties had been barred from participating in last month’s parliamentary elections, putting into question their ability to participate in next year’s presidential elections.
He said laws adopted or amended by Belarus since 2021 have been used “to oppress and punish real or perceived opponents.”
“In the course of 2023, several prominent human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists were sentenced to long prison terms,” he said, noting that thousands of people continue to be arbitrarily arrested and detained for “having exercised their freedom of expression and/or assembly.”
“Since 2020, thousands of Belarusians have been subjected to cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment in detention facilities across Belarus,” he said.
The report documents cases in which torture has resulted in severe injuries and instances of sexual and gender-based violence, adding that “death and rape threats were widespread.”
It describes the horrific, punitive treatment and conditions under which political prisoners are subjected in state-run penal colonies.
Authors of the report say, “Information gathered regarding the lack of adequate medical care in the penal colonies is particularly alarming,” adding that at least two people died “in the custody of Belarusian authorities in 2023 due to medical negligence” and two additional prisoners have died this year.
The U.N. human rights office found widespread arbitrary arrests of children took place in 2020 and 2021, resulting in more than 50 politically motivated criminal trials in which the children lacked protections guaranteed under international law.
“OHCHR also found instances of ill-treatment and possibly torture of children,” it said.
Volkmann told the U.N. council that Belarusian authorities have removed children in supposedly “dangerous situations” from their parents in ways that seemed more focused on “pressuring and punishing parents than safeguarding the best interest of the child.”
He said children sometimes were left without care, taken to orphanages, or “parents were forced under duress to transfer the custody of their children to a relative or friend.”
He said the campaign of violence and repression has driven an estimated 300,000 Belarusians into exile since May 2020.
“It is currently not safe for those in exile to return to Belarus,” Volkmann said. “I therefore recommend that other member states continue to facilitate access to international refugee protection.”
He called on the government of Belarus “to immediately release all individuals arbitrarily detained and sentenced on politically motivated grounds.”
To that, Belarus Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Larysa Belskaya indignantly responded that “there are no political prisoners in Belarus.”
“Persons serving sentences have been convicted of specific crimes, including against national security,” she said. “The Belarus lawbreakers are treated equally regardless of whether they are favorites of foreign politicians or act in their interests.”
The ambassador accused Western governments of supporting activists who “fled the country, who failed to undermine the Belarusian state through an attempt at a covert revolution and participated in illegal anti-government actions and clashes with law enforcement officers in 2020.”
“Now, they broadcast extremist calls and plans to overthrow the legitimate authorities in an armed conflict in Belarus,” she said.
“The real situation in Belarus is radically different from the false picture painted by the report of the so-called group of OHCHR experts,” she said. “The focus of the state policy of Belarus will always be the strengthening of the well-being of the people and the protection of the interest of the Belarus state.”
Volkmann ended his presentation by calling for “prompt, effective, transparent and independent investigations into all past violations of international law occurring since May 2020” and for an end to impunity and accountability for perpetrators of crimes in Belarus.
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Ukrainians See Putin’s Reelection as Another Sign War Won’t End Soon
Like many people around the world, Ukrainians were not surprised by what was reported as President Vladimir Putin’s landslide victory in the Russian elections. Many see the outcome as another sign the war in Ukraine will not end anytime soon. For VOA, Anna Chernikova reports from Kyiv. Videography: Vladyslav Smilianets.
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Russia Donates Fertilizer, Grain to Zimbabwe
Harare, Zimbabwe — Russia donated 25,000 tons of grain and 23,000 tons of fertilizer to Zimbabwe to help combat the effects of El Nino-induced drought, which has dwindled crop yields in most parts of Southern Africa.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa accepted the donation Wednesday, saying it would help alleviate the drought Zimbabwe is coping with and the targeted sanctions which the government has long blamed for the country’s economic doldrums.
