Month: September 2022

The youth league of South Africa’s ruling ANC party has endorsed Russia’s referendums in occupied parts of Ukraine, which are designed to pave the way for Moscow to annex the territories.

The endorsement came after members of the group accepted invitations from Moscow to act as international observers of the Kremlin-orchestrated votes. The Ukrainian Association of South Africa says it is disappointed in the youth league’s stance while the ANC itself is remaining silent on the issue.

The head of the ANC Youth League’s Subcommittee on International Relations, Khulekani Skosana, has commended Russian President Vladimir Putin on Twitter.

Skosana posted a clip of his interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

“We stand in solidarity with all the oppressed people of the world,” Skosana said. “It’s not just Donbas, we stand with people of Palestine, Western Sahara. We will always stand with those who are oppressed and those who don’t have anyone to defend them. The revolution will not be televised, that’s why we went to see for ourselves as young people of the liberation movement of President Nelson Mandela.”

The president of the Ukrainian Association of South Africa, Dzvinka Kachur, said the youth league members are simply being used by Russia to try to legitimize a process that falls far, far short of international laws on referendums.

Moscow has released vote tallies showing support in all four regions where the referendums were held for five days beginning September 23.

But Kachur said that was a lie because Russia doesn’t control all of these areas.

“Yes, they may be controlling almost completely the territory of one region, of Luhansk but they don’t control Donetsk, they don’t control Zaporizhzhia and they definitely don’t control Kherson,” she said.

Kachur said they’ve heard the international media reports of Russian soldiers going door-to-door to get people to vote at gun point.

“A lot of our community members have had their relatives still in the occupied territories,” she said. “We understand people being tortured and how people are hiding.”

Kachur added that the Ukrainian Association is disappointed in the ANC government for not reacting to the Youth League’s statements. The government has repeatedly said it is neutral in this conflict but the Ukrainian Association says Skosana’s comments are anything but.

“As the ANC Youth League is connected to the government, if the government is supporting that silently I think it’s a big challenge for South African democracy and all South Africans living in this country because it says that the ruling party does not understand what democracy is,” Kachur said.

Requests for comment from the ANC’s main body went unanswered. The party’s spokesperson, Pule Mabe, simply sent two text messages saying: “May I please revert back.”

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said he was perplexed.

“It is strange that the ANC Youth League could actually send observers to Russia on a very controversial referendum actually,” he said. “A referendum that has been referred to as a sham referendum by the global community. So, for the ANC Youth League to be sending members there, it is very strange. I don’t know what exactly does the youth league aim to achieve. I don’t know whether this will give them traction in South Africa’s politics.”

Mathekga said he wonders who paid for the trip and whether the decision to go was taken within the ANC and where the decision was taken.

Reuters reports that the United States is preparing a new round of sanctions to punish Russia for any annexation move and a new $1.1 billion arms package for Ukraine that will be announced soon.
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Private American pilots with a group called “Ukraine Air Rescue” are working to get supplies into Ukraine. VOA Russian met some of them and has the story. VOA footage by David Gogokhia.
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Cyprus released griffon vultures into the wild on Wednesday in the latest attempt to boost a once thriving population now critically endangered by poisoning. 

The island’s largest bird of prey has seen its population fall dramatically to the smallest in Europe in recent decades, either from accidental poisoning or changing farming techniques leaving them short of food. 

Earlier this year, the population suffered a massive loss from poisoning, reducing numbers to just 8, conservationists say. 

They will be joined by eight vultures from Spain, home to Europe’s largest population of griffon vultures, which were released on Wednesday in the mountains north of the coastal city of Limassol. They form a group of 15 brought to the island last year, with seven released in mid-September. 

Another 15 are expected from Spain in November. In the past decade, Cyprus had also brought griffon vultures from Crete. 

“We were only left with eight birds because of the poison baits placed in the countryside mainly to kill foxes and dogs,” said Melpo Apostolidou, project coodinator at BirdLife Cyprus, one of the partners in the part EU-funded Life with Vultures project. 

The birds with names like “Pablo” and “Zenonas” have been fitted with satellite trackers to monitor their movements. 

Big, gangly and smelly, griffon vultures play a vital role as nature’s cleanup crew, feeding off dead carcass and reducing the spread of disease. But the use of banned poisons to kill perceived pests which the scavenging bird will then feed on has a knock-on effect. 

