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KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukraine’s foreign ministry said Saturday it was deeply concerned by reports about a possible impending transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia.

In a statement emailed to reporters, the ministry said the deepening military cooperation between Tehran and Moscow was a threat to Ukraine, Europe and the Middle East, and called on the international community to increase pressure on Iran and Russia.

CNN and The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, citing unidentified sources.

Reuters reported in August that Russia was expecting the imminent delivery of hundreds of Fath-360 close-range ballistic missiles from Iran and that dozens of Russian military personnel were being trained in Iran on the satellite-guided weapons for eventual use in the war in Ukraine.

On Friday, the United States, a key ally of Ukraine, also voiced concern about the potential transfer of missiles.

“Any transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia would represent a dramatic escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York said Friday that Tehran’s position on the Ukraine conflict was unchanged.

“Iran considers the provision of military assistance to the parties engaged in the conflict — which leads to increased human casualties, destruction of infrastructure, and a distancing from cease-fire negotiations — to be inhumane,” it said.

“Thus, not only does Iran abstain from engaging in such actions itself, but it also calls upon other countries to cease the supply of weapons to the sides involved in the conflict.”
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LONDON — The heads of the U.S. CIA and Britain’s spy service said in an op-ed on Saturday that “staying the course” in backing Ukraine’s fight against Russia was more important than ever and they vowed to further their cooperation there and on other challenges.

The op-ed in the Financial Times by CIA Director William Burns and Richard Moore, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, was the first ever jointly authored by heads of their agencies.

“The partnership lies at the beating heart of the special relationship between our countries,” they wrote, noting that their services marked 75 years of partnership two years ago.

The agencies “stand together in resisting an assertive Russia and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” they said.

“Staying the course (in Ukraine) is more vital than ever. Putin will not succeed in extinguishing Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence,” they said, adding their agencies would continue aiding Ukrainian intelligence.

Russian forces have been slowly advancing in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian troops have been occupying a large swath of Russia’s Kursk region and Kyiv has been pleading for more U.S. and Western air defenses.

The spy chiefs said their agencies would keep working to thwart a “reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe by Russian intelligence” and its “cynical use of technology” to spread disinformation “to drive wedges between us.”

Russia has denied pursuing sabotage and disinformation campaigns against the U.S. and other Western countries.

Burns and Moore noted that they had reorganized their agencies to adapt to the rise of China, which they called “the principle intelligence and geopolitical challenge of the 21st Century.”

The agencies, they said, also “have exploited our intelligence channels to push hard restraint and de-escalation” in the Middle East, and are working for a truce in Gaza that could end the “appalling loss of life of Palestinian civilians” and see Hamas release hostage it seized in its Oct. 7 assault on Israel.

Burns is the chief U.S. negotiator in talks to reach a deal.
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As Kyiv continues its offensive inside Russia and the Russian army nears a key hub in Ukraine’s Donbas region, leaders of more than 50 nations, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, met in Germany on Friday to help get Kyiv the support it seeks. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports.
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A Russian missile strike on the historic Ukrainian town of Lviv on September 4 killed at least seven people and damaged parts of the city’s historic downtown. On Thursday, rebuilding began, even as the city mourned the dead. Omelyan Oshchudlyak reports. Camera: Yuriy Dankevych.
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Ukraine has a new foreign minister, one of the latest moves as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy embarks on the largest overhaul of his administration since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports on the appointment of nine new ministers in the Cabinet shakeup. Videographer: Daniil Batushchak
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Moscow — The Kremlin on Friday accused the United States of applying unacceptable pressure on Russian media after the U.S. Justice Department charged Russian TV contributor Dimitri Simes and his wife with schemes to violate U.S. sanctions. 

The two indictments were announced just one day after the U.S. took several legal actions against Russia to combat alleged efforts to meddle in the 2024 presidential elections, including charging two employees of the Russian state media network RT and sanctioning RT and its top network editor. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who has said Russia is not seeking to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, told reporters that Washington was trying to ensure that Moscow’s own perspective on world affairs was not available to people. 

“Washington continues to try to put pressure on Russia, on Russian citizens, and even on the Russian media, which is engaged in informing both citizens inside our country and world public opinion about what is happening, from our perspective,” said Peskov. 

“Washington does not even accept that there should be options out there for anyone to get news from our perspective.  

This is nothing other than blatant pressure. We strongly condemn this stance as unacceptable,” he said. 

Moscow still grants accreditation to Western journalists to work in Russia, though many have left since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022 and the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on spying charges in March 2023. 

Gershkovich, who denied the charges, was freed in a prisoner swap last month. 

Russia has said it will take retaliatory measures against U.S. media in response to Washington’s moves against RT. 

