Month: March 2022

Russia said Wednesday there is still no sign of a breakthrough in peace talks with Ukraine.

Ukraine presented a list of demands Tuesday at the start of negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey aimed at ending the 36-day war, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a press briefing. An aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the two sides discussed the terms of a possible cease-fire, along with international security guarantees for Ukraine during Tuesday’s session.

Ukrainian negotiators also proposed that Kyiv would adopt a neutral status in exchange for security guarantees, such as not joining NATO or other military alliances.

Peskov told reporters that Moscow welcomed the fact that Kyiv has presented a written statement of demands, but said Russia has not seen anything promising that would lead to a final agreement.

Meanwhile, local officials in Ukraine say Russian forces have continued artillery attacks on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, and the northern city of Chernihiv, despite a vow to reduce operations in those locations as a sign of goodwill.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk earlier Wednesday announced the two sides had agreed to open three evacuation corridors. Vereshchuk said one corridor would be used for the evacuation of the besieged city of Mariupol and delivery of humanitarian aid to Berdyansk, located about 84 kilometers south of Mariupol, another for the delivery of humanitarian aid to – and evacuation from – the city of Melitopol, and a third for a column of people traveling from from Enerhodar to Zaporizhzhia.

Filippo Grandi , the head of the U.N.’s refugee agency, said Wednesday the number of Ukrainians who have fled their native land to escape what he called a “senseless war” has now exceeded 4 million people.

The U.N. says more than half of those who have left Ukraine since the start of the February 24 invasion have headed west into Poland.

Britain’s defense ministry says Russian military units fighting in Ukraine have been forced to return to Russia and Belarus to “reorganize and resupply” after suffering heavy losses fighting Ukrainian forces during the war.

“Such activity is placing further pressure on Russia’s already strained logistics,” the ministry said Wednesday in its latest intelligence report, “and demonstrates the difficulties Russia is having reorganizing its units in forward areas within Ukraine.”

The assessment comes a day after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Russian troops will focus on the Donbas region in southeastern Ukraine, which includes the Russian-controlled areas of Luhansk and Donetsk. Shoigu claimed the shift in strategy was because Russia had largely accomplished the first stage of its “special military operation,” including degrading Ukraine’s military capacity.

But Britain’s military says Russia’s decision to focus on Luhansk and Donetsk “is likely a tacit admission that it is struggling to sustain more than one significant axis of advance.”

The U.S. State Department issued a new advisory Tuesday urging U.S. citizens either traveling to or residing in Russia to leave the country immediately. The advisory cites a number of factors, including “the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials, the singling out of U.S. citizens…by Russian government security officials including for detention,” as well as limited flights into and outside of Russia and the limited ability of the U.S. Embassy there to assist U.S. citizens.

The State Department designated Russia a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” nation on its travel advisory list shortly after the February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
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The invasion of Ukraine thrust its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, into the spotlight. Although many perceived the former actor and comedian as a probable lightweight, he rose to the occasion, capturing the world’s attention when he famously refused a U.S. offer to evacuate the conflict zone, reportedly saying, “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.”

“I think that will go down in history,” says Kenneth Dekleva, a senior fellow at the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations. “After two years of a worldwide pandemic where we’ve seen so many failures of leadership, both in authoritarian societies and in democratic societies in the West, Zelenskyy is a breath of fresh air. … Zelenskyy has inspired people, and he’s shown us that good leadership and courage, heroism — these kinds of core values — matter.”

Instead of going into hiding, Zelenskyy has made a point of remaining visible, appearing on social media and in footage released by aides since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Male leaders often attempt to project strength, masculinity and a sense of being destined to lead, according to Michael Blake, a professor of philosophy, public policy and governance at the University of Washington.

“Zelenskyy appears to be presenting a much more unusual picture of leadership in which his trajectory is not ordained by fate or some sort of political genius. Instead, it’s almost accidental,” says Blake. “His personal style of self-presentation is much less concerned with depicting unusual lack of fear or unusual physical prowess. Instead, he is perfectly willing to own up to being frightened and being occasionally overwhelmed.”

Zelenskyy is also shunning the usual leadership look. He’s put aside his dark suit and tie in favor of an olive-green T-shirt or jacket more associated with soldiers or rebel guerillas.

“I think it’s ultimately a symbol of, ‘I’m here. I’m authentically with you,’ and it’s been incredibly powerful,” says Samuel Hunter, a professor of industrial and organizational psychology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. “I think he wanted to upset the people in the suits a little bit, to come across as a changemaker, this person that is doing things that other people are unwilling to do.”

Social media appeal

Like Donald Trump before him, Zelenskyy has learned to leverage social media to communicate directly with the masses. Trump broke the mold by cutting out the middleman, including his own spokespeople and the news media, by tweeting directly to his supporters. While Trump primarily used Twitter, Zelenskyy relies on the more visual Instagram platform.

