Ukraine – TheNewsHub

Ukrainian tennis player refuses to shake Russian opponent’s hand after semifinal victory | CNN

Ashish Singh — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 23:21:39 +0000

CNN
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Ukrainian tennis player Anhelina Kalinina refused to shake hands with Veronika Kudermetova, her Russian opponent, following the former’s victory in the semifinals of the Rome Masters in Italy on Friday.

Speaking to reporters after the match at Foro Italico, Rome, Kalinina said, “We didn’t shake hands because the girl is from Russia basically. It’s no secret why I didn’t shake, because this country actually attacks Ukraine.

“So yeah, this is sport, I understand, but it’s also kind of political thing. So, yeah, it has nothing personal. But in general, yes, it’s not acceptable.”

Kudermetova was asked about her relationship with Kalinina and the influence of “political overtones”, and responded, “I mean, here we’re athletes. We’re here, and we love what we do here. Doesn’t matter from which country you are. We’re athletes and that’s it. We are here to play tennis.”

Kalinina denied the idea that her opponent’s nationality influenced the topsy-turvy nature of the match, describing Kudermetova as “a top player, a very great player. It was about tennis.”

Kalinina, who came into the tournament ranked No.47 in the world compared to Kudermetova at No.12, won in three sets 7-5 5-7 6-2.

The 26-year-old Ukrainian was asked about her family, who are currently living in Kyiv, and revealed a bomb exploded near the tennis academy where her parents work. She also said her grandparents eventually moved away from Nova Kakhovka, her hometown, after an explosion near their house.

In her on-court interview after the match, Kalinina said, “For me it’s also really important for me to win every match, because you know, what Ukraine goes through, I just want to say that I really hope I give a tiny small light and maybe some positive emotions for my country.”

Kalinina will face either Elena Rybakina in Saturday’s final. Rybakina was born in Russia but has represented Kazakhstan since 2018.

French Open crowd boos as Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk refuses to shake hands with Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka | CNN

Ashish Singh — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 19:06:55 +0000

CNN
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Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk refused to shake hands with Belarusian opponent Aryna Sabalenka following their opening round match at the French Open, leading to boos from some of the crowd.

After Sabalenka secured the 6-3 6-2 win, Kostyuk walked straight over to the umpire to shake her hand and then back to her seat, refusing to meet Sabalenka at the net for the customary handshake.

There were then boos from the crowd at Roland Garros and again as Kostyuk made her way off the court.

Kostyuk, who is from Kyiv, said at January’s Australian Open that she would not shake hands with any Russian or Belarusian opponent with war raging in her country.

Sabalenka fielded some difficult questions in her post-match press conference, including from one reporter who accused her of “twisting it as if Ukrainians hate you” and “avoiding” questions asking her to condemn the war, with Belarus being used as a key staging ground for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Sabalenka said in March that she struggled to understand the “hate” she encountered in the locker room amid strained relations between some players following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“First of all, when I get questions about Ukrainians, they [journalists] ask me: ‘So, you know that they hate you?’ So I’m answering the questions like: ‘If they hate me.’

“About the war situation, I said it many, many times, nobody in this world – Russian athletes, Belarusian athletes – supports the war. Nobody. How can we support the war? Normal people will never support it.

“Why do we have to go loud [public] and say things, that’s like saying ‘one plus one is two,’ you know, of course we don’t support war. And if you could affect the war in any way, if we could stop it, we would do it, but unfortunately it’s not in our hands.”

Sabalenka later added that she understands why Ukrainian players don’t shake her hand and said Kostyuk didn’t deserve to be booed by the crowd.

Russian and Belarusian players are currently still competing on the tours as neutral athletes without their flag or country displayed.

After winning the ATX Open in Texas in March, Kostyuk also refused to shake hands with beaten Russian opponent Varvara Gracheva.

North Korean troops ready for Ukraine combat, US says

Diksha — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 14:22:11 +0000

The United States said on Thursday that up to 8,000 North Korean troops had reached Russia’s border region with Ukraine ready for combat, after Pyongyang’s firing of a long-range missile ramped up tensions days before the US election.

