ISTANBUL – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that he was pressing Russia to extend a Black Sea grain deal by at least three months and announced a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin in August. 

He was speaking at a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the two leaders met to discuss the fate of an arrangement, brokered last year by Turkey and the United Nations, to allow for the safe export of grain from Ukrainian ports via the Black Sea despite the war. 

Zelenskyy’s visit followed stops in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, part of a tour of some NATO capitals aimed at encouraging them to take concrete steps during a summit next week toward granting Kyiv membership in the alliance, which Erdogan said Ukraine deserved.  

Erdogan said work was under way on extending the Black Sea grain deal beyond its expiration date of July 17 and for longer periods beyond that. The deal would be one of the most important issues on the agenda for his meeting with Putin in Turkey next month, he said. 

“Our hope is that it will be extended at least once every three months, not every two months. We will make an effort in this regard and try to increase the duration of it to two years,” he said at the news conference with Zelenskyy. 

Both men said they had also discussed another key question for Erdogan’s talks with Putin — the question of prisoner exchanges, which Zelenskyy said had been the first thing on their agenda. “I hope we will get a result from this soon,” Erdogan said. 

Zelenskyy said he would wait for a result to comment but made clear the discussion had gone into specifics on returning all captives, including children deported to Russia and other groups.  

“We are working on the return of our captives, political prisoners, Crimean Tatars,” he said, referring to members of Ukraine’s Muslim community in the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. “Our partners have all the lists. We are really working on this.”  

Erdogan said the issue could also come up in his contacts with the Russian leader before his visit. “If we make some phone calls before that, we will discuss it on the call as well,” he said.  

The Kremlin said it would be watching the talks closely, saying Putin has highly appreciated the mediation of Erdogan in attempting to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. 

“As for forthcoming contacts between Putin and Erdogan, we do not rule them out in the foreseeable future,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters ahead of the Istanbul talks between Erdogan and Zelensky, which began Friday. 

Russia, angry about aspects of the grain deal’s implementation, has threatened not to allow its further extension beyond July 17. 

Turkey, a NATO member, has managed to retain cordial relations with both Russia and Ukraine over the past 16 months of the war and last year it helped to broker prisoner exchanges.  

Turkey has not joined its Western allies in imposing economic sanctions on Russia, but has also supplied arms to Ukraine and called for its sovereignty to be respected.
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Russia launched a missile attack on an apartment building in Lviv early Thursday, leaving at least 10 people dead and 42 wounded. Rescuers are still searching for people in the rubble. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story.
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With Russia’s war in Ukraine in its sixteenth month, the conflict is exacting an emotional and physical toll on the local journalists covering it.

More than a dozen journalists have been killed while on assignment since the full invasion began in February 2022. The latest victim: Victoria Amelina.

The award-winning writer who had switched to documenting war crimes, died from her injuries a week after a Russian missile strike in the city of Kramatorsk hit a restaurant that was a popular gathering place for journalists and aid workers.

Early in the conflict, media organizations set up centers offering hostile environment training and safety equipment. But many are now offering ways to try to grant temporary relief to reporters who woke to find themselves in a war zone.

The International Press Institute or IPI in Vienna last month announced a program to offer grants to help Ukrainian reporters travel temporarily to other parts of Europe to work on projects or gain new skills.

The idea, says IPI deputy director Scott Griffen is, “to give journalists a break, but also give them a chance to develop stories or participate in international forums.”

“We hope it will be just one additional contribution to our efforts to support independent media in Ukraine as they continue to do their incredible work under extremely difficult circumstances,” Griffen told VOA.

Studies show that continued exposure to traumatic events through covering conflict or violence can take a toll on the mental and physical health of journalists.

Newsrooms are seeing a move toward more trauma support for staff, said Hannah Storm.

The media specialist is founder and director of the Headlines Network, an organization that provides newsroom support and training.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge that mental health and mental safety and wellbeing is the other side of the coin from physical safety and physical health,” Storm told VOA. “We can’t have one without the other.”

But the exchange goes both ways, according to Leif Lonsmann, a board member of the Nordic Journalism Center.

The nonprofit offers training for journalists from the Baltics and Nordic regions and for exiled Russian reporters.

Lonsmann told VOA that while such programs offer a refresher in journalistic skills and a retreat for Ukrainian reporters, they also allow media elsewhere in Europe to learn from reporters who have been on the front lines.

“The mutuality seen from our point of view is that it’s a gift to any journalist and any media house,” the senior media adviser added.

A visit from a Ukrainian journalist, “adds to the reporting with eyewitness reports and sources as seen from inside,” he said. “It’s like a mutually beneficial solution.”

Griffen said that since the IPI started offering its grants two weeks ago, it has received more than 2,000 applications.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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A senior U.N. official said Friday that despite discouraging remarks from Moscow, the United Nations is continuing to pursue an extension of the deal that allows the safe export of grain from Ukraine via the Black Sea. 

“We hear repeated statements from the Russian Federation, saying that there’s been no advantage to them and time’s up,” U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told reporters of the grain deal. “But of course, as the [U.N.] Secretary-General has made clear, this doesn’t deter us from doing everything we can to work for renewal.” 

