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Tag: Ukraine

  • No timetable set for Ukraine’s membership, says NATO chief

    No timetable set for Ukraine’s membership, says NATO chief

    NATO leaders said Tuesday that they would allow Ukraine to join the alliance “when allies agree and conditions are met,” hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky blasted the organization’s failure to set a timetable for his country as “absurd.”

    “We reaffirmed Ukraine will become a member of NATO and agreed to remove the requirement for a membership action plan,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters, referring to a key step in joining the alliance.

    “This will change Ukraine’s membership path from a two-step path to a one-step path,” he said.

    Although many NATO members have funneled arms and ammunition to Zelensky’s forces, there is no consensus among the 31 allies for admitting Ukraine into NATO’s ranks. Instead, alliance leaders decided to remove obstacles on Ukraine’s membership path so that it can join more quickly once the war with Russia is over.

    Zelensky pushed back sharply against the decision.

    “It’s unprecedented and absurd when a time frame is set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership,” Zelensky tweeted as he headed to the annual NATO summit in Vilnius. “While at the same time, vague wording about ‘conditions’ is added even for inviting Ukraine. It seems there is no readiness to invite Ukraine to NATO or to make it a member of the Alliance.”

    NATO membership would afford Ukraine protection against a giant neighbor that annexed its Crimean Peninsula almost a decade ago and more recently seized vast swaths of land in the east and south. Joining NATO would also oblige Kyiv to reform its security institutions, improve governance and curb corruption, work that would also ease the country’s path into the European Union.

    Asked about Zelensky’s concerns, Stoltenberg said the most important thing now is to ensure that his country wins the war, because “unless Ukraine prevails there is no membership to be discussed at all.”

    The broadside from Zelensky could renew tensions at the summit shortly after it saw a burst of goodwill following an agreement by Turkiye to advance Sweden’s bid to join NATO. Allies hope to resolve the seesawing negotiations and create a clear plan for the alliance and its support for Ukraine.

    “We value our allies,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter, adding that “Ukraine also deserves respect.” He also said: “Uncertainty is weakness. And I will openly discuss this at the summit.”

    Zelensky is expected to meet Wednesday with US President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders.

    There have been sharp divisions within the alliance over Ukraine’s desire to join NATO, which was promised back in 2008 even though few steps were taken toward that goal.

    In addition, the Baltic states — including Lithuania, which is hosting the summit — have pushed for a strong show of support and a clear pathway toward membership for Ukraine.

    However, the United States and Germany urged caution. Biden said last week that Ukraine was not ready to join. Members of NATO, he told CNN, need to “meet all the qualifications, from democratisation to a whole range of other issues,” a nod toward longstanding concerns about governance and corruption in Kyiv.

  • Russia-Ukraine conflict: NATO unity to be tested at annual summit in Lithuania

    Russia-Ukraine conflict: NATO unity to be tested at annual summit in Lithuania

    As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues with no end in sight, NATO’s much-celebrated unity faces fresh strains when leaders gather for their annual summit this week in Vilnius, Lithuania.

    The world’s biggest security alliance is struggling to reach an agreement on admitting Sweden as its 32nd member. Military spending by member nations still lags behind longstanding goals. And an inability to compromise over who should serve as NATO’s next leader forced an extension of the current secretary general’s term for an extra year.

    Perhaps most thorny are questions over how Ukraine should be eased into the alliance. Some maintain admitting Ukraine to NATO would be the fulfillment of a promise made years ago and a necessary step to deter Russian aggression in Eastern Europe. Others are fearful it would be seen as a provocation that could spiral into an even wider conflict.

    Bickering among friends is not uncommon, and the current catalogue of disputes pales in comparison to past fears that Donald Trump would turn his back on the alliance during his presidency. However, the challenges come at a moment when President Joe Biden and his counterparts are heavily invested in demonstrating harmony among members.

    “Any fissure, any lack of solidarity provides an opportunity for those who would oppose the alliance,” said Douglas Lute, who served as US ambassador to NATO under President Barack Obama.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin is eager to exploit divisions as he struggles to gain ground in Ukraine and faces political challenges at home, including the aftermath of a brief revolt by the Wagner mercenary group.

