Category: European Union

Sofia, Bulgaria — The Swedish coast guard chased and intercepted a Bulgarian ship after a fiber-optic cable under the Baltic Sea linking Sweden to Latvia was damaged, its owner said on Monday. Latvia sent a warship on Sunday to investigate the damage, while Swedish prosecutors opened an “aggravated sabotage” investigation. Nations around the Baltic Sea have scrambled to bolster defenses after the suspected sabotage of undersea cables in recent months, with some observers blaming Russia. The Bulgarian vessel on Sunday “was chased by the Swedish coast guard with instructions for the ship to go into their territorial waters and it is now on anchor where an investigation … is ongoing,” Alexander Kalchev, CEO of Navigation Maritime Bulgare (Navibulgar), owner of the Vezhen, told AFP. He denied involvement in any sabotage. “I am convinced that we cannot say … that this was a malicious act,” he added. The Malta-flagged vessel carrying fertilizer from Ust-Luga in Russia and headed for South America was sailing in “extremely bad weather” on Saturday based on the information given to him by the crew, Kalchev said. An inspection on Sunday found that “one of the ship’s anchors was damaged and the anchor had dropped into the sea, which means that it was possible that it had dragged along the sea floor,” he said, adding the anchor was then pulled up. ‘Full solidarity’ Navibulgar, Bulgaria’s biggest shipping company, said it had appointed an agent in Sweden and hired a lawyer “to defend the interests of the crew and the company.” The ship, constructed in 2022, has a crew of eight Bulgarians and nine Myanmar nationals. “Staff from the Swedish authorities have been on board the ship since yesterday evening to carry out investigative measures,” an intelligence official told AFP. The damage to the cable occurred in Swedish territorial waters at a depth of at least 50 meters, officials said. The cable belongs to Latvia’s state radio and television center (LVRTC) which said in a statement that there had been “disruptions in data transmission services.” The company said alternatives had been found and end users would mostly not be affected although “there may be delays in data transmission speeds.” Latvia’s navy on Sunday said it had identified a “suspect vessel,” the Michalis San, near the location of the incident along with two other ships. Prime Minister Evika Silina said Riga had notified the Swedish authorities and that the two … “Sweden intercepts Bulgarian ship over damaged Baltic cable” →

Russian drone attacks damaged infrastructure sites in western, central and eastern Ukraine on Monday. Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 57 of the 108 total drones that Russian forces launched overnight. The intercepts took place over the Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions, the military said. Officials in Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk and Sumy said drone attacks hit “critical infrastructure.” Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak also said on Telegram that Russian shelling Monday injured at least five people in the city of Nikopol. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 32 Ukrainian drones, including intercepts over Voronezh, Belgorod, Kursk, Oryol and Tver. Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that a Ukrainian drone attack damaged a house, but did not hurt anyone. A Kremlin spokesperson said Monday that Russia had not received any signals about a potential meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump. The comment came days after Putin said he and Trump should discuss the war in Ukraine as well as energy prices. Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters …

The smiling face of President Alexander Lukashenko gazed out from campaign posters across Belarus on Sunday as the country held an orchestrated election virtually guaranteed to give the 70-year-old autocrat yet another term on top of his three decades in power. “Needed!” the posters proclaim beneath a photo of Lukashenko, his hands clasped together. The phrase is what groups of voters responded in campaign videos after supposedly being asked if they wanted him to serve again. And according to a nighttime statement by the Central Election Commission, the strongman leader won by a landslide, garnering nearly 87% percent of the vote. But his opponents, many of whom are imprisoned or exiled abroad by his unrelenting crackdown on dissent and free speech, would disagree. They call the election a sham — much like the last one in 2020 that triggered months of protests that were unprecedented in the history of the country of 9 million people. The crackdown saw more than 65,000 arrests, with thousands beaten, bringing condemnation and sanctions from the West. His iron-fisted rule since 1994 — Lukashenko took office two years after the demise of the Soviet Union — earned him the nickname of “Europe’s Last Dictator,” relying on subsidies and political support from close ally Russia. He let Moscow use his territory to invade Ukraine in 2022, and even hosts some of Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons, but he still campaigned with the slogan “Peace and security,” arguing he has saved Belarus from being drawn into war. “It’s better to have a dictatorship like in Belarus than a democracy like Ukraine,” Lukashenko said in his characteristic bluntness. Fearing a repeat of election unrest His reliance on support from Russian President Vladimir Putin — himself in office for a quarter-century — helped him survive the 2020 protests. Observers believe Lukashenko feared a repeat of those mass demonstrations amid economic troubles and the fighting in Ukraine, and so scheduled the vote in January, when few would want to fill the streets again, rather than in August. He faces only token opposition. According to official results, announced in the early hours of Monday, Lukashenko won 86.82% of the vote – compared to his nearest rival’s 3.21%. According to the Central Election Commission, 3.60% of voters spoiled their ballots. In 2020, the electoral body claimed Lukashenko had taken 80.10% of the vote. “The trauma of the 2020 protests was so deep that … “Belarus strongman wins a 7th term in an election the opposition calls a farce” →