“There was what felt like a direct line from what (Trump) was thinking to what others were seeing and hearing and reading,” Hunter says. “And I think Zelenskyy represents the next data point in that pathway, but it’s very visual and touches with a younger generation in a very compelling and interesting way.”

One of Zelenskyy’s strengths is that he appears to have cross-generational appeal.

“He’s probably someone that multiple generations can connect on in part because not only is he adept at dealing with this sort of social media world and speaks multiple languages and is sort of this Hollywood star per se, but because he’s sticking around in zones that are dangerous,” Hunter says. “The older generations — he’s earning respect from those, as well. I think he spans generations in ways that other leaders have not been able to.”

Zelenskyy isn’t the first former actor to connect with the masses. U.S. President Ronald Reagan was aware of image and presentation due to his acting background. Trump, who starred on a successful reality television show, is also very deliberate in how he presents himself.

“It is, I think, an under-noticed fact that politicians do have a fair amount in common with actors,” Blake says. “I think what’s really different here is that Zelenskyy is changing the role.”

New leadership model

A change that could usher in a new model of democratic leadership.

“When he appeared with unshaven cheeks and bags under his eyes and said, ‘I’m still here.’ Every time he came back to say, ‘I’m still here,’ it’s simply added to the thought that this could, in fact, be a model of leadership that would do the job,” Blake says.

Over the past few years, populism’s message has attracted a growing number of followers. Freedom House, which tracks the number of countries that are democratic, has noted a decline in functional democratic governance every year for the past 20 years.

“Some of this has been a result of the rhetorical strength of populism in a world fraught by fear of the undeserving ‘other’ coming in and undermining your economic status,” Blake says. “People are frightened of a slowdown in economic productivity, of widespread migration undermining cultural integrity. People are just plain frightened, and so, the populist has an easy sell, which is, ‘I’m here, touched by God, to return you to the former glory that was unjustly taken from you.’”

Blake says there hasn’t been a good counternarrative to that other than reasserting democratic platitudes — like the importance of the consent of the governed. But Zelenskyy demonstrates that democratic leadership has the capacity to be morally justified while also rousing people’s emotions.

“The fact that Zelenskyy appeals not just to the head, but to the heart, has been extremely promising, because it indicates that democracy might have rhetorical power as well as intellectual power,” Blake says. “We see someone who is willing to say, ‘This is worth fighting for. This is worth suffering for.’ And people are responding to it.”
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Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine      
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Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine ended Tuesday with both sides stressing the importance of the negotiations and indicating a willingness to compromise.

Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, hosted the fifth round of Ukrainian and Russian peace talks. The Russian delegation described the more than four hours of talks as positive. Speaking to reporters after the talks, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin pledged a reduction in military operations.

To increase mutual trust and aid negotiations, he said, a decision was made to reduce military activity in the Kyiv and Chernihiv areas.

The Russian delegation said further steps on reducing military operations would be discussed on their return to Moscow. Tuesday’s talks focused on Russia’s demand that Ukraine should become neutral and end its aspirations to join NATO. The Ukrainian delegation proposed that eight countries should guarantee its security, including Poland, Israel, and Turkey, in exchange for neutrality.

Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak, speaking to reporters, said international guarantors are key to accepting neutrality.

He said intensive consultations are underway on various issues, the most important of which is agreement on international security guarantees for Ukraine. That agreement, Podolyak added, is necessary to end the war.

The delegations also discussed proposals on the disputed status of the self-proclaimed breakaway republics of Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea, which Russia annexed.

Ukraine demands their return, while Moscow calls for their international recognition as independent states and Crimea as Russian sovereign territory. Among the proposals discussed was that Crimea’s status would be subject to a 15-year consultation period.

But the Ukrainian delegation insisted such a step would only be possible in the event of a complete cease-fire. Expectations had been low ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, but Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu claimed the talks had achieved the most progress since the start of the war.

Analyst Sinan Ulgen said the Ukrainian-Russian negotiations in Istanbul underline the importance of Turkey, which has been careful to maintain good ties with both sides during peace efforts.

“As a result of this balanced policy, Turkey is one of few actors that can play a constructive diplomatic role right now. That diplomatic role can be best described as ‘good office,’ which is more than a facilitator but less than a mediator,” Ulgen saud.

But analysts suggest that a meeting of the Ukrainian and Russian presidents is key to ending the conflict. While Kyiv says it’s ready for such a summit, Moscow insists it would only be possible if there are concrete proposals to discuss. Tuesday’s meeting may turn out to be the first step in that process.
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After the Netherlands announced Tuesday it was expelling 17 Russian diplomats, several more European countries are doing the same. 

Belgium said Tuesday it would expel 21 Russians, the Czech Republic said it was expelling one, while Ireland announced it would expel four officials. 