Seeking advantage in his grinding invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has brought in troops from North Korea, the first time Russia has invited foreign forces on its soil in more than a century.

Citing US intelligence, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that some 8,000 of the 10,000 North Korean troops believed to be in Russia have made their way to the Kursk border region.

“We’ve not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces, but we would expect that to happen in the coming days,” Blinken told a news conference after four-way talks with the South Korean foreign and defence ministers.

Russia has been training North Korean troops in artillery, drones, basic artillery operations and trench clearing, “indicating that they fully intend to use these forces in frontline operations,” Blinken said.

Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said that North Korean troops were being supplied with Russian uniforms.

“Make no mistake, if these North Korean troops engage in combat or combat support operations against Ukraine, they would make themselves legitimate military targets,” Austin said. The United States was also preparing a new package of military support to Ukraine in light of the North Korean troops’ arrival, he added.

Ukraine outrage

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking to South Korean media, denounced “inaction by allies and said he was surprised by the `silence’ of China on North Korean troop deployment.

“I think that the reaction to this is nothing; it has been zero,” Zelensky said.

South Korea has said it is reviewing whether to send weapons directly to Ukraine in response, an idea it has previously resisted due to longstanding domestic policy that prevents it from sending weaponry into active conflicts.

North Korea’s missile launch “seems to have been carried out to divert attention from international criticism of its troop deployment”, said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

Elina Svitolina and husband Gaël Monfils are having quite a time at the French Open | CNN

Ashish Singh — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 15:28:44 +0000

CNN
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Elina Svitolina came from behind to beat Storm Hunter at the French Open – just one day after watching husband Gaël Monfils win a mammoth game against Sebastián Báez.

Svitolina dropped the first set against her Australian counterpart 6-2 but stormed back in emphatic fashion winning the last two sets 3-6 1-6 to wrap up the second round win.

Monfils also dropped the opening set when he faced Báez. The Frenchman battled back and eventually won the game in five sets with a 3-6 6-3 7-5 1-6 7-5 victory in a game that lasted three hours and 47 minutes in front of a roaring home crowd.

Monfils’ game going the distance meant that Svitolina’s preparations were slightly more unusual than normal, but this didn’t impact her performance.

“I watched the whole match. I was up until midnight when the match was done and went to bed straight away,” the Ukrainian explained. “Actually was sleeping good. Had a solid seven hours of sleep, which is quite good for the grand slam.

“It gave me actually motivation to go again today. He was there for me today. Made such a big effort to come and support me, especially in a tough day like today. So really it motivated me to fight and not give up and play every point, try to put 100% effort out there,” Svitolina continued.

The pair got married on July 16, 2021, and welcomed their daughter Skaï Monfils in October 2022. Skaï is present at the French Open and Monfils dedicated his win to her. It’s also the first tournament that both mom and dad have been playing after Monfils’ previous struggles with injuries.

“First tournament for us where we are both playing at the same tournament, and Skaï is here with us in Paris as well. It’s really, really special,” Svitolina said after her win.

“So far everything is going well, and we really enjoy our time off the court together, and on the court as well, we try to be focused and play as good as we can.

“Of course, it’s really important to have a team for Skaï, who takes care of her, so then we can focus on tennis. And especially at such a big event with lots of pressure and lots of things going on, it’s important that your mind is calm about your child and then you have 100% head[ing] into the tennis.”

Aside from raising a child and competing in a tennis grand slam, Svitolina also struggles with an inescapable “heaviness” on a day-to-day basis as a result of the war in Ukraine.

“I feel anger. I feel sadness. I feel pain in my heart to see all of that. I have a few Telegram channels where I follow the news of my hometown in Odessa, of all the Ukraine, and they post the news what is happening, when the alarm is on, or where missiles landed, you know, how many missiles were hit by our Ukrainian Army, Air Force,” said the 28-year-old.

“These kind of moments I feel mixture of different feelings, but they are bad feelings. You know, they are anger, they are sadness, just heaviness. It’s like this heaviness that I have on a daily basis, and all Ukrainians have. You cannot escape from this, and this is for the past one-and-a-half years we have that in our life.”