BEIJING — China has prohibited imports of sheep, goat, poultry and even-toed ungulates from African, Asian and European countries due to outbreaks of livestock diseases such as sheep pox, goat pox and foot-and-mouth-disease. The ban, which also includes processed and unprocessed products, comes after the World Health Organization released information of disease outbreaks in various countries, according to a series of announcements by China’s General Administration of Customs dated Jan. 21. The ban from the world’s largest meat importer affects Ghana, Somalia, Qatar, Congo (DRC), Nigeria, and Tanzania, Egypt, Bulgaria, East Timor and Eritrea. China also said it has stopped imports of sheep, goat and related products from Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh due to sheep pox and goat pox outbreaks. It also blocked the imports of even-toed ungulates and related products from Germany following an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, it said. …

STOCKHOLM/VILNIUS — An undersea fiber optic cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged on Sunday, likely as a result of external influence, Latvia said, prompting NATO to deploy patrol ships to the area and triggering a sabotage investigation by Swedish authorities. Sweden’s Security Service has seized control of a vessel as part of the probe, the country’s prosecution authority said. “We are now carrying out a number of concrete investigative measures, but I cannot go into what they consist of due to the ongoing preliminary investigation,” senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said in a statement. NATO was coordinating military ships and aircraft under its recently deployed mission, dubbed “Baltic Sentry.” The effort follows a string of incidents in which power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines have been damaged in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina said her government was coordinating with NATO and other countries in the Baltic Sea region to clarify the circumstances surrounding the latest incident. “We have determined that there is most likely external damage and that it is significant,” Silina told reporters following an extraordinary government meeting. Latvia’s navy said earlier on Sunday it had dispatched a patrol boat to inspect a ship and that two other vessels were also subject to investigation. Up to several thousand commercial vessels make their way through the Baltic Sea at any given time, and a number of them passed the broken cable on Sunday, data from the MarineTraffic ship tracking service showed. One such ship, the Malta-flagged bulk carrier Vezhen, escorted to Swedish waters by a Swedish coastguard vessel on Sunday evening, MarineTraffic data showed. It later anchored outside the Swedish naval base in Karlskrona in southern Sweden. It was not immediately clear if the Vezhen, which passed the fiber optic cable at 0045 GMT on Sunday, was subject to investigation. A Swedish coastguard spokesperson declined to comment on the Vezhen or the position of coastguard ships. Bulgarian shipping company Navigation Maritime Bulgare, which listed the Vezhen among its fleet, did not immediately reply to requests for comment outside of office hours. NATO cooperation Swedish navy spokesperson Jimmie Adamsson earlier told Reuters it was too soon to say what caused the damage to the cable or whether it was intentional or a technical fault. “NATO ships and aircrafts are working together with national resources from the Baltic Sea countries to investigate … “Sweden opens sabotage probe into Baltic undersea cable damage” →

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia on Sunday claimed its troops had captured a strategically important town in eastern Ukraine as part of a grinding campaign to weaken Kyiv’s grip on the country’s industrial heartland, while uncertainty over the continued flow of U.S. funding has reportedly halted the work of some Ukrainian NGOs, including those helping war veterans. Russia’s Defense Ministry announced the fall of Velyka Novosilka, which had around 5,000 residents before the war, following a monthslong battle. Its statement could not be independently verified, and Ukraine claimed its troops had only strategically withdrawn from certain areas. But if confirmed, it would make Velyka Novosilka the first significant town to capitulate in 2025 under Moscow’s onslaught in the eastern Donetsk region against Ukraine’s weary and short-handed army. The war is set to reach its three-year milestone in February. Ukrainian forces withdrew from certain parts of Velyka Novosilka to avoid encirclement, the 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade said in a statement on its official Telegram channel Sunday. The brigade is active in that patch of the frontline. Analysts have long predicted that it’s only a matter of time until Russian forces capture the settlement, which lies only 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region. The brigade said though they have approximate parity with Russian forces in terms of artillery and drones, the Russians have a huge advantage in manpower. “Our units, using the weather conditions, skillfully withdrew from areas where there was a threat of encirclement. This does not mean that we have completely left the city, the fighting in Velyka Novosilka continues . All actions are aimed at minimizing our own losses and maximum damage to the enemy,” the statement said. The brigade said the withdrawal will make it topographically difficult for Russians to advance by making the river an obstacle. “The enemy (…) will have no peace, any movement is cut off by shells and drones,” the statement said. Russia captured the Donetsk cities of Avdiivka and Vuhledar last year after long and grueling battles. Those cities were largely leveled by Russian artillery, glide bombs and drones before they fell. Russian forces have also been trying for months to capture the key Donetsk strongholds of Pokrovsk and Chasiv Yar. Elsewhere, Ukrainian NGOs catering to the needs of war veterans and their families have claimed a suspension of U.S. funding is forcing them to halt their work, days after newly sworn … “Russia says its troops have captured a strategic town in eastern Ukraine” →