“Together with our allies, we are reducing the Russian intelligence presence in the EU,” the Czech Foreign Ministry said. 

Last week, Poland kicked out 45 Russian officials. 

The Dutch foreign affairs ministry said the reason for its expulsions was information indicating the 17 are “secretly active as intelligence officers.”  

The ministry added that the “intelligence threat against the Netherlands remains high. The current attitude of Russia in a broader sense makes the presence of these intelligence officers undesirable.”

It said it took the move after consulting with several other countries.

Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said the country was prepared should Russia take retaliatory measures against Dutch officials in Russia.

Similar actions have been taken recently by the United States, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Montenegro.

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press and Reuters
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A decades-old struggle for greater autonomy in the French island of Corsica is gaining new momentum, after Paris said it was open to discussions following the death of an imprisoned Corsican nationalist. Now another French area off the mainland — French Guiana, in South America — is also pushing for greater self-rule.

Top nationalist figures turned out for Yvan Colonna’s funeral last Friday at his ancestral hometown of Cargese, in western Corsica. The former shepherd died after being attacked by an Islamist extremist at a prison in mainland France. Colonna was serving a life sentence for the 1998 assassination of France’s top official in Corsica.

Colonna’s death has sparked some of the most violent demonstrations in years on the Mediterranean island, which is a popular tourist destination. Protesters, many of them young Corsicans, blame the state for not accepting a longstanding nationalist demand to transfer Colonna and his accomplices to a prison in Corsica.

Now, Paris appears to be listening. In a surprise announcement, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin says the government is open to greater Corsican autonomy. He visited the island earlier this month, holding talks with the ruling nationalists. But in interviews with French media like this one, Darmanin has ruled out full independence for Corsica.

University of Bordeaux Corsican specialist Thierry Dominici told RTL radio that Colonna’s death has been like a spark unleashing pent-up anger and nationalist aspirations of young Corsicans especially. He and others warn of more violent demonstrations to come.

Corsica is not the only place pushing against France’s centralized government. Brittany and Alsace also have nationalist movements — but nowhere near as strong as Corsica’s, where nationalists dominate the local government.

Some of France’s overseas territories, like New Caledonia and Polynesia, have gained various degrees of autonomy over the years, following referendums. Now, apparently inspired by Corsica, lawmakers from another overseas area — French Guiana — are also pushing for more autonomy.

In Corsica, the militant Corsican National Liberation Front movement waged a nearly 40-year armed struggle for the island’s independence, which ended in 2014. Colonna’s assassination of French prefect Claude Erignac was the most serious incident.

Today, many Corsicans do not support full independence. The island’s nationalist leaders are themselves divided, with some supporting more autonomy in areas like fiscal powers — alongside the official recognition of the Corsican language — and hardliners backing full independence.

Candidates for France’s April presidential elections are also divided. Far-right hopeful Marine Le Pen opposes autonomy for Corsica, while a number of leftist candidates support it. A recent IFOP poll finds just over half of all French support an autonomous statute for Corsica.
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The International Committee of the Red Cross reports a misinformation and disinformation campaign is being waged on social media to discredit its humanitarian work in Ukraine.

The Swiss-based organization warns the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine is deepening. It finds the level of death, destruction and suffering inflicted upon the civilian population since Russia invaded the country February 24 abhorrent and unacceptable.

Relentless bombing of the port city of Mariupol has demolished civilian homes and infrastructure. It has displaced tens of thousands of people, depriving them of food, water, and medical care.

Spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross Ewan Watson said civilians in Mariupol and other frontline areas are making life and death decisions to flee when there is no agreement that would allow them to leave safely.

He said a surge of misinformation and disinformation is jeopardizing ICRC efforts to protect and distribute humanitarian aid to people trapped by conflict.

“We are seeing deliberate targeted attacks using false narratives and disinformation to discredit the ICRC. And this has the potential to cause real harm for our teams and our Red Cross, Red Crescent movement partners working on the ground and for the people we serve,” he said.

Watson said a huge flow of misinformation and disinformation is being orchestrated across social media channels targeting the ICRC. For example, one claim that has no basis in truth, he said is the agency’s alleged role in forced evacuations.

“The ICRC has not been involved with any forced evacuation, forced transfers of civilians into Russia from Mariupol or any other Ukrainian city…The ICRC does not want to open an office in southern Russia to filter Ukrainians as many reports are alleging. So, that is absolutely false. We are not opening a refugee camp or any other type of camp,” said the spokesman for the ICRC.

Watson said the ICRC operates on the basis of impartiality and neutrality. He said it expects the warring parties to fulfill their obligations under International Humanitarian Law to protect civilians and limit military operations to exclusively military objectives.
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A new round of peace talks aimed at ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began Tuesday in Turkey as Ukrainian soldiers appear to have retaken more towns from Russian ground forces whose advances have stalled amid fierce opposition by Ukrainian fighters.

