A federal court in New York has rejected a Russian businessman’s challenge to the U.S. government’s efforts to confiscate a luxury superyacht that allegedly belongs to sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleyman Kerimov.
The decision brings the United States closer to taking ownership of the yacht — known as Amadea — through a legal procedure known as civil forfeiture.
The ruling likely represents the biggest victory so far in plans started under former President Joe Biden’s administration to seize assets of sanctioned Russian tycoons and use them to support Ukraine’s war effort.
On March 10, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that Russian businessman Eduard Khudainatov did not have standing to challenge forfeiture of the yacht because he was not its owner.
And because no one else has claimed ownership, the U.S. Department of Justice will now pursue a judgment of forfeiture by default.
Khudainatov’s legal team plans to appeal the decision.
“The ruling is both legally and factually flawed, and we are confident it will not withstand appellate review,” Adam Ford, a lawyer representing Khudainatov and his company, said in a statement.
The DOJ declined to comment on the ruling.
U.S. prosecutors believe the 106-meter elite superyacht that is valued at over $230 million belongs to Kerimov, a senator, businessman and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The court also concluded in legal documents that the evidence suggests that after September 2021, Kerimov or his family exercised ownership of the vessel.
In 2018, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on Kerimov. The government later alleged he or people acting on his behalf made payments for repairs and upkeep of the yacht that passed through the U.S financial system — a violation of those sanctions.
U.S. law enforcement seized the Amadea in 2022. But the following year, Khudainatov, who is not under U.S. sanctions, claimed ownership interest, setting the stage for a legal battle that continues today.
The outcome of the case will be important not only for the true owner and Ukraine but also for American citizens.
As VOA reported in May 2024, U.S. taxpayers have spent more than $740,000 a month on the yacht’s maintenance. Last December, The Washington Post reported that servicing the yacht had cost the country roughly $30 million.
The court previously denied the DOJ permission to sell the yacht and convert it into cash, a move that would save the government money.
Battle for Amadea
In May 2022, a few months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the island nation of Fiji seized the Amadea at the United States’ request. It was later transferred to U.S. law enforcement.
The seizure appeared to be a major victory for Task Force KleptoCapture, a DOJ unit established by the Biden administration to enforce sanctions on Russian oligarchs.
But that victory turned out to be elusive.
Civil forfeiture allows law enforcement to seize assets — frequently drugs, cash, automobiles and houses — that have been used in or resulted from the commission of a crime. The legal procedure’s main advantage is that it does not require a criminal or civil judgment against the property’s owner.
But in the case of the Amadea, if Khudainatov is the yacht’s owner, then financial transactions made through the U.S. to service the yacht do not violate the sanctions order.
The DOJ considers Khudainatov a “straw owner” and alleges that he is the beneficiary owner of at least eight yachts and yacht projects — a fleet worth over $1 billion. Prosecutors say that stretches far beyond his financial means, and that the yachts belong to other people.
For example, the DOJ claims that Igor Sechin, the sanctioned CEO of Russian state-controlled oil company Rosneft, owns one of them.
Journalists have tied the Scheherazade, another superyacht from this fleet, to Putin. In May 2022, it was seized in Italy.
But proving that the Amadea belongs to Kerimov has been a challenge for the DOJ.
Prosecutors alleged that the yacht’s ownership was hidden behind several companies. They asserted that documents and testimony discovered during the DOJ’s investigation confirmed it was controlled by Kerimov.
Khudainatov’s legal team argued that U.S. law enforcement conducted a hasty, partial investigation before seizing the yacht. They alleged that the DOJ also pressured yacht personnel and witnesses to provide the testimony it wanted and selectively presented evidence to support its version of the story.
Among the evidence that Khudainatov’s legal team submitted is a sworn statement by Kerimov’s daughter Gulnara, claiming to have chartered the Amadea for a trip in early 2022 with her children, brothers and sisters, and their nannies and bodyguards. But she stated that her parents were not present on the yacht, and that she never owned it.
The U.S. government “resorted to desperate, strong-arm tactics to get the statements that fit their false narrative,” lawyer Ford said in a statement last month. “The government simply fabricated the allegations that Kerimov purchased the Amadea. It is owned by Mr. Khudainatov and always has been.”
Next steps
Stefan Cassella, a former federal prosecutor and expert on civil forfeiture, does not expect the case to be over anytime soon.
A month before the ruling on Khudainatov’s status, he told VOA that the standard strategy for resisting forfeiture typically consists of dragging out the proceedings for as long as possible to increase the costs for the government.
Cassella expected Khudainatov to appeal any ruling, a process he thought would take at least a year.
“Civil forfeiture is often mistaken to be a streamlined process,” Cassella said. “It is not. It is saturated with due process — and it should be.”
Additionally, DOJ priorities have changed since the start of the case.
On Feb. 5, Pam Bondi took office as the new U.S. attorney general. That same day, she sent a memorandum stating that the DOJ’s new priority would be the “total elimination” of drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations.
In the same document, she announced the dissolution of the KleptoCapture task force, the anti-kleptocracy team and the kleptocracy asset recovery initiative.
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SARAJEVO — Bosnian state prosecutors on Wednesday ordered the arrest of Russian-backed Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and his aides for ignoring a court summons, raising the stakes in a standoff that threatens the Balkan country’s stability.
The decision was taken two weeks after a separate case in which Dodik was sentenced to a year in jail for defying the rulings of an international peace envoy, a spokesperson from the state security agency, SIPA, said.