Rome — Italy said Sunday it was transferring 49 migrants picked up in the Mediterranean to new processing centers in Albania, in the third such attempt facing hurdles by courts. The navy vessel Cassiopea with the migrants on board was expected to reach the Albanian port of Shengjin on Tuesday morning, port officials said. The Interior Ministry said Sunday that 53 other migrants “spontaneously presented their passports” after they were told that it would avoid their transfer to Albania. Where the nationality is confirmed, processing generally takes less time as people who are determined by Italy to be ineligible to apply for asylum in the European Union are repatriated via a fast-track procedure. Italian judges refused to validate the detention of the first two small groups in the Albanian centers, built under a contentious agreement between Rome and Tirana. Their cases have been referred to the European Court of Justice, which had earlier established that asylum applicants could not undergo a fast-track procedure that could lead to repatriation if their country of provenance was not deemed completely safe. The European court hearing on the case is scheduled for Feb. 25. Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s government had vowed to reactivate the two centers in Albania that have remained dormant following the Italian courts’ decisions. The premier’s position was partially backed by a ruling in late December by Italy’s highest court, which said Italian judges could not substitute for government policy in deciding which countries are safe for repatriation of migrants whose asylum requests are rejected. The decision does allow lower courts to make such determinations on a case-by-case basis, short of setting overall policy. Italy has earmarked $675 million (650 million euros) to run the centers over five years. They opened in October ready to accept up to 3,000 male migrants a month picked up by the Italian coast guard in international waters. Human rights groups and nongovernmental organizations active in the Mediterranean have slammed the agreement as a dangerous precedent that conflicts with international laws. Meloni has repeatedly stressed that plans to process migrants outside EU borders in Albania had received strong backing from other European leaders. …

Berlin — Government officials and residents attended a solemn Mass Sunday to honor a child and a man killed in a knife attack in Germany, an assault that amplified the debate about migration ahead of the Feb. 23 general election. The ecumenical religious service at the Catholic Basilica of St. Peter and Alexander in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, was briefly suspended for the tolling of the city’s bells at the exact time that the attack took place Wednesday, 11:45 a.m. Bavaria Governor Markus Soder, Aschaffenburg Mayor Jurgen Herzing and Muslim imam Zischan Mehmood addressed the congregation that included rescuers, to express grief and disbelief at the loss of lives. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser was also present. “Compassion, solidarity and cohesion are more important than ever, because there are many dividers and agitators around us,” Mehmood told the people gathered in and outside the church. “We must never allow grief and pain to tear us apart.” Soder said the attack was a “senseless, brutal and disturbing crime.” “Good and evil are not a question of origin, nationality, ethnicity or faith,” Soder said, and stressed that the killings should not lead to divisions because “incitement is the wrong answer.” Before attending the service, Faeser and Soder laid wreaths at the site of the attack. The attack is politically sensitive a month before Germany’s national election as migration policy is among the top campaign issues. A 2-year-old boy of Moroccan origin, who was part of a group of kindergarten children, was killed, along with a 41-year-old German man who apparently intervened to protect the children in a city park. The arrested suspect is a 28-year-old former asylum-seeker from Afghanistan who had been told to leave Germany. Officials said he had received psychiatric treatment and there was no immediate indication that he was motivated by extremism. He is being held in a psychiatric hospital, according to the German news agency, dpa. Bavarian officials said two adults and a 2-year-old Syrian girl were also wounded in the attack and hospitalized but there was no danger to their lives. …

Ukrainian Sergeant Serhiy Danilets was struck by enemy tank fire and lost his right arm fighting Russian troops in 2022. To help restore his mobility, world-renowned Swedish orthopedic surgeon Rickard Branemark traveled to Kyiv to perform the surgery. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. VOA footage and video editing by Pavel Suhodolskiy. …

London — Ireland called in help from England and France on Sunday as repair crews worked to restore power to hundreds of thousands of people after the most disruptive storm for years. More than 1 million people in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland were left without electricity after Storm Eowyn roared through on Friday. In Ireland, which suffered the heaviest damage, the wind snapped telephone poles, ripped apart a Dublin ice rink and even toppled a giant wind turbine. A wind gust of 183 kph was recorded on the west coast, breaking a record set in 1945. The state electricity company, ESB Networks, said that more than 300,000 properties in Ireland still had no power on Sunday, down from 768,000 on Friday. The Irish military was also helping out, but the company said that it could be two more weeks before electricity is restored to everyone. Irish Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary said authorities were “throwing everything at it.” “We’re bringing additional people from England today and we’re looking for people from France, additional technicians,” he told broadcaster RTE. “What we’re focused on is getting our infrastructure back up, getting our power back up, getting our water and connectivity back up as soon as is possible.” Another 75,000 people were still without power on Sunday in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom and neighbors the Republic of Ireland. At least two people died during the storm. Kacper Dudek, 20, was killed when a tree fell on his car in County Donegal in northwest Ireland, local police said. Police in Scotland said that a 19-year-old man, who hasn’t been named, died in a hospital on Saturday after a tree fell on his car in the southwestern town of Mauchline on Friday. More rainy and windy weather battered Britain and Ireland on Sunday, with a gust of 132 kph recorded at Predannack in southwest England. …

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis warned of the “scourge of antisemitism” in his Angelus prayer on Sunday, the eve of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, noting it marks 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.  “The horror of the extermination of millions of Jewish people and others of different faiths during those years must never be forgotten or denied,” Francis said, citing the example of Hungarian-born poet Edith Bruck, who lives in Rome.  He noted that many Christians were also killed in Nazi concentration camps, “among whom there were numerous martyrs.”  “I renew my appeal for everyone to work together to eradicate the scourge of antisemitism, along with every form of discrimination and religious persecution,” Francis said.  “Together, let us build a more fraternal, just world, educating young people to have hearts open to all, in the spirit of fraternity, forgiveness, and peace,” he added.  The pontiff also launched an appeal for an end to the civil war in Sudan, which began in April 2023, saying it is causing “the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world, with dramatic consequences even in South Sudan.”  The pope also expressed concern for the situation in Colombia’s Catatumbo region, where many civilians have been killed by clashes between armed groups, which have forced over 30,000 people to leave their homes. …

