KYIV, Ukraine — Days after Ukraine began a surprise military incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy broke the government’s silence on it late Saturday by indirectly acknowledging ongoing military actions to “push the war out into the aggressor’s territory” in his nightly address.

Overnight into Sunday, a Russian drone and missile barrage on Kyiv killed two people including a 4-year-old boy, while in Russia, Kursk’s regional governor said 13 people were wounded when a Ukrainian missile shot down by Russian air defenses fell on a residential building.

The bodies of a 35-year-old man and his son were found under rubble after fragments of missiles fell on a residential area in Kyiv’s suburban Brovary district, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service on Sunday. Another three people in the district were also injured in the attack.

Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration said it was the second time this month Kyiv was targeted.

Popko said ballistic missiles did not reach the capital but that suburbs took the hit, while drones aiming for the capital were shot down.

Ukraine’s incursion continued for a sixth day on Sunday and is unprecedented for its use of Ukrainian military units on Russian soil. The exact aims of the operation remain unclear and Ukrainian military officials have adopted a policy of secrecy, presumably to ensure its success.

In Russia, the Defense Ministry said 35 drones were shot down overnight over the Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk and Oryol regions.

Ukraine has not commented on the Sunday drone attacks inside Russia. But it comes as Ukraine has increased the pace of similar drone attacks largely targeting military infrastructure and oil depots in recent weeks.

But in Saturday’s evening address, Zelenskyy referred to army chief Oleksandr Syrsky’s briefings “on the front line and our actions and pushing the war into the aggressor’s territory.”

Thanking the soldiers involved, he added: “Ukraine is proving that it can really bring justice and guarantees exactly the kind of pressure that is needed — pressure on the aggressor.”

Russia’s army on Saturday confirmed it was still fighting the Ukrainian incursion for a fifth day.

It said Kyiv’s forces had initially crossed the border with around 1,000 troops, 20 armored vehicles and 11 tanks, though it claimed on Saturday to have destroyed five times that much military hardware so far.

‘Unprecedented’

Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee said late Friday it was starting counterterror operations in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions to protect citizens.

The Belgorod and Bryansk regions bordering Ukraine have also been hit hard by shelling and aerial attacks since Russia launched its offensive in February 2022.

Security forces and the military have sweeping emergency powers during counterterror operations.

Movement is restricted, vehicles can be seized, phone calls can be monitored, areas are declared no-go zones, checkpoints introduced, and security is beefed up at key infrastructure sites.

On the streets of Moscow Saturday, AFP journalists found support for tough measures to quell the response, but also some anger at how the incursion had been allowed to happen.

“We have to take all the steps that are possible in such a situation,” said Alexander Ilyin, a 42-year-old architect.

The anti-terrorism committee said Ukraine had mounted an “unprecedented attempt to destabilize the situation in a number of regions of our country.”

Russia on Friday appeared to hit back, launching a missile strike on a supermarket in the east Ukrainian town of Kostyantynivka that killed at least 14 people.

Another three were killed in the northeastern Kharkiv region on Saturday, local officials said.

Ukraine also said it had to evacuate 20,000 people from the Sumy region, just across the border from Kursk.

While neither side has provided precise details on Ukraine’s incursion, Russia’s defense ministry on Saturday said it had hit some Ukrainian positions as far as 10 kilometers inside Russia.

It also reported hitting Ukrainian troops in areas 30 kilometers apart, an indication as to the breadth, as well as depth of Ukraine’s advance.

Belarus, Russia’s close ally, on Saturday ordered military reinforcements — ground troops, air units, air defense and rocket systems — to be deployed closer to its border with Ukraine in response to Kyiv’s incursion, its defense ministry said.

‘Particularly effective’

Russia’s nuclear agency on Saturday warned of the threat to the nearby Kursk nuclear power station, less than 50 kilometers from the fighting.

“The actions of the Ukrainian army pose a direct threat” to the Kursk plant in western Russia, state news agencies cited its atomic energy agency Rosatom as saying.

On Friday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, expressing similar concerns, had called for “maximum restraint.”

Zelenskyy’s comments Saturday notwithstanding, Ukraine’s leaders have remained tight-lipped on the operation.

The United States, Kyiv’s closest ally, said it had not been informed of the plans in advance.

Elsewhere on the front line, Ukraine on Saturday reported the lowest number of “combat engagements” on its territory since June 10.

That could be a sign its incursion is helping to relieve pressure on other parts of the sprawling front line where Moscow’s troops had been advancing. 
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London — Thousands of anti-racism demonstrators rallied Saturday across the United Kingdom to protest recent rioting blamed on the far right in the wake of the Southport knife attack that killed three children.

