In Ukraine, a music teacher is teaching children how to fly drones. While it grew out of Russia’s invasion, the teacher says the skills the students learn will serve them well in peacetime as well. Lesia Bakalets reports from Kyiv. Camera: Vladyslav Smilianets.
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A Turkish court has jailed pending trial nine protesters who disrupted President Tayyip Erdogan’s speech in Istanbul last week, accusing his government of continuing oil exports to Israel despite a publicized embargo.

The incident occurred during Erdogan’s televised address at a forum on Friday, where the protesters said the government was failing to uphold its pro-Palestinian rhetoric.

They chanted slogans such as “Ships are carrying bombs to Gaza” and “Stop fueling genocide.”

Erdogan responded sharply.

“My child, don’t become the mouthpiece of Zionists here. No matter how much you try to provoke by acting as their voice, mouth, and eyes, you will not succeed,” he said.

“Zionists around the world know very well where Tayyip Erdogan stands. But it seems you still haven’t understood.”

Police removed the demonstrators from the event, and prosecutors charged them with insulting the president and participating in an illegal demonstration.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said the group had coordinated their actions inside and outside the venue and sought their detention pending trial.

The arrests have drawn strong criticism from opposition politicians and rights advocates. Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Ozgur Ozel denounced the detentions as a blow to democracy.

“The decision to arrest nine young people who protested Tayyip Erdogan proves the grave situation our country’s democracy has fallen into,” Ozel said.

“These young people were exercising their right to free expression and should be released immediately.”
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The new head of the International Broadcasting department at Polish Television tells VOA Russian about plans to increase programming for viewers in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.  

“There is a need for truthful information about what is going on in Belarus and Russia,” Michael Broniatowski said. He also discussed the biggest challenges when producing programming for Belarusian and Russian audiences.    

See the full story here.

 
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Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group remains active, even after the death of its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in August of 2023. Russian experts say the group has been drawn closer to Kremlin power structures and is still fighting to advance Moscow’s interests around the world. Matthew Kupfer has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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The Hague, Netherlands — The president of the International Criminal Court lashed out at the United States and Russia for interfering with its investigations, calling attacks on the court “appalling.”

“The court is being threatened with draconian economic sanctions by another permanent member of the Security Council as if it was a terrorist organization,” Judge Tomoko Akane said in her address to the institution’s annual meeting, which opened on Monday.

Akane was referring to remarks made by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, whose Republican party will control both branches of Congress in January, and who called the court a “dangerous joke” and urged Congress to sanction its prosecutor. “To any ally, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, if you try to help the ICC, we’re going to sanction you,” Graham said on Fox News.

Graham was angered by an announcement last month that judges had granted a request from the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas’ military chief for crimes against humanity in connection with the nearly 14-month war in Gaza.

This marks the first time the global court of justice calls out a sitting leader of a major Western ally.

ICC faces challenges on arrest warrants

Graham’s threat isn’t seen as just empty words. President-elect Donald Trump sanctioned the court’s previous prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, with a travel ban and asset freeze for investigating American troops and intelligence officials in Afghanistan.

Akane on Monday also had harsh words for Russia. “Several elected officials are being subjected to arrest warrants from a permanent member of the Security Council,” she said. Moscow issued warrants for Khan and others in response to the investigation into Putin.

The Assembly of States Parties, which represents the ICC’s 124 member countries, will convene its 23rd conference to elect committee members and approve the court’s budget against a backdrop of unfavorable headlines.

The ICC was established in 2002 as the world’s permanent court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the most heinous atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression. The court only becomes involved when nations are unable or unwilling to prosecute those crimes on their territory. To date, 124 countries have signed on to the Rome Statute, which created the institution. Those who have not include Israel, Russia and China.

The ICC has no police force and relies on member states to execute arrest warrants.

The decision to warrant issues for Netanyahu and Israel’s ex-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has been denounced by critics of the court and given only milquetoast approval by many of its supporters, a stark contrast to the robust backing of an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin last year over war crimes in Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden called the warrants for Netanyahu and the former defense minister “outrageous” and vowed to stand with Israel. A year ago, Biden called the warrant for Putin “justified” and said the Russian president had committed war crimes. The U.S. is not an ICC member country.