    “You don’t want to present any openings,” Lute said. “You don’t want to present any gaps or seams.”

    By some measures, the Ukraine conflict has reinvigorated NATO, which was created at the beginning of the Cold War as a bulwark against Moscow. Members of the alliance have poured military hardware into Ukraine to help with its ongoing counteroffensive, and Finland ended a history of nonalignment to become NATO’s 31st member.

    The US announced Friday it will provide Ukraine with the controversial cluster munitions. Such a bomb poses a higher risk of civilian harm as it opens in the air releasing smaller “bomblets” across a wide area, hitting multiple targets simultaneously. Ukraine has promised to use it carefully.

    In a statement on Saturday evening, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, one of Western Europe’s staunchest backers of Ukraine in the war, reiterated her country’s condemnation of the Russian aggression but called for the “universal application of the principles” of the international convention banning the production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions.

    UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “wants countries to abide by the terms of that convention and so as a result, of course, he does not want there to be continued use of cluster munitions on the battlefield.”

    But the ongoing war has allowed other challenges to fester or bubble to the surface.

    In particular, NATO leaders said back in 2008 that Ukraine would eventually become a member, but little action has been taken toward that goal. Putin occupied parts of the country in 2014 and then attempted to capture Kyiv in 2022, leading to the current war.

    “A gray zone is a green light for Putin,” said Daniel Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland, and now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council.

    The US and Germany insist that the focus should be on supplying weapons and ammunition to help Ukraine win the current conflict, rather than taking the more provocative step of extending a formal invitation to join NATO.

    However, countries on NATO’s Eastern flank, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, want firmer assurances on future membership.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is pushing for that as well. During a visit to Prague on Thursday, he said the “ideal” result of the Vilnius summit would be an invitation for his country to join the alliance.

    NATO could use the occasion to elevate its relationship with Ukraine, creating what would be known as the NATO-Ukraine Council and giving Kyiv a seat at the table for consultations.

    Also in the spotlight in Vilnius will be Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the main obstacle blocking Sweden’s attempts to join NATO alongside its neighbor Finland.

    Erdogan accuses Sweden of being too lenient on anti-Islamic demonstrations and militant Kurdish groups that have waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkiye.

    Sweden recently changed its anti-terrorism legislation and lifted an arms embargo on Turkiye. However, a man burned a Qur’an outside a mosque in Stockholm last week, and Erdogan signaled that this would pose another obstacle. He equated “those who permitted the crime” to those who perpetrated it.

    Turkiye and the US are also at an impasse over the sale of F-16 fighter jets. Erdogan wants the upgraded planes, but Biden says that Sweden’s NATO membership has to be dealt with first.

    Sullivan said the US is confident that Sweden will join NATO “in the not-too-distant future,” but it’s unclear if the matter will be resolved during the summit.

  • Moscow has taken 700,000 children out of Ukraine conflict zones- Russian lawmaker

    Moscow has taken 700,000 children out of Ukraine conflict zones- Russian lawmaker

    Russia has brought some 700,000 children from the conflict zones in Ukraine into Russian territory, Grigory Karasin, head of the international committee in the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, said late on Sunday.

    “In recent years, 700,000 children have found refuge with us, fleeing the bombing and shelling from the conflict areas in Ukraine,” Karasin wrote on his Telegram messaging channel.

    Russia launched a full-scale invasion on its western neighbor Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow says its programme of bring children from Ukraine into Russian territory is to protect orphans and children abandoned in the conflict zone.

    However, Ukraine says many children have been illegally deported and the United States says thousands of children have been forcibly removed from their homes.

    Most of the movement of people and children occurred in the first few months of the war and before Ukraine started its major counter offensive to regain occupied territories in the east and south in late August.

    In July 2022, the United States estimated that Russia “forcibly deported” 260,000 children, while Ukraine’s Ministry of Integration of Occupied Territories, says 19,492 Ukrainian children are currently considered illegally deported.