MINSK — Belarusians voted on Sunday in an election set to hand President Alexander Lukashenko a seventh term, prolonging his three-decade authoritarian rule.    Lukashenko — a 70-year-old former collective farm boss — has been in power in reclusive, Moscow-allied Belarus since 1994.    Speaking after casting his vote in the capital Minsk, the self-avowed “dictator” dismissed critics of his rule and said he could release political prisoners as long as they asked him for a pardon.    Lukashenko suppressed mass protests against his rule after the last election in 2020. He has since allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to invade Ukraine in 2022.    All of Lukashenko’s political opponents are either in prison — some held incommunicado — or in exile along with hundreds of thousands of Belarusians who have fled since 2020.    Exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who ran against Lukashenko in 2020, dismissed Sunday’s vote as a “farce.”    “What is happening in Belarus today is a farce,” she told reporters in Warsaw, branding Lukashenko “a criminal who has seized power” and calling for the release of all political prisoners and free and faIr elections.    In a rambling press conference, Lukashenko called his country a “brutal democracy” and said “we don’t put pressure on anyone and we won’t silence anyone.”    He also dismissed the idea of speaking to exiled opponents like Tikhanovskaya.    “What would I have to talk to them about?” he said.    He said exiles had made their own choices, adding that “we didn’t push anyone out of the country.”    Thousands fled Belarus in 2020 and 2021 as authorities embarked on a huge crackdown, with more than 1,000 people now in prison.    Belarusians value ‘peace’    Most people in Belarus have only distant memories of life in the landlocked country before Lukashenko, who was 39 when he won the first national election in Belarus since it gained independence from the Soviet Union.    Criticism of the strongman is banned in Belarus. Most people AFP spoke to in Minsk and other towns voiced support for him.    The other candidates running against Lukashenko have been picked to give the election an air of democracy and few know who they are.    In Minsk, 74-year-old pensioner Nadezhda Guzhalovskaya, who described herself as a “patriot,” voted for Lukashenko because of a lack of other options.    “Maybe everything here is not perfect, we don’t have … “Belarusians vote in election to extend Lukashenko’s 30-year rule “ →

When American conservative commentator Tucker Carlson interviewed Russian IT entrepreneur Pavel Durov in April, he had an additional unexpected audience: scammers. After the video was published, a phony Russian-language transcript of the interview tried to attract “investors” to a cryptocurrency scheme that promised monthly earnings of $13,000. That scheme came to VOA’s attention because its creators used a copy of a VOA Russian article page in their attempts to defraud internet users. It is one of many examples of legitimate media outlets being exploited for fraudulent purposes. These schemes buy advertising using Facebook accounts — often hacked without the user’s knowledge — spanning countries like the Philippines, Mexico and Afghanistan. The strategy and rhetoric follow a pattern, according to Jordan Liles, at American fact-checking site Snopes.com. “There are so many scams online that pose as legitimate publishers,” he told VOA. “Name any publisher – they’ve probably been used in scams to try to fool people who don’t look at their web address bar.” There is no indication that Durov or Carlson is involved in the scheme. VOA reached out to them for comment but received no response. In a statement, Facebook parent company Meta told VOA it takes scams seriously. “Fraud is a problem that’s always persisted with new technology,” the company wrote. “But that’s exactly why Meta always has — and always will — take a hard line against scams, fraud and abuse in all of its forms to help keep it off of our platforms.” Scammers have previously posed as Voice of America, using deepfakes in two separate cases that targeted VOA Russian journalists. Those cases relied on artificial intelligence. In contrast, the Durov scam takes a distinctly low-tech approach: It uses a Q&A-style text transcript in Russian that falsely claims to be a “continuation” of Carlson’s interview. The founder of Russian social media site VKontakte and messenger app Telegram, Durov is a well-known tech entrepreneur. That makes him harder to impersonate. According to an April 2024 report by the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, while deepfakes of public figures “are relatively routine,” they also tend not to be believable. Layers of lies  At the center of the cryptocurrency scam impersonating VOA is an intriguing promise and a trail of stolen accounts spanning the globe. The fake story claims that Durov told Carlson about his latest creation: ProTON-Invest, an open program that will allow even the least financially literate … “Facebook scammers use fake VOA article to push Russian cryptocurrency scheme” →