France said it would “respect its obligations” but would need to consider Netanyahu’s possible immunities. When the warrant for Putin was announced, France said it would “lend its support to the essential work” of the court.

Another member country, Austria, begrudgingly acknowledged it would arrest Netanyahu but called the warrants “utterly incomprehensible.” Italy called them “wrong” but said it would be obliged to arrest him. Germany said it would study the decision. Member Hungary has said it would stand with Israel instead of the court.

Global security expert Janina Dill worried that such responses could undermine global justice efforts. “It really has the potential to damage not just the court, but international law,” she told The Associated Press.

Milena Sterio, an expert in international law at Cleveland State University, told the AP that sanctions against the court could affect a number of people who contribute to the court’s work, such as international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. Clooney advised the current prosecutor on his request for the warrants for Netanyahu and others.

“Sanctions are a huge burden,” Sterio said.

Accusations against Khan

Also hanging heavy over the meeting in The Hague are the internal pressures that Khan faces. In October, the AP reported the 54-year-old British lawyer is facing allegations he tried to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her.

Two co-workers in whom the woman confided reported the alleged misconduct in May to the court’s independent watchdog, which says it interviewed the woman and ended its inquiry after five days when she opted against filing a formal complaint. Khan was never questioned. He has denied the claims.

The Assembly of States Parties has announced it will launch an external probe into the allegations. It’s not clear if the investigation will be addressed during the meeting.

Khan took the floor after Akane. He didn’t address the accusations against him or the threats against the court directly, other than to say the institution was facing “unprecedented challenges.”

Instead he highlighted his office’s recent request for an arrest warrant against the head of Myanmar’s military government and said he planned to request warrants related to Afghanistan and Sudan in the coming months.

Late last week, six countries including France, Luxembourg and Mexico asked Khan’s office to look into possible crimes in Afghanistan since the Taliban took control in 2021. While Khan isn’t obligated to open an investigation in response to such a request, historically court prosecutors have done so.

The court, which has long faced accusations of ineffectiveness, will have no trials pending after two conclude in December. While it has issued a number of arrest warrants in recent months, many high-profile suspects remain at large.

Member states don’t always act. Mongolia refused to arrest Putin when he visited in September. Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir is wanted by the ICC over accusations related to the conflict in Darfur, but his country has refused to hand him over. Last week, Khan requested a warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, for attacks against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. Judges have yet to decide on that request.

“It becomes very difficult to justify the court’s existence,” Sterio said.
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged $680 million in military aid for Ukraine as he pledged support for the country during a visit Monday to Kyiv.

Scholz said Ukraine can rely on Germany, and that his visit was meant to reinforce that commitment.

He said the new military equipment is set to be delivered to Ukraine this month.

The visit comes amid questions about future Western aid for Ukraine with the United States set to go through a change of leadership in January.

Ukraine’s military said Monday it shot down 52 of 110 drones that Russian forces launched in attacks overnight.

The intercepts took place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions, the air force said.

Viacheslav Negoda, the head of the military administration of Ternopil region, said on Telegram that Russian attacks killed one person and injured several others.

Officials in Cherkasy said falling drone debris damaged several residential buildings.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 15 Ukrainian aerial drones.

The ministry said it destroyed drones over the Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions, and over Russia-occupied Crimea.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters
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BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia on Sunday rejected any responsibility for a powerful explosion that temporarily cut water and power supplies to large swathes of neighboring Kosovo, with Serbia’s president claiming such accusations are part of a “hybrid” warfare against his country.

Kosovo officials said police had arrested eight people after an explosion on Friday in the northern Serb-populated part of the state hit a canal that sends water to its two main power plants. Pristina called it a “terrorist act” conducted by Serbia.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic rejected those accusations.

“On Friday, there was an attempt of a large hybrid attack on our country,” Vucic said. “Belgrade and Serbia have nothing to do with those events.”

The populist Serbian leader suggested Kosovo was behind the attack but said he would refrain from directly accusing Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti pending an investigation conducted by Belgrade.