Nicos Kassinis, a senior officer with Cyprus’s Game and Fauna Service, said authorities were operating several feeding stations and had set up dog units trained to detect poison bait. “It is a serious problem,” he said. 

Conservationists say only when the use of poison is effectively addressed can the bird start to thrive again. “Even if we continue to bring vultures from elsewhere, we are just delaying their extinction if we don’t do anything to reduce the frequency of poisoning incidents,” Apostolidou said. 

 
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As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stalls, tensions have been unleashed throughout Russian society. Voices of protest are emerging, despite the government crackdown on dissent. The city of St. Petersburg, a center of opposition to the war, is again at the forefront of citizen unrest. Henry Ridgwell narrates this report by VOA’s Moscow bureau.
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Russia has received another financial blow, with the last Turkish banks ending their support of the Russian Mir payment scheme, as the West steps up its efforts to isolate Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. 

The decision of three Turkish state banks to pull out of the Russian Mir payment system follows two private Turkish banks suspending Mir transactions earlier this month. 

Moscow uses Mir to circumvent Russian exclusion from international credit cards as part of western sanctions over its Ukrainian invasion.  

Maria Shagina, a specialist on international sanctions at the Institute for Strategic Studies, said Washington is stepping up its efforts to tighten sanctions against Russia. 

“For the West, it’s important that the enforcement of the existing sanctions is as watertight as possible,” she said. “So, any tolerance vis-a-vis those countries helped to bust sanctions. This is where the West can change its policy towards Ankara and consider imposing sanctions threat.”  

The Kremlin condemned Washington on Wednesday, accusing it of putting unprecedented pressure on Turkish banks to withdraw from Mir.  

The U.S. Treasury last week warned that Turkish banks working with the Mir payment system “risk supporting Russia’s efforts to evade U.S. sanctions.”  

Evading U.S. sanctions could potentially open Turkish banks to secondary sanctions, which include being banned from using U.S. dollars.  

Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners said even the threat of such sanctions could have severe consequences for Turkish banks, which depend on borrowing dollars from international lenders. 

“Turkish banks have a very heavy schedule ahead in the next months, rolling over probably, something like $40 billion. And I think the reputation damage there could be tremendous,” Yesilada said. “I’m not accusing any Turkish bank of being a party to sanctions violation. But I think the general attitude of any compliance officer would be just don’t do business with them, it’s dangerous we don’t want to get into trouble.”    

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has refused to enforce sanctions against Russia. Erdogan argues such measures are counterproductive and would hinder his efforts to play an honest broker between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, with whom he also has good relations.  

Turkish Russian trade has boomed since the start of the Ukrainian conflict.

Timothy Ash, a senior strategist with Bluebay Asset Management, said with presidential elections next year and a crisis-ridden economy, Erdogan sees Russian trade as key to his political survival. 

“Turkey is increasingly dependent on Russia for capital flows, money that they potentially can use to intervene to defend the currency. I mean, this is essentially why Erdogan is so interested in this relationship with Russia. He wants to win an election short of cash,” Ash said. “The pressure point is inflation. The weakness is the exchange rate because of the balance of payments problem, and he needs to defend it. And obviously, foreign exchange reserves are the way to do it.”  

With Erdogan meeting with Putin in September, the third encounter in as many months, and bilateral trade a crucial part of the talks, few analysts predict Turkey’s ending of its support of the Mir will be the end of Turkey deepening Russian trading ties. 

 
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Ukraine urged its backers Wednesday to make clear to Russia that “its attempts of annexation, blackmail and ultimatums” will only bring more support to the Ukrainian side in the conflict that began with the February invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces.

“Ukraine calls on the EU, NATO and the Group of Seven to immediately and significantly increase pressure on Russia, including by imposing new tough sanctions, and significantly increase their military aid to Ukraine, including by providing us with tanks, combat aircraft, armored vehicles, long-range artillery, anti-aircraft and missile defense equipment,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The appeal came as the Russia-installed leaders in Luhansk and Kherson appealed Wednesday to Russian President Vladimir Putin to annex those territories based on what they said was the support of residents.

Russia-installed officials said 93% of ballots cast during the five days of voting in Zaporizhzhia supported annexation, along with with 87% in Kherson, 98% in Luhansk and 99% in Donetsk. Together, the regions make up about 15% of Ukraine’s territory.

Ukraine, the United States and other Western countries have denounced the referendums as illegal. International recognition is highly unlikely.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that Russia must be isolated internationally for its sham referendums in his country.

