Month: November 2022

Powerful explosions shook the area around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant Saturday evening and again Sunday morning, the U.N. said, abruptly ending a period of relative calm at the facility.

The International Atomic Energy Agency team at Zaporizhzhia said there was damage to some buildings, systems and equipment at the plant, but none threatened nuclear safety and security. There have been no casualty reports.

IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement Sunday that the explosions further underlined the urgent need for measures to help prevent a nuclear accident there.

“The news from our team yesterday and this morning is extremely disturbing,” Grossi said. “Explosions occurred at the site of this major nuclear power plant, which is completely unacceptable. Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediately. As I have said many times before, you’re playing with fire!” he added.

The director-general renewed his urgent appeal to both sides in the conflict to agree and implement a nuclear safety and security zone around the ZNPP as soon as possible. In recent months, he has engaged in intense consultations with Ukraine and Russia about establishing such a zone, but so far without an agreement.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence update Sunday that Russia’s recent withdrawal from Kherson “was conducted in relatively good order” and its success “is likely partially due to a more effective, single operational command under General Sergei Surovikin.”

The ministry said Russian vehicle losses were likely in the tens rather than the hundreds, while any left behind equipment was “successfully destroyed by Russian forces to deny it to Ukraine.”

The report warned, however, the Russian force “remains riven by poor junior and mid-level leadership and cover-up culture.”

Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Ukraine’s defense has global implications. At the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada, he warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offers a preview of a world where nuclear-armed countries could threaten other nations.

“Putin’s fellow autocrats are watching,” Austin said. “And they could well conclude that getting nuclear weapons would give them a hunting license of their own. And that could drive a dangerous spiral of nuclear proliferation,” he added.

Austin also said Moscow’s efforts to gain support from countries such as Iran and North Korea create new security challenges for the United States and its allies.

Earlier, the Pentagon’s top policy adviser, Colin Kahl, said Russia is trying to deplete Ukraine’s air defenses and achieve dominance over Ukrainian skies.

Russia has been pummeling Ukraine with missile strikes throughout the past week, the heaviest wave since Moscow invaded nine months ago.

In Kyiv people woke up Saturday to several inches of snow. Ukrainian authorities in the capital are warning of a “complete shutdown,” as subzero temperatures grip the country.

Russian airstrikes have inflicted heavy damage on the energy grid of the Ukrainian capital while they continue to pound Ukraine — from Kyiv in the north to Odesa in the south — crushing almost half of Ukraine’s energy system, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

“They are determined to destroy our power grids,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, in a speech at the Halifax forum.

“The calculation is simple: a humanitarian catastrophe. Moscow always considers frost and darkness as its allies. It always uses the deprivation of basic life needs as a war tool. It always despises humanitarian law. Russia is a terrorist state,” Yermak said.

Amid freezing temperatures, difficulties with energy supplies persist throughout Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, in his nightly video address.

“Energy workers are doing everything possible to give people a normal life,” he said.

He added transport connections are being restored in Kherson.

“There is the first train from Kyiv. We create new opportunities for people every day,” Zelenskyy said.

In message earlier Saturday, Zelenskyy also addressed the annual Halifax meeting.

“The end of the war doesn’t guarantee peace. Russia is now looking for a short truce, a respite to regain strength… such a respite will only worsen the situation,” he said.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse, Reuters and The Associated Press.

 
…

Britain’s Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence update Sunday that Russia’s recent withdrawal from Kherson “was conducted in relatively good order” and its success “is likely partially due to a more effective, single operational command under General Sergei Surovikin.”

The ministry said Russian vehicle losses were likely in the tens rather than the hundreds, while any left behind equipment was “successfully destroyed by Russian forces to deny it to Ukraine.”

The report warned, however, the Russian force “remains riven by poor junior and mid-level leadership and cover-up culture.”

Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Ukraine’s defense has global implications. At the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada, he warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offers a preview of a world where nuclear-armed countries could threaten other nations.