“I will not say that Kurti directly ordered the attack,” Vucic said. “The investigation will show, we have certain suspicions. We believe we have certain findings who could be the perpetrator.”

“During that so-called anti-terrorist operation, Kurti’s special forces occupied new intersections and streets, harassing Serbs, and it was all a show for the international public,” Vucic said.

Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti said the recent attacks in Kosovo — on a water canal, town hall building and police station — were correlated with the recent attacks from Russia in Ukraine.

“That attack has correlation with the massive air attacks of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, attacks which targeted energy infrastructure in Ukraine,” he said at a news conference on Sunday.

Kosovo police have raided 10 locations in the north, confiscating more than 200 military uniforms, six shoulder-fired rocket launchers, long weapons, pistols and ammunition, they said. About 15 to 20 kilograms (30 to 45 pounds) of explosives were used to damage the critical infrastructure, according to Kosovo police chief Gazmend Hoxha.

Police also found many emblems of the Russian special forces and Russian empire flags, according to Kurti, adding that “Serbia is copying Russian methods to threaten Kosovo and the region in general.”

The explosion has further fueled tensions between the two Balkan states. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which is not recognized by Belgrade. Most of the Serb minority living in Kosovo still consider Belgrade as their capital.

The European Union and the United States strongly denounced the explosion and demanded that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
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Stockholm — Sales by major arms suppliers were boosted last year by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and tensions in Asia, with marked increases for manufacturers based in Russia and the Middle East, according to a report published Monday.

Sales of arms and military services by the world’s 100 largest arms companies totaled $632 billion last year, up 4.2%, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said.

They had declined in 2022 due to the inability of these global giants to meet the increase in demand, but many of them managed to restart their production in 2023, according to the report.

As a sign of this strong surge in demand, these 100 companies, for the first time, all individually achieved a turnover of more than a billion dollars last year.

“There has been a marked increase in arms sales in 2023, and this trend is expected to continue in 2024,” Lorenzo Scarazzato, a researcher at SIPRI’s program on military expenditure and arms production, was quoted as saying in a statement.

Sales of the world’s top 100 groups “do not yet fully reflect the scale of demand and many companies have launched recruitment campaigns, showing their optimism for the future,” he adds.

Smaller producers have been more efficient in meeting this new demand linked to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, growing tensions in East Asia and rearmament programs in other regions, SIPRI points out.

“Many of them specialize in one component or build systems that require a single supply chain,” allowing them to react more quickly, Nan Tian, director of the military spending program, told AFP.

As the world’s leading producers, American groups recorded a 2.5% increase in their sales in 2023 and still represent half of global arms revenues, with 41 American companies among the top 100 in the world.

Lockheed Martin and RTX (formerly Raytheon Technologies), the two largest arms groups in the world, recorded a drop in their sales.

“They often rely on complex, multi-tiered supply chains, making them vulnerable to the supply chain challenges that have persisted into 2023,” Nan Tian says.

Bond of Russian Rostec  

Europe, with 27 groups, only posted a 0.2% increase in sales last year, which masks a dual reality.

European groups manufacturing complex weapons systems were still working on old contracts last year, which does not reflect the influx of orders recorded since then.

Other groups, on the other hand, “saw their turnover increase substantially, driven by demand linked to the war in Ukraine”, notably for munitions, artillery and air defense systems and land systems, writes SIPRI.

The figures for Russia, although incomplete, show the effects of an economy largely geared toward war.

Sales of the two Russian groups in the ranking showed a 40% increase, mainly due to the 49% increase in sales of the state conglomerate Rostec, according to SIPRI.

Manufacturers in the Middle East were buoyed by the war in Ukraine and the first months of the Israeli offensive on Gaza in October 2023.

The three Israeli manufacturers in the ranking posted record sales of $13.6 billion, while the three groups based in Turkey, such as drone producer Baykar, saw their sales jump by 24%, supported by the war in Ukraine and Turkey’s desire to develop its defense.