“There is only one way to stop this all,” he said by video. “First, it is the complete isolation of Russia in response to everything it does.”

More sanctions should be imposed on Moscow, he said, and it should be deprived of its veto at the U.N. Security Council and suspended from all international institutions.

“The annexation of the captured territories … is the most brutal violation of the U.N. Charter,” the Ukrainian president said. “This is an attempt to steal the territory of another state. This is an attempt to erase the norms of international law.”

If Moscow annexes these territories, Zelenskyy said, it “will mean that there is nothing to talk about with the president of Russia.”

U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told council members that the referendums are not a “genuine expression of the popular will.”

“Unilateral actions aimed to provide a veneer of legitimacy to the attempted acquisition by force by one state of another state’s territory, while claiming to represent the will of the people, cannot be regarded as legal under international law,” she said.

“Now, Kyiv is being rejected not only by the people of Crimea and Donbas, but Kherson and Zaporoizhzhia regions,” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told council members. “This process is going to continue if Kyiv does not recognize its mistake and its strategic errors and doesn’t start to be guided by the interests of its own people, and not blindly carry out the will of those people who are playing them.”

There are concerns in Ukraine and the West that should the territories be annexed, Russian President Vladimir Putin would claim any attempt by Ukrainian military forces to recapture the land as an attack on Russia itself.

Diplomatic action

The United States and Albania have circulated a draft resolution to Security Council members condemning the referendums, calling on countries not to recognize any altered status of Ukraine and compelling Russia to withdraw its troops from the country.

“If Russia chooses to shield itself from accountability here in the council, we will then look to the U.N. General Assembly to send an unmistakable message to Moscow,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. “The world must stand together and defend the Charter of the United Nations.”

She told reporters after the meeting that she hopes to seek a vote in the Security Council either late this week or early next week.

“We call on all U.N. members — everyone for whom the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders have meaning — to oppose Russia’s actions, condemn the referendums and their anticipated results, and never recognize any attempt to steal Ukrainian land through violence and terror,” Albanian Ambassador Ferit Hoxha said.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Wednesday that all indications are that leaks from two Nord Stream natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea “are the result of a deliberate act.” 

“We will support any investigation aimed at getting full clarity on what happened and why, and will take further steps to increase our resilience in energy security,” Borrell said in a statement. “Any deliberate disruption of European energy infrastructure is utterly unacceptable and will be met with a robust and united response.” 

The U.S. State Department said late Tuesday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the situation with Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod and that the United States “remains united with our allies and partners in our commitment to promoting European energy security.”  

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted that the U.S. is supporting efforts to investigate the apparent sabotage.

Denmark’s defense minister Morten Bodskov is due to discuss the matter with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels on Wednesday.

“I’m not going to speculate on the cause” of the leaks, replied White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to questions about the incident Tuesday, adding that she had nothing to report on whether the United States had been requested by European officials to help determine the cause of the ruptures.

“An act of sabotage”

The 1,222-kilometer-long Nord Stream 1 pipeline has been, until recently, a major source of gas for Germany. Nord Stream 2, which is 1,234 kilometers in length, has yet to go into commercial operation.

“We have established a report and the crime classification is gross sabotage,” the Swedish national police said Tuesday, announcing a preliminary investigation into possible sabotage of Nord Stream 1.

“There are three leaks, and therefore it is difficult to imagine that it could be accidental,” said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen Tuesday.

“We see clearly that this is an act of sabotage – an act which likely means a further step of escalation of the situation in Ukraine,” concurred Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Frederkisen and Morawiecki spoke in Gloeniow in Poland at the opening ceremony for Baltic Pipe, part of a Polish plan to reduce its energy dependence on Russia. The line will connect Poland to Norwegian gas fields through Denmark.

“No option can be ruled out right now,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, regarding the possibility of sabotage, adding that the leaks are a cause for concern.

Russia closed Nord Stream 1 earlier this month, ostensibly for maintenance work.

The majority owner of the network’s operator, Nord Stream AG, is Gazprom, a Russian state-owned energy company.

“The destruction that occurred on the same day simultaneously on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system is unprecedented,” said NordStream AG in a statement. “It is not yet possible to estimate the timing of the restoration of the gas transport infrastructure.”

“The biggest leak is spreading bubbles a good kilometer in diameter. The smallest is creating a circle about 200 meters” in diameter, according to a statement from the Danish armed services, which included photographs of the leaks off the island of Bornholm.