Prosecutors have sought the help of Bosnia’s State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) in the arrest, which comes after Dodik and aides ignored a court summons. It was not clear if the plan was to detain Dodik or to accompany him to answer the summons.
The state prosecutors’ office was investigating Dodik, the pro-Russian nationalist president of Bosnia’s autonomous Serb Republic, for what it described as an attack on constitutional order after he initiated the adoption of laws barring state judiciary and police from the region after his sentencing.
“We have received a request from the court police of Bosnia and Herzegovina to assist them,” SIPA spokeswoman Jelena Miovcic said.
Serb Republic television, citing the regional government, reported that the state prosecution has also ordered the arrest of Serb Republic Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic and regional parliament president Nenad Stevandic over ignoring summons in the case of the attack on constitutional order.
The Serb Republic is one of two regions created to end a 1992-95 war that killed more than 1000,000 people in multi-ethnic Bosnia. They are linked by a weak central government in a state supervised by an international authority to stop it slipping back into conflict.
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TBILISI — Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been imprisoned since 2021, was sentenced on Wednesday to nine more years in jail after being found guilty of embezzlement.
Saakashvili, in office from 2004 to 2013, had been convicted of embezzling $3.3 million via expenses claims for what prosecutors called “luxury” spending.
In a post on X after the sentencing, Saakashvili, who denies the charges and says the expenses were legitimate, called the verdict an “outrageous case of political persecution.”
Saakashvili was already serving a six-year sentence for abuse of power, having been jailed after returning to Georgia in 2021. He has spent much of that time in a prison hospital.
The sentences will run concurrently, so Wednesday’s ruling will keep him in jail until 2030. He is also on trial for entering Georgia illegally in 2021 and, separately, for a crackdown on protesters in 2007.
Georgian television showed a commotion in court after the verdict was announced, with Saakashvili’s supporters calling the judge a “slave” of the government.
Now a deeply polarizing figure, Saakashvili rose to power on a tide of acclaim in the 2003 Rose Revolution.
He reorientated Georgia towards the West and introduced public sector reforms that delivered rapid improvements in governance and the economy of the South Caucasus country of 3.7 million.
However, the latter part of his tenure was marked by authoritarianism, police brutality, and a disastrous 2008 war with Russia.
In 2012, his United National Movement lost an election to a coalition headed by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire businessman who is still Georgia’s de facto leader.
After leaving office, Saakashvili moved to Ukraine, where he briefly served as governor of the Odesa region.
He returned in 2021, despite having been convicted in absentia of abuse of power, and was jailed on arrival.
The ruling Georgian Dream party regularly accuses all opposition parties, including those critical of Saakashvili, of having links to him.
In recent years, Georgian Dream has clamped down on opposition and steered the former Soviet republic closer to Moscow again.
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WASHINGTON — For more than 70 years, Irish leaders have visited the White House for the annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration of Irish-America heritage.
But this year, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheal Martin will need to present President Donald Trump with more than just the traditional gift of a bowl of shamrock, as he navigates potential friction over Ireland’s low defense spending, support for Palestinians in Gaza and Ukrainians, and the large trade imbalance between the two countries.
While past Irish prime ministers enjoyed warm White House hospitality from former President Joe Biden, who often highlighted his “fierce pride” of his Irish ancestry, Wednesday’s meeting will largely be a test of Martin’s diplomatic acumen as he navigates the relationship with a crucial partner his country depends on economically.
Martin appeared clear-eyed about the stakes of his visit.
“I am very, very conscious that in a very challenging world, thousands and thousands of jobs depend on the economic relationship between the United States and Ireland,” he said Monday at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, where he began his U.S. tour.
“And my overriding objective is to copper fasten that for the time ahead and to protect those people who are working in jobs,” Martin said.
The meeting comes amid concern in Ireland about Trump’s moves to impose steep new tariffs on Canada and Mexico, neighboring countries that have large trade imbalances with the United States.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Ireland holds the fourth-largest trade surplus with the U.S., about $87 billion, behind Vietnam, Mexico and China but ahead of Canada. Trump has also threatened to apply tariffs on goods from the European Union, which would also affect Ireland, an EU member.
Ireland is also highly dependent on long-standing investment from U.S. multinational companies for jobs, tax revenue and exports. According to data from the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, around 970 U.S. companies directly employ 211,000 people and indirectly support a further 168,000 jobs across Ireland.
Major American companies including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Pfizer have established European headquarters in the country, lured by its English-speaking and skilled workforce, access to the European single market, and its low corporate tax rate of 12.5%.
As president-elect, Trump pledged to slash the U.S. corporate tax rate to match the Irish rate and “reshore” American companies, bringing back their business activities and their tax dollars.
The U.S. is an “absolutely critical partner,” and the Irish have “a lot of trepidation” on what Trump might bring up during this meeting, said Eoin Drea, senior researcher at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies.
“The best-case scenario would be if there is no public bust up or major disagreement” between the leaders, Drea told VOA.
Ukraine and Gaza
Taxes and tariffs aside, Martin will also need to navigate geopolitical divides, including on Ukraine and Gaza.