“Zimbabwe and the Russian Federation continue to be subjected to the heinous and illegal sanctions imposed by the hegemonic powers of the West,” he said. “Throughout the 23 years of sanctions against Zimbabwe, the Russian Federation has been a true, trusted and dependable ally of the people of this country.”
The president added that it should be no surprise that two countries who are the subject of sanctions talk to each other and try to work together.
Western countries slapped travel and financial sanctions on Zimbabwe’s leadership and affiliated companies in the early 2000s for alleged election rigging and human rights abuses.
The U.S. recently removed sanctions on most Zimbabweans, but a few prominent figures — including Mnangagwa — remain on the list.
Meanwhile, Russia and its president Vladimir Putin were hit with sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
On Wednesday, the Russian ambassador to Harare, Nikolai Krasilnikov, said the donated fertilizers would aid Zimbabwe’s agricultural production.
“It is a commitment made by Russia to continue to support states and regions in need to do its utmost to prevent a global food crisis through participation in establishing a more equitable system for the distribution of resources,” Krasilnikov said. “And let us not forget that food security cannot [be achieved] without fertilizers, as they ensure growth, resilience and productivity of agricultural crops.”
However, the fertilizers may not work in Zimbabwe’s current growing season, as most crops have been dried out by a lack of rain.
In an interview, Alexander Rusero, an international relations professor at Africa University, said he was not surprised by Russia’s donations to Zimbabwe.
“Zimbabwe does not have an ambivalent foreign policy with regards to Russia,” Rusero said. “Its position in terms of its interaction with Russia [is] very clear. Zimbabwe is on the side of Russia at whatever cost so it is not surprising. I wouldn’t know why it looks like a surprise that Zimbabwe has received some gift from Russia. And remember, these are fulfillments of pledges already made some time ago.”
Zimbabwe’s electoral commission sent a mission to Moscow to observe the Russian elections this week in which Putin won another six-year term. At a press conference in Moscow, commission chair Priscilla Chigumba declared the elections to be credible.
“We found the general atmosphere to be conducive for elections, the mood was relaxed and cheerful as people were exercising their right to vote,” Chigumba said. “It is our view that this is a clear sign of mature democracy in which elections are not perceived as life and death activity.”
The remarks drew wide criticism in Zimbabwe, given the way the electoral commission ran the country’s 2023 elections, which were plagued by irregularities and delays and were condemned by several observer missions, including from the Southern African Development Community.
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Berlin Summons Iran Ambassador Over 2022 Synagogue Plot
BERLIN — Germany on Wednesday said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador over an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in 2022 that Berlin believes was planned with the help of Tehran.
A German Iranian national was sentenced in December to two years and nine months in prison in the plot to attack a synagogue in the western German city of Bochum.
The 36-year-old, identified only as Babak J., had planned to target the synagogue but ended up throwing an incendiary device at an adjacent school building. No one was injured.
In handing down the verdict, the Duesseldorf court said the attack had been planned with the help of “Iranian state agencies.”
The foreign ministry on Wednesday said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it had summoned the Iranian envoy after receiving a written justification of the judgment.
“We will now immediately share the judgment with our European partners and the EU institutions and examine further steps,” the ministry said.
Germany also summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in December over the plot.
A summoning is a way for a nation to show high-level disapproval with another country.
Germany has grown increasingly alarmed in recent years about rising anti-Jewish sentiment nearly eight decades after the end of the Holocaust.
Anti-Semitic acts have increased sharply in the country amid the latest turmoil in the Middle East, according to the Federal Association of Research and Information Centers on Anti-Semitism.
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Spanish Court Grants Bail to Soccer Star Dani Alves While Appealing Rape Conviction
BARCELONA, Spain — A Spanish court decided Wednesday that Brazilian soccer star Dani Alves could leave prison if he pays a bail of one million euros ($1.1 million) and hands over his passports while awaiting the appeal of his conviction for raping a woman in Barcelona.
Alves was found guilty of having raped the woman in a nightclub in 2022 and sentenced to four years and six months in prison. He denied wrongdoing during the three-day trial.