“Putin’s fellow autocrats are watching,” Austin said. “And they could well conclude that getting nuclear weapons would give them a hunting license of their own. And that could drive a dangerous spiral of nuclear proliferation,” he added.

Austin also said Moscow’s efforts to gain support from countries such as Iran and North Korea create new security challenges for the United States and its allies.

Earlier, the Pentagon’s top policy adviser, Colin Kahl, said Russia is trying to deplete Ukraine’s air defenses and achieve dominance over Ukrainian skies.

Russia has been pummeling Ukraine with missile strikes throughout the past week, the heaviest wave since Moscow invaded nine months ago.

“They’re really trying to overwhelm and exhaust Ukrainian air defense systems,” Kahl, the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters Saturday during a trip to the Middle East.

Kahl said that, so far, Russia has not succeeded in breaking the Ukrainian air force and air defenses.

“I think one of the things that probably surprised the Russians the most is how resilient Ukraine’s air defenses have been since the beginning of this conflict,” he said.

He attributed Ukraine’s resilience to the “ingenuity and cleverness of the Ukrainians themselves in keeping their air defense systems viable,” but he noted that “the United States and other allies and partners have provided a tremendous amount of support.”

Britain pledged a $59.4 million air defense package Saturday for Ukraine, including anti-aircraft guns and technology to counter Iranian-supplied drones to Russia. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made the announcement on his first trip to Kyiv, posting a video of his visit on Twitter and pledging “We are with you all the way.”

In Kyiv people woke up Saturday to several inches of snow. Ukrainian authorities in the capital are warning of a “complete shutdown,” as subzero temperatures grip the country.

Russian airstrikes have inflicted heavy damage on the energy grid of the Ukrainian capital while they continue to pound Ukraine — from Kyiv in the north to Odesa in the south — crushing almost half of Ukraine’s energy system, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

“They are determined to destroy our power grids,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, in a speech at the Halifax forum.

“The calculation is simple: a humanitarian catastrophe. Moscow always considers frost and darkness as its allies. It always uses the deprivation of basic life needs as a war tool. It always despises humanitarian law. Russia is a terrorist state,” Yermak said.

Amid freezing temperatures, difficulties with energy supplies persist throughout Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, in his nightly video address.

“Energy workers are doing everything possible to give people a normal life,” he said.

He added transport connections are being restored in Kherson.

“There is the first train from Kyiv. We create new opportunities for people every day,” Zelenskyy said.

In message earlier Saturday, Zelenskyy also addressed the annual Halifax meeting.

“The end of the war doesn’t guarantee peace. Russia is now looking for a short truce, a respite to regain strength … such a respite will only worsen the situation,” he said.

Hundreds detained, missing in Kherson

A Yale University report backed by the U.S. State Department reveals that 226 people were detained or disappeared between March and October, during Russia’s occupation of Kherson.

The Conflict Observatory, a Yale university research program supported by the department, released its independent report Friday. It describes numerous instances of unjust detentions and disappearances in Kherson.

“Russia must halt these operations and withdraw its forces to end a needless war that it cannot and will not win — no matter how despicable and desperate its tactics,” a State Department statement said Friday.

Investigators in liberated areas of the Kherson region have uncovered 63 bodies bearing marks of what appeared to have been torture, Ukraine Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky was quoted as saying.

VOA has not been able to independently verify those claims.

Russia denies its troops have targeted civilians or have committed atrocities during the war in Ukraine.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse, Reuters and The Associated Press.
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Bulgarian prosecutors have charged five people for supporting terrorist acts in connection with an explosion in central Istanbul that killed six people on Nov. 13, chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev said Saturday.

Bulgarian special police forces detained three men of Moldovan origin and a man and woman of Syrian Kurdish descent this week following investigations and close cooperation with prosecutors in neighboring Turkey, Geshev told Reuters.

“Five people have been charged. The charges are in two groups — for supporting terrorist acts in another country, namely the attack in Istanbul and for human trafficking,” Geshev said, adding they were mainly involved in human trafficking through Turkey and smuggling.