Powerful blasts recorded Monday

Scientists in Europe say seismographs on Monday recorded powerful blasts in the Baltic Sea, the same day the two gas pipelines dropped pressure.

“There was a spike and then regular noise,” said Josef Zens, a spokesman for the German geological research center GFZ. “We cannot say if that could be gas streaming out.”

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action,” wrote Bloomberg Opinion columnist Javier Blas, quoting the late British author Ian Fleming.

“The leaks are more likely a message: Russia is opening a new front on its energy war against Europe. First, it weaponized gas supply, halting shipments, including via the Nord Stream pipeline. Now, it may be attacking the energy infrastructure it once used to ship its energy,” said Blas, author of The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources.

Amid much speculation on social media about who might have sabotaged Nord Stream there is no credible evidence of a likely culprit or motive. Analysts and amateurs on Twitter contend the Russians may have deployed divers or unmanned submersible vehicles to poke holes in the pipelines.

The leaks are a result of a “terrorist attack” and “an act of aggression” against the European Union, declared Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the Ukrainian presidential office.

Some anonymous accounts on Twitter, parroting Russian state media, sought to blame Washington and Kyiv. On social media on Tuesday, a video clip from early February recirculated of Joe Biden vowing to “bring an end” to the Nord Stream 2 project if Russia invaded Ukraine.

The Kremlin has stated that if Western Europe wants Russian gas, it should end sanctions against Moscow imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seven months ago.

“My understanding is the leaks will not have a significant impact on Europe’s energy resilience,” Secretary Blinken said in Washington.

“This just drives home the importance of our efforts to work together to get alternative gas supplies to Europe and to support efforts to reduce gas consumption and accelerate true energy independence by moving to a clean energy economy,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson told VOA.

While the impact to Europe ahead of the winter as a result of the loss of the pipelines remains to be seen, the trio of leaks poses an immediate hazard to wildlife and maritime navigation.

The gas could suffocate animals and is an explosion threat to passing ships, according to environmental groups.

Contributors include Patsy Widakuswara at the White House; Nike Ching at the State Department, and Chris Hannas in Washington. Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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Ukrainian war veterans who lost limbs in the war are undergoing a unique form of therapy that involves help from some four-legged friends. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story. Camera: Yuriy Dankevych
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About 98,000 Russians have crossed into Kazakhstan in the week since President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of reservists to fight in Ukraine, Kazakh officials said Tuesday, as men seeking to avoid the call-up continued to flee by land and air into neighboring countries.

Kazakhstan and Georgia, both part of the former Soviet Union, appeared to be the most popular destinations for those crossing by car, bicycle or on foot.

Those with visas for Finland or Norway also have been coming in by land. Plane tickets abroad had sold out quickly despite steep prices.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has said that only about 300,000 people with prior combat or other military service would be called up, but reports have emerged from various Russian regions that recruiters were rounding up men outside that description. That fueled fears of a much broader call-up, sending droves of men of all ages and backgrounds to airports and border crossings.

In announcing the number of Russians crossing the border, Kazakhstan Interior Minister Marat Akhmetzhanov said authorities will not send those who are avoiding the call-up back home, unless they are on an international wanted list for criminal charges.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered his government to assist Russians entering his country “because of the current hopeless situation.”

“We must take care of them and ensure their safety. It is a political and a humanitarian issue. I tasked the government to take the necessary measures,” Tokayev said, adding that Kazakhstan will hold talks with Russia on the situation.
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Dutch prosecutors said Monday that a 30-year-old man suspected of involvement in the slaying of crime reporter Peter R. De Vries has been arrested by authorities in Poland.

De Vries, one of the Netherlands’ best-known journalists who also campaigned to solve cold cases, was gunned down in Amsterdam on July 6 last year. He died nine days later of his injuries at age 64.

Prosecutors said the Polish man was arrested on suspicion of helping prepare the attack and that he is believed to have lived in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam at the time of the shooting.

His identity wasn’t released in line with privacy regulations. Dutch authorities have requested his transfer to the Netherlands.

Two men were arrested near The Hague soon after De Vries were shot and are on trial for his murder. Prosecutors have sought life sentences for both. One of them is a Polish national, Kamil E., who was the alleged getaway driver.

Another Polish national was arrested in July on suspicion of instructing the two men who carried out the hit. Two other suspects were arrested in Spain and Curacao on the same day.