He has been behind bars since being arrested in January 2023. His prior requests to be released on bail were denied because the court deemed him a flight risk. Brazil does not extradite its own citizens when they are sentenced in other countries.
To now go free, in addition to the bail money, the 40-year-old Alves is also required to hand over his Brazilian and Spanish passports and is prohibited from leaving the country. He also cannot come within 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) of the victim or try to communicate with her and must make weekly check-ins at the courthouse. He still has a residence near the city.
The decision came a day after a hearing where Alves told the court via video conference from prison that he had no intention of fleeing the country, according to his lawyer, Inés Guardiola.
Guardiola and the state prosecutor have appealed the conviction. His defense is seeking his acquittal while the prosecutor wants his prison sentence increased to nine years. The victim’s lawyer wants him put away for 12 years. There is no date yet for the new trial at a higher court in Barcelona. After that, it can then go to the Supreme Court in Madrid.
The panel of judges at the Provincial Court in Barcelona was split on the decision, two to one. The judges in favor of granting Alves bail said that they believed the flight risk had lowered, adding that they considered the fact that Alves responded to police summons when he was arrested while visiting Spain. The other judge disagreed, saying he was still able to flee despite the restrictions placed on him.
Another factor cited by the two judges was that according to Spanish law a person cannot be kept in preventative detention for more than half the period of his or her prison sentence while awaiting an appeal. In Alves’ case that leaves him just over a year before he would reach the mid-way mark of two years, three months, while the appeals could easily take longer. Once his appeals are exhausted, and if his conviction is maintained, then depending on the final sentence he could go back to prison.
As part of his conviction, the court ordered Alves to pay 150,000 euros ($162,000) in compensation to the victim, banned him from approaching the victim’s home or place of work, and from communicating with her by any means for nine years.
He was with Mexican club Pumas when he was arrested. Pumas terminated his contract immediately.
Alves won dozens of titles with elite clubs including Barcelona. He helped Brazil win two Copa Americas and an Olympic gold medal. He played for Barcelona from 2008-16, helping to win three Champions Leagues, and briefly rejoined the club in 2022.
Alves is being held at Brians 2 prison about 45 minutes northwest of Barcelona.
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Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar to Step Down
LONDON — Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who made history as his country’s first gay and first biracial leader, announced Wednesday that he will step down within weeks once a successor is chosen.
Varadkar announced Wednesday he is quitting immediately as head of the center-right Fine Gael party, part of Ireland’s coalition government. He’ll be replaced as prime minister in April after a party leadership contest.
He said his reasons were “both personal and political” and he had no firm future plans. He said he plans to remain in parliament as a backbench lawmaker.
Varadkar, 45, has had two spells as taoiseach, or prime minister — between 2017 and 2020, and again since December 2022 as part of a job-share with Micheál Martin, head of coalition partner Fianna Fáil.
He was the country’s youngest-ever leader when first elected, as well as Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister. Varadkar, whose mother is Irish and father is Indian, was also Ireland’s first biracial taoiseach.
He played a leading role in campaigns to legalize same-sex marriage, approved in a 2015 referendum, and to repeal a ban on abortion, which passed in a vote in 2018.
“I’m proud that we have made the country a more equal and more modern place,” Varadkar said in a resignation statement in Dublin.
Varadkar recently returned from Washington, where he met President Joe Biden and other political leaders as part of the Irish prime minister’s traditional St. Patrick’s Day visit to the United States.
Varadkar has faced discontent within Fine Gael. Ten of the party’s lawmakers, almost a third of the total, have announced they will not run for reelection.
Earlier this month, voters rejected the government’s position in referendums on two constitutional amendments. Changes backed by Varadkar that would have broadened the definition of family and removed language about a woman’s role in the home were resoundingly defeated. The result sparked criticism that the pro-change campaign had been lackluster and confusing.