The Irish prime minister will be the first foreign leader to visit the White House following the fiery exchange between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 11 days ago. Dublin’s position mirrors that of Kyiv’s, in that Ukraine needs U.S.-backed security guarantees to secure a ceasefire with Russia.
But out of all the potential irritants, Gaza might be the issue that needs the most delicate handling from Martin. Irish opposition leaders including Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Labour Party politician Duncan Smith have pressed Martin to stand up to Trump and advocate for the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza.
Dublin is one of Europe’s staunchest critics of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, and one of only three European states, along with Norway and Spain, that in 2024 recognized the State of Palestine. It has also joined a South African legal action at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
The Irish delegation would be wise to keep the focus on economic issues, where the two countries are “less diametrically opposed” as they are compared to their positions on Gaza, Drea said.
As Trump presses European countries to boost spending and rely less on Washington for its security, Ireland’s low defense spending, only 0.2% of the gross domestic product, is another area where the U.S. can exert pressure.
Ireland is not a member of NATO and relies heavily on the United Kingdom for its defense, including to protect the massive network of undersea cables that make the backbone of global internet and communication systems. Seventy-five percent of all transatlantic cables go through, or are close to, Irish waters.
To counter pressures from the deal-making American president, the Irish government “would be clever to induce some kind of personalized incentives,” Drea said, noting Trump’s properties in Ireland, including one of the country’s most famous golf courses.
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NUUK, Greenland — Polling stations closed in Greenland on Tuesday in a parliamentary election brought into the international spotlight by U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to take control of the mineral-rich island, firing up a debate over its independence.
Voting had been extended by half an hour past a 2200 GMT deadline amid high turnout at several of the 72 polling stations across the arctic island, where 40,500 people were eligible to cast their ballots.
There were no exit polls, and a final tally of the vote could take between three and five hours to complete, Greenland’s election authority has said.
Since taking office in January, Trump has vowed to make Greenland — a semiautonomous territory of Denmark — part of the United States, saying it is vital to U.S. security interests.
The vast island, with a population of 57,000, has been caught up in a geopolitical race for dominance in the Arctic, where melting ice caps are making its resources more accessible and opening new shipping routes. Both Russia and China have intensified military activity in the region.
Greenland is a former Danish colony and a territory since 1953. It gained some autonomy in 1979 when its first parliament was formed, but Copenhagen still controls foreign affairs, defense and monetary policy and provides just under $1 billion a year to the economy.
In 2009, it won the right to declare full independence through a referendum, even though it has not done so out of concern living standards would drop without Denmark’s economic support.
“I strongly believe that we will very soon start to live a life more based on who we are, based on our culture, based on our own language, and start to make regulations based on us, not based on Denmark,” said Qupanuk Olsen, candidate for the main pro-independence party Naleraq.
Inge Olsvig Brandt, a candidate for the ruling Inuit Ataqatigiit Party, said:
“We don’t need the independence right now. We have too many things to work on. I think we have to work with ourselves, our history, and we are going to have a lot of healing work with us before we can take the next step.”
Trump’s interest has shaken up the status quo, and coupled with the growing pride of the Indigenous people in their Inuit culture, put independence front and center in the election.
In the final debate on Greenland’s state broadcaster KNR late on Monday, leaders of the five parties currently in parliament unanimously said they did not trust Trump.
“He is trying to influence us. I can understand if citizens feel insecure,” said Erik Jensen, leader of government coalition partner Siumut.
A January poll suggested a majority of Greenland’s inhabitants support independence but are divided on timing.
Early on, the election campaign focused on the anger and frustration aimed at historical wrongdoings by former colonial ruler Denmark, according to Julie Rademacher, a consultant and former adviser to Greenland’s government.
“But I think the fear of the U.S. imperialist approach has lately become bigger than the anger towards Denmark,” said Rademacher.
Reuters spoke to more than a dozen Greenlanders in Nuuk, all of whom said they favored independence, although many expressed concern that a swift transition could damage the economy and eliminate Nordic welfare services like universal health care and free schooling.
The island holds substantial natural resources, including critical minerals such as rare earths used in high-tech industries, ranging from electric vehicles to missile systems.
However, Greenland has been slow to extract them because of environmental concerns, severe weather, and China’s near-total control of the sector, which has made it difficult for companies elsewhere to make a profit or secure buyers.
Trump initially declined to rule out military force, alarming many Greenlanders, although he later softened his stance, stating he would respect the will of the local people and was “ready to invest billions of dollars” if they joined the U.S.
Greenland’s prime minister, Mute Egede, has stressed the island is not for sale and advocated for a broad coalition government to resist external pressure. In an interview aired on Monday by Danish broadcaster DR, he dismissed Trump’s offer as disrespectful, expressing willingness to cooperate with other countries instead.
Denmark’s prime minister has said Greenland is not for sale but made it clear that it is up to the local people to decide their future.
The pro-independence Naleraq Party, the leading opposition force, has gained momentum ahead of the election, bolstered by U.S. interest and fresh accusations of Denmark’s historic exploitation of Greenland’s mineral wealth.
The party believes the U.S. attention strengthens Greenland’s position in secession talks with Denmark and aims to bring a deal with Copenhagen to a vote before the next election in four years.
…