The world No. 192 also touched on how she uses the war as inspiration to fuel her tennis exploits.

“For me, when I step on the court, I just try to think about the fighting spirit that all of us Ukrainians have and how Ukrainians are fighting for their values, for their freedom in Ukraine. And me, I’m fighting here on my own frontline, you know,” Svitolina outlined.

“I cannot be sad. I cannot be distracted in some ways. I’m just going to lose, you know. So that’s why I remember when the war started, I was in Mexico in Monterrey, and I was very, very sad. I almost cried when I entered the court. I had, like, really heaviness in me.

“Then I thought, you know, now each time I step on the court, I’m going to go 100% out and give everything because I’m here to do something for my country. I have a flag next to my name, so I’m fighting for my country, and I’m going to do that each time I step on the court.”

Svitolina will wait to see who she faces in the third round at Roland-Garros while Monfils prepares to take on Holger Rune in the second round.

Iran aided Russia against Ukraine. Now it needs to call in the favor

Aseem — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 05:13:47 +0000

Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) enters the hall during the meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (not pictured), October 11, 2024, in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Contributor | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Iran has been one of Russia’s few staunch allies throughout the war against Ukraine, but Tehran now faces the strain of indirectly fighting its nemesis Israel on two fronts.

Under pressure — but still defiant — Iran could start looking to Russia for help, given its need for greater air defense capabilities and military intelligence to detect a highly-anticipated but yet-to-materialize direct Israeli attack on Iran, analysts told CNBC.

Russia is well-positioned to provide Tehran with such capabilities, but the extent to which it will assist the Islamic Republic remains uncertain.

“I fully expect that the Iranians have high expectations of the Russians to provide them with something,” Bilal Y. Saab, associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Programme at think tank Chatham House, told CNBC Thursday, noting that reputation is of the utmost importance in international relations — even among authoritarian countries.

“So if the Russians are going to bail on this, it’s going to have consequences with regards not only to its relationship with the Iranians, but to any other partner, such as the Chinese,” he said.

“They’ve got to maintain some kind of reputation that they are good for it, and so I have medium-to-high expectations that they would actually provide them with what they need. Now, whether they provide them with everything they need, this is what nobody knows.”

Russia is unlikely to offer military intervention against Israel on behalf of the Iranians, Saab said, given it is already “too bogged down in Ukraine.”

“It’s also too risky of a game to go against the United States over the Iranians … so I think that [it’s] more likely they would stay on the sidelines and try to help from as far away as possible,” he said.

CNBC has contacted the Kremlin and Iranian foreign ministry for comment and has yet to receive a response.

both countries deny drone and missile transfers have taken place. Tehran has conceded that it sent drones to Russia before the war began, however.

Russia also denies using drones to attack Ukrainian infrastructure, although there have been numerous instances of Iranian-made drones damaging Ukrainian infrastructure or being intercepted during the war.

In the meantime, Tehran has turned to Russia to help build up its own military capabilities, looking to procure sophisticated Russia air defense systems and a variety of combat aircraft, according to reports, although the details surrounding the delivery of such hardware remain hazy.

“The provision of Iranian drones and, more recently, missiles to Russia for its campaign in Ukraine marked a significant evolution in the Russia-Iran relationship. In part, the war itself served as an accelerant to the already burgeoning Russia-Iran ties, propelling their cooperation to new heights,” Karim Sadjadpour and Nicole Grajewski from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank noted in analysis earlier this month.

In return for Iran’s support, Russia has bolstered Iran’s military capabilities in several areas, they noted: “Iran has made notable progress in acquiring advanced conventional weaponry from Russia, allowing it to achieve some of its defense officials’ long-standing goals. In November 2023, Tehran secured deals for Su-35 fighter jets, Yak-130 training aircraft, and Mi-28 attack helicopters, though only the Yak-130s have been delivered so far.”

Russia has been offering Iran “an unprecedented level of military and technical support that is transforming their relationship into a full-fledged defense partnership,” National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby said in late 2022. “This partnership poses a threat, not just to Ukraine, but to Iran’s neighbors in the region,” he said at the time.

