KYIV: Ukrainian military recruitment officers raided restaurants, bars and a concert hall in Kyiv, checking military registration documents and detaining men who were not in compliance, local media reported Saturday.
Officers reportedly descended on Kyiv’s Palace of Sports venue after a concert Friday night by Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy. Video footage aired by local media outlets appears to show officers stationed outside the doors of the concert hall intercepting men as they exit. In the footage, officers appear to be forcibly detaining some men.
Checks were also conducted at Goodwine, an upscale shopping center, and Avalon, a popular restaurant.
It is unusual for such raids to take place in the capital, and reflects Ukraine’s dire need for fresh recruits. All Ukrainian men aged 25-60 are eligible for conscription, and men aged 18-60 are not allowed to leave the country.
Local reports said raids were also conducted in clubs and restaurants across other Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv and Dnipro in eastern and central Ukraine.
Ukraine has intensified its mobilization drive this year. A new law came into effect this spring stipulating that those eligible for military service must input their information into an online system or face penalties.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military said on Saturday that it struck a Russian-controlled oil terminal in the partially occupied Luhansk region that provides fuel for Russia’s war effort.
“Oil and oil products were stored at this base, which were supplied, in particular, for the needs of the Russian army,” Ukraine’s General Staff wrote on Telegram.
Russian state media reported that the terminal close to the city of Rovenky had come under attack from a Ukrainian drone and said there were no casualties and that the fire had been extinguished, but did not comment on the extent of any damage.
On Monday, Ukrainian forces said they struck a major oil terminal on the south coast of the Russia-occupied Crimea Peninsula.
Both sides are facing the issue of how to sustain their costly war of attrition — a conflict that started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and that shows no signs of a resolution.
Ukraine’s aim is to impair Russia’s ability to support its front-line units, especially in the eastern Donetsk region where the main Russian battlefield effort is stretching weary Ukrainian forces.
Kyiv is still awaiting word from its Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets on Russian soil.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said 47 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted and destroyed by its air defense systems overnight into Saturday: 17 over the Krasnodar region, 16 over the Sea of Azov, 12 over the Kursk region and two over the Belgorod region, all of which border Ukraine.
Belgorod regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Saturday that one person had been killed and 14 wounded in Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks over the previous 24 hours.
In Ukraine, the country’s Air Force said air defenses had shot down 24 of 28 drones launched overnight against Ukraine.
Zaporizhzhia regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov said two women were wounded Saturday in Russian attacks on the capital of the southern Ukrainian region, also called Zaporizhzhia.
Ukrainian recruiters descend on Kyiv’s nightlife in search of men not registered for conscription
https://arab.news/8nyzg
Ukrainian recruiters descend on Kyiv’s nightlife in search of men not registered for conscription
- It is unusual for such raids to take place in the capital, and reflects Ukraine’s dire need for fresh recruits
- All Ukrainian men aged 25-60 are eligible for conscription, and men aged 18-60 are not allowed to leave the country
England flags spark pride and concern amid anti-immigration protests
“It’s our flag, we should be able to feel proud to fly it,” said Livvy McCarthy, a 32-year-old bartender, as she walked past a pedestrian crossing in the Isle of Dogs, London, painted to resemble the English flag. “Every other country can do the same, so what’s the problem?“
National flags often hang from public buildings in Britain, but it is rare for them to appear in the streets outside of sporting, royal or military events. The appearance of flags has coincided with a wave of protests in recent weeks outside hotels sheltering asylum seekers. Fuelled by social media, the movement appears to have originated with the Birmingham-based Weoley Warriors, with several groups now encouraging the display of more flags.
The Warriors call themselves a group of “proud English men” on their fundraising page, which says they want to show how “proud we are of our history, freedoms and achievements.” They did not give any further details as to their motives for hanging the flags, which have appeared in several English cities, predominantly in the West Midlands.
In the 1970s, the Union flag was adopted as a symbol by the far-right National Front party, which openly promoted white supremacist views, while the Cross of St. George, the patron saint of England, likewise was brandished by English soccer hooligans and extreme right-wing groups.
As a result, while some regard displaying the flag as showing patriotism, others, including those from migrant communities or ethnically diverse backgrounds, are concerned they are being targeted.
Stanley Oronsaye, a 52-year-old hospitality worker from Nigeria and a resident of the Isle of Dogs, said people should be free to express their views on migration policy, so long as it remains within the law.
Yet he felt uneasy. The Tower Hamlets borough, which is home to the Isle of Dogs, is one of the most diverse areas in Britain, with nearly half of residents born outside the UK.
“The worry is from the fact that if it escalates it can turn into something else,” Oronsaye said. “It’s worrisome when... nationalism is allowed to take a different tone.” Jason, 25, who declined to give his last name, said the flags were about “getting English culture back.” “We are seeing more of other cultures than we are of our own now,” he said on the streets of Tower Hamlets.