The Black Sea Grain Initiative is due for renewal on July 18. Moscow has said repeatedly during the lead-up to previous extension deadlines that it is not benefiting enough under the deal. 

A parallel memorandum of understanding between Moscow and the United Nations has sought to remove obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertilizer. While food and fertilizer are not sanctioned by the West, efforts have been made to ease concerns of anxious banks, insurers, shippers and other private sector actors about doing business with Russia. 

Since the grain deal was signed in Istanbul on July 22, 2022, nearly 33 million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs have been exported to global markets, helping to ease food prices, which spiked at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year. 

“The world has seen the value of the Black Sea initiative,” Griffiths said. “This isn’t something you chuck away.” 

But exports have slowed significantly since May, as ship inspections and registrations dropped dramatically. Diplomats have previously blamed Russia for slowing inspections and registrations. 

The U.N. said last week that no new ships have been registered to transit the Black Sea since June 26 at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, which oversees the deal. Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the U.N. have representatives at the JCC. 

“It’s very clear that there has been a complete slowdown. It’s not hidden,” Griffiths said. “It’s about in the JCC in Istanbul, one party saying that we cannot in all conscience start processing ships into this, if we don’t know that they will get out of it before the 18th of July, and that’s the reason for it.” 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Turkey on Friday, where he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the two discussed the grain deal, among other issues. Erdogan was instrumental in achieving the deal nearly a year ago. 

Damaged pipeline

Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for damage caused to a section of an ammonia pipeline last month in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. The pipeline runs from the Russian city of Tolyatti to the Ukrainian port of Odesa.

Griffiths said the pipeline is damaged in three places and that the U.N. has offered to send a technical team to assess what repairs are needed but has not received the guarantees it needs to do so.

“It’s a very active war zone, and that’s why it was damaged, in our opinion,” he said of the pipeline. “To get to those three places to assess damage already requires a certain amount of agreement between the parties to provide a safe ‘window of silence’ to allow you to get there.”

With the clock ticking on the grain deal and harvest season around the corner, Griffiths says he is eager to sit down with the parties in Istanbul next week, and his colleague, U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan, would like to go to Moscow where she has led negotiations.

Pressed by reporters about whether the deal will end if Russia refuses a renewal, Griffiths said it is not for him to say but that he would expect active support from the United States and European Union, which is critical to removing impediments to Russian exports, to quickly fade if Moscow ends its participation. 
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An overnight fire in a retirement home in Milan killed six people and injured around 80, including three who are in a critical condition, Italian authorities said on Friday.

The fire started in a first-floor room of the facility. It was put out quickly and did not spread to the rest of the building, yet produced a vast quantity of toxic fumes.

Two residents burned to death in their room, while four others died from intoxication, Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said, speaking to reporters on the scene.

“It could have been (even) worse. Having said that, six dead is a very heavy death toll,” Sala said, indicating that the facility housed 167 people.

Firefighters’ spokesman Luca Cari said the cause of the fire was under investigation, but added that it was likely accidental.

Firefighters intervened at the “Home of the Spouses” residential facility in the south-eastern Corvetto neighborhood shortly after 1 a.m. (2300 GMT).

They evacuated about 80 people, including many in wheelchairs, while another 80 or so were taken to hospital, local firefighters’ chief Nicola Miceli told RAI public television.

He described rescue operations as “particularly complicated” due to heavy smoke, which limited visibility, and the fact that many residents could not stand without aid.

Lucia, a local resident, said she saw some of them “gasping for air” at their windows, holding rags over their faces to protect themselves from the fumes.

She said rescuers “were wonderful” as they helped everybody. “Those who could walk, they walked them out, those who could not, I think they were carried out in their bed sheets.”
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WASHINGTON — Russian fighter jets flew dangerously close to several U.S. drone aircraft over Syria again Thursday, setting off flares and forcing the MQ-9 Reapers to take evasive maneuvers, the Air Force said.

It was the second time in 24 hours that Russia has harassed U.S. drones there.

“We urge Russian forces in Syria to cease this reckless behavior and adhere to the standards of behavior expected of a professional air force so we can resume our focus on the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Lieutenant General Alex Grynkewich, head of U.S. Air Forces Central Command, said in a statement.

Colonel Michael Andrews, Air Forces Central Command spokesperson, said “the Russian harassment, including close fly-bys, by one SU-34 and one SU-35 and deploying flares directly into the MQ-9, lasted almost an hour. So it wasn’t a quick fly-by, but much more of a sustained and unprofessional interaction.”

U.S. Air Forces Central released videos of the two separate incidents that took place Wednesday and Thursday. In the first incident, which took place about 10:40 a.m. local time Wednesday in Northwest Syria, Russian SU-35 fighters closed in on a Reaper, and one of the Russian pilots moved their aircraft in front of a drone and engaged the SU-35’s afterburner, which greatly increases its speed and air pressure.

The jet blast from the afterburner can potentially damage the Reaper’s electronics, and Grynkewich said it reduced the drone operator’s ability to safely operate the aircraft.