Addressing negotiators from Russia and Ukraine before the start of talks in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised speech, it was up to both sides to reach a concrete agreement and “stop this tragedy.”

The Russian negotiating team included billionaire Roman Abramovich, who suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning, along with at least two senior members of the Ukrainian team, after a meeting in Kyiv earlier this month.

Speaking about the peace talks, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on national television Monday that “the minimum program will be humanitarian questions, and the maximum program is reaching an agreement on a cease-fire.”

During an interview Sunday in a call with Russian journalists, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was open to adopting neutral status as part of a peace deal if it came with third-party guarantees and was put to a referendum.

Hours before the negotiations began, President Zelenskyy insisted that sanctions imposed by Western nations against Moscow need to be “effective and substantial” in order for them to have the intended effect on Russia’s economy. According to The New York Times, Zelenskyy said if Russia manages to “circumvent” the sanctions, “it creates a dangerous illusion for the Russian leadership that they can continue to afford what they are doing now. And Ukrainians pay for it with their lives. Thousands of lives.”

Meanwhile, a senior U.S. defense official has told reporters that Ukrainian troops have retaken the town of Trostyanets, located near the northeastern city of Sumy, while Zelenskyy said in his Monday night speech that Ukrainian troops have liberated Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv.

But just as the talks were getting underway in Istanbul, a Russian airstrike destroyed a government building in the port city of Mykolaiv. Governor Vitaly Kim says several people are trapped in the rubble.

And Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced in a video message posted on the social media site Telegram that her country has reopened and evacuated civilians from war-scarred regions after a one-day pause over what Kyiv called possible Russian “provocations.”

The United Nations says that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has pushed 10 million people out of their homes and that more than 3.8 million have fled the country.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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“Everyone is hoping for some kind of conspiracy at the top — that one of Vladimir Putin’s close associates or oligarchs will kill him,” says popular Russian blogger and longtime Kremlin critic Dmitry Chernyshev. “But it seems to me that will not be a solution,” he adds.

Instead, Chernyshev, a 55-year-old writer and lecturer, is calling on Russians to join a National Resistance movement he’s setting up and is encouraging wide-ranging civil disobedience going well beyond street protests. He says armed resistance and sabotage will be needed to overthrow the Russian leader.

That marks him out from other Kremlin critics and opposition figures as they struggle to map out a way forward to continue to challenge Putin.

This week a group of veteran Russian human rights and political activists agreed to set up an anti-war council and to focus their efforts on opposing the invasion of Ukraine. They are preparing an open letter calling on Russia to end its war on Ukraine, in which they will declare it “our common duty” to “stop the war [and] protect the lives, rights and freedoms of all people, both Ukrainians and Russians.”

The soon-to-be-published manifesto will be signed by a dozen opposition luminaries, including Lev Ponomaryov, Oleg Orlov and Svetlana Gannushkina. Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, who was sentenced to an additional nine years in prison earlier this week, has also called on Russians to attend anti-war protests.

But speaking to VOA, Chernyshev, who fled to Israel after his family was threatened by authorities and is trying to establish from Tel Aviv a movement to oust Russia’s leader, says more is needed and his strategy is broader. He says it won’t help Russia, if there’s “just a transfer of power from one hand to another.”

Russia will be as badly off if Putin is replaced by someone like Viktor Zolotov, the head of Russia’s National Guard, or Sergei Shoigu, the defense minister, he says. “It seems to me that the security forces have committed so many crimes that they will not give up power by peaceful means,” he warns.

Opposition exodus

Russia’s dissidents and rights activists say they are now living through the darkest period they have encountered since the end of communism. Tens of thousands of Russians have fled the country since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, fearing that if they didn’t do so they would end up in jail.

Their departure will further weaken opposition to Putin and make mass revolt even more unlikely, fear some activists, and has been compared by some to the flight of the White Army from Crimea in November 1920, when around 165,000 people fled Russia in three days. Estimates for the current exodus run as high as 200,000.

The White Army and its supporters fled because of defeat by the Bolsheviks on the battlefield and while there has been no clash of arms in Russia now, there is also a widespread sense of defeat. “The opposition has been crushed, chased into exile or underground,” according to Ben Noble, a professor of Russian politics at University College London.

The screws have been tightened on anti-war activists and Kremlin critics, who are facing increasing repression, including police beatings, intimidation, work dismissals and other threats. Around 150 journalists have fled Russia, and one of the country’s last remaining influential independent news outlets, Novaya Gazeta, announced this week that it will cease operations until the end of the war in Ukraine after it received a second warning from the state censor.

Political activists expect the search for internal enemies to blame for the country’s descent into sanction-induced economic hardship will only get worse for them. Putin has called for the country to purify itself of fifth columnists and traitors.

