BLOGONITY

NATO’s newest rapid-response force is testing its strength in Romania, just kilometers from the Ukrainian border. VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze has more on the drills and NATO’s evolving defense strategy. Camera: Daniil Batushchak …

PARIS — French police said at least three people were killed when a tropical storm packing fierce winds and torrential rains thumped the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion on Friday.  Residents were ordered to stay at home as Tropical Cyclone Garance brought heavy rain and winds exceeding 200 kilometers per hour (124 mph), causing floods, power cuts and damage to buildings.  France’s national police force confirmed three fatalities but said it had no details about the circumstances.  Authorities said 847 people sought refuge in emergency shelters and 54 were evacuated due to the risk of flooding or landslides.  About 182,000 people were without power and 171,000 lost access to drinking water, the authorities said.  Officials said strong winds ripped off roofs, doors, and windows of many buildings. Tarpaulins were being sent to the hardest-hit areas to provide shelter in the eastern part of the island.  Authorities lifted the purple cyclone warning, the highest level, Friday morning, allowing rescue services to begin operations. However, the island remained under a red warning, with residents requested to stay indoors as heavy rain and strong winds were expected to persist throughout the day.  National weather agency Meteo France said winds reaching 214 kilometers per hour (133 mph) were recorded at the island’s main airport.  Reunion island is located about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) to the southeast of the French territory of Mayotte, an island group off Africa, which was hit in December by the worst cyclone in nearly a century, with widespread devastation left in its wake.  Local authorities have confirmed 40 deaths from Cyclone Chido’s landfall and 41 people missing or believed to have been buried, but fear more may be dead. …

WASHINGTON — The issue of Ukraine’s next presidential election has emerged as a possible element in the peace deal between Russia and Ukraine that the United States is negotiating. Ukrainian leaders and elections experts argue, however, that holding elections anytime soon would endanger lives and Ukraine’s sovereignty. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was elected in April 2019, and the next presidential election was scheduled for March or April 2024. However, martial law has been in effect since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, and Ukrainian law prohibits presidential elections when martial law is in effect. U.S. President Donald Trump has lambasted Zelenskyy for not holding a presidential election. In a Feb. 19 post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said of Zelenskyy, “He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’ A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.” Some members of the U.S. Congress and conservative commentators echoed Trump’s demand that Ukraine hold elections to prove its democratic credentials. “Zelenskyy should hold elections. They are basically under martial law. That’s not good when you claim to be defending democracy. They need to practice it,” Republican Senator Josh Hawley told VOA. Republican Representative Victoria Spartz told VOA that Ukraine should hold “transparent elections, and that not doing so allows Russia to say, ‘You have an illegitimate president signing these contracts and deals.’” Russia has questioned the legitimacy of Ukraine’s president and government since 2014, well before Zelenskyy was elected to office. During his televised question-and-answer event on Dec. 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested he couldn’t negotiate with Zelenskyy until his legitimacy is confirmed through elections. “If someone goes to the elections, gains legitimacy there, we will talk with anyone, including Zelenskyy,” he said. Zelenskyy said during a Feb. 23 press conference that he would step down as president if it meant “peace for Ukraine” but pushed back on the calls for holding elections. “How can we call an election in which half of the country’s population won’t be able to vote?” he said. “How can we vote when today, [Ukraine was] attacked with 267 drones?” His major political rivals, former President Petro Poroshenko, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, have also rejected the call for holding elections. According to a … “Perspectives, challenges of Ukraine’s next election” →

ATHENS — Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in cities and towns across Greece on Friday to demand justice on the second anniversary of the country’s deadliest-ever train crash, and striking workers grounded flights and halted sea and train transport. Fifty-seven people were killed when a passenger train filled with students collided with a freight train on February 28, 2023, near the Tempi gorge in central Greece. Two years later, the safety gaps that caused the crash have not been filled, an inquiry found on Thursday. A separate judicial investigation remains unfinished, and no one has been convicted in the accident. Mass demonstrations were planned in dozens of cities across the country. All international and domestic flights were grounded as air traffic controllers joined seafarers, train drivers, doctors, lawyers and teachers in a 24-hour general strike to pay tribute to the victims of the crash. Businesses were shut and theatres cancelled performances. By early morning, tens of thousands had gathered in Syntagma Square in the center of Athens, watched by police in riot gear. A sign read: “Government of murderers.” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ center-right government, which won re-election after the crash in 2023, has faced repeated criticism by relatives of the victims for failing to initiate a parliamentary inquiry into political responsibility. The government denies wrongdoing and says it is up to the judiciary to investigate the accident. Friday’s protests reflected mounting anger over the disaster in Greece, where mistrust of government is common following a 2009-2018 debt crisis in which millions lost out on wages and pensions, and public services suffered from underfunding. “The government hasn’t done anything to get justice,” said Christos Main, 57, a musician at the Athens rally. “This wasn’t an accident, it was murder,” he said. Another protester, who gave her name as Evi, said she was there to mourn the dead, “but also because the government has tried to cover things up.” The names of those killed were spray-painted in red on the ground in front of the parliament building. In the suburbs of Athens, groups of all ages made their way downtown with placards reading “I have no oxygen,” a slogan of the protests echoing a woman’s last words in a call to emergency services. Many pupils went to class dressed in black, a symbol of mourning. Others held up black balloons. Major issue for Greeks In a Facebook post on Friday, Mitsotakis … “Hundreds of thousands protest across Greece over deadly train crash” →