Crowds massed in London, Glasgow, Belfast, Manchester and numerous other towns and cities as fears of violent confrontations with anti-immigration agitators failed to materialize.

It followed a similar situation that unfolded Wednesday night, when anticipated far-right rallies up and down the country were instead replaced by gatherings organized by the Stand Up To Racism advocacy group.

More than a dozen places across England as well as Belfast had been hit by unrest prior to that, following the July 29 stabbing spree, which was wrongly linked on social media to a Muslim immigrant.

Rioters targeted mosques and hotels linked to immigration, as well as police, vehicles and other sites.

However, recent nights have been largely peaceful in English towns and cities, prompting hope among authorities that the more than 700 arrests and numerous people already being jailed has deterred further violence.

However, in Northern Ireland, which has seen sustained disorder since last weekend, police said they were investigating a suspected racially motivated hate crime overnight.

A petrol bomb was thrown at a mosque in Newtownards, east of Belfast, in the early hours of Saturday, with graffiti sprayed on the front door and walls of the building, according to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, or PSNI.

It said the petrol bomb thrown at the property did not ignite.

Taken seriously

“This is being treated as a racially motivated hate crime, and I want to send a strong message to those who carried this out, that this type of activity will not be tolerated, and any reports of hate crime are taken very seriously,” PSNI Chief Inspector Keith Hutchinson said.

There were also overnight reports of damage to property and vehicles in Belfast, as nightly unrest there rumbled on.

The disturbances in Northern Ireland were sparked by events in England but have also been fueled by pro-U.K. loyalist paramilitaries with their own agenda, according to the PSNI.

Around 5,000 anti-racism demonstrators rallied in Belfast on Saturday without incident.

In London, hundreds massed outside the office of Brexit architect Nigel Farage’s Reform U.K. party before marching to Parliament, as a large police presence looked on.

Farage and other far-right figures have been blamed for helping to fuel the riots through anti-immigrant rhetoric and conspiracy theories.

“It’s really important for people of color in this country, for immigrants in this country, to see us out here as white British people saying, ‘No, we don’t stand for this,'” attendee Phoebe Sewell, 32, from London, told AFP.

Fellow Londoner Jeremy Snelling, 64, said he had turned out because “I don’t like the right-wing claiming the streets in my name.”

He did not hold Farage “personally responsible” for the violence but argued that the Reform party founder had “contributed” to the volatile environment.

“I think he is damaging, and I think he’s dangerous,” Snelling said.
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moscow — Moscow on Saturday launched a “counter-terror operation” in three border regions adjoining Ukraine to halt Kyiv’s biggest cross-border offensive in the two-and-a-half year conflict.

Ukrainian units stormed across the border into Russia’s western Kursk region on Tuesday morning in a shock attack and have advanced several kilometers, according to independent analysts.

Russia has deployed additional troops and equipment, including tanks, rocket launchers and aviation units to stop the advancing troops.

Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee said late Friday it was starting “counter-terror operations in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions … in order to ensure the safety of citizens and suppress the threat of terrorist acts being carried out by the enemy’s sabotage groups.”

Under Russian law, security forces and the military are given sweeping emergency powers during “counter-terror” operations.

Movement is restricted, vehicles can be seized, phone calls can be monitored, areas are declared no-go zones, checkpoints introduced, and security is beefed up at key infrastructure sites.

The anti-terrorism committee said Ukraine had mounted an “unprecedented attempt to destabilize the situation in a number of regions of our country.”

It called Ukraine’s incursion a “terrorist attack” and said Kyiv’s troops had wounded civilians and destroyed residential buildings.

Ukrainian leaders have remained tight-lipped on the operation, and the United States, Kyiv’s closest ally, said it was not informed of the plans in advance.

But President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appeared to tout his troops’ early successes, saying earlier this week that Russia must “feel” the consequences of the full-scale offensive it has waged against Ukraine since February 2022.

Russia’s defense ministry published footage on Saturday of tank crews firing on Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region, as well as an overnight air strike, after it said Friday it had deployed yet more units to the border region.

It also said it had downed 26 Ukrainian drones that tried to attack the region overnight.
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BANGKOK — In Bangladesh, weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs turned into a broad uprising that forced the prime minister to flee the country and resign.

The demonstrations began peacefully last month and were primarily led by students frustrated with the system that they said favored those with connections to the ruling party.