  • 3 Children among 8 dead after Russia missile strike hits Ukraine restaurant

    3 Children among 8 dead after Russia missile strike hits Ukraine restaurant

    Death count from a Russian missile strike on a restaurant in eastern Ukraine rose to eight on Wednesday, as Kyiv played down the effect of a brief mutiny by the head of the Wagner mercenary group on the conflict.

    The blast at the Ria Pizza restaurant also killed three children and wounded at least 56 at the eatery, popular with both soldiers and journalists in the town of Kramatorsk, one of the largest still under Ukrainian control in the east.

    Days after the aborted rebellion of Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin, widely seen as the biggest threat to Kremlin authority in decades, Kyiv said the mutiny’s influence on fighting was minimal.

    “Unfortunately, Prigozhin gave up too quickly. So there was no time for this demoralising effect to penetrate Russian trenches,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN in a video published Wednesday.

    As Belarus welcomed Prigozhin into exile on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to shore up his authority by thanking regular troops for averting a civil war.

    But as Moscow announced preparations to disarm Wagner fighters, Putin’s arch-foe, jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, launched a stinging attack on the president in his first comments since the aborted mutiny by the paramilitaries.

    “There is no bigger threat to Russia than Putin’s regime,” Navalny said on social media.

    “Putin’s regime is so dangerous to the country that even its inevitable demise will create the threat of civil war,” he wrote.

    In the Hague, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said it was still too early to draw conclusions from the move to Belarus of Prigozhin and, likely, some of his forces, but he vowed that the alliance was ready to defend its members.

    “What is absolutely clear is that we have sent a clear message to Moscow and to Minsk that NATO is there to protect every ally and every inch of NATO territory,” Stoltenberg said.

    Putin’s supporters, however, insisted that his rule was not weakened by the revolt.

    Asked whether Putin’s power was diminished by the sight of Wagner’s rebel mercenaries seizing a military HQ, advancing on Moscow and shooting down military aircraft along the way, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused political commentators of exaggerating, adding that: “We don’t agree.”

    Putin himself attempted to portray the dramatic events at the weekend as a victory for the Russian army.

    “You de facto stopped civil war,” Putin told troops from the defence ministry, National Guard, FSB security service and interior ministry gathered in a Kremlin courtyard to hold a minute’s silence for airmen killed by Wagner.

  • EU tops up military aid for Ukraine, others with €3.5bn

    EU tops up military aid for Ukraine, others with €3.5bn

    European Union (EU) foreign ministers decided on Monday to top up the fund for military aid for Ukraine and other partner countries.

    The top-up fund would amount to another 3.5 billion euros (3.82 billion dollars), an EU spokeswoman has said.

    “We will continue to double down on our military support on both equipment (and) training, for as long as it takes,’’ EU top diplomat Joseph Borrell wrote on Twitter, announcing the move.

    Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU has already mobilised 3.6 billion euros from the fund for military support for Kiev, according to EU figures.

    Arriving at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Borrell said continuing to support Kiev today was more important than ever.

    Wagner troops advanced toward Moscow on Saturday with the aim of toppling the Russian military leadership until the mission came to an abrupt end.

    The recent events showed that the war against Ukraine is leading to cracks in the Russian power system and affecting the country’s political system, Borrell said.

    The tensions in Russia overshadowed the meeting of EU top diplomats, with ministers mulling the potential consequences of the short-lived uprising.

    The power struggle in Russia is far from over, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arriving at the meeting.

    “It is obviously only one act in this Russian drama. It remains unclear what will happen to the various players in Russia,’’ she said.

    Russia’s war in Ukraine has devastating consequences on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s power system, leading to massive cracks in Russia’s propaganda, Baerbock said.

    “We are analyzing this closely because, of course, this also entails risks that we are still unable to assess at the moment,’’ the minister said.

    Baerbock also emphasized the importance of continued support for Ukraine, adding that Germany is to supply Kiev with 45 Gepard tanks until the end of the year.