A Bulgarian court ruled in a closed hearing Saturday that the four men could be kept in pre-trial detention on the human trafficking charges, saying it lacked enough evidence to keep them behind bars on the charges of supporting terrorist activities.

The prosecutors did not ask the court to keep the woman in custody because of a health condition.

In Chisinau, the Moldovan foreign ministry confirmed three citizens had been detained.

“Our country strongly condemns any terrorist acts, including those in Istanbul,” said ministry representative Daniel Voda.

Turkish prosecutors have already asked for some of the suspected accomplices in the blast to be extradited, Geshev added.

On Friday, a Turkish court ordered the pre-trial detention of 17 people suspected of being involved in the explosion, including the suspected bomber, who police identified as Syrian national Ahlam Albashir.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, which also injured more than 80 people on Istiklal Avenue, a busy and historic pedestrian strip.

The Turkish government swiftly blamed Kurdish militants for the blast and police have said the suspected bomber was trained by Kurdish militants in Syria. 
…

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Saturday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offers a preview of a world where nuclear-armed countries could threaten other nations and said Beijing, like Moscow, seeks a world where “might makes right.” 

Austin made the remarks at the annual Halifax International Security Forum, which attracts defense and security officials from Western democracies. 

“Russia’s invasion offers a preview of a possible world of tyranny and turmoil that none of us would want to live in. And it’s an invitation to an increasingly insecure world haunted by the shadow of nuclear proliferation,” Austin said in a speech. 

“Because Putin’s fellow autocrats are watching. And they could well conclude that getting nuclear weapons would give them a hunting license of their own. And that could drive a dangerous spiral of nuclear proliferation.” 

Austin dismissed Putin’s claims that “modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia,” calling it a vision of “a world in which autocrats decide which countries are real and which countries can be snuffed out.” 

He added that the war “shows the whole world the dangers of disorder. That’s the security challenge that we face. It’s urgent, and it’s historic,” he said. 

Basic principles of democracy are under siege around the world, he added. 

U.S. President Joe Biden last month declared that the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is at the highest level since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis; Russian officials have raised using tactical nuclear weapons after suffering massive setbacks in their nearly nine-month invasion of Ukraine. 

While U.S. officials for months have warned of the prospect that Russia could use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine in the face of battlefield setbacks, Biden administration officials have repeatedly said nothing has changed in U.S. intelligence assessments to suggest Putin has imminent plans to deploy nuclear weapons. 

CIA Director Bill Burns recently met with his Russian intelligence counterpart to warn of consequences if Russia were to deploy a nuclear weapon in Ukraine. 

Austin said nuclear weapons need to be responsibly controlled and not used to threaten the world. 

“Ukraine faces a harsh winter. And as Russia’s position on the battlefield erodes, Putin may resort again to profoundly irresponsible nuclear saber-rattling,” he said.

Compares Moscow to China

Austin also compared Russia to China, saying Beijing is trying to refashion both the region and the international system to suit its authoritarian preferences. He noted China’s increasing military activities in the Taiwan Strait. 

“Beijing, like Moscow, seeks a world where might makes right, where disputes are resolved by force, and where autocrats can stamp out the flame of freedom,” he said. 

Austin called Putin’s invasion the worst crisis in security since the end of World War II and said the outcome “will help determine the course of global security in this young century.” 

Austin said the deadly missile explosion in Poland this week is a consequence of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “war of choice” against Ukraine. 

“The tragic and troubling explosion in Poland this week reminded the whole world of the recklessness of Putin’s war of choice,” Austin said. 

Russia blamed for deaths in Poland

On Tuesday, two workers were killed when a projectile hit a grain-drying facility close to Poland’s border with Ukraine. While the source of the missile is under investigation, NATO officials have said they suspect it was fired from a Ukrainian missile battery in self-defense. 

Officials from Poland, NATO and the United States have blamed Russia for the deaths in any case, saying a Ukrainian missile would not have misfired had the country not been forced to defend itself against heavy Russian attacks that day. 

Russian officials have cast the conflict as a struggle against NATO — though Ukraine is not a NATO member even if it has been receiving aid from NATO member states. 