Fomenting uprising

In these circumstances Chernyshev says there is little option but to foment an uprising. In a recent Facebook post, he published a manifesto for national resistance, in which he called for a rebellion. “The Resistance Movement is announcing preparations to overthrow the criminal Putin regime,” the manifesto began.

“We will use all methods, including the right of people to an uprising. It is the citizens’ inalienable right to protect their rights and freedom from usurpers through any means, including armed struggle. We have exhausted all peaceful means: we organized rallies — they were dispersed. Ran honest media reports — they were banned. Led an open political struggle — the oppositionists were killed, imprisoned, exiled from the country, and were tried to be poisoned,” the manifesto continued.

One of Chernyshev’s role models is Charles de Gaulle, the wartime French leader. “I am very inspired by the example of de Gaulle, who had nothing, no army, no soldiers. He called on the French to resist,” says Chernyshev. “When France was defeated by Germany in 1940, de Gaulle commanded an army that did not exist. But gradually these armies appeared when it seemed that everything had already been lost. Gradually, a resistance movement began to form,” he adds.

He wants to target judges and security officials who prop up Putin’s rule in a bid to demoralize them and make them feel vulnerable. “It is one thing when they are sure that they are hidden and no one knows anything about them, and quite another when their names and addresses are made public.” He doesn’t detail what he hopes will happen to these officials, but he mentions “sabotage.”

Chernyshev has been an active Kremlin critic for years. He has had a series of jobs since leaving the Russian army after serving as a conscript. He has worked as a security guard, a driver, and a guide for hunters before studying design and graphic art, eventually becoming a creative director for an advertising agency. After Russia’s annexation of Crimea, his blog became one of the most-read in the country.

“Before the 2014 elections, I declared a personal vendetta against Putin,” he says. He attended pro-Navalny rallies and was detained once for 15 days. “When the invasion started, I wrote harsh posts against the war,” he says. He was arrested and taken to Lubyanka, the headquarters of the domestic FSB intelligence agency, where “they interrogated me very harshly for three hours,” he says.

“They wanted me to sign a document swearing allegiance to Putin and other nonsense. Of course, I did not sign the document, but in order to have time to get my children out of Russia, I promised to stop my activities on the Internet. I have four children and the threats were serious. They promised to send me in a freight train to Donetsk and tie me to a pole as a looter, so that the people would deal with me,” he explains. “If it were not for the threats to [my] children, I would have stayed in Russia,” he says. He sold everything he could and flew on March 15 with his family to Israel.

Other political activists believe the circumstances are not right for the kind of national resistance Chernyshev hopes to foment. They say Putin has prepared for years to see off any “color revolution” that emerges. Others point to polls suggesting the Russian leader has support for his invasion of Ukraine.

Chernyshev dismisses the criticism. “Everyone who has conducted surveys knows that 9 out of 10 people interviewed on the street refuse to answer. People receive calls on their home phones and ask if they support government activities. People are afraid to answer truthfully and, of course, say they say they support. I am sure that Putin’s rating is at an extremely low level. I urge you not to believe in the results of the polls,” he says.

And he believes food riots will start to emerge when the economic hardship brought on by Western sanctions worsens. “I may be wrong but doing nothing in such a situation seems like a betrayal to me,” he says.
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Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine   
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Indigenous leaders from Canada and survivors of the country’s notorious residential schools met with Pope Francis on Monday and told him of the abuses they suffered at the hands of Catholic priests and school workers. They came hoping to secure a papal apology and a commitment by the church to repair the harm done.

“While the time for acknowledgement, apology and atonement is long overdue, it is never too late to do the right thing,” Cassidy Caron, president of the Metis National Council, told reporters in St. Peter’s Square after the audience.

This week’s meetings, postponed from December because of the pandemic, are part of the Canadian church and government’s efforts to respond to Indigenous demands for justice, reconciliation and reparations — long-standing demands that gained traction last year after the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves outside some of the schools.

More than 150,000 native children in Canada were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools from the 19th century until the 1970s in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes and culture and Christianize and assimilate them into mainstream society, which previous Canadian governments considered superior.

Francis set aside several hours this week to meet privately with the delegations from the Metis and Inuit on Monday, and First Nations on Thursday, with a mental health counselor in the room for each session. The delegates then gather Friday as a group for a more formal audience, with Francis delivering an address.

Symbolic gestures

The encounters Monday included prayers in the Metis and Inuit languages and other gestures of deep symbolic significance. The Inuit delegation brought a traditional oil lamp, or qulliq, that is lit whenever Inuit gather, and it stayed lit in the pope’s library throughout the meeting. The Inuit delegates presented Francis with a sealskin stole and a sealskin rosary case.