Even so, his resignation was not widely expected. Martin, the current deputy prime minister, said he’d been “surprised, obviously, when I heard what he was going to do.”
“But I want to take the opportunity to thank him sincerely,” Martin said. “We got on very well.”
Martin said Varadkar’s resignation should not trigger an early election, and the three-party coalition government that also includes the Green Party would continue.
Varadkar said he knew his departure would “come as a surprise to many people and a disappointment to some.”
“I know that others will, how shall I put it, cope with the news just fine – that is the great thing about living in a democracy,” he said. “There’s never a right time to resign high office. However, this is as good a time as any.”
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China, Not Russia, Still Tops List of Threats to US
WASHINGTON — Russia’s war in Ukraine — portrayed by top U.S. officials as posing a danger to the United States itself — still trails China when it comes to long-term threats to America’s security, according to a top Pentagon official.
The warning from Ely Ratner, the Defense Department’s assistant secretary for Indo-Pacific security affairs, comes in testimony prepared for a hearing Wednesday by the House Armed Services Committee on security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region.
“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to present the most comprehensive and serious challenge to our national security,” Ratner is set to tell lawmakers, according to a copy his opening statement obtained by VOA.
“The PRC remains the only country with the will and increasingly the capability to dominate the Indo-Pacific region and displace the United States,” Ratner warns, adding, “the PRC is pursuing its revisionist goals with increasingly coercive activities in the Taiwan Strait, the South and East China seas, along the Line of Actual Control with India, and beyond.”
This is not the first time Ratner has addressed the growing threat from Beijing.
In October he called out China’s military for what he described as a “sharp increase” in risky behavior in the East and South China seas.
Ratner also cautioned, separately, that China’s leaders were “increasingly turning to the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] as an instrument of coercion.”
Additionally, the Pentagon’s annual China Military Power report said that China’s nuclear arsenal has been growing faster than expected, while Beijing is building out the infrastructure needed for a further expansion of its nuclear forces.
China has responded to such allegations by accusing the U.S. of “hyping up” the threat.
On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a warning of his own, emphasizing the threat from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The United States stands by Ukraine because it’s the right thing to do,” Austin told a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Ramstein, Germany. “But we also stand by Ukraine because it’s crucial to our own security.”
“The United States would face grave new perils in a world where aggression and autocracy are on the march and where tyrants are emboldened and where dictators think that they can wipe out democracy off the map,” he said.
U.S. intelligence officials argued recently that the threats from Russia and China are linked, and that Russia’s war has served to embolden China’s leadership.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers earlier this month that Beijing has managed to get long-sought concessions from Moscow in exchange for support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
And CIA Director William Burns said Russian success in Ukraine could “stoke the ambitions of the Chinese leadership in contingencies ranging from Taiwan to the South China Sea.”
Ratner is set to tell U.S. lawmakers Wednesday that the Defense Department is working to strengthen key alliances in the Indo-Pacific and develop what he calls a “regional force posture” including Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia.
He is also set to testify that the Pentagon’s proposed 2025 budget is placing a priority on investments in air, sea and undersea power, as well as in modernizing U.S. nuclear forces with an eye toward Beijing’s own military modernization efforts.
your ad hereSecretary of Defense: ‘United States Will Not Let Ukraine Fail’
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says the United States remains determined to provide Ukraine with the resources to fight Russian aggression, even as the U.S. Congress has failed to pass supplemental aid for Ukraine. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb traveled to Ramstein Air Base in Germany with the secretary.
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Ukrainian Drone Strikes Hit Russia’s Oil Revenues
London — A recent series of Ukrainian drone and missile strikes targeting Russian oil refineries has significantly hurt Moscow’s processing capacity, according to analysts.
The strikes, which come as Kyiv and its allies aim to deprive Russia of a main source of revenue for funding its invasion of Ukraine, have reduced Moscow’s overall oil processing capacity by 370,500 barrels per day, or 7% of its total output, according to calculations by Reuters.