Later a number of the so-called parachute flares moved into the drone’s flight path. The flares are attached to parachutes.

In the second incident, which took place over Northwest Syria around 9:30 a.m. Thursday local time, “Russian aircraft dropped flares in front of the drones and flew dangerously close, endangering the safety of all aircraft involved,” Grynkewich said.

The drones were not armed with weapons and are commonly used for reconnaissance missions.

Army General Erik Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, said in a statement that Russia’s violation of ongoing efforts to clear the airspace over Syria “increases the risk of escalation or miscalculation.”

About 900 U.S. forces are deployed to Syria to work with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces battling the Islamic State militants there. No other details about the drone operation were provided.
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WHITE HOUSE – As the war on Ukraine rages, Russia remains the biggest and most immediate threat for NATO. However, as allied leaders meet for their summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, next week, a key agenda item will be to implement the Strategic Concept adopted during the Madrid summit in 2022, where the alliance recognized security challenges emanating from China.

NATO’s strategic concept states that the alliance faces “systemic competition” from Beijing’s “ambitions and coercive policies” that challenge members’ “interests, security and values.”

While allies may agree that the China challenge is real, they differ in how to address it. Many European countries rely heavily on Chinese investment and trade. China makes up almost 10% of Europe’s exports and about 20% of its imports.

In Vilnius, those differences will need to be hammered out and leaders will need to forge a common approach in dealing with the China threat, said Anca Agachi, associate director and resident fellow for Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council.

“The big question that exists right now within the transatlantic community is what is NATO’s role when it comes to China, and how far exactly should the alliance go,” she told VOA.

Ukraine-Taiwan

NATO leaders have warned that what is happening in Europe today can happen in Asia tomorrow.

“If [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin wins in Ukraine, this would send the message that authoritarian regimes can achieve their goals through brute force,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in Tokyo earlier this year. “This is dangerous. Beijing is watching closely, and learning lessons, which may influence its future decisions.”

Stoltenberg was referring to Beijing’s future decisions on Taiwan, a self-governing island Beijing considers its wayward province.

U.S. President Joe Biden has on several occasions said that American forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. That would create a risk of NATO allies and other U.S. partners being drawn into the conflict – a contingency plan the alliance would need to plan for.

Such war is “neither inevitable nor imminent,” Army General Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing in March.

Hybrid and cyber operations

Beyond Taiwan and freedom of navigation concerns, NATO is anxious about other potential threats, including what it calls Beijing’s “malicious hybrid and cyber operations and its confrontational rhetoric and disinformation.”

The alliance views China as seeking to control key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure such as 5G, and strategic materials and supply chains. It accuses Beijing of using economic leverage to “create strategic dependencies and enhance its influence.”

“More generally, Chinese political influence in Europe is, of course, a growing concern,” Agachi added, particularly considering Beijing’s growing partnership with Russia.

Beijing insists that it “stands on the side of peace” on Ukraine. It has hit back on NATO, including on floated plans to establish a NATO office in Japan.

“Asia lies beyond the geographical scope of the North Atlantic and has no need for a replica of NATO. However, we have seen NATO bent on going east into this region, interfering in regional affairs and inciting bloc confrontation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said last month. “What is NATO really up to? This calls for high vigilance among countries in the world, particularly in Asia.”

Indo-Pacific partners

Indo-Pacific partners Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea attended the NATO summit last year and will again participate in Vilnius.

“These Indo-Pacific countries, they have a unique experience engaging with the PRC and can bring some valuable perspective to that discussion,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said in an interview with VOA on Thursday.

NATO has said it remains “open to constructive engagement” with Beijing.
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The United States, France and Britain have accused Iran and Russia of violating a U.N. Security Council resolution over Tehran’s transfer of drones to Moscow, which its military then used to repeatedly attack Ukrainian cities.

The three powers said Thursday that Tehran and Moscow violated obligations under U.N. Resolution 2231, which enshrined the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in international law; and by conducting the drone transfers without advance approval from the U.N. Security Council, they had violated the resolution.

They urged the U.N. to address the alleged violations during the semiannual meeting about implementation of the resolution.

“Specifically, the U.N. secretariat should, without any further delay, send a team of investigators to Kyiv to examine the debris from these weapons used by Russia against Ukraine,” said U.S. envoy Robert Wood, adding that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres should update the council on his assessment about the Iranian drones recovered in Ukraine within the next 30 days.

So far, Guterres has resisted calls to send a team of experts, saying his office is continuing to examine the available information.

Russia’s envoy said that under Resolution 2231 the U.N. chief has no authority to send experts. Vassily Nebenzia said the United Nations should refrain from “non-consensual visits and arbitrary inspections.”

“The secretary-general is perfectly aware of our position about this,” he added.

Last month, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Moscow had received hundreds of Iranian drones and was working with Iran to begin producing them in Russia, possibly by early next year.

“This is a flagrant violation of Resolution 2231,” Wood told council members of those plans. “We should not be shy about condemning this destabilizing and dangerous behavior.”