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Centuries-old stone Buddha statues and precious jewelry repatriated by the Dutch government to its former colony are on display at Indonesia’s National Museum, providing a glimpse into the country’s rich heritage that the government had struggled to retrieve. The collection is part of more than 800 artifacts that were returned under a Repatriation Agreement signed in 2022 between Indonesia and the Netherlands, said Gunawan, the museum’s head of cultural heritage. The objects are not just those looted in conflict but also those seized by scientists and missionaries or smuggled by mercenaries during the four centuries of colonial rule.  “I was so amazed that we have all of these artifacts,” said Shaloom Azura, a visitor to the museum in Jakarta. She hoped other historical objects can be repatriated too, “so we don’t have to go to the Netherlands just to see our own cultural heritage.” The agreement to return cultural objects was inspired by the new era of global restitution and repatriation efforts. In 2021, France said it was returning statues, royal thrones and sacred altars taken from the West African nation of Benin. Belgium returned a gold-capped tooth belonging to the slain Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba. Cambodia in 2023 welcomed the return of priceless stolen artifacts that had been seized during periods of war and instability. Many of the items returned so far have come from the United States. And the Berlin museum authority said it would return hundreds of human skulls from the former German colony of East Africa. The Dutch government announced the same year the return of the Indonesian treasures and looted artifacts from Sri Lanka. Few objects made it back before deal was struck The repatriation “is not something out of the blue” but followed a lengthy process, said I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, former Indonesian ambassador to the Netherlands who also headed the government’s team tasked to recover the objects. He said negotiations with the Dutch government have been ongoing since Indonesia’s independence in August 1945, but it was only in July 2022 that Indonesia formally requested the return of its cultural objects with a list of specific items. “This repatriation is important for us to reconstruct history that may be lost or obscured or manipulated,” Puja said. “And we can fill the gap of the historical vacuum that has existed so far.” The Dutch government in 1978 returned the famous 13th-century … “Indonesia showcases returned artifacts it had sought for decades from Netherlands” →

MINSK, BELARUS — Belarusians began voting on Sunday, with President Alexander Lukashenko expected to cruise to victory unchallenged for a seventh term, prolonging his three-decade authoritarian rule. Lukashenko — a 70-year-old former collective farm boss — has been in power in reclusive, Moscow-allied Belarus since 1994. Polls opened at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) in Minsk’s first presidential vote since Lukashenko suppressed mass protests against his rule in 2020. He has since allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to invade Ukraine in 2022. The opposition and the West said Lukashenko rigged the last vote and the authorities cracked down on demonstrations, with more than a thousand people still jailed. All of Lukashenko’s political opponents are either in prison — some held incommunicado — or in exile along with tens of thousands of Belarusians who have fled since 2020. “All our opponents and enemies should understand: do not hope, we will never repeat what we had in 2020,” Lukashenko told a stadium in Minsk during a carefully choreographed ceremony on Friday. Belarusians value ‘peace’ Most people in Belarus have only distant memories of life in the landlocked country before Lukashenko, who was 39 when he won the first national election in Belarus since it gained independence from the Soviet Union. Criticism of the strongman is banned in Belarus. Most people AFP spoke to in Minsk and other towns voiced support for him. The other candidates running against Lukashenko have been picked to give the election an air of democracy and few know who they are. In Minsk, 74-year-old pensioner Nadejda Gujalovskaia, who described herself as a “patriot,” voted for Lukashenko because of a lack of other options. “Maybe everything here is not perfect, we don’t have democracy,” said Gujalovskaia. The fate of Ukraine was also on her mind. “I don’t want a Maidan [uprising] here,” she said, referring to the social unrest that erupted in Ukraine in 2013, eventually leading to the ousting of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. That set Kyiv’s new pro-European government on a collision course with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in 2014 seized Crimea and then eight years later launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, Russian troops entered Ukraine from several directions, including from Belarus. The following year, Russia sent tactical nuclear weapons to the country, which borders NATO countries. “Thanks to our president there is peace in this country,” Irina Lebedeva, repeating the government’s narrative, which … “Polls open in Belarus with Lukashenko set to extend 30-year rule” →

ROME — Italy’s prime minister addressed growing criticism Saturday of the repatriation of a Libyan warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court, as Giorgia Meloni cited an appeals court order and security concerns. The repatriation of Ossama Anjiem to Libya, a key partner in Europe’s efforts to keep migrants from crossing the Mediterranean and landing on its shores, sparked outrage from human rights groups and questions from Italy’s opposition parties. Meloni said her government will ask the ICC to clarify why it took months to issue the arrest warrant for Anjiem, also known as Ossama al-Masri, and why it was issued only after he traveled through at least three European countries. “Al-Masri was released by an order of Rome’s Court of Appeal … It was not a government choice,” Meloni told journalists during a trip to Saudi Arabia. Italy has close ties to Libya’s internationally recognized government in Tripoli and relies on it to patrol its coasts and prevent migrants from leaving. Any trial of al-Masri in The Hague could bring unwanted attention to Italy’s migration policies and its support of Libya’s coast guard. Al-Masri leads the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious network of detention centers run by the government-backed Special Deterrence Forces. He was arrested Sunday in Turin, where he reportedly attended the Juventus-Milan soccer match the night before. The ICC warrant, dated the day before his arrest, accused al-Masri of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Mitiga prison, starting in 2015, that are punishable with life in prison. The court said he was accused of murder, torture, rape and sexual violence. The prison holds political dissidents, migrants and others. Human rights groups for years have documented abuses in Libyan detention facilities where migrants are kept. The ICC said the arrest warrant was transmitted to member states Saturday, including Italy, and that the court had told Italy to contact it “without delay” if it ran into problems cooperating with the warrant. But Rome’s court of appeals ordered al-Masri freed Tuesday, citing a “procedural error” in his arrest. The ruling said Justice Minister Carlo Nordio should have been informed ahead of time since the ministry handles all relations with the ICC. Al-Masri was sent to Libya aboard an aircraft of the Italian secret services. The ICC said it had not been given prior notice of the appeals court’s decision, as required, and was “yet … “Italy’s Meloni defends repatriation of Libyan warlord wanted by ICC” →