WAVES OF PROTEST
The protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers in recent weeks were triggered in part after an Ethiopian asylum seeker staying in a hotel north of London was charged last month with sexual assault. He denies the charge. It follows a wave of riots last summer targeting asylum seekers and ethnic minorities in several British cities, after three young girls were murdered at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event, with social media falsely attributing the attack to a radical Islamist immigrant.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said at the time the violence was the result of “far-right thuggery.” Asked about the flag movement, a spokesperson for Starmer said the prime minister views flags as symbols of the nation’s heritage and values but has recognized that some want to use it to cause conflict. The prime minister, the spokesperson said on Tuesday, recognizes people’s frustrations with the economy and the pressures illegal migration is putting on local communities,
Some councils have removed flags, citing safety reasons.
Tower Hamlets council said flags may be displayed on private property but that any flag attached to council infrastructure would be removed.
“We are aware that some individuals putting up flags are not from our borough and that there have been wider attempts by some coming from outside our borough to sow division,” it said in a statement, without providing further details.
The display of flags has been endorsed by several politicians, including Nigel Farage, the former Brexit campaigner whose Reform UK tops opinion polls and the opposition Conservative Party.
Robert Jenrick, a leading Conservative politician, described councils removing the flags as “Britain-hating councils” and said on X: “We must be one country, under the Union Flag.”
US billionaire Elon Musk, who has promoted far-right politicians across Europe, including in the UK, posted a picture of the English flag on his X platform on Tuesday.
In the Isle of Dogs, a peninsula in east London near to the Canary Wharf financial district, many of the flags were displayed near the Britannia Hotel, a government-designated hotel for asylum seekers that has been the site of protests.
Local resident Shriya Joshi, a 26-year-old from India, said she remained unsure about the flags’ true purpose.
“If it’s a message to the immigrant community or anything of that sort, then it’s not that pleasant,” she said.
French, German, Polish leaders to visit Moldova in show of force in face of Russia
- European allies have repeatedly accused Moscow of attempts to destabilize the former Soviet republic that lies between war-torn Ukraine and EU and NATO member Romania
CHISINAU: he leaders of France, Germany and Poland are due in Moldova on Wednesday in a show of support, a day before campaigning starts for next month’s tense parliamentary election amid claims of Russian interference in the pro-EU nation bordering Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will meet Moldova’s President Maia Sandu to celebrate the country’s 34th independence day as she pushes for EU membership.
“This is a show of support by European leaders for Moldova as Russia ramps up its interference activities ahead of the high-stakes elections,” the Moldovan presidency said in a statement to AFP.
Sandu and her European allies have repeatedly accused Moscow of attempts to destabilize the former Soviet republic that lies between war-torn Ukraine and EU and NATO member Romania.
A vocal critic of Russia, in particular since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Sandu has been steering Moldova through official EU accession talks that started in June 2024.
The three EU leaders will give a press statement alongside Sandu on Wednesday afternoon, before a dinner.
They will then give speeches during the official independence day celebrations held on Chisinau’s Independence Square, with a concert concluding the evening.
Macron, Merz and Tusk want to reaffirm their “support for Moldova’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a French presidential adviser told journalists.
They also want to support Moldova’s “European trajectory.”
“We cannot ignore the consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which directly affects Moldova,” he said.
“Moldova is threatened by Russia,” he added, referring to Moscow’s “interference and meddling” and its “playbook” of “intimidation,” “sovereignty obstructions” and “exploitation of separatism.”
In the east of the country is the pro-Moscow separatist region of Transnistria, where Russian troops are stationed.
“The visit is really a strong sign of support, and it is a symbolic message to Russia that top European countries care and follow what happens here,” political analyst Valeriu Pasha of the Chisinau-based think tank Watchdog told AFP.
He added it was the first visit of the so-called Weimar Triangle leaders together in Moldova.
While Sandu’s PAS party is likely to top parliamentary elections at the end of September, the outcome is hard to predict given the “huge Russian interference in elections, with crazy amounts of money pumped in” amid voter concerns about economic difficulties and high inflation, Pasha said.
Sandu, re-elected for a second term in 2024, last month accused Russia of “preparing an unprecedented interference in the September elections” to “control Moldova from the fall.”
The interference includes vote buying and illicit financing through cryptocurrencies for which “100 million euros” have been earmarked, Sandu has alleged.
The three EU leaders’ visit comes as the US-led drive for Russia-Ukraine peace talks seems to be stalling.
Germany and France have both said the ball is now in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s court.
Microsoft protesters occupy president’s office as company reviews its work with Israel’s military
- Earlier this year, The Associated Press revealed previously unreported details about Microsoft’s close partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, which uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance
REDMOND, Washington: Police arrested seven people Tuesday after they occupied the office of Microsoft President Brad Smith as part of continued protests over the company’s ties to the Israel Defense Forces during the ongoing war in Gaza, organizers said.