Austin said NATO is a defensive alliance and poses no threat to Russia. 

“Make no mistake: We will not be dragged into Putin’s war of choice. But we will stand by Ukraine as it fights to defend itself. And we will defend every inch of NATO territory,” Austin said. 

A Polish investigation to determine the source of the missile and the circumstances of the explosion was launched with support from the U.S. and Ukrainian investigators joined the probe on Friday. 

Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said in an interview broadcast live at the forum that “It’s not right to say it’s a Ukrainian rocket, or a Russian rocket, before the investigation is over.” 

In its 14th year, about 300 people gather each year at Halifax International Security Forum held at Halifax’s Westin hotel, where about 13 Ukrainian refugees now work. 
…

Russia is trying to deplete Ukraine’s air defenses and achieve dominance over Ukrainian skies, the Pentagon’s top policy adviser has warned.

Russia has been pummeling Ukraine with missile strikes throughout the past week, the heaviest wave since Moscow invaded nine months ago.

“They’re really trying to overwhelm and exhaust Ukrainian air defense systems,” Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s under secretary of defense for policy, told reporters Saturday during a trip to the Middle East. He said that so far, Russia has not succeeded in breaking Ukrainian air force and air defenses.

“I think one of the things that probably surprised the Russians the most is how resilient Ukraine’s air defenses have been since the beginning of this conflict,” Kahl said.

He attributed Ukraine’s resilience to the “ingenuity and cleverness of the Ukrainians themselves in keeping their air defense systems viable,” but he noted that “it’s also the United States and other allies and partners have provided a tremendous amount of support.”

Britain pledged a $59.4 million air defense package Saturday for Ukraine, including anti-aircraft guns and technology to counter Iranian-supplied drones to Russia. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made the announcement on his first trip to Kyiv, posting a video of his visit on Twitter and pledging “We are with you all the way.”

In its intelligence update Saturday, Britain’s Defense Ministry said that on Wednesday, Russia held its “largest ever debt issuance in a single day.”

The issuance, the ministry said, “is a key mechanism to sustain defense spending, which has increased significantly since the invasion of Ukraine.”

The issuance raised $13.6 billion, according to the update posted on Twitter.

Russia has announced a 2023 defense budget of approximately $84 billion, more than 40% higher than its initial 2023 budget announced in 2021.

“The size of this auction,” the Defense Ministry said, “highly likely indicates the Russian Ministry of Finance perceives current conditions as relatively favorable but is anticipating an increasingly uncertain fiscal environment over the next year.”

Ukraine bracing for cold

In Kyiv people woke up Saturday to several inches of snow. Authorities in the capital are warning of a “complete shutdown,” as subzero temperatures grip the country.

Russian airstrikes have inflicted heavy damage on the energy grid of the Ukrainian capital while they continue to pound Ukraine in multiple parts of the country — from Kyiv in the north to Odesa in the south — crushing almost half of Ukraine’s energy system, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

Amid freezing temperatures, difficulties with energy supplies persist in 17 regions of Ukraine as well as the capital, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday in his nightly video address.

He said energy companies worked throughout the day Friday to restore the electricity supply and said there were already significantly fewer emergency shutdowns. In the areas where outages continue, he said, “stabilization hourly schedules were in effect.”

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna, said Friday that Russia’s tactics of cutting electricity, water and gas supplies “massively demoralize civilian population.”

The chief executive of state utility operator Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, said on Ukrainian state television, “We need to prepare for possible long outages, but at the moment we are introducing schedules that are planned and will do everything to ensure that the outages are not very long.”

A United Nations agency said it feared a humanitarian crisis this winter if the power outages continued.

On Friday, Zelenskyy also met with Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis in Kyiv and thanked him for the EU’s planned financial assistance program of more than $18.5 billion in 2023.

Zelenskyy also addressed the annual Halifax International Security Forum, which brings together defense and security officials from Western democracies, in a recorded message Friday.

“Russia is now looking for a short truce, a respite to regain strength … such a respite will only worsen the situation,” he said.