HALLE, GERMANY — Tens of thousands of Germans rallied Saturday against the far right ahead of next month’s legislative elections, as U.S. tech billionaire Elon Musk again endorsed the anti-immigrant AfD party. Musk, speaking by video link, told thousands of AfD supporters gathered in the eastern city of Halle that their party was “the best hope for the future of Germany.” AfD supporters at the rally shouted their approval as party co-leader Alice Weidel looked on smiling. Meanwhile, protesters against the AfD turned out in cities across Germany. The largest gatherings took place in Berlin and Cologne, police revising their turnout figures upward to 35,000 and 40,000 respectively. The protesters in Berlin used their mobile phones to form “a sea of light for democracy” in front of the Brandenburg Gate, holding letters forming the word “Resistance.” AfD polling a record AfD is polling at about 20% before Germany’s February 23 elections, a record for a party that has shattered a decades-old taboo in post-war Germany against supporting the far right. The mainstream conservative CDU/CSU alliance leads with about 30%, with CDU leader Friedrich Merz the favorite to become chancellor after the elections. Musk, a close associate of U.S. President Donald Trump, told the AfD rally the election was important. “I think it could decide the entire fate of Europe, maybe the fate of the world,” he said. Musk has rattled European politicians in recent weeks with comments on his social platform X supporting AfD and far-right politicians in other countries, including Britain. Like Trump, the AfD opposes immigration, denies climate change, rails against gender politics, and has declared war on a political establishment and mainstream media it claims limit free speech. Peaceful protests The anti-AfD rallies took place in about 60 towns following calls from a variety of organizations, attracting more people than the police expected. The protests passed peacefully, with banners saying, “Nazis out” or “AfD is not an alternative,” a reference to the far-right party’s full name “Alternative for Germany.” The CDU’s Merz also came in for criticism. Many protesters fear he is tempted to break his party’s policy of refusing to enter into coalition talks with the AfD. There was also a protest in the southern city of Aschaffenbourg, where a deadly knife attack recently by an Afghan migrant further inflamed the debate over immigration. Several thousand also turned out in the eastern city of Halle, where the … “Tens of thousands protest Germany’s far right as Musk endorses AfD “ →

More than 50 exiled Russian artists who left the country for Europe to escape the war have raised more than $100,000 in an online charity auction. The funds will be sent to various Ukrainian initiatives aimed at helping Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war or providing assistance to those still residing close to the front line.     Click here for the full story in Russian. …

KYIV, UKRAINE — Moldovan President Maia Sandu visited Kyiv on Saturday for talks with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid growing tensions in Transnistria, a pro-Russian separatist enclave of Moldova that neighbors Ukraine. The territory, which has a population of half a million, has seen heating, hot water and electricity cut-offs since the start of the year because a Kyiv-Moscow gas transit contract that had allowed Russian gas to flow there has expired. “We’ll discuss security, energy, infrastructure, trade and mutual support on the EU path,” Sandu wrote on X as she arrived in the Ukrainian capital. There was a demonstration in Transnistria on Friday to call on Moldova to facilitate the transit of Russian gas and end the energy crisis, local media reported. Transnistria used to receive gas from Russia via a pipeline that crossed Ukraine and Moldova. Kyiv has refused to renew the transit contract, which expired on Jan. 1, abruptly ending Russian gas supplies to Transnistria, which has declared a state of emergency. The rest of Moldova has been spared gas cuts thanks to gas and electricity imports from neighboring Romania. With Ukraine’s struggle against a Russian invasion nearly in its fourth year, Moldova is afraid the conflict could expand onto its territory in case of Russian attempts to destabilize Transnistria. In an interview with AFP, Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean on Wednesday accused Moscow of trying to generate “instability” in Moldova. He said the crisis could only be resolved if Russian troops stationed in Transnistria since a war against Moldova in 1992 are pulled out. …

HAIFA, ISRAEL — Naftali Furst will never forget his first view of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, on Nov. 3, 1944. He was 12 years old. SS soldiers threw open the doors of the cattle car, where he was crammed in with his mother, father, brother, and more than 80 others. He remembers the tall chimneys of the crematoria, flames roaring from the top. There were dogs and officers yelling in German “Get out, get out!” forcing people to jump onto the infamous ramp where Nazi doctor Josef Mengele separated children from parents. Furst, now 92, is one of a dwindling number of Holocaust survivors able to share first-person accounts of the horrors they endured, as the world marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazis’ most notorious death camp. Furst is returning to Auschwitz for the annual occasion, his fourth trip to the camp. Each time he returns, he thinks of those first moments there. “We knew we were going to certain death,” he said from his home in Haifa, northern Israel, earlier this month. “In Slovakia, we knew that people who went to Poland didn’t return.” Strokes of luck Furst and his family arrived at the entrance to Auschwitz on Nov. 3, 1944 -– one day after Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler ordered the cessation of the use of the gas chambers ahead of their demolition, as the Soviet troops neared. The order meant that his family wasn’t immediately killed. It was one of many small bits of luck and coincidences that allowed Furst to survive. “For 60 years, I didn’t talk about the Holocaust, for 60 years I didn’t speak a word of German even though it’s my mother tongue,” said Furst. In 2005, he was invited to attend the ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald, where he was liberated on April 11, 1945, after being moved there from Auschwitz. He realized there were fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors who could give first-person accounts, and he decided to throw himself into memorial work. This will be his fourth trip to a ceremony at Auschwitz, having also met Pope Francis there in 2016. Some 6 million European Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust — the mass murder of Jews and other groups before and during World War II. Soviet Red Army troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on Jan. 27, 1945, and the day … “One of last Auschwitz survivors makes telling the stories his mission” →