Fast forward to October 2024 and Russia’s appetite to bolster Tehran’s military capabilities might be waning as its war against Ukraine drags on, while Iran’s ability to supply Russia with weaponry could now be limited.

Tehran is indirectly fighting its nemesis Israel on two fronts with its regional proxies, the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, coming under heavy and sustained Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon, respectively, and looking severely weakened after the deaths of the militant groups’ leaders.

Iranian protesters shout anti-Israeli slogans while burning an Israeli flag in a celebration for Iran’s missile attack against Israel, in Tehran, Iran, on October 1, 2024.

Morteza Nikoubazl | Nurphoto | Getty Images

The factions, along with Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, make up what Tehran refers to as the “Axis of Resistance,” which Iran backs in order to oppose Israeli and U.S. influence in the region. That shared antipathy toward the U.S. and desire to create a “new world order” are what largely binds Iran and Russia.

This week could bring more clarity on their deepening economic and strategic cooperation, when Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian meet on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia.

Both countries have said they are close to signing a “strategic partnership agreement” — negotiations over which began in early 2022 — and this could be finalized at forum. It remains to be seen what the partnership will entail.

said in analysis Monday.

“Nevertheless, Moscow prefers to adapt to the evolving situation rather than to get directly involved. Russia cannot — and will not — save Iran in its confrontation with Israel and the United States,” he noted.

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) at Al Yamamah Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 06, 2023.

Royal Court of Saudi Arabia | Anadolu | Getty Images

Moscow’s war in Ukraine means it has “no time” for another war, according to Smagin, who added that Russia would only be motivated to involve itself indirectly in the conflict with Israel if the end result were to weaken the U.S.

“Russia could seek to support Iran by supplying weapons to Iranian proxy forces, including Hezbollah and the Houthis,” Smagin said. “However, for the Kremlin, that would be more logical if such deliveries were going to harm the United States, rather than Israel.”

Ukrainian star Elina Svitolina calls Russian opponent ‘brave’ following French Open win | CNN

Ashish Singh — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 02:51:43 +0000

CNN
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Tennis player Elina Svitolina called her opponent, Russian Daria Kasatkina, a “brave one” following the Ukrainian’s upset win on Sunday.

Svitolina, who previously said she would not shake hands with Russian and Belarusian opponents out of respect for the men and women defending Ukraine, told reporters that she “acknowledged” Kasatkina after the match.

Kasatkina has been outspoken in her criticism of the war, describing it last year as a “nightmare,” according to the New York Times.

Last month, Kasatkina, Russia’s top-ranked female tennis player, also expressed her sympathy for Ukrainian tennis players who refuse to shake her hand after matches.

“Really thankful for her position that she took. She’s [a] really brave person to say it publicly, that not so many players did,” Svitolina said, after advancing to the quarterfinals of the French Open.

“She’s a brave one.”

Instead of a hand shake, Kasatkina gave her opponent a thumbs up at the net after losing the match 6-4 7-6 (7-5). She later said she was disappointed to hear boos from some members of the crowd.

“Leaving Paris with a very bitter feeling. All this days, after every match I’ve played in Paris I always appreciate and thanked crowd for support and being there for the players,” Kasatkina tweeted Monday.

“But yesterday I was booed for just being respectful on my opponent’s position not to shake hands.

“Me and Elina showed respect to each other after a tough match but leaving the court like that was the worse part of yesterday. Be better, love each other. Don’t spread hate. Try to make this world better.”

Kasatkina, who last year announced she was gay and criticized Russia’s attitudes towards homosexuality, has maintained her stance against the war in Ukraine.

“The saddest part is the war still going on,” the 26-year-old said last month. “So of course, players from Ukraine have got a lot of reasons to not shake our hands. I accept it and it is how it is. It’s a very sad situation and I understand.”

Playing in her first major since the 2022 Australian Open and first since becoming a mother, Svitolina said she was just focused on recovery and preparing for her next match.

“Of course I would love to win here,” Svitolina said. “It will be the dream, but it’s always been in my career like step by step.