Nebenzia dismissed alleged Western evidence as “comical in nature” and said his U.S. counterpart’s remarks were an attempt to “detract attention from the endless flows of weapons provided by Washington to the Kyiv regime.” But he did not directly address whether Moscow had received the drones from Iran.

The meeting was contentious from the start. Russia sought to block Ukraine’s participation in the session, as it is neither a party to the Iran nuclear deal nor a council member. However, 12 of the 15 council members voted in favor of Ukraine participating in the session under a procedural rule that allows countries whose direct interests are affected to do so.

Ukraine’s ambassador said as of Thursday, more than 1,000 Iranian drones had been launched at Ukrainian cities, and debris that had been collected was thoroughly studied.

“Ukrainian investigators and independent international experts identified evidence confirming the Iranian origin of the UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] used by the Russian Federation against Ukraine,” said Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya.

He asked the Russian ambassador if he finds the evidence against Moscow to be fake, why oppose a U.N. inspection to corroborate their position.

Iran’s envoy also rejected the allegations and said he would not recognize the Ukrainian envoy’s presence in the meeting.

“Iran categorically rejects the unfounded allegation made by Ukraine,” Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said. “Iran maintains its impartial stance to the Ukrainian conflict. We’ve patiently awaited the alleged evidence from Ukraine following the preliminary meeting between Iranian and Ukrainian experts.”

In addition to the drone issue, several council members expressed concern about Iran’s growing stockpile of enriched uranium, which is now 21 times the amount permitted under the 2015 nuclear deal.
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LONDON – Britain said on Thursday that it would create a new sanctions regime for Iran, giving the U.K. greater powers to target decision-makers, including those involved in weapons proliferation and threats against British nationals. 

Britain’s current sanctions regime against Iran focuses on human rights, but the proposals would widen the scope of criteria that the government could cite in bringing new designations in the future. 

“The Iranian regime is oppressing its own people, exporting bloodshed in Ukraine and the Middle East, and threatening to kill and kidnap on U.K. soil,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement. 

“Today the U.K. has sent a clear message to the regime — we will not tolerate this malign behavior and we will hold you to account. Our new sanctions regime will help to ensure there can be no hiding place for those who seek to do us harm.” 

The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the charge d’affaires of the British Embassy in Tehran over the “destructive British statements and interference in our affairs,” Iran’s Arabic-language television network Al Alam reported on Thursday. 

Britain said that under the new regime, which will be legislated for later in the year, individuals and entities could also be sanctioned if they contributed to the undermining of peace and stability in the Middle East and internationally. 

It also said it had given evidence at the U.N. Security Council that Iran was continuing to send weapons to the Houthis in Yemen, and to Russia, to support its fighting in Ukraine. 

Under the new criteria, sanctions could also be targeted at those Britain says are involved in Iran’s undermining democracy and the rule of law in the U.K., and hostile activities aimed at British people or property, or Britain’s allies. 

Britain says Iran has made at least 15 attempts to kidnap or kill British nationals or individuals based in the United Kingdom since the start of last year. 

“What we have seen over the last 18 months is an unprecedented level of aggression from Iran against people here in the U.K., trying to silence dissenting voices,” Cleverly told reporters on Thursday. 

Britain has also announced new designations under its existing human rights sanctions regime for Iran.
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Jailed American journalist Evan Gershkovich on Friday marks his 100th day in detention in Russia on espionage accusations. 

The Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested March 29 while on assignment in the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg. Russian authorities have accused the Moscow-based reporter of spying. 

Gershkovich, the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny the espionage charges. 

Media watchdogs say his arrest marked a new low in Russia’s declining press freedom environment under President Vladimir Putin. 

“Evan’s detention marked a new escalation in Putin’s war on the free press, expanding his crackdown beyond Russia’s domestic media which has already been totally hollowed out,” Clayton Weimers, executive director of the U.S. office of Reporters Without Borders, told VOA.

“One hundred days in jail is 100 days too long to punish a journalist for simply doing journalism,” he said. 

The first American reporter to be charged with espionage in Russia since the end of the Cold War, Gershkovich faces 20 years in a penal colony if convicted. 

“It is vital to keep Evan’s story front and center, particularly as we reflect on this difficult milestone,” The Wall Street Journal said in a statement.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Moscow and Washington have discussed a possible prisoner swap, in an apparent reference to the American journalist and Vladimir Dunaev, a Russian citizen in U.S. custody on cybercrime charges. 

“We have said that there have been certain contacts on the subject, but we don’t want them to be discussed in public,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, without naming any specific detainee. “They must be carried out and continue in complete silence.” 

Peskov added that “the lawful right to consular contacts must be ensured on both sides.” 

In response to a question Wednesday about a potential prisoner swap, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “Sadly, we do not have any news to share.”

“What I can say is Evan, along with Paul Whelan, who are both wrongfully detained, as you know, should be home. They should be home with their families. I just don’t have anything to share at this time,” she added.

Whelan, a former U.S. marine, is also detained in Russia on espionage charges that the U.S. views as baseless. 