    Putin is destroying his own country with the brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, Baerbock concluded.

    EU foreign affairs chief Borrell struck a similar chord, saying Putin created a monster by starting the war.

    “The monster is biting him now. The monster is acting against his creator,’’ he added, referring to the attempted Wagner uprising at the weekend.

    Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn warned of the potential consequences for Europe “if the largest country of the world with the most nuclear weapons world-wide is to crumble.’’

    He also pointed to other potential impacts of the power struggle in Russia that could bring uncertainty to Wagner troops deployed in African countries and make the on-going war in Ukraine even more brutal.

    Even before the events of the weekend in Russia, EU foreign ministers were expected to deal with several crises in the bloc’s vicinity.

    Heightened tensions between Kosovo and Serbia and a recent mediation meeting in Brussels which brought little progress were on the agenda, as well as the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the situation in Tunisia.

    The EU is considering supporting Tunisia with an aid package of up to 900 million euros.

    With the North African country is roiled by economic woes and rising numbers of migrants using it as a launch pad to reach Europe.

    Ministers were also expected to impose new sanctions on Iran over persistent human rights violations.

    On a more positive note, diplomatic and trade relations with the Caribbean and Latin America are also on the agenda ahead of a summit with the countries of the region held in Brussels in July.

  • EU’s von der Leyen says frozen Russia assets will rebuild Ukraine

    EU’s von der Leyen says frozen Russia assets will rebuild Ukraine

    A proposal for the European Union to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine will be put forward in the coming weeks, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

    The European Commission will put forward a plan to do so before the summer break, von der Leyen said while attending a conference on Ukrainian reconstruction in London on Wednesday.

    She said frozen Russians assets should be used “because the perpetrator has to be held accountable.”

    The Ukraine Recovery Conference, which is being held in London on Wednesday and Thursday, is supposed to lay the foundations for rebuilding Ukraine from the destruction of the ongoing Russian invasion.

    The focus is on how private-sector companies can be encouraged to invest in the country and help rebuilt its economy.

  • The war must end in Ukraine-South African president, Ramaphosa tells Putin

    The war must end in Ukraine-South African president, Ramaphosa tells Putin

    South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is in Russia as part of a peace-seeking delegation, on Saturday, told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that the conflict in Ukraine had to stop.

    “This war must be settled… through negotiations and through diplomatic means,” said Ramaphosa.

    He added that his delegation, consisting of seven African leaders, “would like this war to be ended.

    “This war is having a negative impact on the African continent and indeed on many other countries around the world,” Ramaphosa said ahead of formal talks with the Russian president.

    On Friday, the delegation held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.

    “We have come to listen to you and through you to hear the voice of the Russian people,” said Comoros President Azali Assoumani, who currently heads the African Union.

    “We wanted to encourage you to enter into negotiations with Ukraine,” he said.

    African countries have been divided over their response to the conflict, with some siding with Ukraine, while others have remained neutral or gravitated towards Moscow.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday gave African leaders seeking to mediate in the war in Ukraine a list of reasons why he believed many of their proposals were misguided, pouring cold water on a plan already largely dismissed by Kyiv.

    The African leaders were seeking agreement on a series of “confidence building measures”, even as Kyiv last week began a counteroffensive to push back Russian forces from the swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine that they occupy.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after meeting them in Kyiv on Friday that peace talks would require Moscow to withdraw its forces from occupied Ukrainian territory, something Russia has said is not negotiable.

    Putin opened Saturday’s talks with representatives of Senegal, Egypt, Zambia, Uganda, Congo Republic, Comoros and South Africa in a palace near St Petersburg by stressing Russia’s commitment to the continent.

    But after presentations from the Comoran, Senegalese and South African presidents, he stepped in to challenge the assumptions of the plan – predicated on acceptance of internationally recognised borders – before the round of statements could go any further.

    Putin reiterated his position that Ukraine and its Western allies had started the conflict long before Russia sent its armed forces over the border in February last year, something they deny.

    He said the West, not Russia, was responsible for a sharp rise in global food prices early last year that has hit Africa especially hard.