“I think this is the only right way to do, to not look too much into the future, because otherwise you lose your focus from the small things that brings you to win the matches.”

Svitolina will play Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in the next round on Tuesday.

World No. 2 Sabalenka stopped participating in customary post-match press conferences at the tournament after saying she didn’t feel safe at a previous press conference where she was questioned about her country’s involvement in the war.

Sabalenka said in March that she struggled to understand the “hate” she encountered in the locker room amid strained relations between some players following the invasion of Ukraine – Belarus is being used as a key staging ground for Russia.

Russian and Belarusian players are currently still competing on the tours as neutral athletes without their flag or country displayed.

Aryna Sabalenka exacerbated handshake snub by waiting at the net, says Elina Svitolina | CNN

Ashish Singh — Sun, 20 Oct 2024 08:25:21 +0000

CNN
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Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina said that she was unsure why Belarusian opponent Aryna Sabalenka waited at the net for a handshake after their French Open match.

With the war in her home country ongoing, Svitolina has declined to shake hands with Russian and Belarusian players since returning to tennis following the birth of her first child last year.

But Sabalenka, who progressed to the semifinals at Roland Garros with a 6-4 6-4 victory on Tuesday, waited at the net to acknowledge Svitolina.

“I don’t know, to be fair, what she was waiting [for], because my statements were clear enough about the handshake,” the former world No. 3 told reporters.

She added: “My initial reaction, I don’t know, was like, what are you doing? Because, yeah, all my press conference I say my clear position. So I don’t know.”

Sabalenka faced a similar scenario against Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk in the French Open first round, when her opponent also left the court without a handshake.

After her third and fourth-round matches, Sabalenka stopped participating in customary post-match press conferences, saying that she didn’t feel safe safe when she attended one last Wednesday.

However, she attended a regular press conference after the quarterfinal and said that she waited at the net out of “instinct.”

The world No. 2 also reiterated her stance against the war in Ukraine and said that she has always respected the press conference format.

“I’m always open in my answers,” Sabalenka told reporters. “I really felt bad not coming here. I couldn’t sleep. Like all those bad feelings was in my head, I couldn’t fall asleep.

“I felt really bad not coming here. I really respect all of you guys. Thank you so much for coming here, for being interested in me.”

Asked whether Sabalenka had inflamed the handshake situation by waiting at the net, Svitolina said: “Yeah, I think so, unfortunately.”

Despite her time away from tennis, the 28-year-old Svitolina enjoyed a strong run at the French Open after winning her 17th WTA title in Strasbourg ahead of the tournament.

She managed to go toe-to-toe with Sabalenka on Court Philippe-Chatrier for much of the first set and broke at the start of the second set as she looked to mount a comeback.

But Sabalenka’s power game from the baseline ultimately overwhelmed Svitolina as she secured two breaks of serve to win in straight sets.

The Australian Open champion finished the match with 30 winners to Svitolina’s seven and will next face Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova on Thursday for a place in the French Open final.

Middle East, Ukraine wars in focus as G7 defence ministers meet in Italy

Diksha — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 15:41:38 +0000

The Group of Seven (G7) defence ministers are meeting in Italy against a backdrop of brewing tensions in the Middle East and the drawn-out conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The one-day gathering on Saturday marks the group’s first ministerial meeting dedicated to defence, and is being held in Naples, the southern Italian city that is also home to a NATO base.

In his address, Italian Minister of Defence Guido Crosetto said the global security framework is growing increasingly precarious due to competing world visions.

“The brutal Russian aggressions in Ukraine and the indeed critical situation in Middle East, combined with the profound instability of sub-Saharan Africa and the increasing tension in the Indo-Pacific region, highlight a deteriorated security framework,” Crosetto said in his opening speech.

“Ample space” would be given to discussing the escalating Middle East conflict during the one-day summit, Crosetto had said a day earlier in Brussels.

There is also deep concern over China’s military activities around Taiwan and heightened tensions along the border of North and South Korea.

Warning that forecasts for the near future “cannot be positive”, Crosetto said tensions were fuelled by “a common driver: the confrontation between two different, perhaps incompatible, visions of the world”.