The Metis offered Francis a pair of red beaded moccasins, “a sign of the willingness of the Metis people to forgive if there is meaningful action from the church,” the group explained. The red dye “represents that even though Pope Francis does not wear the traditional red papal shoes, he walks with the legacy of those who came before him, the good, the great and the terrible.”

In a statement, the Vatican said each meeting lasted about an hour “and was characterized by desire on the part of the pope to listen and make space for the painful stories brought by the survivors.”

The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant at the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages. The legacy of that abuse and isolation from family has been cited by Indigenous leaders as a root cause of the epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction on Canadian reservations.

Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Catholic missionary congregations.

Last May, the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Nation announced the discovery of 215 gravesites near Kamloops, British Columbia, that were found using ground-penetrating radar. It was Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school, and the discovery of the graves was the first of several similar grim discoveries across the country.

Caron said Francis listened intently Monday as three of the many Metis survivors told him their personal stories of abuse at residential schools. The pope showed sorrow but offered no immediate apology. Speaking in English, he repeated the words Caron said she had emphasized in her remarks: “truth,” “justice” and “healing.”

“I take that as a personal commitment,” Caron said, surrounded by Metis fiddlers who accompanied her into the square.

What needs to follow, she said, is an apology that acknowledges the harm done, the return of Indigenous artifacts, a commitment to facilitating prosecutions of abusive priests and access to church-held records of residential schools.

Canadian Bishop Raymond Poisson, who heads the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, insisted the Vatican holds no such records and said they more likely were held by individual religious orders in Canada or at their headquarters in Rome.

Demands for ‘specific actions’ 

Even before the gravesites were discovered, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission specifically had called for a papal apology to be delivered on Canadian soil for the church’s role in the abuses. Francis has committed to traveling to Canada, though no date for such a visit has been announced.

“Primarily, the reconciliation requires action. And we still are in need of very specific actions from the Catholic Church,” said Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, who led the Inuit delegation.

He cited the reparations the Canadian church has been ordered to pay, access to records to understand the scope of the unmarked graves, and Francis’ own help to find justice for victims of a Catholic Oblate priest, the Rev. Johannes Rivoire, who has been accused of multiple cases of sexual abuse and is living in France.

“We often as Inuit have felt powerless over time to sometimes correct the wrongs that have been done to us,” Obed said. “We are incredibly resilient, and we are great at forgiving. … But we are still in search of lasting respect and the right to self-determination and the acknowledgement of that right by the institutions that harmed us.”

As part of a settlement of a lawsuit involving the government, churches and the approximately 90,000 surviving students, Canada paid reparations that amounted to billions of dollars being transferred to Indigenous communities.

The Catholic Church, for its part, has paid over $50 million and now intends to add $30 million more over the next five years.

The Metis delegation made clear to Francis that the church-run residential school system, and the forced removal of children from their homes, facilitated the ability of Canada authorities to take Indigenous lands while also teaching Metis children “that they were not to love who they are as Metis people,” Caron said.

“Our children came home hating who they were, hating their language, hating their culture, hating their tradition,” Caron said. “They had no love. But our survivors are so resilient. They are learning to love.”

The Argentine pope is no stranger to offering apologies for his own errors and what he himself has termed the “crimes” of the institutional church.

During a 2015 visit to Bolivia, he apologized for the sins, crimes and offenses committed by the church against Indigenous peoples during the colonial-era conquest of the Americas. In Dublin, Ireland, in 2018, he offered a sweeping apology to those sexually and physically abused over generations.

That same year, he met privately with three Chilean sex abuse survivors whom he had discredited by backing a bishop they had accused of covering up their abuse. In a series of meetings that echo those now being held for the Canadian delegates, Francis listened and apologized. 
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In a sign that sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine may be starting to bite, Russian tanker ships carrying oil and petroleum products have been observed turning off systems that broadcast their identity and location, a practice known as “going dark” and which is often associated with efforts to evade sanctions. 

In the days and weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, the United States and a broad coalition of other countries imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian goods, including petroleum products. Experts say that by going dark, ships may be able to discharge cargo, often via ship-to-ship transfers at sea, without attracting the attention of law enforcement authorities. 

According to data gathered by Windward Ltd., an Israeli firm that uses artificial intelligence to assess maritime risk, the number of incidents of Russia-affiliated ships going dark on a daily basis has increased dramatically since the introduction of sanctions. 

This is especially true with regard to tankers carrying Russian crude oil. Prior to the invasion, Windward tracked two or three incidents per day of tankers loaded with Russian crude disabling their identification systems. It is now documenting about 20 a day. 

“We’re seeing a synchronized effort across Russian shipping and trading to systemically hide where their cargoes are going,” Ami Daniel, Windward CEO, told VOA. 

That is not to say the practice of “going dark” is being dictated by the Kremlin. The ships involved are almost all privately owned and not technically answerable to the government in Moscow. Neither the Russian government nor the various companies who own the ships in question have issued public statements about the practice. 