The Ryazan oil refinery was set on fire after a drone attack March 13, forcing the shutdown of two damaged primary oil refining units. The plant, which is located south of Moscow, produces around 317,000 barrels per day, or 5.8% of Russia’s total refined crude oil.
Video footage posted online showed a Ukrainian drone flying through a smoke-filled sky above the refinery, before circling and crashing into the plant, causing a loud explosion.
Another drone attack on March 12 targeted the NORSI refinery near the city of Nizhny Novgorod, some 430 kilometers east of Moscow, knocking out half of the plant’s refining capacity, according to sources quoted by Reuters.
Kyiv claims to have targeted at least seven different refineries. Several are in the region bordering Ukraine.
“Wars take huge amounts of diesel fuel for tanks, for trucks and so forth. And so that region is directly responsible for diesel for the war,” noted Thomas O’Donnell, an energy and geopolitics analyst with the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.
The attacks on refineries further to the north of Russia are also aimed at reducing Moscow’s revenue from hydrocarbon exports.
“By hitting refineries up there, what happens is the diesel that they export — they were exporting almost as much diesel before as oil — that’s being destroyed, and they have to shift it to oil if they want to make money on that,” O’Donnell told VOA.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the military’s growing drone capabilities in the wake of last week’s attacks.
“In recent weeks, many have already seen that the Russian war machine has vulnerabilities and that we can exploit these vulnerabilities with our weapons,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on March 16. “What our own drones can do is truly a long-range Ukrainian capability. Ukraine will now always have its own striking force in the sky.”
The Ukrainian strikes combined with the Western price cap of $60 per barrel on Russian oil could add to the pressure the Kremlin is facing. Buyers who do not adhere to the cap are prevented from using Western services like insurance and shipping. Since November, Western nations have toughened their monitoring of compliance with the measures.
Russia has used a fleet of “shadow” tankers to move its oil around the world, with much of it travelling through the Baltic Sea or the Arctic. That presents an opportunity for Ukraine’s allies, says analyst O’Donnell.
“The tankers themselves are very old and rather sketchy. They could be stopped in the straits, in the territorial waters between Denmark and Sweden, and be inspected, legally,” he told VOA. “And the inspectors could say, ‘this isn’t good enough insurance,’ or ‘these ships aren’t of proper quality to be carrying this oil,’ and make them turn around. That would be a dramatic intervention.”
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Russia’s Election Monitor Calls Presidential Elections ‘Imitation’
The independent election watchdog group Golos called last week’s Russian balloting an “imitation” of an election. President Vladimir Putin won his reelection bid in a campaign that was never in doubt. Kateryna Besedina has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Artyom Kokhan.
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Austin: US, Free World ‘Will Not Let Ukraine Fail’
Ramstein, Germany — Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says the United States remains determined to provide Ukraine with the resources it needs to fight Russian aggression, even as a U.S. Congress has yet to approve new funding for Ukraine.
“The United States will not let Ukraine fail. This coalition will not let Ukraine fail, and the free world will not let Ukraine fail,” Austin said at the start of this month’s Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Germany.
This is Austin’s first international trip since he was hospitalized on January 1 due to complications from surgery to treat his prostate cancer in late December. The Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) brings together officials from more than 50 nations to coordinate their Ukraine efforts.
The U.S. has contributed about $44 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, with allies and partners also committing more than $44 billion in that time frame.
But the U.S. military has run out of congressionally approved funds for replenishing its weapons stockpiles sent to Ukraine, and leadership in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives has so far refused to bring new aid for Ukraine up for a vote.
“There isn’t a way that our allies can really combine forces to make up for the lack of U.S. support,” according to a senior defense official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity ahead of the UDCG.
Not only is the U.S. military out of funds for Ukraine, the Defense Department has a funding shortfall from its efforts to provide military support to Ukraine that will grow to least $12 billion by the end of the fiscal year without additional funding from Congress, according to officials. The Pentagon previously acknowledged a funding shortfall of about $10 billion for U.S. military weapons needed to replace those already sent to Ukraine.