Before his shooting, De Vries acted as an adviser and confidant for a witness in the trial of the alleged leader and other members of a crime gang that police described as an “oiled killing machine.” The witness’ brother and his lawyer both were murdered.

The suspected gangland leader, Ridouan Taghi, was extradited to the Netherlands from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2019 and is currently awaiting verdicts in his trial. Prosecutors have sought a life sentence for his alleged involvement in a string of murders. He hasn’t been charged in De Vries’ killing.
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Russia claimed Tuesday that early vote counting in what Western allies say are sham referendums showed Ukrainians in four regions overwhelmingly supporting joining Russia. 

State news agency RIA Novosti said that with about a fifth of the vote counted from the five days of balloting in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, more than 97% of the voters in all four regions favored annexation. Together, the regions comprise about 15% of Ukraine’s territory. 

The referendums have been widely denounced by Ukraine, the U.S. and other Western countries as an illegal exercise. No matter the outcome announced by Moscow, it is not expected to be accepted globally. 

But the balloting, and the widely expected outcome purportedly favoring annexation, would give Russian President Vladimir Putin a pretext to unilaterally change the Russian-Ukraine border and annex the four regions. That, in turn, could portray any attack on them by Kyiv’s forces as an attack on Russia itself. 

He said last week that he was willing to use nuclear weapons to defend the “territorial integrity” of Russia, a threat widely denounced by Ukraine, the U.S. and other Western countries that have sent billions of dollars to the Kyiv government to fend off Russia’s seven-month invasion. 

Ukraine has also repeatedly warned that Russian annexation of additional land would destroy any chance of peace talks. 

Some Ukrainians reported they were forced at gunpoint by Russian fighters to leave their homes to vote. Voting is ending Tuesday, with the U.S. saying in advance it will not recognize any outcome that Russia announces. 

“We stand with our partners around the world in rejecting whatever fabricated outcomes Russia announces,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday.   

“As far as what we are doing, we are prepared to impose additional swift and severe economic costs on Russia, along with our allies and partners, in response to these actions that we’re seeing currently if they move forward with annexation,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’ve been very clear about that.”   

The voting began Friday in the Russian-controlled Luhansk and Kherson regions, and in occupied areas of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.       

Nuclear saber-rattling    

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and the country’s former president, said Tuesday that if Russia is threatened beyond a certain limit, it has the right to respond “without asking anyone’s consent and holding long consultations.” 

“Let’s imagine that Russia is forced to use the most powerful weapon against the Ukrainian regime that has committed a large-scale act of aggression, which is dangerous for the very existence of our state,” Medvedev wrote on his messaging app channel. “I believe that NATO will steer clear from direct meddling in the conflict in that case.”  

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CBS News’s “60 Minutes” show in an interview broadcast late Sunday that the United States has made it clear publicly and privately to Russia to “stop the loose talk about nuclear weapons.”  

“It’s very important that Moscow hear from us and know from us that the consequences would be horrific, and we’ve made that very clear,” Blinken said.  

A U.S. State Department official said Putin gave the United States and its allies a gift last week by engaging in nuclear saber-rattling, calling for the troop mobilization and announcing the referenda while the U.S. was at the United Nations “talking about sovereignty and international peace and security.” The official said Russia “couldn’t have timed it better to put a spotlight on the grave offenses that Russia is committing to Ukraine and the international order.”    

Protests against mobilization  

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported heavy fighting in several areas of Ukraine as he gave his nightly address Monday.   

“The situation is particularly intense in the Donetsk region,” he said. “We are doing everything to curb the enemy activity. That is where our number one goal is right now, as Donbas is still the number one goal for the occupiers.”   

Zelenskyy called Russia’s mobilization of 300,000 reservists “a sincere attempt to give commanders on the ground a constant stream of cannon fodder.”    

Widespread protests against Putin’s troop call-up have erupted in Russia, with police arresting hundreds of demonstrators participating in street protests in Moscow and elsewhere.     

In Russia’s Siberia region Monday, a 25-year-old man shot a military commandant at an enlistment center, the local governor said.    

Many men opposed to Putin’s war or fearful of being killed on the battlefield have abruptly fled Russia on flights to other countries, while others have joined long lines of cars on land routes headed to the Russian borders with Finland, Georgia and other countries.   

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

 
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Two suspected Kurdish militants opened fire on police in southern Turkey and later killed themselves by detonating suicide bombs, Turkey’s interior minister said. One police officer was killed in the attack while a second officer and a civilian were wounded.