Hundreds detained, missing in Kherson

A Yale University report backed by the U.S. State Department reveals that 226 people were detained or disappeared between March and October, during Russia’s occupation of Kherson.

The Conflict Observatory, a Yale university research program supported by the U.S. State Department, released its independent report Friday. It describes numerous instances of unjust detentions and disappearances in Kherson. “Russia must halt these operations and withdraw its forces to end a needless war that it cannot and will not win — no matter how despicable and desperate its tactics,” a State Department statement announced Friday.

Investigators in liberated areas of the Kherson region have uncovered 63 bodies bearing marks of what appeared to have been torture, Ukraine Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky was quoted as saying.

The Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, released a video of what he said was a torture chamber used by Russian forces in the Kherson region.

Lubinets said Russians tortured Ukrainians with electric current, broke their bones, beat them with metal pipes and killed them. He noted the invaders recorded all their crimes on video.

Reuters was unable to verify the allegations made by Lubinets and others in the video. Russia denies its troops deliberately attack civilians or have committed atrocities.

Meanwhile, Russia claimed Friday that Ukrainian soldiers executed more than 10 Russian prisoners of war, accusing Kyiv of war crimes and the West of ignoring them.

The Russian defense ministry cited a video circulating on Russian social media that it alleged showed the execution of Russian prisoners of war. Reuters was unable to immediately verify either the video or the defense ministry’s assertions.

Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Some information came from Agence France-Presse, Reuters and The Associated Press.
…

Pope Francis returned to his father’s birthplace in northern Italy Saturday for the first time since ascending the papacy to celebrate the 90th birthday of a second cousin who long knew him as simply “Giorgio.”

The two-day visit to Francis’ ancestral homeland to renew family ties touched on keystones of his papacy, including the importance of honoring the elderly and the human toll of migration. Francis’ private visit Saturday will be followed by a public one Sunday to celebrate Mass for the local faithful, where he could well reflect on his family’s experience migrating to Argentina.

The pope’s father, Mario Jose Francisco Bergoglio, and his paternal grandparents arrived in Buenos Aires on Jan. 25, 1929, to reach other relatives at the tail end of a mass decadeslong emigration from Italy that the pope has honored with two recent saints: St. Giovanni Batista Scalabrini and St. Artemide Zatti.

The future pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was born nearly eight years later in Buenos Aires, after the elder Bergoglio met and married Regina Maria Sivori, whose family was also of Italian immigrant stock, hailing from the Liguria region. Francis grew up speaking the Piedmont dialect of his paternal grandmother Rosa, who cared for him most days.

The elder Bergoglio was born in the town of Portacomaro, 10 kilometers (6 miles) east of Asti, an agricultural town that lost population not only to emigration abroad but also to nearby Turin as it became an industrial center.

Today, the town has 2,000 residents, but it numbered more than 2,700 a century ago, and dropped as low as 1,680 in the 1980s.

The pope’s family emigrated after the peak, which saw 14 million Italians leave from 1876 to 1915 — a movement that made Italy the biggest voluntary diaspora in the world, according to Lauren Braun-Strumfels, an associate professor of history at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Often citing his own family story, Francis, now 85, has made the welcoming and integration of migrants a hallmark of his papacy, often facing criticism as Europe in general, and Italy in particular, are consumed with the debate over how to manage mass migration.

The pope has recognized the historic significance of the emigrant experience with the recent canonizations of St. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, an Italian bishop who founded an order to help Italian emigrants at the end of the 19th century, and Artemide Zatti, an Italian who emigrated to Argentina in the same period and dedicated his work to helping the sick.

He used the occasion to again denounce Europe’s indifference toward migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea and what they hope will be better futures.

Francis began his visit to Portacomaro Saturday with lunch at the home of a cousin, Carla Rabezzana. Photographs released by the Vatican showed Francis clearly enjoying himself, hugging Rabezzana and sitting at the head of the table.