On the one side are the countries and organisations that believe in a world order based on international law, said Crosetto, a prominent member of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party.

“On the other side, [there are] those who systematically disrespect democracy to pursue their objectives, including by a deliberate use of military force.”

On Ukraine, the G7 ministers will contemplate Kyiv entering a third winter at war, battlefield losses in the east – and the prospect of reduced US military support should Donald Trump be elected to the White House next month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, under mounting pressure from Western allies to forge a winning strategy against Russia, on Thursday presented what he called a “victory plan” to the European Union and NATO.

Under discussion will also likely be reports, based on South Korean intelligence, that North Korea is deploying large numbers of troops to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine. NATO was not yet able to confirm that intelligence, its Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Friday.

North Korea sending ‘large-scale’ troop deployment to Russia, Seoul spy agency says

Diksha — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 12:28:36 +0000

North Korea has decided to send a “large-scale” troop deployment to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine, with 1,500 special forces already in Russia’s Far East and undergoing training, Seoul’s spy agency said on Friday.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said North Korea had decided to send thousands of soldiers to help Russia, releasing detailed satellite images it said showed the first deployment.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol convened an emergency security meeting Friday, with Seoul slamming Pyongyang’s move as “a significant security threat not only to our country but also to the international community,” the president’s office said.

The NIS said it had “detected that from the 8th to the 13th (of October), North Korea transported its special forces to Russia via a Russian Navy transport ship, confirming the start of North Korea’s military participation” in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

According to the NIS, multiple Russian landing ships and frigates have already completed transporting the first contingent of troops, who are currently stationed in military bases across Russia’s Far East.

This handout from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service released on October 18 shows a satellite image by Airbus Defence and Space of Russia’s Ussuriysk military facility, where the intelligence service said North Korean personnel were gathered within the training ground on October 16. — AFP
The special forces soldiers “are expected to be deployed to the front lines (of the Ukraine conflict) as soon as they complete acclimatisation training,” it said. The soldiers have been issued Russian military uniforms and Russian-made weapons, the NIS said.

“This seems to be an effort to disguise the fact that they are North Korean troops by making them appear as Russian soldiers,” NIS added.

More troops are likely to be sent soon, NIS said, adding that it estimated the North could send around 12,000 soldiers in total. “A second transport operation is expected to take place soon,” it said.

Artillery shells, missiles

Pyongyang and Moscow have been allies since North Korea’s founding after World War II and have drawn even closer since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with Seoul and Washington long claiming that Kim Jong Un has been sending weapons for use in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to Pyongyang in June, with the two countries signing a mutual defence treaty, fuelling speculations of further arms transfers — which violate rafts of UN sanctions on both countries.

The NIS said Friday that the North had “provided Russia with more than 13,000 containers’ worth of artillery shells, missiles, anti-tank rockets and other lethal weapons” since last August.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday flagged intelligence reports saying North Korea was training 10,000 soldiers to support Russia in its fight against Kyiv.

Zelensky suggested that Russia is relying on North Korean troops to compensate for its substantial losses, as many young Russians seek to avoid conscription.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian media reported that six North Korean military officers were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on Russian-occupied territory near Donetsk on October 3.

Seoul’s defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, told lawmakers at the time that it was “highly likely” that the report was true. Experts said that moving from supplying shells to soldiers to Russia was the logical next step.

“For North Korea, which has supplied Russia with many shells and missiles, it’s crucial to learn how to handle different weapons and gain real-world combat experience,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.

“This might even be a driving factor behind sending North Korean soldiers — to provide them with diverse experiences and wartime training,” he told AFP.

‘Nato cannot yet confirm North Korea is sending troops to Russia’

Nato chief Mark Rutte said on Friday that the alliance could not yet confirm South Korean intelligence that North Korea was deploying troops to bolster Russian forces in Ukraine.

“At this moment, our official position is that we cannot confirm reports that North Koreans are actively now as soldiers engaged in the war effort,” Rutte told reporters following a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels. “But this, of course, might change,” he said.