Automatic Identification System 

A treaty, known as the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, requires large ships to have an Automatic Identification System (AIS) in operation at all times, with some specific exceptions. The AIS provides other ships and coastal authorities with the vessel’s name, heading, speed and other information.

“AIS should not be turned off, as a general matter,” Attorney Neil Quartaro, a partner in the trade and transportation group at the law firm Cozen O’Connor, told VOA. 

Quartaro said that the few exceptions include areas where broadcasting details about a ship’s speed and heading could create a security risk.  

“The primary area where it is acceptable to turn off your AIS is in something called the ‘high risk area,’ which is essentially the area off the coast of Somalia,” Quartaro said. Pirate activity is prevalent in that region, as well as a few other spots around the world, where cargo ships have been boarded and the crews held for ransom. 

Ship-to-ship transfers 

Quartaro said that it is not uncommon for ships attempting to evade sanctions to turn off their AIS equipment while, for instance, performing a ship-to-ship transfer of crude oil that originated in a sanctioned country.  

“If you’re operating in the Gulf of Mexico, and you’re anywhere close to Trinidad and Tobago or Aruba, and you turn off your AIS, anybody looking at that is going to suspect that you’re engaging in an illegal transfer of oil product out of Venezuela, which happens all the time,” Quartaro said. 

Similarly, he said, it is common for empty tankers to leave a port in the Middle East, turn off their AIS equipment, and then reappear a few days later with a load of crude oil bound for Pakistan. In such cases, he said, the oil probably originated in Iran, which is under heavy sanctions. 

Deceptive shipping practices 

In 2020, the U.S. departments of State and Treasury, as well as the Coast Guard, issued an advisory that included seven different shipping practices that were characterized as “deceptive” and associated with illicit shipping and the evasion of sanctions.  

No. 1 on the list is disabling or manipulating AIS equipment.  

“Although safety issues may at times prompt legitimate disablement of AIS transmission, and poor transmission may otherwise occur, vessels engaged in illicit activities may also intentionally disable their AIS transponders or manipulate the data transmitted in order to mask their movement,” the advisory warned. 

Others deceptive practices include falsifying registrations and cargo manifests, creating intentionally complex ownership structures, and making unscheduled stops and detours. 

Sign of desperation 

The potential downside of engaging in deceptive shipping practices is significant, which suggests that willingness to engage in it could be a sign of desperation. 

Large companies that have significant business interests in the United States, for example, do not want to get caught up in an investigation of sanction evasion. For that reason, they pay companies like Windward to identify vessels that have engaged in suspicious activity, in order to avoid doing business with them in the future. 

However, the importance of oil exports to the Russian economy may make some shippers more willing to take risks. 

Russia’s exports of petroleum products are a large contributor to the economy. In 2021, according to figures released by the Russian central bank, the country took in $490 billion from petroleum sales. Crude oil accounted for $110 billion of the total, and other oil products made up an additional $69 billion. 

Daniel, of Windward, said his company expects to see Russian shippers resorting to additional methods of bypassing sanctions in the near future. 

“We expect Russia to adopt many of these deceptive shipping practices, and not just in the tanker segments. Across all the segments, because of the huge pressure they’re under,” he said. 

 
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Delegation members attending peace talks between Ukraine and Russia suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning after a meeting in Kyiv earlier this month, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.  

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and at least two senior members of the Ukrainian team, including Crimean Tatar lawmaker Rustem Umerov, were affected, according to the paper, which cited people familiar with the matter. 

It said the delegation members showed symptoms that included red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and peeling skin on their faces and hands. Those affected have since improved their health, and their lives are not in danger, according to the report. 

Investigators for the open-source collective Bellingcat were also involved in sourcing the Journal’s report. 

Bellingcat said its sources have confirmed the events, and cited experts who investigated the matter and concluded that “poisoning with an undefined chemical weapon” was the most likely cause. 

The experts said the choice of toxin and dose indicates it “most likely was intended to scare the victims, as opposed to cause permanent damage.” 

The Wall Street Journal said it was not clear who was behind the suspected poisoning but said those targeted blamed hard-liners in Moscow seeking to disrupt the negotiations. 

Asked Monday about the report, Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said, “There is a lot of speculation, various conspiracy theories,” according to Reuters. 

Reuters reported that Umerov, who was cited as one of the targets of the suspected poisoning in the Journal report, urged people not to trust “unverified information.” 

The Kremlin has not commented on the report. 

Abramovich is a billionaire Russian businessman with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and is one of numerous oligarchs under sanctions from Western countries. 

Last week, the Journal reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked U.S. President Joe Biden not to include Abramovich in Western sanctions, arguing that the Russian could help to negotiate a peace deal. 

Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 

 
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Russian troops have stopped ground advances toward the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv as they appear refocused on regions in eastern Ukraine, according to a senior U.S. Defense official. 