Russia’s Washington embassy did not respond to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Gershkovich’s detention has taken a toll on his friends and colleagues in the community of journalists who cover Russia.

“Knowing that it’s been 100 days that Evan has been in Lefortovo prison, an FSB-run prison that is very isolating, known for being really psychologically challenging for its inmates — it’s just really hard to know that Evan has been in those circumstances for so long already,” Financial Times reporter Polina Ivanova told VOA.

Ivanova has known Gershkovich since 2017, when they both started reporting jobs in Moscow — Gershkovich at the Moscow Times and Ivanova at Reuters.

“It’s a very tight-knit community, so we’ve always been good friends,” said Ivanova, now based in Berlin and still covering Russia and Ukraine.

Since Gershkovich’s arrest in March, the journalist has been granted only two consular visits.

The latest visit took place Monday, when U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy was allowed to visit Gershkovich for the first time since April. 

“Ambassador Tracy reports that Mr. Gershkovich is in good health and remains strong, despite his circumstances,” a State Department spokesperson said about the latest visit. “We expect Russian authorities to provide continued consular access.” 

In a statement about Gershkovich’s 100-day marker, the press freedom group the Committee to Protect journalists said it was concerned about the lack of due process and the denial of consular access to the journalist.

“One hundred days is obviously just incredibly difficult to get your head around — to imagine yourself in such a small space for so long with so little contact with the outside world,” Ivanova said. 

Gershkovich’s original pre-trial detention was set to expire on May 29, but a Russian court lengthened that period to August 30. 
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Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday announced the expelling of nine Finnish diplomats and shutting down of Finland’s consulate in St. Petersburg in retaliation for Finland expelling nine Russian diplomats last month.

The ministry said in a lengthy statement that it summoned Finland’s ambassador to Russia, Antti Helantera, on Thursday, and relayed its “strong protest in connection with the confrontational anti-Russian policy pursued by the Finnish authorities.”

The statement also noted that “the parameters of Finland’s accession to NATO create a threat” to Russia’s security, and “encouraging the Kyiv regime to (go to) war and pumping it with Western weapons means clearly hostile actions against our country.” The statement concluded that “this line of the Finnish authorities cannot remain unanswered.”

It said nine Finnish diplomats would be expelled from Russia, and a permit allowing the Finnish consulate in St. Petersburg — the country’s second-largest city — to operate will be revoked starting from Oct. 1.

Finland, which shares a long border with Russia, joined NATO in April as the military alliance’s 31st member. Interaction between Helsinki and Moscow has become restrained in recent months.

Finland’s veteran politician and then foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, announced in May that Russia has frozen the bank accounts of Finland’s diplomatic representations in Moscow and St. Petersburg, disrupting money flow and forcing the Nordic country’s missions to resort to cash payments.

In June, Finland expelled nine Russian diplomats, suspected of working in intelligence operations at Russia’s embassy in Helsinki.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto tweeted that he considered Moscow’s move on Thursday as “a tough and asymmetric” response to Helsinki’s decision to expel Russian diplomats.

Niinisto said the Finnish government was mulling counter-measures including a possible closure of Russia’s consulate in the western Finnish port city of Turku.

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said on Twitter that Moscow’s move was “out of proportion” and that “Finland will react” to Russia’s decision.
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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday that Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was no longer in Belarus and had returned to Russia.

Prigozhin went to Belarus as part of a deal to end an armed mutiny by his Wagner mercenary group last month.

Lukashenko brokered the agreement, which included security guarantees for Prigozhin and his fighters.

Lukashenko told reporters Thursday that his offer to allow some Wagner fighters to be stationed in Belarus still stood.

“At the moment the question of their transfer and setup has not been decided,” Lukashenko said. “I am absolutely not worried or concerned that we will host a certain number of these fighters here,” he added.

Prigozhin and his fighters launched their mutiny June 23 in a challenge to Russia’s military leadership.  They captured military headquarters in the southern Russian city of Roston-on-Don before moving toward Moscow.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Sharing a border with Ukraine, Romania has become one of the European Union countries most exposed to the conflict and a key NATO supplier of weapons to Kyiv. Despite Romania’s support of Ukraine, its historically troubled relations with Ukraine still pose difficulties. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina in Bucharest.
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Europe’s workhorse Ariane 5 rocket blasted off for a final time on Wednesday, with its farewell flight after 27 years of launches coming at a difficult time for European space efforts.   

Faced with soaring global competition, the continent has unexpectedly found itself without a way to independently launch heavy missions into space due to delays to the next-generation Ariane 6 and Russia withdrawing its rockets. 

The 117th and final flight of the Ariane 5 rocket took place around 2200 GMT on Wednesday from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. 

The launch had been postponed twice. It was originally scheduled on June 16, but was called off because of problems with pyrotechnical lines in the rocket’s booster, which have since been replaced. 

Then Tuesday’s launch was delayed by bad weather. 

The Wednesday night flight went off without a hitch, watched by hundreds of spectators, including former French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, and was greeted with applause. 