In addition to the $10 billion shortage for weapons replenishment, U.S. Army Europe and Africa currently has overspent its budget by about $500 million as it continues to pay for the training of Ukrainians and other Ukraine support mission necessities out of pocket, Col. Martin O’Donnell, the public affairs director for the Army’s forces across those two continents, told VOA.
That shortfall will grow to at least $2 billion by the end of the fiscal year without supplemental funding from Congress, he added.
Ukrainian forces have continued to fight back against Russian forces in the east while inflicting considerable damage to Russian forces in the Black Sea and downing Russian warplanes. However, Moscow— with the help of North Korea and Iran — has drastically ramped up its defense production capacity, forcing Ukraine to retreat from some battles due to ammunition shortages, the senior defense official added.
“Ukraine is heavily outgunned on the battlefield. We’ve received reports of Ukrainian troops rationing or even running out of ammunition on the front lines,” said the official.
Austin on Tuesday thanked members of the group for digging deeper to get vital security assistance to Ukraine, praising the Czech Republic for recently procuring 800,000 artillery shells for Kyiv. He also highlighted Germany, France, Denmark and Sweden for their new contributions.
Last week, the United States announced its first new round of military aid for Ukraine since late December, in what defense officials called an “ad hoc” package made possible through U.S. Army procurement savings.
The military assistance package is valued at up to $300 million and will provide Ukraine with immediate air defense, artillery and anti-tank capabilities, along with more ammunition for HIMARS rocket launchers and 155-mm artillery rounds. But officials say it is unclear if there will be future procurement savings to produce another extraordinary package of aid.
“This is not a sustainable solution for Ukraine. We urgently need congressional approval of a national security supplemental,” the senior defense official said.
The emphasis on ammunition and air defense will likely be as strong as ever during this UDCG meeting. Officials say Ukraine’s forces need interceptors for a variety of their air defense systems, which they have been running out of as they try to defend against wave upon wave of attacks from Russia.
Coalition leadership group
To better organize how the UDCG provides Kyiv with military weapons and equipment, the group’s members have formed capability coalitions to identify ways to increase Kyiv’s efficiency and cut costs.
Defense officials say Secretary Austin will convene a meeting of the leads and co-leads of all the capability coalitions for the first time on Tuesday during a special coalition leadership group session.
Air Force capability is co-led by the United States, Denmark and the Netherlands. The armor capability is co-led by Poland and Italy. The artillery capability is co-led by France and the United States. De-mining is co-led by Lithuania and Iceland. Drone capability is co-led by Latvia and the United Kingdom. Information technology is co-led by Estonia and Luxembourg. Integrated air and missile defense capabilities are co-led by Germany and France, and maritime security is co-led by the United Kingdom and Norway.
Critics like Sean McFate, a professor at Syracuse University and author of “The New Rules of War,” told VOA the international community is putting its money into expensive military aid that falls short in modern warfare.
“It’s not conventional warfare that beat back Russia’s blitz. It was Ukrainian guerrilla warfare,” he said. “Ukraine was winning the unconventional fight. But then in fall of 2022, they decided to go conventional against Russia, which was strategically silly.”
McFate added that giving Ukraine more conventional war weapons was, in his view, “the strategic definition of insanity.”
Instead, he said Ukraine and its allies needed to think about unconventional ways where they can leverage their power to defeat Russia, such as guerilla operations and more direct actions deep inside Russia to build on the Russian population’s unfavorable opinions of the war.
“Use your conventional forces to hold the line, but don’t invest them to create an offensive which requires a lot more resources,” McFate told VOA.
“M1A1 Abram tanks and F-16 fighter jets … will win tactical victories on the battlefield, but we all know that you can win every battle, yet lose the war, because wars are won on the strategic level, not at the tactical level of warfare,” he said.
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