But it turned violent on July 15 as student protesters clashed with security officials and pro-government activists. Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled this week after the unrest during which nearly 300 people died, including both students and police officers.

Students or other young people have frequently played pivotal roles in popular uprisings that have brought down governments or forced them to change policies. Here are some other major cases:

Gota Go Gama protests in Sri Lanka

Like in Bangladesh, widespread protests in Sri Lanka in 2022 were able to bring down a government, and youth played a key role.

Scattered demonstrations turned into months-long protests starting in March 2022 as an economic crisis worsened in the Indian Ocean island nation, leading to a shortage of fuel, cooking gas and other essentials as well as an extended power outage.

In April, protesters primarily led by university students and other young people occupied an esplanade adjoining President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office in the capital Colombo, demanding he and his government resign.

More people joined daily, setting up a tent camp dubbed “Gota Go Gama,” or “Gota Go Village,” a play on Gotabaya’s nickname “Gota.”

The protest site was peaceful, with organizers offering free food, water, toilets and even medical care for people. Camp leaders, many of whom were university students, held daily media briefings and made regular speeches, while the crowd was entertained by bands and plays.

The government reacted by imposing a curfew, declaring a state of emergency, allowing the military to arrest civilians and restricting access to social media, but were unable to stop the protest.

Under pressure, many ministers resigned but President Rajapaksa and his older brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa remained.

In May, Rajapaksa supporters attacked the protest camp, drawing widespread condemnation from across the country and forcing Prime Minister Rajapaksa to resign.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa clung to power until July, when protesters stormed his official residence, forcing him to flee the country. After taking temporary refuge in the Maldives, Rajapaksa later resigned.

His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, in one of his first moves as new president ousted protesters from occupied government buildings and shut down their camp, dismantling their tents in the middle of the night.

The situation has since calmed, and Wickremesinghe has been able to address the shortages of food, fuel and medicine and restore power.

Complaints continue, however, about the rise in taxes and electric bills that are part of the new government’s efforts to meet International Monetary Fund loan conditions. Former Prime Minister Rajapaksa’s son Namal Rajapaksa will be running in the presidential elections this September.

Athens Polytechnic uprising in Greece

In November 1973, students at Athens Polytechnic university rose up against the military junta that ruled Greece with an iron fist for more than six years.

Military officers seized power in a 1967 coup, establishing a dictatorship marked by the arrest, exile and torture of its political opponents.

The regime’s brutality and hardline rule gave rise to a growing opposition, particularly among students, culminating in the November uprising.

The protest began peacefully on November 14, with students staging a strike at the Athens Polytechnic university and occupying the campus. By the next day, thousands from around Athens had joined in to support the students and the demonstrations grew, as did calls to end the dictatorship.

On November 17, the military crushed the revolt when a tank smashed through the university’s gates in the early hours of the day, killing several students. The number of fatalities is still disputed, but at the time the regime had announced 15 dead.

Days after the uprising, another military officer staged a coup and implemented an even harsher regime. It was short lived however, after a series of events led to a return to democracy in Greece, its birthplace, in 1974.

A prosecutor’s report issued after the return to civilian government, estimated fatalities at 34, but mentioned only 18 names. There were more than 1,100 injured.

Today, annual marches in Athens to commemorate the pro-democracy student uprising still attract thousands of people.

Kent State demonstrations in the United States

American students had long been protesting the U.S. involvement in Vietnam when President Richard Nixon authorized attacks on neutral Cambodia in April 1970, expanding the conflict in an attempt to interrupt enemy supply lines.

On May 4, hundreds of students at Ohio’s Kent State University gathered to protest the bombing of Cambodia, and authorities called in the Ohio National Guard to disperse the crowd.

After failing to break up the protest with teargas, the National Guard advanced and some opened fire on the crowd, killing four students and wounding nine others.

The confrontation, sometimes referred to as the May 4 massacre, was a defining moment for a nation sharply divided over the protracted conflict, in which more than 58,000 Americans died.

It sparked a strike of 4 million students across the U.S., temporarily closing some 900 colleges and universities. The events also played a pivotal role, historians argue, in turning public opinion against the conflict in Southeast Asia.

Soweto Uprising in South Africa

In the decades-long struggle against white minority rule in South Africa, a pivotal moment came in 1976 in the Soweto area of Johannesburg.

In a series of demonstrations starting June 16, Black students from multiple schools took to the streets to protest against being forced to study in Afrikaans, the Dutch-based language of the white rulers who designed the system of racial oppression known as apartheid.