“We have known each other forever,” Rabezzana told the Corriere della Sera newspaper in the run-up to the visit. “When I lived in Turin, Giorgio — I always called him that — came to stay because I had an extra room. That is how we maintained our relationship.

“We always would joke. When he told me he would come to celebrate my 90th birthday, I said it made my heart race. And in response I was told: ‘Try not to die.’ We burst out laughing.’’

The pope has many more third and fourth cousins still in the area.

“It was a large family, and in the area, there are still many distant cousins,” said Carlo Cerrato a former mayor of Portacomaro. He said it was a “big surprise” for everyone in the town when Francis was elected pope nearly a decade ago.

“Everyone knew there was a prelate who had become the cardinal of Buenos Aires, but it was something that the relatives knew, not everyone in town,” Cerrato said.

After nearly 10 years as pope, Francis has yet to return to his own birthplace in Argentina. He hasn’t really explained his reasons for staying away. He recently confirmed that if he were to resign as pope, he wouldn’t go back to Buenos Aires to live but would remain in Rome.
…

An explosion at a five-story apartment building in eastern Russia has killed at least nine people, four of them children, officials said Saturday.

The blast on the Russian Pacific island of Sakhalin was apparently caused by a gas cylinder hooked up to a cooking stove, according to Russian news agencies.

Emergency workers are continuing to look for survivors under the rubble, officials said.
…

In its intelligence update Saturday, Britain’s defense ministry said that on Wednesday, Russia held its “largest ever debt issuance in a single day.”

The issuance, the ministry said, “is a key mechanism to sustain defense spending, which has increased significantly since the invasion of Ukraine.”

The issuance raised $13.6 billion, according to the update posted on Twitter.

Russia has announced a 2023 defense budget of approximately $84 billion, more than 40% higher than its initial 2023 budget announced in 2021.

“The size of this auction,” the defense ministry said, “highly likely indicates the Russian Ministry of Finance perceives current conditions as relatively favorable but is anticipating an increasingly uncertain fiscal environment over the next year.”

Ukrainian authorities in the capital, Kyiv, are warning of a “complete shutdown,” as subzero temperatures grip the country.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said authorities are attempting to restore the city’s power grid.

Russian airstrikes have inflicted heavy damage on the energy grid of the Ukrainian capital while they continue to pound Ukraine in multiple parts of the country — from Kyiv in the north to Odesa in the south — crushing almost half of Ukraine’s energy system, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

“Unfortunately, Russia continues missile strikes against the civilian critical infrastructure of Ukraine, fighting against the civilian population and depriving them of light, water supply, heat and communications during the winter.” His comments came during talks with European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian prime minister added, “On November 15, Russia fired about 100 missiles at Ukrainian cities. Almost half of our energy systems have been disabled.”

Amid freezing temperatures, difficulties with energy supplies persist in 17 regions of Ukraine as well as the capital, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday in his nightly video address.

He said energy companies worked throughout the day Friday to restore the electricity supply and said there were already significantly fewer emergency shutdowns. In the areas where outages continue, he said, “stabilization hourly schedules were in effect.”

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna, said Friday that Russia’s tactics of cutting electricity, water and gas supplies “massively demoralize civilian population.”

The chief executive of state utility operator Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, said on Ukrainian state television, “We need to prepare for possible long outages, but at the moment we are introducing schedules that are planned and will do everything to ensure that the outages are not very long.”

A United Nations agency said it feared a humanitarian crisis this winter if the power outages continued.

On Friday, Zelenskyy also met with Dombrovskis in Kyiv and thanked him for the EU’s planned financial assistance program of more than $18.5 billion in 2023.

Zelenskyy also addressed the annual Halifax International Security Forum, which brings together defense and security officials from Western democracies, in a recorded message Friday.

“Russia is now looking for a short truce, a respite to regain strength … such a respite will only worsen the situation,” he said.

Zelenskyy added, “A truly real and long-lasting peace can only be the result of complete demolition of Russian aggression.”

Hundreds detained, missing in Kherson

A Yale University report backed by the U.S. State Department reveals that 226 people were detained or disappeared between March and October, during Russia’s occupation of Kherson.