Rutte said Nato was “in close contact” with its partners, particularly South Korea, which was taking part in this week’s talks as part of the so-called Indo-Pacific four, along with Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

“We will certainly have that conversation with them to get all the evidence on the table,” said the Nato chief.

“Even if North Korea is not physically there at the battlefield then still, they are helping to fuel Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine in every way they can,” Rutte said.

Meet Europe’s unelected, de facto ‘president’, Ursula von der Leyen

Aseem — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 10:20:33 +0000

Amid the doleful chorus of Western leaders embellishing the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks with fresh layers of piety, distortion and one-sided sorrow, one voice stands out. Outperforming pretty much every other contender for the title of chief apologist for the Zionist state of Israel—on the day that is fast acquiring sacred overtones—was Europe’s top bureaucrat, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

In one important respect, Frau von der Leyen is in a category all her own. Unlike US President Joe Biden presiding over a White House candlelight vigil, or UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer reheating his familiar stew of lies (‘beheaded babies’, ‘systematic rape’) in Westminster, or German Chancellor Olaf Scholz yet again equating protest against genocidal Israel with ‘antisemitism’, the EU Commissioner has no democratic standing whatsoever. She is a functionary, an apparatchik, placed in office not by a popular vote but on the say-so of the cabal that is the EU Council of Ministers.

Even so, she believes she has the right to speak on behalf of an entire continent.

Also Read | A great leap forward for Europe’s far right?

It’s worth recalling the speed with which von der Leyen moved a year ago. Within days of the October 7 attacks she had spirited herself to Israel via an unscheduled trip arranged behind the backs of EU leaders. Once there, she seized the chance to indulge in the most egregious and partisan grandstanding. “This is the most heinous assault against Jews since the Holocaust,” she declared before a jubilant Netanyahu. “We thought this could never happen again, yet it did. In the face of this unspeakable tragedy, there is only one possible response: Europe stands with Israel” (emphasis added).

To judge from her statement one year on, the Iron Commissioner seems to have spent the past 12 months with fingers in ears and eyes wide shut. “There can be no justification for Hamas’ acts of terror,” she intones, once more in the name of Europe. “I condemn once again, and in the strongest possible terms, those barbarous attacks. They brought immense suffering not only upon the people of Israel, but also upon innocent Palestinians.” Of Israeli war crimes, barbarity and readiness to push the world to the brink of generalised conflagration, not a word.

It would require more than one column to track the specifics of von der Leyen’s rise to fame, fortune and continental reach. In simplified form, the story starts with her long stint as a member of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s right-wing administration. Rising steadily up the ranks, in 2013 she was appointed Defence Minister, the first woman in Germany to hold that post. Surviving a potentially career-ending scandal centred on the outsourcing of defence contracts, the savvy politician made the most of her opportunity to court support, both across Europe and further afield.

Identified as a leading contender to succeed Merkel as Chancellor, and as a potential successor to Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, von der Leyen apparently had other ideas. She manoeuvred her way to become the European Council’s pick to head the EU Commission, taking on the role in July 2019. Seldom can an institution and an individual have been so perfectly matched, so mutually suited to the challenge of aggrandising power behind well locked doors.

Even before von der Leyen sashayed into Brussels five years ago, the European Commission had proved adept at stealthily augmenting its remit. From its birth back in the 1950s, it was envisaged as a supranational institution unrestrained by any form of democratic accountability. Over the years, as journalist and researcher Thomas Fazi notes in a just-published report, it “has increased its influence over areas of competence that have previously been considered the preserve of national governments—from financial budgets and health policy to foreign affairs and defence.”

Since von der Leyen’s arrival, this process has undergone what Fazi describes as “a rapid and substantial acceleration and intensification.” This has been facilitated by the deft exploitation of a sequence of crises, always geared to accumulating more authority and effecting permanent changes to the exercise of EU power.

European flags fly outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on September 20, 2023.
| Photo Credit:
YVES HERMAN

Oh, what a lovely pandemic!