Paris — European military and political heads are holding high-level talks this week after calls for massively rearming Europe — and boosting aid for Kyiv — amid fears of a less engaged United States. Lisa Bryant has more from Paris.
Speaking to top NATO and European Union military brass gathered in Paris Tuesday, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans stressed the urgency of boosting Europe’s defense. While the transatlantic alliance is important, he said Europeans can no longer take U.S. protection for granted.
“Europe therefore needs to fortify its security architecture. And we don’t have much time to get this right. We only have one shot,” said Brekelmans.
The same message came from European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen at the European Parliament.
“We need a surge in European defense, and we need it now,” she said.
The European Union’s executive arm has proposed an $873 billion plan for rearming Europe and supporting Ukraine. It includes relaxing fiscal rules and some $164 billion in loans for defense investments. It has proposed increasing defense spending by an additional 1.5 percent of member states’ GDP yearly over four years.
The proposed surge comes as Washington’s priorities appear to be shifting. And European leaders are worried Russia may not stop at Ukraine — fears their populations appear to share.
One Ipsos survey found three-quarters of French and half of Germans are concerned the Ukraine conflict will spread elsewhere in Europe. Another poll, however, found few Europeans want to pay more for defense.
Critics, including Hungary’s Viktor Orban, suggest Europe can’t afford to defend Ukraine. Others argue Brussels is assuming too much power.
Europeans are also divided over whether to invest in their own defense industry — or buy externally. The U.S. has been a top supplier.
Former French Ambassador Michel Duclos said, “They want to continue to sell weapons to European counties.”
Duclos is now an analyst at the Montaigne Institute research group in Paris. That’s one argument, he believes, for Washington’s at least short-term commitment to Europe’s security.
“What I fear more is not that they [the U.S.] will disengage. It’s more that they will want the Europeans to pay more and more for European protection,” he said.
This week sees more high-level meetings on Ukraine and European security. There’s another in Paris Wednesday, gathering Europe’s five top military powers, along with NATO and Ukrainian defense chiefs.
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Belgrade, Serbia — Several hundred student protesters have blocked Serbia’s public television station building in Belgrade as tensions soar in the Balkan country, days ahead of a large rally planned for the weekend and billed as an endgame in months of anti-government demonstrations.
The students first blocked the TV building in central Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, late on Monday and several hundred gathered again on Tuesday, after announcing that their blockade will last for at least 22 hours. A similar blockade was organized in the country’s second-largest city of Novi Sad.
University students in Serbia are behind almost daily rallies that started after a concrete canopy crashed down in November at a railway station in Novi Sad, killing 15 people. The protests have rocked the populist rule of President Aleksandar Vucic and his firm grip on power.
During the blockade late Monday, riot police briefly intervened with batons as the crowd tried to block one of the entrances to the TV building with metal security fences. At least one plainclothes police officer was injured in skirmishes after apparently being struck in the head by a uniformed officer, according to a video released on social media.
The students blame public TV for biased reporting and for siding with Vucic and the government during the demonstrations. The Serbian president was the guest of the main TV news bulletin on Monday evening.
During the interview, Vucic insulted the student-led protests, warning that security forces will use force against participants of the big rally planned for Saturday. He pledged never to step down because of the massive nationwide demonstrations.
“You will have to kill me if you want to replace me,” he said,
The TV reporter who interviewed Vucic called the protesting students “a mob,” which the president appeared to approve of. The station, RTS, issued a statement, denouncing the blockade.
“Forcibly preventing RTS employees from coming to their workplaces represents a dangerous step into open conflicts with unpredictable consequences,” it said.
Some of the TV station’s employees apparently managed to enter the building through a side entrance that’s not publicly known, allowing the program to continue uninterrupted.
Meanwhile, Vucic met with U.S. President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who arrived in Belgrade on Tuesday. The purpose of his visit was not immediately known. Pro-Russian Vucic is a vocal supporter of the U.S. president.
Many in Serbia believe that the huge concrete construction fell down because of poor renovation work fueled by government corruption. The students have insisted on full accountability in the tragedy, a call that has garnered widespread support among citizens who are largely disillusioned with politicians and have lost trust in state institutions.
Student-led rallies have drawn tens of thousands of people, becoming among the biggest ever in Serbia, which has a long history of anti-government protests. Vucic has described the rallies as a Western-orchestrated ploy to oust him from power.
The next big rally is planned on Saturday in Belgrade and Vucic has alleged the protesters “will try to achieve something with violence and that will be the end.” Many demonstrators “will end up behind bars accused of criminal acts,” he added.
All student-led protests in the past months have mostly been peaceful, while incidents were recorded when opponents drove their cars into protest blockades or attacked the protesters.
Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have held a firm grip on power in Serbia for over a decade, facing accusations of stifling democratic freedoms despite formally seeking European Union entry for Serbia.
Authorities have indicted 16 people over the canopy collapse, but many doubt that the actual culprits will face justice.
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Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — U.S. and Ukrainian officials began talks Tuesday in Saudi Arabia with the Ukrainian side expected to present a partial ceasefire plan with Russia.
The Ukrainian plan includes halting long-range missiles strikes and a truce covering the Black Sea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not take part in Tuesday’s meetings, with Ukraine represented by his chief of staff Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and military commander Pavlo Palisa.
Yermak told reporters just before the start of Tuesday’s meeting that Ukraine is ready “to do everything to achieve peace.”
When asked if Ukraine is seeking security guarantees, Yermak said ‘yes’ and that Ukraine wants to ensure that Russia never repeats its aggression.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz led the U.S. delegation amid President Donald Trump’s push to broker a swift end to the war that began in early 2022 with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Rubio said Monday the United States hopes to resolve the pause in aid to Ukraine.
He said the U.S. is in a listening mode and aims to understand what concessions Ukraine might be willing to make.
“The Ukrainians are already receiving all defensive intelligence information as we speak. I think all the notion of the pause in aid broadly is something I hope we can resolve. Obviously, I think what happens tomorrow will be key to that,” Rubio told reporters aboard a military plane before landing in Jeddah.
“We’re not going to be sitting in a room drawing lines on a map, but just get a general sense of what concessions are in the realm of the possible for them [Ukrainians],” Rubio said, adding that there is no military solution to the war, and that both Russia and Ukraine need to “do difficult things.”
Later on Monday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Rubio in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.
Salman held a separate meeting with Zelenskyy in Riyadh earlier in the day.
Mineral deal?
Trump has voiced interest in making continued military aid conditional on access to Ukraine’s raw materials.
More than four dozen minerals, including several types of rare earths, nickel and lithium, are considered critical to the U.S. economy and national defense. Ukraine has large deposits of uranium, lithium and titanium.
But Rubio clarified that securing a deal on Ukraine’s mineral resources was not the primary focus of Tuesday’s talks.
“There’s still more details to work out, and at this point, we’re probably — rather than a memorandum of understanding — just wanting to sign a specific agreement. And that would take a little bit more time,” he told reporters.
“I wouldn’t prejudge tomorrow by whether or not we have a minerals deal. … It’s an important topic, but it’s not the main topic on the agenda,” Rubio added.
Rubio also credited Britain and France for playing a constructive role in talks with Ukraine.
He told VOA that there have been no discussions about China playing a role in postwar peacekeeping and reconstruction in Ukraine.
This marks Rubio’s second visit to Saudi Arabia since taking office. He and other senior U.S. officials held talks with Russian officials in Riyadh on February 18. He is scheduled to travel to Canada on Wednesday for meetings with G7 foreign ministers.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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NUUK, Greenland — Greenland residents vote on Tuesday in a closely watched election brought into the international spotlight by a pledge from U.S. President Donald Trump to take control of the mineral-rich island.
Since taking office in January, Trump has vowed to make Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, part of the United States, saying it is vital to U.S. security interests.