The general rearmament in Asia is particularly evident in the sales increases of the four South Korean manufacturers and the five Japanese weapons’ makers, with the nine Chinese producers marking time against a backdrop of a “slow economy.”
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The United States is not considering returning to Ukraine the nuclear weapons it gave up after the Soviet Union collapsed, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday.

Sullivan made his remarks when questioned about a New York Times article last month that said some unidentified Western officials had suggested U.S. President Joe Biden could give Ukraine the arms before he leaves office.

“That is not under consideration, no. What we are doing is surging various conventional capacities to Ukraine so that they can effectively defend themselves and take the fight to the Russians, not [giving them] nuclear capability,” he told ABC.

Last week, Russia said the idea was “absolute insanity” and that preventing such a scenario was one of the reasons why Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.

Kyiv inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse but gave them up under a 1994 agreement, the Budapest Memorandum, in return for security assurances from Russia, the United States and Britain.
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NOVI SAD, Serbia — Thousands joined a protest march on Sunday in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad that marked one month since a concrete canopy outside of the city’s railway station collapsed, killing 15 people and injuring two.

Protesters held a huge banner with a red handprint at the front of the column — a message for the populist authorities that they have blood on their hands. Participants later left the same symbolic message on the pavement at the main square in Novi Sad while also painting much of the square red.

Street protests and blockades have been held almost daily since the Nov. 1 roof collapse, demanding accountability after tons of concrete fell on people sitting or walking below on a sunny day.

The railway station building was renovated twice in recent years. Many in Serbia believe rampant corruption and opaque deals resulted in sloppy work and led to the collapse of the roof.

While prosecutors have announced the arrests of 13 people, a Serbian court has since released from detention former government construction minister Goran Vesic. This has fueled widespread skepticism of the ongoing investigation, as the populists control both the police and judiciary. 

The march on Sunday in Novi Sad was held in silence and passed peacefully, unlike some traffic blockades in past weeks when pro-government supporters have sought to disrupt the gatherings and scuffled with the protesters. Scuffles have also erupted in Serbia’s parliament between the ruling party and opposition lawmakers. 

The protests are seen as a challenge for Serbia’s authoritarian President Aleksandar Vucic, whose populist government holds firm control over the mainstream media and institutions.

Vucic on Sunday defended his supporters’ appearance at the opposition-led traffic blockades. Vucic said halting traffic presented the “ultimate violence” against citizens.

Opposition parties are demanding the resignation of Serbia’s prime minister and his government, as well as access to full documentation on the train station building and other infrastructure projects carried out in conjunction with Chinese state companies.

The station in Novi Sad was originally built in 1964. Its renovation was part of a bigger project with China and Hungary to build a high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest.
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KYIV, UKRAINE — The EU’s new top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, and head of the European Council, Antonio Costa, arrived in Kyiv on Sunday in a symbolic show of support for Ukraine on their first day in office.

“We came to give a clear message that we stand with Ukraine, and we continue to give our full support,” Costa told media outlets including AFP accompanying them on the trip.

The European Union’s new leadership team is keen to demonstrate it remains firm on backing Kyiv at a perilous moment for Ukraine nearly three years into its fight against Russia’s all-out invasion.

Questions are swirling around the future of U.S. support once Donald Trump assumes office in January and there are fears he could force Kyiv to make painful concessions in pursuit of a quick peace deal.

Meanwhile, tensions have escalated as Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to strike government buildings in Kyiv with his new Oreshnik missile after firing it at Ukraine for the first time last month.

The Kremlin leader said the move is a response to Kyiv getting the green light to strike inside Russia with American and British missiles, and he has threatened to hit back against the countries supplying the weaponry.

As winter begins, Russia has also unleashed devastating barrages against Ukraine’s power grid and on the frontline Kyiv’s fatigued forces are losing ground to Moscow’s grinding offensive.

“The situation in Ukraine is very, very grave,” Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, said. “But it’s clear that it comes at a very high cost for Russia as well.”

Ceasefire?

The new EU leaders — the bloc’s top officials along with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen — were set to hold talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy on Friday appeared to begin staking out his position ahead of any potential peace talks.

He called on NATO to offer guaranteed protections to parts of Ukraine controlled by Kyiv in order to “stop the hot stage of the war,” and implied he would then be willing to wait to regain other territory seized by Russia.