The attack was carried out late on Monday in the Mezitli district in the Mediterranean coastal province of Mersin, by two women affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters.

They fired on police guarding a hotel for security officers, touching off clashes between them and police and a group of night guards who rushed to the scene, Soylu said.

“The women terrorists were wounded during these clashes. As the clashes continued, two separate explosions were heard,” the minister said. “Because they were wounded, they understood they would not be able to escape and they (killed) themselves.”

Soylu said a woman who was sitting on a balcony near the scene was hit by a stray bullet during the clashes. Neither she nor the second police officer was seriously hurt, he said.

There was no immediate comment from the militant group.

The PKK is considered a terrorist organization in Turkey, Europe and the United States. It has led an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since then.

A fragile cease-fire and peace talks between the state and the PKK collapsed in the summer of 2015.
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Ukrainian female fighters who recently met with U.S. State Department officials and members of Congress said they witnessed war crimes committed by Russia during its war on Ukraine. During an interview with VOA, two Ukrainian warriors detailed personal stories and firsthand information on atrocities committed by Russian troops.

United Nations investigators have said there is evidence that Russian forces who invaded Ukraine in February 2022 committed war crimes. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine presented its findings on Friday, September 23, to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

“They [Russian troops] use forbidden ammunitions like cluster munitions and phosphorus bombs that burn everything to the ground. It’s prohibited by all the civilized world,” Daria Zubenko, a senior sergeant in the Ukrainian armed forces, told VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching on Friday. “We know the facts of women being raped and even children.”

Russia has repeatedly dismissed accusations of abuses during its war on Ukraine.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization to boost troop levels, recruiting civilians of fighting age into the military at a time when Russian armed forces are suffering significant losses.

Despite the buildup, “we don’t fear,” Yaryna Chornoguz, a Ukrainian combat medic and drone operator, told VOA. She added that Ukraine’s counteroffensive, with the new security assistance from the United States, has been making progress. “We believe we win them because of our new weaponry.”

Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced an additional $457.5 million in civilian security assistance to boost capacity of Ukrainian law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. A portion of this new assistance will continue U.S. support for the Ukrainian government’s efforts to “document, investigate and prosecute atrocities perpetrated by Russia’s forces,” according to the State Department.

The following includes excerpts from the interviews, which have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Interview with Daria Zubenko

VOA: Can you please tell our audience your name?

Daria Zubenko: My name is Daria Zubenko. I’m a a senior sergeant of Ukrainian armed forces.

VOA: Which area in Ukraine are you from?

Zubenko: I was born in Chernihiv. It’s the north part of Ukraine. Mostly I lived in Kyiv, studied there and worked there.

VOA: What have you seen during the war?

Zubenko: I was in the armed forces officially since 2018. Before, I was a volunteer paramedic in 2015. I spent some time on the front line in 2015 around Mariupol region near Donetsk. I gave first aid. And then, after a break, I joined the official armed forces and became an instructor of sniper school.

With the full-scale invasion in the end of February, I took part in operations around Kyiv when there was war and combat battles around Kyiv region and also in Chernihiv region. I was in Irpin, I was in the village Moshchun that is north from Kyiv, where Russians were stopped. And then we had operations in Chernihiv region, going into the villages that have just been left by Russians.

I saw people coming out of their houses. When they saw Ukrainian troops and Ukrainian flags, they started crying and saying, ‘Thank you, boys and girls, finally you came.’ Most of them asked ‘Please make sure that Russians never come back.’

What those people have experienced is really horrible. We saw pictures of Bucha, Irpin and recently liberated cities like Izium, Kupyansk, and all these mass graves, all this evidence of people being tortured, captured and killed.

In [a] small village of Yahidne near Chernihiv, people spent about a month locked in the basement. Russian troops didn’t let them go out — there were about 200 people there in one place, with small children. The youngest child was 3 months old.

And there were some older people — none of them unfortunately could survive all of this. Some men were taken out of this basement and convoyed by Russians to the forest and shot. I saw women who just received the news about their husbands being killed — I felt ashamed that we just let this happen.

Russian (troops) don’t have any principles or any rules of war when dealing with civilians. That’s why we hope to liberate our cities and towns as soon as possible.

VOA: Today, the U.N. investigators said they found evidence of war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine. Do you think it’s a valid finding?