The island, with a population of just 57,000, has been caught up in a geopolitical race for dominance in the Arctic, where melting ice caps are making its resources more accessible and opening new shipping routes.
Both Russia and China have intensified military activity in the region.
Greenland, a former colony and a Danish territory since 1953, is three times the size of Texas. It gained some autonomy in 1979 when its first parliament was formed, but Copenhagen controls foreign affairs, defense and monetary policy and provides just under $1 billion a year to the economy.

In 2009, it won the right to declare full independence through a referendum, though has not done so, on concern living standards would drop without Denmark’s economic support.
However, Trump’s interest has shaken up the status quo and coupled with the growing pride of the indigenous people in their Inuit culture, put independence front and center in the election.
“The question of independence was put on steroids by Trump,” said Masaana Egede, editor of local newspaper Sermitsiaq. “It has put a lid on everyday issues.”

Polling stations are open for 11 hours on Tuesday. The final result is expected on Wednesday. No polls or exit polls are expected.
A January poll suggested a majority of Greenland’s inhabitants support independence, but are divided over the timing and potential impact on living standards.
Reuters spoke to more than a dozen Greenlanders in the capital Nuuk, all of whom said they favored independence, although many expressed concern that a swift transition could damage the economy and eliminate Nordic welfare services like universal healthcare and free schooling.
The island holds substantial natural resources, including critical minerals such as rare earths used in high-tech industries, ranging from electric vehicles to missile systems.
However, Greenland has been slow to extract them due to environmental concerns, severe weather, and China’s near-total control of the sector, which has made it difficult for companies elsewhere to make a profit or secure buyers.
Investment pledges
Trump initially declined to rule out military force, alarming many Greenlanders, although he later softened his stance, stating he would respect the will of the local people and was “ready to invest billions of dollars” if they joined the U.S.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede has stressed the island is not for sale and advocated for a broad coalition government to resist external pressure. In an interview aired on Monday by Danish broadcaster DR, he dismissed Trump’s offer as disrespectful, expressing willingness to cooperate with other countries instead.
All six main parties, including the ruling Inuit Ataqatigiit and government coalition partner Siumut, support independence but differ on how and when it could be achieved.
The pro-independence Naleraq party, the leading opposition force, has gained momentum ahead of the election, bolstered by U.S. interest and fresh accusations of Denmark’s historic exploitation of Greenland’s mineral wealth.
“This is our independence election,” said Qunanuk Olsen, a Naleraq candidate.
The party believes U.S. interest strengthens Greenland’s position in secession talks with Denmark and aims to bring a deal with Copenhagen to a vote before the next election in four years.
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Russian officials said Tuesday that Ukrainian attacks involving more than 90 drones killed at least one person and injured three others in the Moscow region.

The assault was part of an overall attack overnight that included more than 300 Ukrainian drones targeting 10 Russian regions stretching from border areas to the Russian capital.

Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, said on Telegram that in addition to those hurt, there was also damage to an apartment building from falling drone debris.

The attack also forced flight restrictions at Moscow airports and interrupted train services.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 91 drones in the Moscow area, and a total of 337 across all regions.

The ministry said it intercepted 126 drones over the Kursk region, 38 over Bryansk, 25 over Belgorod, 22 over Ryazan and others over Kaluga, Lipetsk, Oryol, Voronezh and Nizhny Novgorod.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that drone debris knocked out power to some part of his region and damaged multiple residential buildings.

Officials in Kaluga also reported damage to several buildings, while one person was reported hurt in Lipetsk.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — krainian officials are expected to present a partial ceasefire plan with Russia during talks Tuesday with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia.

The Ukrainian plan includes halting long-range missiles strikes and a truce covering the Black Sea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not expected to take part in Tuesday’s meetings, with Ukraine represented by his chief of staff Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and military commander Pavlo Palisa. 

Zelenskyy said on X ahead of the talks that Ukraine hopes for “practical outcomes.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz lead the U.S. delegation amid President Donald Trump’s push to broker a swift end to the war that began in early 2022 with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Rubio said Monday the United States hopes to resolve the pause in aid to Ukraine.

He said the U.S. is in a listening mode and aims to understand what concessions Ukraine might be willing to make. 

“The Ukrainians are already receiving all defensive intelligence information as we speak. I think all the notion of the pause in aid broadly is something I hope we can resolve. Obviously, I think what happens tomorrow will be key to that,” Rubio told reporters aboard a military plane before landing in Jeddah. 

“We’re not going to be sitting in a room drawing lines on a map, but just get a general sense of what concessions are in the realm of the possible for them [Ukrainians],” Rubio said, adding that there is no military solution to the war, and that both Russia and Ukraine need to “do difficult things.” 

Later on Monday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Rubio in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.

Salman held a separate meeting with Zelenskyy in Riyadh earlier in the day. 

Mineral deal? 

Trump has voiced interest in making continued military aid conditional on access to Ukraine’s raw materials. 

More than four dozen minerals, including several types of rare earths, nickel and lithium, are considered critical to the U.S. economy and national defense. Ukraine has large deposits of uranium, lithium and titanium. 

But Rubio clarified that securing a deal on Ukraine’s mineral resources was not the primary focus of Tuesday’s talks. 

“There’s still more details to work out, and at this point, we’re probably — rather than a memorandum of understanding — just wanting to sign a specific agreement. And that would take a little bit more time,” he told reporters. 

“I wouldn’t prejudge tomorrow by whether or not we have a minerals deal. … It’s an important topic, but it’s not the main topic on the agenda,” Rubio added. 

Rubio also credited Britain and France for playing a constructive role in talks with Ukraine. 

He told VOA that there have been no discussions about China playing a role in postwar peacekeeping and reconstruction in Ukraine. 

This marks Rubio’s second visit to Saudi Arabia since taking office. He and other senior U.S. officials held talks with Russian officials in Riyadh on February 18. He is scheduled to travel to Canada on Wednesday for meetings with G7 foreign ministers.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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Russian documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky produces Artdocfest, an annual film festival that showcases documentary features from independent film directors. He says most documentary films reflect the negative impact of the war in Ukraine, from resettling Ukrainian refugees to daily struggles of Russians who fled the war and try to set up their life anew in other countries.

Click here for the full story in Russian. 
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LONDON — A cargo ship hit a tanker transporting jet fuel for the U.S. military off eastern England on Monday, setting both vessels ablaze and sending fuel pouring into the North Sea.

All but one of the 37 crew of the two ships were brought safely ashore. One crew member from the cargo ship, Solong, was missing, the vessel’s owner Ernst Russ said in a statement.

The ship owner said “13 of the 14 Solong crew members have been brought safely (to) shore.” The owner of the fuel tanker said all 23 of its crew members were safe.