Moscow’s Sheremetevo Airport resumed flight arrivals and departures early on Friday after a temporary suspension of operations, Russia’s aviation authority said. “Restrictions on the arrival and departure of aircraft were lifted at Sheremetevo Airport at 03:45 Moscow time (0045 GMT),” the aviation authority said on its Telegram app. The authority said the restrictions were introduced to ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights. During the period of restrictions, one aircraft flying to Sheremetevo landed at the alternate airfield in Pulkovo, the authority said on Telegram. TASS news agency earlier reported that the airport had briefly suspended operations at 2:41 Moscow time. …

MOSCOW — Soviet chess grandmaster Boris Spassky, who was famously defeated at the height of the Cold War, has died at 88, the Russian Chess Federation announced Thursday. “The tenth world champion Boris Spassky has died at 88,” the Russian Chess Federation said in a statement on its website, calling this a “great loss for the country.” The statement did not say when exactly he died or from what cause. Spassky is best remembered for his duel with American Bobby Fischer in 1972, which was emblematic of the confrontation between East and West. The iconic Cold War duel has been the subject of numerous books, documentaries and films. Most notably it inspired the Walter Tevis novel The Queen’s Gambit, which was adapted into the acclaimed Netflix series in 2020. Spassky became world champion in 1969 and held the title until he played the match that would define his career, facing the eccentric American prodigy. With the Soviet Union having dominated the game for years, Spassky faced a must-win situation and initially took the lead. But the American roared back to win, ending an unbroken streak of Soviet world champions since 1948. Although the loss was a slap in the face for Moscow, Spassky admitted decades later it was a relief to be rid of a “colossal responsibility.” Born in 1937 in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, Spassky showed prodigious talent early, becoming junior world champion and the youngest grandmaster in history at the time at 18.  …

Kurdish political parties in the Kurdistan Region have largely welcomed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan’s call for disarmament and a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish issue in Turkey. In his message, Ocalan urged the PKK to lay down arms and shift to a political struggle, an appeal that many see as a potential turning point in Kurdish-Turkish relations. Click here for the full story in Kurdish. …

ROME — Nations cheered a last gasp deal reached Thursday to map out funding to protect nature, breaking a deadlock at United Nations talks seen as a test for international cooperation in the face of geopolitical tensions.  Rich and developing countries worked out a delicate compromise on raising and delivering the billions of dollars needed to protect species, overcoming stark divisions that had scuttled their previous meeting in Cali, Colombia, last year.  Delegates stood and clapped in an emotionally charged final meeting that saw key decisions adopted in the final minutes of the last day of rebooted negotiations at the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome.   COP16 President Susana Muhamad of Colombia hailed the fact that countries worked together for a breakthrough, enabling progress “in this very fragmented and conflicted world,” she said.  “This is something very beautiful because it’s around protecting life that we have come together, and there cannot be anything higher than that,” she said. The decision comes more than two years after a landmark deal to halt the destruction of nature this decade and protect the ecosystems and wildlife that humans rely on for food, climate regulation, and economic prosperity.  One million species are threatened with extinction, while unsustainable farming and consumption destroy forests, deplete soils and spread plastic pollution to even the most remote areas of the planet.  The agreement on Thursday is seen as crucial to giving impetus to the 2022 deal, which saw countries agree to protect 30% of the world’s land and seas.   Talks were also seen as a bellwether for international cooperation.   The meeting comes as countries face a range of challenges, from trade disputes and debt worries to the slashing of overseas aid.  Washington, which has not signed up to the U.N.’s Convention on Biological Diversity, sent no representatives to the meeting.  “Our efforts show that multilateralism can present hope at a time of geopolitical uncertainty,” said Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s minister of environment and climate change.   Ousseynou Kasse of Senegal, speaking on behalf of the Africa Group, also threw support behind global cooperation.   “We believe that this is the way that can save the world, and we must continue down this path,” he said.   Countries must be “accountable to our children, to the generations to come,” he added.  The failure to finalize an agreement in Cali was the first in a string of … “At UN talks, nations agree to invest in plan to protect nature” →