Marie-Anne Clair, the director of the Guiana Space Centre, told AFP that the final flight of Ariane 5 was “charged with emotion” for the teams in Kourou, where the rocket’s launches have punctuated life for nearly three decades. 

The final payload on Ariane 5 is a French military communications satellite and a German communications satellite.  

The satellite “marks a major turning point for our armed forces: better performance and greater resistance to jamming,” French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu tweeted.  

Though it would become a reliable rocket, Ariane 5 had a difficult start. Its maiden flight exploded moments after liftoff in 1996. Its only other such failure came in 2002. 

Herve Gilibert, an engineer who was working on Ariane 5 at the time, said the 2002 explosion was a “traumatic experience” that “left a deep impression on us”. 

But the rocket would embark on what was ultimately a long string of successful launches.  

The initial stumbles had “the positive effect of keeping us absolutely vigilant,” Gilibert said. 

Reputation for reliability

Ariane 5 earned such a reputation for reliability that NASA trusted it to launch the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope in late 2021. 

The rocket’s second-last launch was in April, blasting the European Space Agency’s Juice spacecraft on its way to find out whether Jupiter’s icy moons can host alien life. 

Daniel Neuenschwander, the ESA’s head of human and robotic exploration, said that in commercial terms, Ariane 5 had been “the spearhead of Europe’s space activities.” 

The rocket was able to carry a far bigger load than its predecessor Ariane 4, giving Europe a competitive advantage and allowing the continent to establish itself in the communication satellite market. 

While waiting for Ariane 6, whose first launch was initially scheduled for 2020, Europe had been relying on Russia’s Soyuz rockets to get heavy-load missions into space. 

But Russia withdrew space cooperation with Europe in response to sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.  

The number of launches from Kourou fell from 15 in 2021 to six last year. 

Another blow came in December, when the first commercial flight of the next-generation Vega C light launcher failed. Last week, another problem was detected in the Vega C’s engine, likely pushing its return further into the future. 

Attention shifts to new rocket 

The launcher market has been increasingly dominated by billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. firm SpaceX, whose rockets are now blasting off once a week. 

Lacking other options, the ESA was forced to turn to rival SpaceX’s Falcon 9 for the successful launch of its Euclid space telescope on Saturday.  

The ESA will also use a SpaceX rocket to launch satellites for the EarthCARE observation mission. 

It remains unclear how the agency will launch the next round of satellites for the European Union’s Galileo global navigation system. 

At the Paris Air Show earlier this month, ESA chief Josef Aschbacher acknowledged that these were “difficult times,” adding that everyone was “working intensely” to get Ariane 6 and Vega-C ready.  

Ariane 6 was unveiled on a launch pad in Kourou earlier this month ahead of an ignition test of its Vulcain 2.1 rocket engine. 

Because the new rocket requires less staffing and maintenance, 190 out of 1,600 positions are being cut at the Kourou spaceport. 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Sweden has taken steps “in the right direction” to address Turkey’s concerns in order to earn support for Sweden’s entry into NATO. But Erdogan said public demonstrations by an organization Turkey considers a terrorist group “nullifies the steps taken.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency calls for inspectors to be able to access the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant amid dueling accusations from Ukraine and Russia that the opposing side planned to attack the plant.

 

A Russian missile struck an apartment building in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Thursday, killing at least four people and injuring nine others.

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said the missile also damaged around 60 apartments and 50 cars. Sadovyi described the attack as the largest against the city’s civilian infrastructure since Russia’s invasion began last year.

“There will definitely be a response to the enemy. A tangible one,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

Lviv is located near Ukraine’s border with Poland, far from the frontline areas in eastern and southern Ukraine that have been the focus of much of the recent fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces.

Ukraine counteroffensive

In an interview with CNN broadcast on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said he wanted to launch a counteroffensive earlier, but that the timing was dependent on getting military aid from Ukraine’s U.S. and European partners.

Ukraine began the counteroffensive last month, aiming to reclaim territory occupied by Russia since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.

Ukrainian officials have sought ammunition and more advanced weapons, including air defense systems and fighter jets, in order to match up with Russia’s military capabilities.

 

“I wanted our counteroffensive to happen much earlier, because everyone understood that if the counteroffensive unfolds later, then a bigger part of our territory will be mined,” Zelenskyy told CNN. “We give our enemy the time and possibility to place more mines and prepare their defensive lines.”

He reiterated his case for Ukraine to receive F-16 fighter jets, saying having the planes is not about gaining an aerial advantage, but rather “being equal” to Russia’s forces.

Denmark said last week that training for Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s had begun.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Reuters this week said that it will appeal a move by Turkey to block access to more than 90 web links and social media posts that used reporting by the news agency.

The ban relates to an article that said that Swedish and American anti-corruption authorities were reviewing a complaint that named the Turkish president’s son, Bilal Erdogan.

The Reuters article was translated into Turkish by several media outlets, including VOA’s Turkish Service.

An Istanbul Court on June 26 issued an order that blocks access to 93 web addresses that used the Reuters news article, its Turkish translations or information from the news agency. VOA’s Turkish Service is among those affected.