The two ships were still ablaze 12 hours after the collision, British coast guards said. They said they had ended the search for the missing crew member. They confirmed 36 others had been brought ashore, one of whom was hospitalized.

The collision triggered a major rescue operation by lifeboats, coast guard aircraft and commercial vessels in the foggy North Sea.

The British government said it was assessing “any counter-pollution response which may be required over the coming days.” The Marine Accident Investigation Branch was investigating the cause of the collision.

The U.S.-flagged chemical and oil products tanker MV Stena Immaculate was at anchor near the port of Grimsby on Monday morning after sailing from Greece, according to ship-tracking site VesselFinder. The Portugal-flagged container ship Solong was sailing from Grangemouth in Scotland to Rotterdam in the Netherlands when it struck the tanker’s side.

U.S.-based maritime management firm Crowley, which operates the Stena Immaculate, said the tanker “sustained a ruptured cargo tank containing Jet-A1 fuel,” when the container ship struck it, triggering a fire and “multiple explosions onboard,” with fuel released into the sea.

The Stena Immaculate was operating as part of the U.S. government’s Tanker Security Program, a group of commercial vessels that can be contracted to carry fuel for the military when needed.

The Solong’s cargo included sodium cyanide, which can produce harmful gas when combined with water, according to industry publication Lloyd’s List Intelligence. It was unclear if there had been a leak.

Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the alarm was raised at 9:48 a.m. (0948 GMT). Humber Coast Guard asked vessels with firefighting equipment and those who could help with search and rescue to head to the scene about 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of London.

Video footage aired by British broadcasters and apparently filmed from a nearby vessel showed thick black smoke pouring from both ships.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said details of the collision and its cause “are still becoming clear.”

Abdul Khalique, head of the Maritime Center at Liverpool John Moores University, said it appeared the crew of the cargo ship had not been “maintaining a proper lookout by radar” as required by international maritime regulations.

Greenpeace U.K. said it was too early to assess the extent of any environmental damage from the collision, which took place near busy fishing grounds and major seabird colonies.

Scientists said the environmental impact might be less severe than with a spill of heavier crude oil.

“Whilst the images look worrying, from the perspective of the impact to the aquatic environment, it’s less of a concern than if this had been crude oil because most of the jet fuel will evaporate very quickly,” said Mark Hartl of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Biotechnology at Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University.

Mark Sephton, professor of organic geochemistry at Imperial College London, said jet fuel disintegrates more quickly than crude oil, and warmer temperatures speed biodegradation.

“In the end, it all depends on the rate of introduction of fuel and the rate of destruction by bacteria,” he said. “Let’s hope the latter wins out.”
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French President Emmanuel Macron denounced Monday what he called “increasingly uninhibited Russian attempts at destabilization” in Moldova as his Moldovan counterpart Maia Sandu visited Paris.

Sandu was sworn in for a second term in December, after Russia was accused of interfering in elections in the former Soviet republic that borders Ukraine.

“We have decided to again reinforce our cooperation to increase Moldova’s resilience faced with foreign interference,” Macron said as both signed a deal to cooperate on detecting digital disinformation.

Sandu said both countries were “committing to join forces in fighting disinformation. … Because in today’s world, truth is as vital as security.”

Sandu accused Russia, which launched its invasion of neighboring Ukraine three years ago, of using the “tools of a modern imperialist.”

Macron’s office said VIGINUM, the French government agency set up to detect digital disinformation campaigns, would increase its work with the Moldovan Strategic Communication Center, including to “protect electoral processes.”

Sandu, the country’s first woman elected head of state, owed her reelection in large part to a strong turnout from Moldova’s large diaspora.

But rural areas of the country — sandwiched between NATO member Romania and war-torn Ukraine — and separatist Transnistria, where Russian troops are stationed, remain pro-Moscow, as does the autonomous Gagauzia region.

Authorities reported numerous “attempts at destabilizing” the election, including disinformation, vote buying, death threats, cyberattacks and bussing in voters.

The Kremlin accused Moldova of suppressing “the opposition and independent media, especially Russian-language outlets.”
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LONDON — Britain is seeking to finalize a deal on handing sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after U.S. President Donald Trump said last month that he was “inclined” to support the deal. However, critics say the agreement could threaten the security of a joint U.S.-U.K. military base on the islands amid fears of China’s close ties with Mauritius.

Many of the original inhabitants of the islands who were forcibly expelled to make way for the base on Diego Garcia in the 1960s and 1970s are also critical of the agreement and say their voices have been ignored.

British colony

The Chagos Islands, officially known as the “British Indian Ocean Territory,” are one of the last vestiges of the British Empire. They comprise more than 60 islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the largest of which is Diego Garcia. Britain officially took ownership of the archipelago from France after the defeat of French leader and Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815.

The islands were administered from Mauritius, which argues it was illegally forced to give up the Chagos Islands in return for its own independence from Britain in 1968.

In an advisory opinion in 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled “… the process of decolonization of Mauritius was not lawfully completed when that country acceded to independence.” The judges added that Britain is under an obligation “to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible.”

Sovereignty negotiations

Negotiations between Britain and Mauritius on ceding sovereignty have been going on for several years. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, has sought to finalize the agreement since winning power in July last year.

Speaking to British lawmakers last month, Starmer said a deal was vital to secure the future of the U.S. military base.

“This is a military base that is vital for our national security. A number of years ago, the legal certainty of that base was thrown into doubt. … Without legal certainty, the base cannot operate in practical terms as it should. That is bad for our national security and it’s a gift to our adversaries,” Starmer said on Feb. 5.

British media report that Britain will cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands and pay Mauritius around $116 million a year for 99 years to lease back Diego Garcia and allow the military base to remain, with an option to extend the lease for another 40 years. However, neither Britain nor Mauritius have confirmed any details, and the agreement is yet to be finalized.

Trump approval

During a visit by Starmer to the White House last month, Trump said that he was “inclined” to approve the deal.

“I have a feeling it’s going to work out very well. They’re talking about a very long-term, powerful lease, a very strong lease, about 140 years actually. That’s a long time, and I think we’ll be inclined to go along with your country,” Trump told Starmer during the visit on Feb. 27.