The Conflict Observatory, a Yale university research program supported by the U.S. State Department, released its independent report Friday. It describes numerous instances of unjust detentions and disappearances in Kherson. “Russia must halt these operations and withdraw its forces to end a needless war that it cannot and will not win — no matter how despicable and desperate its tactics,” a State Department statement announced Friday.

Investigators in liberated areas of the Kherson region have uncovered 63 bodies bearing marks of what appeared to have been torture, Ukraine Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky was quoted as saying.

The Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, released a video of what he said was a torture chamber used by Russian forces in the Kherson region.

Lubinets said Russians tortured Ukrainians with electric current, broke their bones, beat them with metal pipes and killed them. He noted the invaders recorded all their crimes on video.

Reuters was unable to verify the allegations made by Lubinets and others in the video. Russia denies its troops deliberately attack civilians or have committed atrocities.

Meanwhile, Russia claimed Friday that Ukrainian soldiers executed more than 10 Russian prisoners of war, accusing Kyiv of war crimes and the West of ignoring them.

The Russian defense ministry cited a video circulating on Russian social media that it alleged showed the execution of Russian prisoners of war. Reuters was unable to immediately verify either the video or the defense ministry’s assertions.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse, Reuters and The Associated Press.
…

The founder of one of Russia’s leading independent news websites has been recognized for her “extraordinary and sustained” efforts to protect press freedom.

Galina Timchenko, co-founder of independent media outlet Meduza, was presented with the Gwen Ifill award at an event in New York City on Thursday.

The award is presented by the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists in honor of American broadcaster Ifill, who was an adviser to the media freedom nonprofit.

Timchenko and her team have run Meduza from exile for several years. After the invasion in Ukraine, authorities blocked access to the website inside Russia.

Despite that, Timchenko said, her team has still been able to reach millions in Russia “who need the truth more than ever.”

“Our duty, our mission, stays the same,” she said in her acceptance speech. “To provide independent, objective information to our readers and not to leave them alone at the darkest hour.”

In an interview with VOA Russian, Timchenko said she was shocked to receive the recognition, saying that when CPJ first contacted her, she “thought it was a prank.”

Receiving an award in Ifill’s name is an honor, Timchenko said, as she discussed the challenges for media in wartime.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: Some people are talking about weariness of news about the war in Ukraine. What can journalists do to let the world know they should continue to help Ukraine?

GT: At such times, journalists should remember that they are the fourth power. We are not service staff. We have to say, “Come and see. This is how the war looks.”

True information now saves lives, including lives of those people who are being mobilized in Russia, including lives of those people who’ve been trying to leave the country because of military call-up. I’m talking now about the Russian people who are in Europe or in America now, who think that the war is somewhere far away.

And we should remember that our readers must receive all this information. They should not be left out.

In recent years, it has been considered good practice not to hurt the readers. And I understand and respect the right of readers not to be traumatized. And of course, we can warn prior [to that] there are scenes of violence. But it seems that at such moments, you need to honestly say, “Come and see. Your future and the future of your children depends on it.”

VOA: Journalism should be unbiased. How is it for Russian journalists to be open-minded when Russia started the war?

GT: There is nothing complicated about it. Do not hide the facts. Get to the bottom of the facts, expose the lies.

First of all, do not forget that journalism gives a voice to those who are deprived of it, who are now the victim. We must be on the side of the weak, on the side of those who are offended.

VOA: As you have already said, some people do not want heavy information, they want information that is easier to understand. How can media work in a situation where disinformation or fake news is spreading?

GT: It doesn’t seem to me that there is a request for fakes. There is, of course, a request to stay in the comfort zone. Because as soon as you release this information into your life, you have to decide something, and it is always quite difficult to decide.

This is a situation of choice. You must make a choice and be responsible for the consequences of that choice.

Therefore, it seems to me that the most obvious thing that journalism can do is not to shout. Talk the way you talk to a person close to you, dear to you, whom you are afraid of losing.