Zubenko: It’s good that these crimes are being investigated. The evidence is found, gathered, and we can finally get some punishment to those who are doing that. For Russia, no international law ever worked.

We know the facts of women being raped and even children. We know evidence of people being killed (while) trying to evacuate. They (Russian troops) were shooting civilian cars. We know people have been captured and held somewhere in the basement and tortured.

VOA: Do you agree with the finding that Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine?

Zubenko: Absolutely. We know, for example, they use forbidden ammunitions like cluster munitions and phosphorus bombs that burn everything to the ground. It’s prohibited by all the civilized world. But for Russia, it’s OK. We saw it with our own eyes. We just need the world to react properly and for Russia to be completely isolated.

Interview with Yaryna Chornoguz

VOA: Can you please tell our audience your name, and where on the front line you were fighting?

Yaryna Chornoguz: My name is Yaryna Chornoguz. I’m a soldier of Reconnaissance Battalion of Ukraine Marine Corps which belongs to Ukraine Defense Forces. I’m here right from the front line from the Donetsk Region. My battalion has been on the front lines during 13 months. We have seen plenty of towns, Donetsk region, Mariupol, Bakhmut, Sloviansk, and the others.

VOA: What have you seen during the war?

Chornoguz: First, when the war started, our battalion had been eight months on the rotation in [the] Luhansk region. And then at the end of February we were relocated to the Mariupol direction in order to reinforce our embattled forces there.

But when we came to the outskirts of Mariupol, it was already in battle. We tried to restrain the breakthrough in the Mariupol city to the north of Ukraine. And there, my battalion, we had really hard battles. I was on the observation post on the fuel road when we see a big long Russian tank column that moved on us and on the Ukrainian village and we had hard battles. My commander was killed.

I saw with my own eyes how Russian tanks destroyed and ruined villages of Ukrainians. During the first month of [Russia’s] full-scale invasion, I had a quite hard experience to help not only wounded soldiers because I’m a combat medic, but also a civilian.

I already told that story to the American news [outlets] about rescuing the boy age 10 from the basement and his mother with a 10-month [old] child in her hands. I just had this picture before my eyes when we took the boy in a blanket … to our military car and evacuated that village. Every day, it was bombed by cluster munitions by Russians.

What I can say now is that [the] HIMARS system, and the Howitzers that we got from the U.S. changed everything. They [Russian troops] came with such big forces, with such long tank columns and we managed to stop them. And I believe that we’ve made counteroffensive.

VOA: Thousands of Russians, men of fighting age, are fleeing the country after the partial mobilization [of civilians into the military] order from the government. What does that tell you?

Chornoguz: I can tell you that Ukrainians are joking about this conscription of Russians that Putin has announced. Because you know, for artillery that we got from our allies, and with our experience — it doesn’t matter whether it’s 10 occupants per square meters or whether it’s 100. It doesn’t matter. We believe we win them because of our new weaponry. We don’t fear.
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Denmark’s maritime authority said Monday that a gas leak had been observed in a pipeline leading from Russia to Europe underneath the Baltic Sea and that there is a danger to ship traffic.

The operator of Nord Stream 2 confirmed that a leak in the pipeline had been detected southeast of the Danish island Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

The pipeline runs 1,230 kilometers (764 miles) from Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. It is completed and filled with gas, but gas has never been imported through it, dpa reported.

The cause of the detected leak wasn’t immediately clear.

The Danish energy agency said in a statement that the country’s maritime authority has issued a navigation warning and established a five-nautical mile prohibition zone around the pipeline “as it is dangerous for ship traffic.”

The relevant authorities are currently coordinating the effort, and the Danish energy agency added that “outside the exclusion zone, there are no security risks associated with the leak.”

The incident is not expected to have consequences for the security of the supply of Danish gas, the country’s energy agency said.

A spokesman for the operator of Nord Stream 2 said a loss of pressure was detected in a tube early Monday, and the responsible marine authorities in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Russia were immediately informed, dpa reported.

While the pressure inside the pipeline is normally 105 bar, it is now only 7 bar on the German side, spokesman Ulrich Lissek said.

He fears that the pipeline, filled with 177 million cubic meters of gas, could run dry in the coming days, dpa reported.

It wasn’t immediately clear what consequences would follow from that, but a German environmental group said that the leaking gas isn’t toxic.