“If we speak ceasefire, [we need] guarantees that Putin will not come back,” Zelenskyy told Britain’s Sky News.

Kallas said that “the strongest security guarantee is NATO membership.”

“We need to definitely discuss this — if Ukraine decides to draw the line somewhere then how can we secure peace so that Putin doesn’t go any further,” she said.

Diplomats at NATO say there appears little prospect of the alliance granting Ukraine membership soon given opposition from a raft of members cautious of getting dragged into war with Russia.

Kallas said the EU “shouldn’t really rule out anything” in terms of the question of sending European troops to help enforce any ceasefire.

“We should have this strategic ambiguity around this,” she said.

‘Transactional language’

Trump has cast doubt on continuing Washington’s vast aid for Ukraine and called on EU countries to do more.

Europe together has spent around $125 billion on supporting Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion, while the United States alone has coughed up over $90 billion, according to a tracker from the Kiel Institute.

Kallas said the EU would use a “transactional language” to try to convince Trump that backing Kyiv was in the interest of the U.S.

“Aid for Ukraine is not charity,” she said. “A victory for Russia definitely emboldens China, Iran, North Korea.”

The new EU foreign policy chief said the bloc would continue seeking to put Ukraine in the “strongest” position — if and when Kyiv chose it was time to negotiate with Moscow.

But she conceded that it was becoming “increasingly difficult” for the 27-nation bloc to agree on new ways to ramp up support for Ukraine.

“This war has been going on for quite some time and it is harder and harder to explain it to our own people,” she said. “But I don’t see any option.”
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PRISTINA, KOSOVO — Kosovo’s Interior minister Xhelal Svecla said Saturday that police had arrested eight people after an explosion hit a canal that sends water to its two main power plants, an incident Pristina labeled a “terrorist act” by neighboring Serbia. 

“Somehow we managed to fix the damage, arrest the suspects and confiscate a huge arsenal of weapons,” Svecla said during a live-streamed news conference.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic denied what he said were “baseless accusations” about Belgrade’s involvement in the incident, which occurred Friday around 7 p.m. (1800 GMT).  

Police commander Gazmend Hoxha said those arrested “are suspected of inciting, organizing and even executing these recent terrorist acts and in particular the one in the canal of Iber Lepenc.” 

Hoxha said an initial investigation had shown that between 15 and 20 kilos of explosives were used in the attack. 

Police raided 10 locations, confiscating more than 200 military uniforms, six shoulder-fired rocket launchers, long weapons, pistols and ammunition, he said. 

Police said most of the people arrested belong to the local Serb organization Civilna Zastita (Civil Protection), which the government in Kosovo has declared as a terrorist organization. 

Reuters was unable to contact the group. 

Tensions with Serbia 

The explosion has increased tensions between the two Balkan countries. Ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 almost a decade after a guerrilla uprising against its rule, but Serbia has not recognized Kosovo as an independent state. 

Relations remain especially frayed in the north of the country where the blast occurred, and where the Serb minority refuses to recognize Kosovo’s statehood and still sees Belgrade as their capital. 

Kosovo’s Security Council, which held emergency talks early Saturday, said it had activated armed forces to prevent similar attacks.  

Security was already heightened after two recent attacks where hand grenades were hurled at a police station and municipality building in northern Kosovo where ethnic Serbians live.  

“The Security Council has approved additional measures to strengthen security around critical facilities and services such as bridges, transformer stations, antennas, lakes, canals,” the council said in a statement Saturday.  

NATO, which has maintained a peacekeeping force in Kosovo since 1999, condemned the attack in a statement Saturday. Its personnel have provided security to the canal and the surrounding area since the blast, it said.  

A Reuters reporter visited the site Saturday, where silt had poured through a hole in the canal’s concrete wall. Workers had installed a series of large tubes to bypass the leak.  

Power supplies appeared to be largely intact, but the drinking water supply was disrupted in some areas.  

Energy minister Artane Rizvanolli said Kosovo was coordinating with Albania’s power company to provide more electricity. She said water will be trucked to affected areas. 
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