Current and former Microsoft employees were among those arrested, said the protest group No Azure for Apartheid. Azure is Microsoft’s primary cloud computing platform, and Microsoft has said it is reviewing a report in a British newspaper this month that Israel has used it to facilitate attacks on Palestinian targets.
The protesters could be seen huddled together on a Twitch livestream as officers moved in to arrest them. The video showed another group assembled outside.
During a media briefing Tuesday afternoon, Smith said two of those arrested were Microsoft employees.
Eighteen people were arrested in a similar protest in a plaza at the headquarters last week. The group has been protesting the company for months. Microsoft in May fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella, and in April it fired two others who interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration.
The group’s demands include that the company cut ties with Israel and pay reparations to Palestinians.
The British newspaper The Guardian reported this month that the Israel Defense Forces had used Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to store phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Microsoft has said it hired an outside law firm to investigate the allegations, but that its terms of service would prohibit such use.
“There are many things we can’t do to change the world, but we will do what we can and what we should,” Smith told reporters at a media briefing following Tuesday’s arrests. “That starts with ensuring that our human rights principles and contractual terms of service are upheld everywhere, by all of our customers around the world.”
Earlier this year, The Associated Press revealed previously unreported details about Microsoft’s close partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, which uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance. The AP reported that the data can be cross-checked with Israel’s in-house, AI-enabled systems to help select targets.
Following The AP’s report, Microsoft said a review found no evidence that its Azure platform and artificial intelligence technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. Microsoft did not share a copy of that review, but the company said it would share factual findings from the further review prompted by The Guardian’s report when complete.
In the statement Tuesday, the protest groups said the disruptions were “to protest Microsoft’s active role in the genocide of Palestinians.”
Trump still weighing ‘very serious’ economic sanctions on Russia
- Trump suggested on Tuesday that he was open to “using a very strong tariff system that’s very costly to Russia or Ukraine” to make peace
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is prepared to impose economic sanctions against Russia if its president, Vladimir Putin, fails to agree to a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.
“It’s very, very serious what I have in mind, if I have to do it, but I want to see it end,” Trump told a reporter who asked if Putin would face consequences. “We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic because we’re not going to get into a world war.”
The president has withheld long-threatened sanctions against Putin in his latest push to end the more than three-year-long war that has so far defied his efforts at mediation.
Trump is seeking one-on-one talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin. Though Zelensky has agreed in principle to such talks, Putin has not. The Kremlin has suggested no such meeting is currently on the cards.
“It will not be a world war, but it will be an economic war,” Trump said at a White House Cabinet meeting. “An economic war is going to be bad, and it’s going to be bad for Russia, and I don’t want that.”
He added: “Zelensky is not exactly innocent, either.”
Despite slow diplomatic progress, US and European officials have been discussing potential security guarantees that Washington might provide Kyiv after a hypothetical deal is reached, potentially including support by air or intelligence sharing.
Trump has long suggested using economic tools as leverage against warring nations. He is preparing to slap 25 percent more in tariffs on India’s US-bound exports on Wednesday over New Delhi’s Russian oil buying.
India is one of the biggest consumers of Russian oil.
Trump suggested on Tuesday that he was open to “using a very strong tariff system that’s very costly to Russia or Ukraine” to make peace.
Refugee group challenges Greece’s asylum freeze
- More than 10,000 people arrived in Greece from north Africa since the start of the year — more than double the number for the whole of last year, the UNHCR said
ATHENS: The Greek Council for Refugees on Tuesday questioned the legal basis of the government’s suspension of asylum claims to stem a surge in arrivals of irregular migrants.
Hundreds of migrants who have crossed the Mediterranean from north Africa have been detained since the freeze was introduced last month.
Organizations, including the UNHCR UN refugee agency, the Council of Europe and 109 non-profit groups claim the policy flouts international law.
But the government maintains it has helped to reduce migrant numbers.
Four Sudanese nationals detained in Athens are facing deportation but a court in the capital on Monday issued a provisional order to block their return, the refugees council said on Tuesday.
The European Court of Human Rights on August 14 also ordered Greece not to deport the men.
More than 10,000 people arrived in Greece from north Africa since the start of the year — more than double the number for the whole of last year, the UNHCR said.
Some 27 percent of the arrivals were from Sudan, which is stricken by civil war, while 47 percent came from Egypt.
“The clear message that the country will no longer give asylum for the next three months, and that immigrants will be detained, appears to have had an effect,” Migration Minister Thanos Plevris said on August 7.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says his onservative government has been tightening immigration rules since it came to power in 2019.
Greece has been accused of illegally forcing the return of refugees or asylum seekers to Turkiye but the government has rejected the complaints.
Greece’s proximity to north Africa and the Middle East has long made it central to perilous migration routes to Europe for people escaping conflict, persecution and poverty.