For von der Leyen, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic so soon after her start as EU Commissioner was nothing short of serendipitous. Under her leadership, the EC assumed a leading role from the outset. After suspending the EU’s notoriously tight fiscal rules regarding government borrowing, it quickly unfurled the Next Generation EU Package, a €750 billion recovery fund offering grants and loans to member states. This crossed a new threshold: for the first time, the Commission itself was empowered to raise money on financial markets. It had also acquired a new tool by which to exercise financial pressure on member states.

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Vaccines, once they became available, became another arena of power-building-by-stealth. Von der Leyen took the lead in promoting an EU-wide joint vaccine-procurement programme, and by November 2021, the Commission had (as Fazi notes) “signed a staggering €71 billion worth of contracts on behalf of the member states to purchase up to 4.6 billion doses of vaccines—more than 10 doses for each European citizen.”

Then ‘Pfizergate’ broke: the revelation that, in April 2021, von der Leyen had personally struck a 35 billion euro deal—for the purchase of up to 1.8 billion doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine—via a series of text messages and calls with Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla. Since then, every attempt—by journalists, the European Court of Auditors and the EU’s own ombudsman—to obtain unredacted copies of the text messages for public scrutiny has drawn a blank. What is beyond dispute is the stratospheric scale of the Commissioner’s ‘initiative’: by some estimates, the price per dose the EC agreed to was 15 times higher than the cost of production, suggesting that EU member states may have overpaid for the vaccines by more than €30 billion ($32.4 billion).

Somehow, von der Leyen floated on above it all, as if disconnected from the stench of scandal. In any case, another crisis ripe with potential was about to present itself.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk as they attend a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium October 17, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
Johanna Geron

Enter Ukraine

For a Commission that has long resented the weak hand originally dealt to it in matters of foreign policy, defence and security, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has proved a windfall. Under von der Leyen’s stewardship, the institution has been able to expand its own mandate while at the same time policing and reinforcing EU alignment with US-NATO strategy.

In terms of landing punitive blows on Moscow, no one could have been quicker out of the blocks than von der Leyen. Her initial sanctions package—the first of dozens—was in force the day after Russia’s invasion. With an alacrity that must have stunned the Biden administration, the EU imposed, in short order, asset freezes, travel bans, banking restrictions, export controls, import bans and embargoes on Russian energy. Since sanctions formed part of a Western response ultimately determined by Washington, the savvy Commissioner put her strong transatlantic ties to work in a bid to enhance her role and leverage. German economist Wolfgang Streeck has characterised the process thus: “In its effort at supranational European state building, the European Commission under von der Leyen deploy[ed] American pressure for European support in Ukraine as a lever to wrest from its member states additional powers and competences, a strategy supported by large sections of the European Parliament.”

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The war in Ukraine has also provided von der Leyen with the pretext to extend and intensify the rapid-fire militarisation she drove while German defence minister. This has resulted in surging military budgets across EU member states, none more so than in Germany, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz is now committed to meeting NATO’s defence target of 2 per cent of the GDP. All of this is taking place against a Brussels-emanating soundtrack of extreme bellicosity, dominated by the voice of von der Leyen urging an entire continent to in effect gird its loins, battle on, and bring Putin to his knees. No mean accomplishment this: the transformation of the EU into a warrior zone where defence budgets are surging, support for Ukraine is beyond debate, and uncritical obeisance to US strategy and priorities is the order of the day.

In May of this year, the Geneva International Peace Research Institute, supported by human rights groups and prominent scholars and experts in international criminal law, filed a complaint against von der Leyen at the International Criminal Court. The charge: complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The wheels of justice are said to turn slowly but grind exceedingly fine. For the moment, von der Leyen continues to fly high, her role as de facto President of Europe cemented following behind-the-scenes manoeuvring in the wake of June’s European Parliamentary elections. On social media, you can see clips of her confronting protestors outraged at her stance on Palestine. She responds with a smile verging on a smirk, a slight raising of eyebrows. Beyond that, nothing. Nothing at all.

Susan Ram has spent much of her life viewing the world from different geographical locations. Born in London, she studied politics and international relations before setting off for South Asia: first to Nepal, and then to India, where fieldwork in Tamil Nadu developed into 20 years of residence.