The protests spread to other areas in South Africa, becoming a flashpoint for anger at a system that denied adequate education, the right to vote and other basic rights to the country’s Black majority.

Hundreds are estimated to have died in the government crackdown that followed.

The bloodshed was epitomized by a photograph of a dying student, Hector Pieterson. The image of his limp body being carried by another teenager was seen around the world and galvanized international efforts to end South Africa’s racial segregation, though apartheid would linger for nearly two more decades.

South Africa achieved democracy with majority rule elections in 1994 and today June 16 is a national holiday.

Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia

As the Communist governments of Eastern Europe teetered in 1989, widespread demonstrations broke out in Czechoslovakia after riot police suppressed a student protest in Prague on November 17.

On November 20 as the anti-Communist protests grew, the students being joined by scores of others and some 500,000 took to the streets of Prague.

Dubbed the “Velvet Revolution” for its non-violent nature, the protests led to the resignation of the Communist Party’s leadership on November 28.

By December 10, Czechoslovakia had a new government and on December 29, Vaclav Havel, a dissident playwright who had spent several years in prison, was elected the country’s first democratic president in a half century by a parliament still dominated by communist hard-liners.

In 1992, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
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washington — China said Friday that it had filed an appeal with the World Trade Organization regarding hefty European Union tariffs placed on the import of Chinese electric vehicles.

The EU in July imposed tariffs of up to 37.6% on vehicles made in China after it found that the automakers had received large government subsidies that undermined European competitors. China, however, said Friday that any support it provides to its domestic EV market is given in accordance with WTO rules.

In a statement, China’s Commerce Ministry said that it had appealed the tariffs “to safeguard the development rights and interests of the electric vehicle industry and cooperation over the global green transformation.”

“The EU’s preliminary ruling lacks a factual and legal basis, seriously violates WTO rules and undermines the overall situation of global cooperation in addressing climate change,” the statement said.

“We urge the EU to immediately correct its wrong practices and jointly maintain the stability of China-EU economic and trade cooperation as well as EV industrial and supply chains.”

The European Commission said it would respond to China’s complaint through the proper channels.

“The EU is carefully studying all the details of this request and will react to the Chinese authorities in due course according to the WTO procedures,” a European Commission spokesperson told AFP.

WTO spokesperson Ismaila Dieng said in a statement that the organization had received the Chinese request, and that “further information will be made available once the request has been circulated to WTO members.”

Duties would take effect by November for five years, pending a vote by the EU member states.

‘Made in China 2025’

China’s dominance in the EV market stems from its 2015 industrial policy dubbed “Made in China 2025” that sought to make the nation a dominant force in global high-tech manufacturing, including the manufacture of EVs.

Chinese EV sales accounted for 8.1 million of the 13.7 million total cars sold worldwide in 2023, according to a report from the International Energy Agency. According to the Atlantic Council, the EU is the largest recipient of Chinese EV exports, accounting for nearly 40% in 2023.

In the years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU had committed to the development of its green economy, highlighting the promotion of a European EV industry as a cornerstone in that effort.

In May, French automakers entered a government agreement that aims to drive EV sales up to 800,000 a year by 2027. This announcement preceded Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Europe the same month, during which he made stops in France, Serbia and Hungary with the aim of increasing his country’s ties on the continent.

Trade was a large focus of Xi’s meetings in France with President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen. With tensions unresolved, the EU subsequently issued the tariff increase two months after Xi’s departure.

The United States has taken similar moves to combat the strength of China’s EV industry, announcing in May that it would apply a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs. Canada may follow suit.

China has responded to Europe’s increased tariffs by launching its own investigations into French cognac exports and European pork, stoking fears of a future trade war with the EU.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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The U.S. presidential campaign is being closely followed in Ukraine as its outcome could significantly impact regional security, U.S. foreign policy, NATO support, aid to Ukraine, and relations with Russia. VOA Eastern Europe Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports. Camera: Daniil Batushchak, Vladyslav Smilianets
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By the beginning of 2024, the war in Ukraine had inflicted over $150 billion of damage on Ukraine’s infrastructure, according to the Kyiv School of Economics. But some scholars in the U.S., alongside Ukrainian anti-corruption activists, are already looking ahead to the end of the war and the opportunity to rebuild. Princeton University recently created a legal database to help. Iuliia Iarmolenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Oleksii Osyka
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BARCELONA — Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont was on his way back to Belgium on Friday, having appeared at a rally in central Barcelona despite an outstanding warrant for his arrest in Spain, his party’s general secretary said on Friday.