New online videos recently investigated by VOA’s Russian and Ukrainian services show how artificial intelligence is likely being used to try to create provocative deepfakes that target Ukrainian refugees.  In one example, a video appears to be a TV news report about a teenage Ukrainian refugee and her experience studying at a private school in the United States. But the video then flips to footage of crowded school corridors and packets of crack cocaine, while a voiceover that sounds like the girl calls American public schools dangerous and invokes offensive stereotypes about African Americans.  “I realize it’s quite expensive [at private school],” she says. “But it wouldn’t be fair if my family was made to pay for my safety. Let Americans do it.”  Those statements are total fabrications. Only the first section — footage of the teenager — is real.  The offensive voiceover was likely created using artificial intelligence (AI) to realistically copy her voice, resulting in something known as a deepfake.  And it appears to be part of the online Russian information operation called Matryoshka —‚ named for the Russian nesting doll — that is now targeting Ukrainian refugees.  VOA found that the campaign pushed two deepfake videos that aimed to make Ukrainian refugees look greedy and ungrateful, while also spreading deepfakes that appeared to show authoritative Western journalists claiming that Ukraine — and not Russia — was the country spreading falsehoods.  The videos reflect the most recent strategy among Russia’s online disinformation campaign, according to Antibot4Navalny, an X account that researches Russian information operations and has been widely cited by leading Western news outlets.  Russia’s willingness to target refugees, including a teenager, shows just how far the Kremlin, which regularly denies having a role in disinformation, is prepared to go in attempting to undermine Western support for Ukraine.  Targeting the victims   A second video targeting Ukrainian refugees begins with real footage from a news report in which a Ukrainian woman expresses gratitude for clothing donations and support that Denmark has provided to refugees.  The video then switches to generic footage and a probable deepfake as the woman’s voice begins to complain that Ukrainian refugees are forced to live in small apartments and wear used clothing.  VOA is not sharing either video to protect the identities of the refugees depicted in the deepfakes, but both used stolen footage from reputable international media outlets.   That technique — altering … “Russian deepfake videos target Ukrainian refugees, including teen” →

BELGRADE, SERBIA — A woman rammed a car into a crowd of anti-government protesters in Serbia’s capital and injured one of them Friday, police said, as a student-led strike shut down businesses and drew tens of thousands of people to demonstrations around the country. The nationwide protests took place on the same day that President Aleksandar Vucic held a big afternoon rally with thousands of supporters in the central town of Jagodina, his coalition stronghold, to counter the persistent anti-government protests that have challenged his tight grip on power for nearly three months. Vucic told his supporters that the country has been “attacked both from outside and inside” by the anti-government protests. “It is not accidental that that they have attacked Serbia from abroad,” Vucic said, pointing out Serbia’s friendly relations with Russia and China, and a refusal to impose sanctions on Moscow because of the war in Ukraine. “That is what they want to crush, but we must not allow it. That is our strength,” he told the cheering crowd. Call for talks Vucic also called for a dialogue with the striking students, who have received widespread support from all walks of life in Serbia, at the same time weakening popular support for his party. The students have rejected negotiations on their demands with Vucic. The protesters have blocked traffic daily in Serbia to protest the deaths of 15 people killed in the November collapse of a train station canopy that critics have blamed on government corruption. The government denies blame for the deaths. Police in Belgrade said that they detained the 24-year-old driver who rammed into a crowd of protesters in a section of the city called New Belgrade. The injured victim, a 26-year-old woman, was hospitalized; her condition was described as stable. A similar incident took place during a blockade last week in Belgrade, when a car rammed into protesting students, seriously injuring a young woman. Many in Serbia believe the huge concrete canopy at a train station in the northern city of Novi Sad fell down because of sloppy reconstruction work that resulted from corruption. Weekslong protests demanding accountability for the crash have been the biggest since Vucic came to power more than a decade ago. He has faced accusations of curbing democratic freedoms despite formally seeking European Union membership for Serbia. It wasn’t immediately possible to determine how many people and companies joined the students’ call … “Driver rams anti-government rally in Serbia’s capital, hurts protester “ →