“This is the first time that access to a Reuters news article was banned within 24 hours [in Turkey],” Yaman Akdeniz, a cyber law professor at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, told VOA.

Reuters on Monday said it would appeal the ruling, which it said “runs contrary to Turkish legal protections for freedom of the press and expression.”

In its reporting, Reuters cited a lawyer for Bilal Erdogan as denying involvement and describing the allegations as “a web of lies.”

Reuters also noted that it could not “confirm independently whether Erdogan and his son Bilal were aware of or had involvement” in the alleged scheme.

A Reuters spokesperson told VOA that the agency stands by its story.

“Our story was prepared in keeping with the Thomson Reuters’ Trust Principles and our commitment to the publication of fair and accurate reporting in the global public interest,” the spokesperson said.

Ruling

The Turkish court ruling, seen by VOA, defined the Reuters article as “far from reality, unconfirmed, and far from goodwill,” adding that citing it in other media outlets “will not justify and legitimize the content.”

The ruling said, “Freedom of the press obliges those concerned to respect professional ethics, to provide accurate and reliable information, and to act in good faith. Malicious distortions of truth may exceed the limits of acceptable criticism.”

But media critics say that the ruling goes too far.

“The court ruled that Reuters’s article should not be credited, and its coverage should not be published,” Akdeniz said.

Yusuf Kanli, the director of the E.U.-funded Media for Democracy project, said, “The Turkish Constitution clearly states that the press is free and cannot be censored.”

“Instead of banning access to the reporting of the bribery claim, the request to ban access to these allegations should be prevented,” Kanli added.

Gurkan Ozturan, the coordinator of Media Freedom Rapid Response team at the European Center for Press and Media Freedom, thinks that blocking access to articles in Turkey has become a problem.

“In recent months, there has been an apparent increase in blocking access to news articles and content removal orders targeting local media organizations. This threatens people’s right to access information and media freedom deeply,” Ozturan told VOA.

In June 2022, for example, access to VOA Turkish was blocked after it declined to get a broadcasting license from Turkey’s media regulator, the Radio and Television Supreme Council.

Several Turkish authorities condemned the Reuters article and described it as disinformation.

And several pro-government media outlets under the Albayrak Media Group and TurkMedya said on social media they had ended their contract with Reuters.

Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish presidency’s director of communication, on Twitter condemned Reuters for what he said is a “false news story,” which he said made “baseless claims.”

“They have once again demonstrated to the entire world just how crucial our struggle against disinformation is,” Altun said.

Last year, Turkey’s parliament adopted a law that carries prison terms of up to three years for spreading “disinformation” online.

Asli Aral of VOA’s Turkish Service contributed from Ankara to this report, which originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
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As the weeklong unrest in France subsides, the United Nations and several other international human rights organizations have called on the French government to reform its police forces and stop their controversial racial profiling practice.

“The government should take urgent action to reform the system of police stops,” six human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a statement on Wednesday.  

“This is a moment for the country to seriously address the deep issues of racism and discrimination in law enforcement,” said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.  

The calls were reiterated in the aftermath of the June 27 fatal shooting of Nahel Merzouk, 17, a French youth of Algerian descent, by a police officer outside Paris. The incident sparked widespread protests in nearly 200 cities and towns across France over the past week.  

“Nahel’s killing is another example of the effects of systemic racism,” Amnesty International has said.   

French authorities have defended the police, saying racism has no place in their ranks.  

“Any accusation of racism or systemic discrimination in the police force in France is totally unfounded,” France’s foreign ministry said in a statement last week.

Bruno Le Maire, France’s economy minister, said on Tuesday that it is “unacceptable” to say French police are racist.

The French government deployed 45,000 police officers to restore calm. More than 3,400 people have been arrested for various crimes, chiefly physical assault and vandalism. Businesses in France have suffered more than $1 billion in losses caused during the protests, according to a French business association.  

The controversy surrounding racial profiling by the French police is not new, with critics decrying the use of generalizations based on race, ethnicity, religion and national origin as a discriminatory practice. Despite being illegal in France and facing legal challenges, the practice has persisted through a lack of executive action, according to human rights groups. 

“These practices are not only illegal under French and international human rights law, but they are above all violent, humiliating and degrading, and make those who experience them feel like second-class citizens,” read the statement from the six human rights organizations.  

In addition to deploying massive police forces to control the situation, the French government has reportedly considered banning access to social media to prevent organized rioting and violence.  

“We have to think about the social networks, about the bans we’ll have to put in place. When things get out of control, we might need to be able to regulate or cut them off,” French President Emmanuel Macron was quoted saying in a meeting on Tuesday.  

The French government’s response has also been criticized by some as both heavy-handed and ineffective.  

While human rights groups call for addressing systemic and institutional racism, some French politicians have demanded tougher actions against the rioters.
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Two environmental activists were arrested at Wimbledon on Wednesday after getting on court and disrupting a match by scattering orange confetti and puzzle pieces on the grass.

A woman and a man wearing T-shirts from Just Stop Oil — a protest group that wants the British government to stop new oil, gas and coal projects — made it onto the field of play at Court 18 before being taken away by security. Later, during a different match at the same court, another man representing the same organization also threw orange confetti on the grass before security guards corralled him and dragged him away.