The proposed deal also has the backing of India, which has close political and security ties to Mauritius.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to travel to Mauritius on Tuesday as chief guest on the country’s national day, the anniversary of its independence from Britain. Modi is expected to discuss upgrading India’s defense ties with the island nation.

China concerns

Politicians in Britain and the United States, however, have expressed concerns over potential security implications of handing sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius amid a growing threat from China in the region.

Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary for Britain’s Conservative opposition party, described the proposed plan as “a strategic disaster for Britain” that represented “an appalling betrayal of the British people.”

Members of Britain’s Shadow Cabinet are responsible for scrutinizing the policies and actions of the government but have no executive power.

U.S. Senator James Risch, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in October that the proposed deal “gives in to Chinese lawfare and yields to pressure from unaccountable international institutions like the International Court of Justice at the expense of U.S. and U.K. strategic and military interests.”

“The U.S. and our allies must take a long-term approach when it comes to making decisions that affect our strategic competition with China, or we will all lose,” Risch told Politico.

China’s burgeoning economic relationship with Mauritius makes the African island nation vulnerable to influence from Beijing, noted Evan Fowler of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.

“Given the complexity of the situation there, actually having a deal that secures the base is good. However, having a deal doesn’t mean just accepting any deal. China has significant investments. Mauritius owes China quite a lot. China has quite a clear record of using debt … to seek political advantage.

“That area is strategically important to us because it’s a way for us to project power,” Fowler told VOA. “And the Chinese understand this, too. The Chinese have already been active militarily around the Chagos Islands.”

Chagossians ‘voiceless’

After their expulsion, many Chagossians settled in Mauritius. Thousands also came to Britain, with many choosing to settle in the town of Crawley, south of London.

Frankie Bontemps and Maxwell Evenor are second-generation Chagossians whose parents were forced out of their homeland in the 1960s. They are part of the group “Chagossian Voices,” which seeks to assert the rights of the exiled population.

“Once again we are ignored,” Bontemps told VOA. “People are discussing the future of our homeland without us. We feel like history is repeating itself. We feel voiceless, powerless, because we are being abused again — I would say by Mauritius, by the U.K., along with the U.S.”

Many Chagossians argue Mauritius has never had a rightful claim to their homeland — and object to Britain’s proposed deal to cede sovereignty.

“We now find ourselves — our very own identity, our very own self — being given to someone else by a made-up policy without asking us,” Evenor told VOA, adding that there could be no historical link between the Chagos Islands and Mauritius “because it’s 2,000 kilometers away.”

“We are still colonized. We are the last colony of Africa,” Evenor said.

Diego Garcia

The exiled Chagossians have been told that under the terms of the deal with Mauritius, they would be able to return to outer islands in the Chagos archipelago — but not to Diego Garcia, which would remain off-limits.

However, infrastructure on the outer islands is almost non-existent, according to Bontemps, who said that most Chagossians would accept living next to the military base on Diego Garcia.

“I think most of us, we don’t have anything against that base. We know the geopolitical importance. We know about the China threat, or whoever,” Bontemps told VOA. “We want to live on our ancestors’ land. As well, the base will be a source of work for us.”
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London — An oil tanker and a cargo ship collided off the coast of eastern England Monday, setting both vessels on fire and triggering a major rescue operation, emergency services said. 

At least 32 casualties were brought ashore, but their condition was not immediately clear. 

Martyn Boyers, chief executive of the Port of Grimsby East, said 13 casualties were brought in on a Windcat 33 vessel, followed by another 19 on a harbor pilot boat. 

Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency said several lifeboats and a coast guard rescue helicopter were dispatched to the scene in the North Sea, along with a coast guard plane and nearby vessels with firefighting capability. 

The RNLI lifeboat agency said, “there were reports that a number of people had abandoned the vessels following a collision and there were fires on both ships.” It said three lifeboats were working on search and rescue at the scene alongside the coast guard. 

Video footage aired by the BBC and apparently filmed from a nearby vessel showed thick black smoke pouring from both ships. 

Boyers, the port chief, said he had been told there was “a massive fireball.” 

“It’s too far out for us to see — about 10 miles — but we have seen the vessels bringing them in,” he said. 

The tanker, believed to be the U.S.-flagged chemical and oil products carrier MV Stena Immaculate, was at anchor at the time after sailing from Greece, according to ship-tracking site VesselFinder. The cargo vessel, Portugal-flagged container ship Solong, was sailing from Grangemouth in Scotland to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. 

Coast guard officials said the alarm was raised at 9:48 a.m. local time (0948 GMT). The site of the collision is off the coast of Hull, about 155 miles (250 kilometers) north of London. 
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Russia said Monday it was expelling two British diplomats based at the embassy in Moscow over spying allegations that the U.K. called “malicious and baseless.” 

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement quoted by the state news agency RIA Novosti that the two diplomats had provided false personal data while seeking permission to enter the country and had engaged in alleged intelligence and subversive activities that threatened Russia’s security. It didn’t offer any evidence. 

According to the RIA Novosti report, a decision has been made to revoke the diplomats’ accreditations, and they have been ordered to leave Russia within two weeks. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a separate statement that it summoned a British Embassy official. “Moscow will not tolerate the activities of undeclared British intelligence officers on Russian territory,” it said. 

The Foreign Office in London said in a statement: “This is not the first time that Russia has made malicious and baseless accusations against our staff.” It did not say whether the U.K. planned any retaliatory moves. 

The FSB last year accused seven British diplomats of spying. Six expulsions were announced in September, and one more in November. The U.K. called the moves at the time “baseless.” The expulsions came amid soaring tensions over the war in Ukraine and after London decided to revoke the credentials of an attaché at the Russian Embassy and limit Moscow’s diplomatic activities in Britain. 

Last month, London expelled a Russian diplomat in response to the November expulsion. 

In May 2024, the U.K. expelled Russia’s defense attaché in London, alleging he was an undeclared intelligence officer, and it closed several Russian diplomatic properties in Britain that it said were being used for spying. Days later Russia reciprocated and expelled Britain’s defense attaché. 