WASHINGTON — Ahead of Belarus’ presidential election this weekend, a media advocacy group filed a complaint Friday with the International Criminal Court accusing the country’s longtime leader of crimes against humanity against journalists. The complaint, filed by Reporters Without Borders, known by French acronym RSF, accuses President Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating a harsh crackdown on independent media that began after he claimed victory in the disputed 2020 election. That election was widely seen as rigged, with opposition candidates jailed or forced to flee. Security forces violently suppressed the subsequent mass protests. Paris-based RSF cited in its complaint the imprisoning and persecution of journalists and displacement of media workers as examples of crimes against humanity. “RSF calls on the ICC Prosecutor to include these crimes against journalists in its preliminary investigation,” Antoine Bernard, RSF’s director of advocacy and assistance, said in a statement. Since the crackdown on independent media began, Belarus has ranked among the worst jailers of journalists in the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Belarusian media experts say the dire environment has made it harder to access credible information. “The Belarusian information space is tightly controlled by the government,” Natalia Belikova, the head of international cooperation at Press Club Belarus, told VOA from Warsaw. Repression against journalists and activists has been increasing in the lead up to the election, she said. Press Club Belarus counts more than 40 journalists currently jailed in the country. The European Parliament and exiled Belarusian leader Svetlana Tikhanovskayahave condemned the upcoming election in Belarus as a sham. Since 2020, the Belarusian government has pressured independent media through raids on news outlets, blocking websites and designating media organizations as “extremist.” The harsh environment forced some reporters to quit their jobs. Meanwhile, hundreds of other journalists fled into exile, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists. “For five years, the Belarusian regime has systematically persecuted independent voices, starting with journalists,” Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement. Belikova said she thinks the complaint to the ICC is significant. “On the level of raising the profile of repression in Belarus, especially against journalists and free press, I think this is a very important move,” she said. But Belikova added that she wasn’t sure whether the complaint will improve the crisis facing Belarusian journalists. The office of the ICC prosecutor said it does not comment on complaints … “Ahead of election, media group accuses Belarus of crimes against humanity” →

LONDON — A London judge on Friday rejected a U.S. mother’s challenge to be extradited to Colorado to face murder charges in the deaths of two of her young children. Judge John Zani said in Westminster Magistrates Court that it would now be up to the British Home Secretary to order Kimberlee Singler returned to the United States. Singler, 36, is accused of two counts of first-degree murder in the December 2023 shooting and stabbings of her 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son, and one count of attempted murder in the knife slashing of her 11-year-old daughter. She also faces three counts of child abuse and one count of assault. Singler’s attorney had argued that sending her back to the U.S. would violate European human rights law, in part, because she faces a sentence of life in prison without parole in Colorado if convicted of first-degree murder. Such a sentence would be inhumane because it offers no prospect for release even if she is rehabilitated, attorney Edward Fitzgerald said. Fitzgerald said that despite an option for a Colorado governor to commute her sentence at some point, it was “political suicide” to do so. Experts for the defense had originally said that a life sentence had never been commuted in Colorado. But prosecutors later found that Governor John Hickenlooper in 2018 commuted life sentences of five men convicted of murder. The defense countered that three of those sentences were not life without parole and two were for men who committed their crime between the ages of 18 and 21, which is sometimes considered a mitigating factor at sentencing because of their relative youth. “This defendant, Kimberlee Singler, has no real prospect of release no matter what progress she makes” behind bars, Fitzgerald said. Prosecutor Joel Smith said the judge only had to consider if there is a mechanism that could allow Singler to be freed someday. “Prospect of release — that is not your concern,” Smith told the judge at a hearing in December. Zani said in his ruling that there was an option in Colorado to release an inmate serving a life sentence. “I am satisfied that the defendant has failed to vault the hurdle necessary in order to succeed in the challenges raised,” the judge said. Fitzgerald said he planned to appeal. Singler has denied that she harmed her children. She told police that her ex-husband had either carried out the … “London court says US mom can be extradited in children’s killings” →

Near Auschwitz’s walls, the former home of the concentration camp’s commandant, Rudolf Hoss, stands as a symbol of denial and complicity, its windows overlooking the site of some of the Holocaust’s worst atrocities. As the world marks the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation (Jan. 27), plans are under way to transform the house into a research center on hate, extremism, and radicalization. VOA’s Eastern Europe bureau chief, Myroslava Gongadze, visited the house and has the story. Camera: Daniil Batushchak …

Officials in Ukraine say Russia launched a barrage of drones in an overnight attack Friday killing at least two civilians, wounding several others and damaging commercial and residential buildings. The interior ministry said two victims were killed by drone debris in the central Kyiv region. It said a multistory residential building and commercial buildings were among the infrastructure that sustained damage during the attack. Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses intercepted and destroyed some 120 drones over a dozen regions, including Moscow, overnight Friday, launched by Ukraine. No casualties were reported. U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he would talk soon with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to push the Russian leader to end his nearly three-year war on neighboring Ukraine. “Millions of young lives are being wasted. That war is horrible,” Trump, via video link from Washington, told global business leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He said that “Ukraine is ready to make a deal,” although no peace negotiations have been announced. “This is a war that never should’ve started.” Trump, three days into his second term in the White House, said he would ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to cut global oil prices, now about $77 a barrel, to curb Russia’s oil revenues, which it uses to fund the war. “If the price comes down,” Trump said, “the war in Ukraine will end immediately.” “It’s so important to get that done,” he said. “It’s time to end it.” Trump’s new remarks on the war came a day after he described the conflict as a “ridiculous war” and told Putin in a social media message that if he didn’t move to end it, the U.S. would impose new tariffs, taxes and sanctions on Russian exports to the West. But the Kremlin was unmoved by Trump’s threat, saying Thursday it did not see any particularly new elements in U.S. policy toward Russia. “He likes these methods, at least he liked them during his first presidency,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov said Russia remains ready for “mutually respectful dialogue” with the United States as Trump starts a four-year term in the White House. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. …