The initial interruption happened as three-time Grand Slam semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, who is seeded 21st in the men’s bracket, was about to hit a serve in the second set of a first-round match against Sho Shimabukuro of Japan.

Before the debris could be cleared from the court to allow the players to continue, action was halted by a rain delay.

“Following an incident on Court 18, two individuals have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage and these individuals have now been removed from the grounds,” an All England Club spokesperson said in a statement. “Play on the court was temporarily paused and, following a suspension in play due to a rain delay, play [resumed].”

One of the activists sat down on the court before being removed.

The All England Club coordinated with London police and other agencies to increase security for this year’s tournament, in part as a result of protests at other major sports venues in Britain this year.

“Based on what has happened at other sporting events, and on the advice from our key partners, we have reviewed our security plans, which have now been uplifted for The Championships accordingly,” All England Club operations director Michelle Dite said last week.

“We have plans in place to mitigate the risks working in partnership with specialist agencies and the Metropolitan Police and should an incident occur, the appropriate specialist teams will respond,” Dite said.

Her comments came a day after people representing Just Stop Oil briefly disrupted play about five minutes after the start of a cricket match between England and Australia in London. Players from both teams intervened when the protesters attempted to spread orange powder on the field.

Earlier in June, protesters held up the England cricket team bus briefly during the test against Ireland in London. Activists also have targeted Premier League soccer matches, the Premiership rugby final at Twickenham and the world snooker championship in Sheffield this year.
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The European Union says China has canceled a planned visit by Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy.

EU spokesperson Nabila Massrali said in a written statement Wednesday that Beijing did not give a reason. Massrali said China told the EU that “the envisaged dates next week are no longer possible” and that the bloc “must now look for alternatives.”  

“We welcome Representative Borrell to visit China as soon as possible at the convenience of both sides,” foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing Wednesday, adding that China will maintain communications with the EU.  

Borrell was due to visit China July 10 for talks with Foreign Minister Qin Gang for talks on trade, human rights and China’s stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  The 27-nation bloc has been pressuring Beijing to increase its efforts to persuade Russia to end its nearly 17-month-old invasion of neighboring Ukraine.  

The EU issued a statement last week after a summit, describing China as both a “competitor and a systemic rival.”

Jorge Toledo, the EU’s ambassador to China, told reporters Sunday that Brussels and Beijing are scheduled to hold two summits in September, one on the economy and the other on digital cooperation. 

This is the second time a planned visit by Borrell to China has been scrapped. A trip planned for April was called off after he tested positive for COVID-19.   

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters.

 
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The human rights situation in Belarus is catastrophic, and only getting worse, the United Nations special rapporteur on the country said Tuesday.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s regime in Minsk is deliberately purging civil society of its last dissenting voices, Anais Marin told the U.N. Human Rights Council.

“The situation remains catastrophic. Unfortunately, it keeps on worsening,” said the special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Belarus. “The Belarusian government amended an already restrictive legislation aimed at dismantling civic freedoms, leading to a surge in politically motivated prosecutions and sentencing.

“The lack of accountability for human rights violations fosters a climate of fear among victims and their families,” Marin said.

‘Totalitarian turn’ 

Marin has been in post for five years and reminded the council that she alerted them two years ago to the “totalitarian turn” taken by Minsk, evidenced by the “disregard for human life and dignity” during the crackdown on peaceful protesters in 2020.

In her annual report, the French political scientist said more than 1,500 individuals were still being detained on politically motivated charges, with a daily average of 17 arbitrary arrests since 2020.

“I have good reasons to believe that prison conditions are deliberately made harsher for those sentenced on politically motivated grounds, by placing them in punishment cells for petty infraction to prison rules,” said Marin.

“No one has been held accountable in Belarus for arbitrarily detaining tens of thousands of peaceful protesters in 2020, nor for the violence or torture many of them have been subjected to.

“This general impunity, and the climate of fear resulting from ongoing repression, have compelled hundreds of thousands of Belarusians into exile.”

Media called ‘extremist’

Human rights defenders face ongoing persecution, she said, with more than 1,600 “undesirable organizations forcibly dissolved, including all remaining independent trade unions.

“This illustrates a deliberate state policy of purging civic space of its last dissenting elements,” she said.

Marin said independent media outlets had been labelled as “extremist organizations,” while academic freedom is “systematically attacked.”

“Ideological control and disciplinary measures restrict freedom of opinion and their expression,” she said.

Primary and secondary education is also subject to “ideological control,” with children “discouraged from expressing their own opinions” and facing “threats and consequences” for holding dissenting views.

Consequences for speaking out 

As for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, individuals face challenges when trying to speak out against it or question Belarus’s role in facilitating the 2022 invasion.

“Anti-war actions led to numerous detentions and arrests, some on charges of planning terrorist attacks — a crime which can now be punished by death,” she said.

Belarus was immediately offered the Human Rights Council floor to respond to Marin’s comments but was not present.
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