Expulsions of diplomats — both Western envoys working in Russia and Russians in the West — have become increasingly common since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

In 2023, the Russian news outlet RBC said Western countries and Japan had expelled a total of 670 Russian diplomats between the start of 2022 and October 2023, while Moscow responded by expelling 346 diplomats. According to RBC, that was more than in the previous 20 years combined.
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Rome — Pope Francis is participating in the Vatican’s weeklong spiritual retreat from a Rome hospital as he continued his recovery on Monday from double pneumonia and looks ahead to the 12th anniversary of his election amid questions about what the future of his papacy might look like. 

Francis followed the opening of the retreat by videoconference on Sunday. He could see and hear the Rev. Roberto Pasolini, preacher of the papal household, but the priests, bishops and cardinals in the Vatican auditorium couldn’t see or hear him. 

Pasolini delivered a meditation on “The hope of eternal life,” a theme that was chosen well before Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14 with a complex lung infection. 

The retreat, which is an annual gathering that kicks off the Catholic Church’s solemn Lenten season leading to Easter, continues through the week. The Vatican has said Francis would participate “in spiritual communion” with the rest of the hierarchy, from afar. 

In its early update Monday, the Vatican said Francis was resting after a quiet night. 

At the time of his hospitalization last month, the 88-year-old pope, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, had what was then just a bad case of bronchitis. The infection progressed into a complex respiratory tract infection and double pneumonia that has sidelined Francis for the longest period of his 12-year papacy and raised questions about the future. 

He has now remained in stable condition for over a week, with no fever, respiratory crises and good oxygen levels in his blood for several days, doctors reported. 

The doctors said that such stability was in itself a positive thing and showed he was responding well to therapy. But they kept his prognosis as “guarded,” meaning that he’s not out of danger. Doctors were expected to provide a medical update later Monday. 

On Thursday, the Vatican will mark the 12th anniversary of Francis’ election, the first with the pope out of sight but still very much in charge. Francis was elected the 266th pope, the first Jesuit pope and first from Latin America, on March 13, 2013, following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. 

On Sunday, Francis met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the chief of staff, Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, for the third time at the hospital. Such meetings are the routine way the pope governs, and shows Francis is still keeping up with essential business. 

While Francis has previously praised Benedict for his courage and humility in resigning, he has indicated more recently that he believes the job of pope is for life and said as recently as last year that he had no plans of stepping down. 

Francis has been using high flows of supplemental oxygen to help him breathe during the day and a noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask at night. 
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BUCHAREST — Romanian far-right pro-Russian presidential contender Calin Georgescu will challenge a decision to bar him from taking part in a rerun of the election in May, one of his advisers told Reuters on Monday.

Georgescu submitted his presidential bid on Friday after allegations of Russian interference in his favor prompted Romania’s Constitutional Court to cancel the original election in December. Moscow denied the allegations of meddling.

On Sunday, Romania’s central election authority said it had decided to bar Georgescu’s candidacy, saying it was inadmissible after the Constitutional Court’s annulment of the December vote.

Challenges to decisions by Romania’s central election authority must be filed within 24 hours. The Constitutional Court should rule on Georgescu’s appeal by Wednesday.

Analysts have said it is unlikely that the top court will allow Georgescu to run again for the presidency in Romania, a member state of the European Union and NATO which shares a long border with Ukraine.

The court set a precedent in October when it blocked the candidacy of another far-right candidate, arguing that her anti-European, pro-Russian views made her unfit for office.

If the court upholds the central election authority’s decision, the three ultranationalist parties, which hold 35% of seats in parliament and which backed Georgescu’s previous bid for the presidency, risk having no candidate in the May election.

George Simion, leader of the opposition Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR), the second largest party in Romania’s parliament, said he would meet with Georgescu on Monday.

Asked if he was considering submitting his own candidacy, Simion told reporters:

“We wait to see what Mr. Georgescu will say. We are not ruling out any options, but we are not speculators.”

Georgescu is under criminal investigation on six counts, including membership in a fascist organization and communicating false information about campaign financing. He has denied any wrongdoing.

 
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Paris — France is preparing a new military aid package for Ukraine worth more than $211 million from the interest earned on frozen Russian assets, its defense minister said in an interview published Sunday.

Sebastien Lecornu, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, in the interview with the Tribune Dimanche newspaper, described the suspension of U.S. weapons deliveries to Ukraine as a “heavy blow” to Kyiv’s fight against the Russian invasion.

“This year we will mobilize, thanks to the interests of frozen Russian assets, a new package of 195 million euros ($211,253,250)” for Ukraine, he said.

This will enable the delivery of 155-millimeter shells as well as AASM air to surface weapons that arm the French Mirage 2000 fighter jets that Paris has delivered to Ukraine for the war.

Lecornu did not make any comment on whether France would consider using the frozen Russian assets themselves to help Kyiv, a potentially far more significant move supported by its ally the U.K. but over which Paris as so far been wary.

But he warned that away from the battlefield, the “Russians are reinventing war, that is their great strength” by targeting “our democracy and our economy.”

France’s next 2027 presidential elections “could be the subject of massive manipulations as was the case in Romania” where the first round was topped by a far-right outsider, only for the results to be annulled by the Constitutional Court, he said.

He sought to play down any rupture in transatlantic relations after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency and changed Washington’s policy on Ukraine, saying: “For my part, I still consider them as allies, despite their great unpredictability.”

Turning to the “heavy blow” of the U.S. suspension of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, he said: “They (Ukraine) can hold out for a while, but this suspension must not last.”

Lecornu said that French intelligence had no indication that Russia was planning to attack a NATO member in the next five years but did say there is a “temptation to destabilize Moldova” through its breakaway region of Transnistria.

With Macron and others urging EU states to ramp up defense spending as the U.S. wavers, Lecornu pointed to ammunition and electronic warfare as the most urgent issues for France’s military in the years to come.  

“Second priority, is the drone-ization and robot-ization of armies,” he added, also noting the roles of artificial intelligence and space.
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