    He told the delegation that Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports that Russia has permitted for the past year were doing nothing to alleviate Africa’s difficulties with high food prices because they had largely gone to wealthy countries.

    And he said Russia had never refused talks with the Ukrainian side, which had been blocked by Kyiv. Moscow has, however, repeatedly said any peace must allow for “new realities”, meaning its declared annexation of five Ukrainian provinces, four of which it only partially controls – a red line for Kyiv.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised remarks that Moscow shared the “main approaches” of the African plan, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying it was “difficult to realise”.

    Peskov said Putin had shown interest in the plan, whose 10 points South African President Cyril Ramaphosa laid out in his presentation, and Russia would continue dialogue with the African countries.

    Lavrov said they had not brought the Russian leader any message from Zelenskiy.

    Putin said Moscow was “open to constructive dialogue with anyone who wants to establish peace on the principles of fairness and acknowledgement of the legitimate interests of the parties”.

    There was no immediate word on the bilateral talks that Ramaphosa, host of a summit in August featuring Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, had said he would have with Putin.

    Since the International Criminal Court indicted Putin in March on war crimes charges – which he rejects – South Africa, as a member of the court, finds itself in the awkward position of being obliged to arrest him if he sets foot there.

  • Italian president welcomes Zelensky

    Italian president welcomes Zelensky

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been welcomed by President Sergio Mattarella to his official residence in Rome during Zelensky’s visit to Italy.

    Zelensky was driven up to the Quirinal Palace shortly after 12.00 p.m. (1000 GMT) on Saturday, where Mattarella welcomed him in the courtyard.

    After anthems of the two countries were played, the politicians went into the building for a private conversation.

    Mattarella has always shown solidarity with Ukraine in its defensive struggle against Russian invaders.

    Zelensky is expected to ask Italy for further support.

    The meeting with Mattarella is due to be followed by meetings with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and with Pope Francis.

  • EU condemns Russian escalation of war against Ukraine

    EU condemns Russian escalation of war against Ukraine

    The European Union (EU) has accused Russia of further escalating war against Ukraine. The EU made the accusation in a statement on Friday.

    “This week marks another escalation in Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine with increasingly indiscriminate and bloody shelling of civilian areas,’’ the spokesman for EU Foreign Affairs Chief Josep Borrell said in Brussels.

    He cited missile and drone attacks on Odessa and Kiev as examples in addition to a large supermarket, a railway station and a petrol station hit with heavy artillery in the Kherson Region.

    “The latest of these Russia’s barbarities killed over 20 people and injured almost 50 in Kherson, all of them civilians.

    “This reckless killing of civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure must stop immediately,’’ the spokesman said.

    He said that the EU remained committed to holding the perpetrators accountable.

  • Ukraine to resume electricity exports to Europe after 6 month halt

    Ukraine to resume electricity exports to Europe after 6 month halt

    Ukraine will resume exporting electricity to Europe after a six-month pause due to crippling Russian missile attacks on the country’s infrastructure, Energy Minister German Galushchenko, said on Friday.

    “The Ukrainian power grid had been functioning for almost two months without any restrictions on consumption and with a power reserve,” Galushchenko said in a statement, saying repairs had been a success.

    He said that exporting the surplus electricity would provide additional financial resources for the reconstruction of the destroyed and damaged energy infrastructure.

    An export of a maximum of 400 megawatts to the European energy grid had been agreed. Ukraine was connected to the grid shortly before the war began.

    However, the actual amount of electricity exported will depend on the needs of Ukrainian consumers, said Galushchenko, adding that their own electricity consumers “unquestionably” remained their priority.

    In the face of the all-out Russian invasion more than 13 months ago, Ukraine continued to export electricity to neighbouring ex-Soviet republic, Moldova, and the European Union from June until October.

    This was when targeted Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy supply began.

    In 2022, electricity generation in Ukraine fell by over 27 per cent due to the war.

    Europe’s largest nuclear power plant near Zaporizhzhya, which has been under Russian control since March, was shut down in September.