U.S. President Donald Trump hosted British Prime Minister Keir Starmer Thursday at the White House, where the two laid out their visions for the end of Ukraine’s brutal three-year war. The allies also sparred over trade and tariffs, and Trump revived his first-term push for NATO allies to contribute more to their own security and rely less on American support. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington. Kim Lewis contributed. …

white house — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he and President Donald Trump discussed achieving an agreement to end the war between Ukraine and Russia that would involve Kyiv and be backed by European peacekeeping forces. Following meetings Thursday at the White House, Starmer said the plan would “reach a peace that is tough and fair, that Ukraine will help shape, that’s backed by strength to stop [Russian President Vladimir] Putin coming back for more.” Any agreement cannot lead to a peace “that rewards the aggressor,” Starmer underscored, mirroring remarks that French President Emmanuel Macron delivered at his White House meeting with Trump on Monday that “the aggressor is Russia.” “We agreed history must be on the side of the peacemaker, not the invader,” Starmer said, speaking alongside Trump during their joint news conference. Starmer vowed to work closely with other European leaders and said the United Kingdom was ready to deploy peacekeeping troops together with its allies, “because that is the only way that peace will last.” Trump, however, was noncommittal on providing any security guarantees, including on a proposed U.S. “backstop” to support European peacekeepers to enforce a potential truce — a condition Starmer required. “I don’t like to talk about peacekeeping until we have a deal,” Trump said during the news conference. “I like to get things done. I don’t want to give it the bad luck sign.” Trump signaled that the U.S. backstop could be given in the form of the deal he is trying to secure with Kyiv that would allow American access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and recoup funds given by former President Joe Biden’s administration to support the country’s war efforts. “It’s a backstop, you could say. I don’t think anybody’s going to play around if we’re there with a lot of workers,” the president told reporters at the Oval Office earlier Thursday. During the news conference, Trump defended his decision to directly negotiate with Russia without the involvement of Kyiv or European allies as “common sense,” saying, “If you want peace, you have to talk to both sides.” Trump said that talks with Moscow were “very well advanced” but cautioned that there was only a narrow window to secure a deal. He expressed confidence that Putin would “keep his word” and not launch further aggression on Ukraine should a peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv be reached. “I’ve known him for … “British PM Starmer seeks to project unity with Trump despite differences on Ukraine “ →

Pope Francis is continuing to improve from a bout of double pneumonia, the Vatican said Thursday evening. The 88-year-old pontiff had progressed from using a nasal tube for supplemental oxygen to alternating the tube with a mask that allowed for a more comfortable flow, according to a detailed update. Doctors on Thursday still said Francis’ “prognosis remains guarded,” suggesting that they did not think he was out of danger. Francis spent Thursday morning in respiratory therapy. Later, he prayed in the chapel of his private suite in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where he also received the Eucharist. After that, the pope attended to Vatican work responsibilities. Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, was admitted to Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 with a case of bronchitis that soon worsened to double pneumonia. This hospital stay is his longest during his time as pope. He is prone to lung infections, having had part of a lung removed when he was a young man. It is not yet clear how his illness will affect his participation in the Lenten season, which begins on March 5 on Ash Wednesday and leads up to Holy Week and then Easter, on which according to Christian tradition Jesus was resurrected in Jerusalem. Some of the faithful who have journeyed to Rome to see the Vatican and possibly the pope have altered their plans and are now saying prayers for Francis outside Gemelli Hospital for his full recovery. Lili Iparea Fernandez, from La Cruz, Mexico, traveled to Rome with other pilgrims from Mexico, hoping to participate in Francis’ general audience this week. When that was canceled, she decided to pray for him outside the hospital instead. “We firmly believe that the pope will recover because he is a very strong man,” she said Thursday. “So I invite everyone to believe firmly, with certainty, with confidence, with hope that the pope is going to be well.” The pope’s illness has prompted Catholics to gather in Vatican City, his native Argentina and other areas of the world to hold prayer vigils. Francis has been pope since 2013 when his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, resigned. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. …

Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, on Thursday called for the group’s disarmament and disbandment. VOA Kurdish spoke to locals in Diyarbakir, Turkey’s largest Kurdish-majority city. While many residents supported Ocalan’s message of peace, others wondered whether his call would be met by real steps by the Turkish government to address the Kurdish question. Click here for the full story in Kurdish. …

Following the Freedom House report where Russia occupies the record low 183rd place in global ratings of political and civil freedoms, VOA Russian spoke to human rights activists who painted a grim picture of Russia rapidly descending into the abyss with the war in Ukraine exacerbating the lack of democratic freedoms that existed before.  Click here for the full story in Russian. …

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korea’s spy agency said Thursday that North Korea appears to have sent additional troops to Russia after its soldiers deployed on the Russian-Ukraine fronts suffered heavy casualties. The National Intelligence Service said in a brief statement it was trying to determine how many more troops North Korea has deployed to Russia. The NIS also assessed that North Korean troops were redeployed at fronts in Russia’s Kursk region in the first week of February, following a reported temporary withdrawal from the area. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an address on Feb. 7, confirmed a new Ukrainian offensive in Kursk and said North Korean troops were fighting alongside Russian forces there. North Korea has been supplying a vast number of conventional weapons to Russia, and last fall it sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia, according to U.S., South Korean and Ukraine intelligence officials. North Korean soldiers are highly disciplined and well trained, but observers say they’ve become easy targets for drone and artillery attacks on Russian-Ukraine battlefields because of their lack of combat experience and unfamiliarity with the terrain. In January, the NIS said about 300 North Korean soldiers had died and 2,700 had been injured. Zelenskyy earlier put the number of killed or wounded North Koreans at 4,000, although U.S. estimates were lower at around 1,200. Earlier Thursday, South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, citing unidentified sources, reported that an additional 1,000 to 3,000 North Korean soldiers were deployed to Kursk between January and February. South Korea, the United States and their partners worry that Russia could reward North Korea by transferring high-tech weapons technologies that can sharply enhance its nuclear weapons program. North Korea is expected to receive economic and other assistance from Russia, as well. During talks in Saudi Arabia last week, Russia and the U.S. agreed to start working toward ending the war and improving their diplomatic and economic ties. Ukrainian officials weren’t present at the talks. That marked an extraordinary shift in U.S. foreign policy under President Donald Trump and a clear departure from U.S.-led efforts to isolate Russia over its war in Ukraine. …

JOHANNESBURG — The Group of 20 major economies has been instrumental in coordinating the response to crises like the COVID pandemic. But top officials from the U.S. and several other member states skipped the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in South Africa this week, raising questions about the group’s continued relevance in a splintered global environment. The two-day meeting in Cape Town ended without a communique, with current G20 leader South Africa saying there was not sufficient consensus to issue one. In his opening remarks at the event, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa referred to the fractured geopolitical climate and stressed the importance of international cooperation. “At this time of global uncertainty and escalating tension, it is now more important than ever that the members of the G20 should work together,” Ramaphosa said. “The erosion of multilateralism presents a threat to global growth and stability.” He said the G20 finance ministers meeting had to address major issues like climate change financing, ensuring debt sustainability for developing countries, and Africa’s need to process its own critical minerals for inclusive growth. But it appeared the world’s largest economies were not able to find common ground on a number of issues. South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana noted this wasn’t the first time. “The issue of the communique and the absence of it is not something new,” Godongwana said. “To my knowledge, I mean, since the Russia-Ukraine war, it has been difficult to find a joint communique. Now, new differences have emerged on a number of other topics.” Climate adaptation funding was one of the areas where there was a “difference of opinion,” he said. The finance ministers meeting was beset with similar problems faced by last week’s G20 foreign ministers meeting in Johannesburg, which laid bare the discord in current geopolitics. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent skipped the event amid a spat with host country South Africa, and after the U.S. criticized the themes around climate change and “solidarity, equality and sustainability.” The finance chiefs of other large economies, including Japan, India and China also sat it out. However, all of them, including the U.S., sent representation at various levels. Still, the absence of some top officials underscores global divisions sparked by Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the “America First” administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, said Professor Alex van den Heever of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. “I think that this has … “Global splinters evident at G20 finance ministers meeting” →

Anticipation is growing in Russia for a summit – yet to be scheduled – between U.S. President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. On the streets of Moscow, many Russians welcome what they see as a thaw in relations with Washington, and what some hope is the beginning of the end of their country’s isolation from the West. Jonathan Spier narrates this report. …