It seems to me that now there is a shortage of this calm tone, explanatory, explaining … step by step, bring them closer to the realization that, in general, you need to interact with reality.

VOA: The war has changed everything. Journalism is also transforming. What future do you see for the media?

GT: It’s too early to talk about a distant future. Now all independent journalists in Russia are on the brink of survival. They are fighting for their lives and for their audience.

The most important thing is not to lose the audience. There are many millions of people inside Russia, and we show them that they are not alone, and that we are still with them, we are in touch. The internet is big, the world is small, we are all together.

And when the media survive, they can keep their audience, then everything will flourish.

Russian journalism is like the dandelion that sprouts through three layers of asphalt. Everything will bloom. No one has given up the profession. People who are now engaged in journalism are aware of the risks. So, everything will be in blossom. But let’s survive first.
…

Sweden is committed to NATO’s globe-spanning 360-degree approach to confronting both today’s and tomorrow’s challenges, and that includes both Russia and China, the top Swedish military official told an audience in Washington this week.

“As of today, we see no alarming Russian movements along our borders,” Micael Byden, the supreme commander of Swedish armed forces, said Thursday during an event at the Swedish Embassy in Washington. “Not the least in the ground domain, [Russian] capabilities have diminished considerably due to the war in Ukraine.”

However, Russia still possesses significant capabilities, and Sweden does not “exclude anything, we stay alert,” Byden said, noting that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to a “completely new security order in Europe.”

Byden named the joint applications to join NATO by Sweden and Finland last spring among the most notable features of that new order.

Since then, support for NATO membership in his country has grown “even stronger in the summer and autumn,” Byden said.

“We have been warmly welcomed” by countries that joined the alliance earlier, he said. “Warmer than I could have imagined.”

Byden said he initially thought to himself: “When you enter a new organization, a new family, you need to prove yourself. That has not been the case.”

But he pledged that “Sweden will be a net contributor from day one” and “will contribute in strategic depth, increased situational awareness and strong interoperable capabilities.”

Maintaining ‘situational awareness’

Byden said he has submitted recommendations to his government to strengthen the country’s military with additional standing units, new equipment and platforms, and a greater number of conscript soldiers.

“Maintaining a high-degree of situational awareness has been a key priority,” he said, emphasizing that “we fully embrace [NATO’s] 360-degree perspective.”

NATO documents describe that 360-degree approach as applying to defense in “the land, air, maritime, cyber and space domains, and against all threats and challenges.”

“We have always kept our eyes and ears towards Russia. We know Russia as our opponent,” Byden said. “We realize now that there are other countries we also need to know more about, because of [their] ambitions, and that would be China.”

Speaking to VOA after the embassy event, Byden said that as his country enters NATO, “we need to understand that things are happening — we need to be able to support other countries within the alliance, and that means that what would be a challenge for them would [also] be a challenge for us.”

He also said Sweden needs to expand its knowledge about some of those challenges facing the alliance.

“First of all, we still need to learn about China and what China is doing, that’s where we are. By ‘we,’ I mean Sweden,” he said.

Eager to participate in NATO

The Nordic region appears to be going through a major shift in its relations with Beijing, as are other regions of the world.

In 2013, Chinese official media reported that “Nordic countries have joined an international race to team up with China in exploring science and technology opportunities.”

But earlier this year, an analyst at the Danish Institute for International Studies wrote in the publication The Diplomat that Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland “are looking instead to limit China’s presence and influence.”

In the same article, its author, Andreas Forsby, wrote, “In the past few years … perceptions of the People’s Republic of China have fundamentally changed in the Nordic countries as security-related concerns and sensitive political issues have come to the fore.”

Forsby noted that both Denmark and Finland have officially adopted the term “systemic rival,” first used by the EU Commission in March 2019, to describe their view of Beijing.

Byden, a trained fighter pilot whose career has included an assignment as defense attache at the Swedish Embassy in Washington and chief of staff of the Swedish Air Force, said Sweden is eager to participate in NATO joint activities, including air policing and participating in an enhanced forward presence along NATO’s eastern border as soon as it becomes a full member.
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