Jordi Turull told RAC1 radio that he did not know whether Puigdemont had already reached his home in Waterloo, where he has lived for seven years in self-imposed exile since leading a failed bid for Catalonia’s secession in 2017.

He is wanted in Spain on suspicion of embezzlement related to a 2017 independence referendum, ruled illegal by the Spanish courts. Puigdemont says the vote was legal and therefore the charges linked to it have no basis.

“He did not come to be arrested in Spain but to exercise his political rights.”

Turull said Puigdemont had initially planned to attend an investiture vote in the regional parliament to elect a new leader of Catalonia.

Instead of walking from the rally to parliament, Puigdemont got into a car because of security concerns, and then decided at short notice to leave because he believed he would not be allowed to enter the parliament area, Turull said.

He added that Puigdemont had not wanted to provide an opportunity for photographs of him being arrested.

Turull was imprisoned between 2018 and 2021 on charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement over the independence referendum, but was pardoned by the Spanish government.

He has served as general secretary of Puigdemont’s hardline separatist party Junts since June 2022.
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washington — Germany’s entry into the U.S.-led U.N. Command, which expanded the multinational body tasked with defending South Korea against North Korea, reflects growing fears in Europe and the U.S. that multiple wars that could break out simultaneously across the globe, said analysts.

North Korea this week denounced Germany’s membership in the U.N. Command (UNC), calling the expansion an attempt by the U.S. to create an Asian version of NATO, according to state-run KCNA.

The move will “inevitably aggravate the military and political situation on the Korean Peninsula and the rest of the region,” KCNA said Tuesday.

Pushing back against Pyongyang’s criticism, the German Federal Foreign Office told VOA Korean in a statement on Tuesday that by joining UNC, it is “sending a signal for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and strengthen[ing] our commitment in the Indo-Pacific.”

The statement continued, “Just as others are there for us, we are there for others when they need us.”

Germany joined UNC on August 2, becoming the 18th member of the body charged with maintaining the armistice on the Korean Peninsula during peacetime. In the event of war, the UNC would coordinate the movement of troops and weapons from its members to the Combined Forces Command of the U.S. and South Korea. 

Enhanced deterrence

Markus Garlauskas, who served as the U.S. national intelligence officer for North Korea from 2014 to 2020, said the UNC’s main role is to defend South Korea but that “expanding the number of countries contributing to UNC helps enhance deterrence … of the escalation of aggression in the entire region.”

This is particularly important because a conflict on the Korean Peninsula could escalate into a conflict with China, said Garlauskas, director of the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

The U.S. maintains several military bases and approximately 28,500 troops in South Korea.

But with wars raging in Ukraine and Gaza and the threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, analysts said the addition of new members to the UNC makes it easier for the United States to respond to crises elsewhere without having to send additional forces that may be needed to defend South Korea if the North attacks.

“The U.S. military is not large enough to fight multiple contingencies around the world” by itself, said David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy.

The U.S. Commission on the National Defense Strategy released a report in July saying the U.S. must prepare to deal with simultaneous conflicts coordinated by China and Russia and involving countries such as North Korea and Iran, amounting to a “global war.”

Bruce Bennett, senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, said, “The more forces that are available to potentially assist South Korea, the better it is for the U.S. if conflict occurs in both Taiwan and in Korea.”

By joining the UNC, “Germany is hoping South Korea will also become more supportive of the defense of Ukraine against Russian aggression” by sending ammunition and other weapons, Bennett said.

South Korea has withheld sending lethal weapons directly to Ukraine while providing nonlethal weapons.

Germany’s membership in UNC follows a NATO summit last month in Washington where the alliance agreed to cooperate closely on security with the Indo-Pacific countries of South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Germany’s participation in UNC demonstrates “a tangible step” toward that defense cooperation, Garlauskas said. He noted that Pyongyang’s and Beijing’s support of Russia’s war against Ukraine “directly threatens Germany security.”

Germany, along with other NATO member states, has been arming Ukraine so it can defend against Russia, which has been threatening NATO with nuclear strikes. The U.S. and its NATO allies have condemned China for supporting Russia’s defense industry and North Korea for sending munitions to aid its war in Ukraine.

James Przystup, senior fellow and Japan chair specializing in alliance management in the Indo-Pacific at the Hudson Institute, said Germany, the U.K., France, the Netherlands and the EU “have all released Indo-Pacific strategy that recognizes that stability in the region is critical to Europe’s own prosperity.”

Those countries have also expressed their commitment to supporting a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific, he said. “But this is far from the emergence of an Indo-Pacific NATO.”
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