Deutsche Umwelthilfe pointed out that natural gas is methane, which partially dissolves in water and is not toxic. The deeper the gas is released in the sea, the higher the proportion that dissolves in the water, the group said, according to dpa.

Even in the event of an underwater explosion, there would only be local effects, Deutsche Umwelthilfe said.

The German economy ministry said it had been informed about the suspected site in Danish territorial waters and was in touch with the authorities in Germany and Denmark.

The pipeline was already complete when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suspended the certification of Nord Stream 2 on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, after Russia formally recognized two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.

Germany has been heavily reliant on natural gas supplies from Russia, but since Moscow launched its war in Ukraine on Feb. 24, Berlin has been trying to look for other sources of energy.

The leak comes a day before the inauguration of a new pipeline, Baltic Pipe, which will bring Norwegian gas through Denmark to Poland. The Norwegian gas is meant to have an important role in replacing Russian gas.
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French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Washington in early December for the first state visit of President Joe Biden’s tenure, an occasion marked by pomp and pageantry that is designed to celebrate relations between the United States and its closest allies.

The December 1 visit, following the U.S. midterm elections and the Thanksgiving holiday, will be the second state visit for Macron, who was first elected to lead his country in May 2017 and won a second term earlier this year. Macron also had a state visit during the Trump years.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced the visit Monday, saying it will “underscore the deep and enduring relationship with France, our oldest ally.” It will be the first time the White House has hosted a world leader for a state visit since the coronavirus outbreak.

The invitation comes as a sign that relations between Biden and Macron have come full circle. The relationship tanked last year after the United States announced a deal to sell nuclear submarines to Australia. The decision by the U.S. undermined a deal that had been in place for France to sell diesel-powered submarines to Australia.

After the announcement of the deal, which was born out of a new security agreement between the U.S., Australia and Britain, France briefly recalled its ambassador to Washington, Philippe Etienne, to Paris. Biden also sought to patch thing up with France by eventually acknowledging to Macron that his administration had been “clumsy” in how it handled the issue.

The Biden administration since has heaped praise on Macron for being among the most vociferous Western allies in condemning Russia’s 7-month-old war in Ukraine and pressing broad sanctions on the Russian economy and officials close to President Vladimir Putin.

Central to Biden’s pitch for the presidency was a vow to restore America’s global leadership after four years of Donald Trump’s “America First” worldview. But Biden has acknowledged that Macron and other allies remain skeptical about whether he can make good on robust U.S. leadership worldwide.

Biden is fond of telling the story of how, at a world leader meeting he attended soon after taking office, he declared that “America is back.” He says his counterparts, starting with Macron, countered by asking, “For how long?”

Macron also was the first world leader to earn a state visit under Trump, though their relationship later became fractious.

The French leader had sought to cultivate a close partnership with Trump and hosted the Republican in 2017 for Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. Trump reciprocated with Macron’s state visit.

But the relationship soured after Trump pulled U.S. troops from Syria without coordinating with France and other NATO allies. Trump disparaged NATO.

In one of their last face-to-face encounters, at a gathering of NATO leaders in London in 2019, Trump and Macron hardly hid their frustration with each other.

Not long before that meeting, Macron had complained that the alliance was suffering “brain death” caused by diminished U.S. leadership under Trump. Trump snapped back after a meeting with Macron that the French leader had made “very, very nasty” and “disrespectful” comments.

When Macron visited in April 2018, Trump and his wife, Melania, planned a double date with Macron and his wife, Brigitte, at Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of George Washington, America’s founding president.

The couples helped plant a tree on the White House lawn before they departed on a helicopter tour of monuments built in a capital city designed by French-born Pierre L’Enfant as they flew south to Mount Vernon, situated along the Potomac River. Macron was welcomed at the White House the next day with a booming 21-gun salute, his first Oval Office meeting with Trump, a joint news conference with the president and a state dinner for 150 guests in the White House State Dining Room.

Scott Morrison, then the prime minister of Australia, also came on a state visit at Trump’s invitation in September 2019. Trump had announced a third state visit, by Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, but it was postponed due to the pandemic and could not be held before Trump lost reelection in 2020.

President Barack Obama also afforded France the honor of a state visit, in 2014.

Obama and French President Francois Hollande celebrated ties between their nations by touring Monticello, the sprawling Charlottesville, Virginia, estate owned by Thomas Jefferson, the former U.S. president and famed Francophile. Jefferson was an early U.S. envoy to France.

Hollande’s visit was the first such recognition for France in two decades.
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