Asked what those measures would be, Peskov said Russia carefully evaluated the editorial policies of various foreign media outlets and would take those factors into account when making any decisions, on what he suggested would be a case-by-case basis. 

 
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Paris — France’s far-right National Rally (RN) is exerting outsize power over President Emmanuel Macron and his new Prime Minister Michel Barnier, rivals said on Friday, a day after the veteran politician got the job with tacit support from the RN.

Macron named former 73-year-old Barnier, a conservative and a former Brexit negotiator, as prime minister on Thursday, capping a two-months-long search following his ill-fated decision to call a legislative election that delivered an unruly hung parliament.

France’s next prime minister faces the daunting task of trying to drive reforms and the 2025 budget through a hung parliament, as France is under pressure from the European Commission and bond markets to reduce its deficit.

The RN gave tentative support to Barnier’s nomination by saying it would not immediately try to vote it down, but made clear it could withdraw support at any point if its concerns on immigration, security and pocketbook issues were not met.

Marine Le Pen’s party had vetoed other possible prime ministers Macron had considered over the past weeks.

“Today, we have a prime minister who is completely dependent on the RN,” said Lucie Castets, the prime ministerial pick of the leftist alliance that came top in the July vote, but who was overlooked by Macron after it failed to secure an absolute majority.

“In so doing, the president has put himself in cohabitation with the RN,” she said, referring to the term used in France when the president governs with a prime minister from a rival party. The left is organizing protests across the country on Saturday.

After hoping to win the snap election following a strong showing in the first round, the RN came third when voters and other parties, especially to the left, rallied to keep it out of power in the run-off round.

But appointing Barnier after the RN signaled it would not block him is making the government’s dependent on the RN’s goodwill, said Sacha Houlie, an MP who used to belong to Macron’s camp.

“It’s now the far right that makes the kings or queens,” Socialist Party chief Olivier Faure said on France Inter radio.

Neither Barnier, who has started meetings with parties on the right and center to pull together a government, nor Macron have made any comment on this or responded to criticism from the opposition.

‘At Le Pen’s mercy’?

Similar criticism were also made by some abroad.

“Barnier must not become prime minister at Le Pen’s mercy,” said Anton Hofreiter, chair of the German parliament’s Committee on European Union Affairs and a member of the Greens.

“I don’t expect any progressive ideas from the new prime minister. I can only hope that Barnier will draw on his many years of European experience and strengthen common European policies.”

Much attention will now focus on who Barnier seeks to name to his cabinet. Some ministers from the outgoing government may continue but Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who did not seek re-election as an MP, was unlikely to be among them, two sources told Reuters, saying Le Maire wanted to move on.

“Barnier’s choice for the finance ministry will therefore be crucial to reassure Brussels and financial markets that France can emerge safely from a dangerously intertwined political and fiscal crisis over the next three months,” Eurasia analysts said.

Government sources said Macron would like Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne and Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu to stay on in the new Cabinet.

Meanwhile, RN lawmaker Laurent Jacobelli sought to play down the far right’s power over the new government.

“We are in the opposition, clearly … We are not giving anyone the green light,” he said on France 2. “We will not be the political force that leads France into the wall by systematically opposing everything and creating chaos.”

The RN, whose priority is the 2027 presidential election and consequently wants to be seen by voters as responsible, also seemed to consider it had no interest in prolonging the past weeks’ political uncertainty, Eurasia said.

That same line of thinking could also prompt them to hesitate before bringing Barnier’s government down.

Eurointelligence analysts, noting that Barnier, a moderate, career politician, considerably toughened his discourse on immigration during his failed 2021 bid to get his party’s ticket for the presidential election, said: “The left parties will have to digest their defeat, while the RN could extract more dividends.”
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KYIV, Ukraine — Russian attacks on Ukraine overnight caused fires and injured at least five people across the country, local authorities said on Friday.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 27 out of 44 Russia-launched drones with eight more “likely downed by the electronic warfare tools” overnight.

Russia also used two missiles in the attack, the air force said in the statement via the Telegram messaging app.

The governor of the northeastern region of Kharkiv said a missile attack damaged residential buildings and injured three people in the town of Liubotyn on Friday morning.

Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Serhiy Lysak said the air force shot down five drones and one missile over the region.

Various overnight attacks in this central region injured two people, damaged over 12 homes and impacted power lines and gas pipelines, he added.

Lviv regional authorities said drone debris fell in an industrial zone, setting fire to four trucks. A team of 32 firefighters had put out the fire by the morning and the governor reported no injuries during the attack.

Another fire caused by falling debris had been put out in the southern region of Mykolaiv where the air force shot down seven drones, its governor said.
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