“They clearly are not moving on Kyiv anymore,” said the official, who spoke to reporters Monday on condition of anonymity. “What we are seeing is this continued reprioritization on the Donbas.” 

Moscow’s latest military shift appears to be an effort to cut off Ukrainian forces in the eastern region, according to the official, adding that the move “could be an attempt by the Russians to gain negotiating leverage” in peace talks with Ukrainian representatives trying to end the war. 

Russia has been backing separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine since 2014, when Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.  

Ukrainian forces have stopped Russian troops from taking most major cities.  

Nearly 5,000 people, including more than 200 children, have been killed in the southern city of Mariupol, which has been pounded by Russia with heavy bombardment since the Russian invasion started last month, according to the mayor’s office. 

Mariupol’s mayor on Monday called for evacuation of the remaining 160,000 residents. However, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said no humanitarian corridors would open due to intelligence reports of potential Russian assaults on the routes. 

“We’ve seen the Russians announce humanitarian corridors and then promptly shell them, or mortar them, or strike them,” the senior U.S. Defense official said Monday in response to a question from VOA, without speaking to Ukraine’s recent assertions. 

Near Kyiv, the large suburb of Irpin has been liberated from Russian forces, according to Mayor Alexander Markushin. 

“We understand that our city will be attacked more. We will protect it,” he said. 

Last week, the deputy chief of the Russian armed forces’ General Staff said Russia’s “main tasks” of the invasion of Ukraine were complete. 

“The combat capabilities of the Ukrainian armed forces have been substantially reduced, which allows us to concentrate our main efforts on achieving the main goal – the liberation of Donbas,” Sergei Rudskoi said.  

However, last week a senior U.S. Defense official said Ukrainians still have more than 90% of their combat power, in part because the U.S. and other allies have replenished them “in real time.” 

Peace talks 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity” are a priority as Ukraine and Russia head into a new round of peace talks.  

“We are looking for peace, really, without delay,” Zelenskyy said in a video address late Sunday. “There is an opportunity and a need for a face-to-face meeting in Turkey. This is not bad. Let’s see the outcome.”  

Earlier Sunday, in call with Russian journalists, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was open to adopting neutral status as part of a peace deal, if it came with third-party guarantees and was put to a referendum.  

Turkey is set to host the latest talks. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Erdogan’s office saying he stressed the need for a cease-fire and more humanitarian aid in the region.  

The United Nations says the Russian invasion of Ukraine has pushed 10 million people to leave their homes, with more than 3.8 million fleeing the country.  

In response to the invasion, the NATO alliance has increased defenses on its eastern flank, announcing four new battlegroups to Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia last week. Individual NATO members have also unilaterally sent troops and equipment to allied countries including Poland and the Baltic states, which neighbor Russia and have hosted NATO battlegroups since 2017. 

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby announced that six U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler aircraft and about 250 air crew would arrive in Germany on Monday to bolster NATO’s defenses. 

“These Growlers … specialize in conducting electronic warfare missions, using a suite of jamming sensors to confuse enemy radars,” Kirby told reporters. 

“They are there to reinforce deterrence capabilities of the alliance on the eastern flank. They’re not there to engage Russian assets. That is not the goal,” a senior U.S. Defense official added. 

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

 
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The Group of Seven industrialized nations rejected the Kremlin’s demand that they pay for natural gas in rubles, the German energy minister said Monday.  

“All G-7 ministers have agreed that this is a unilateral and clear breach of existing contracts,” said Robert Habeck, German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, after G-7 countries and European Union representatives met Friday to come to a unified position.

“Payment in ruble is not acceptable, and we will urge the companies affected not to follow (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s demand,” Habeck said. 

“Putin’s demand to convert the contracts to ruble (means) he is standing with his back to the wall in that regard. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have made that demand,” Habeck added, noting that Russia needs rubles to help finance war expenses. 

Putin declared that Russia will order “unfriendly” countries to pay in rubles only for natural gas. The demand for the central banks to work out a procedure for buyers to acquire rubles in Russia could inflate the currency even more and lead to a natural gas shutoff, analysts say, which would greatly hurt Russia’s economy, along with Europe’s.  

Europe gets 40% of its gas and 25% of its oil from Russia. Since the beginning of the war, Europe has attempted to organize proposals to decrease its dependency.  

Western sanctions have sparked inflation in Russia and hurt its economy. Some officials are doubtful that Russia’s demand for ruble payments will be successful. 

“Putin’s attempt to divide us is obvious,” Habeck said. “But as you can see from this great unity and determination, we will not be divided.”

When asked if Russia could suspend gas supplies to European consumers if the countries do not pay with rubles, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “We clearly aren’t going to supply gas for free. In our situation, it’s hardly possible and feasible to engage in charity for Europe.”  

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. 

 
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