Europe to use frozen Russian profits to arm Ukraine, Scholz says

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk address a press conference at the Chancellery in Berlin on Mar. 15, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 15 March 2024
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Europe to use frozen Russian profits to arm Ukraine, Scholz says

  • European support has become increasingly key as US President Joe Biden has been unable to get a big Ukraine aid package through Congress
  • Scholz said the leaders had agreed on the need to procure more weapons for Ukraine on the global market and to boost the production of military gear

BERLIN/PARIS/WARSAW: Ukraine’s backers will use windfall profits on frozen Russian assets to finance arms purchases for Kyiv, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said following a meeting with his French and Polish counterparts aimed at showing unity after weeks of friction.
At a joint press conference in Berlin, Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reaffirmed their support for Ukraine, whose ammunition-starved troops face their toughest battles since the early days of Russia’s invasion two years ago.
European support has become increasingly key as US President Joe Biden has been unable to get a big Ukraine aid package through Congress, and much of his foreign policy energy is focused on the war in Gaza.
Scholz said the leaders had agreed on the need to procure more weapons for Ukraine on the global market and to boost the production of military gear, including through cooperation with partners in Ukraine.
“We will use windfall profits from Russian assets frozen in Europe to financially support the purchase of weapons for Ukraine,” Scholz said as he listed European Union efforts to increase support for Ukraine.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called last month for the EU to consider using such profits to “jointly purchase military equipment for Ukraine.”
The Commission is expected to make a concrete proposal in the coming days.
Some EU member countries such as Hungary have signalled reservations about the idea, according to diplomats in Brussels. But Scholz’s comments suggested he is confident that EU countries will ultimately approve the proposal.
Scholz said the leaders also agreed on the need for the Ukraine Defense Contact group — a US-led group of some 50 countries that provide military support to Ukraine — to set up a coalition to provide long-distance artillery to Kyiv.
A proposal to set up a long-range missile coalition had already been agreed in Paris on Feb. 26. It was unclear whether Scholz’ comments referred to this and how Germany, which has opposed sending its long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, would participate.
Defense ministers from the contact group are set to meet early next week at the Ramstein US Air Base in Germany.
Macron reiterated his warning that it was not just Ukrainian but European security at stake.
“We will do everything as necessary for as long as needed so that Russia cannot win this war,” Macron said. “This determination is steadfast and implies our unity.”
He added that the three leaders had agreed on the need to reinforce support for Moldova, which says Russia is trying to destabilize it through a “hybrid war.”
He said the three leaders had agreed to never initiate an escalation with Russia, a possible way to downplay talk of sending Western ground troops to Ukraine, which has irked Germany.

FRICTION BETWEEN SCHOLZ, MACRON
The meeting of the so-called Weimar triangle — Germany, France and Poland — came after weeks of tensions, in particular between Scholz and Macron, that had alarmed officials in Kyiv and across the continent.
A hastily-arranged summit in Paris last month had aimed to give fresh impetus to stagnating Western efforts to help Ukraine repel a full-scale Russian invasion that has entered its third year.
Instead, Macron’s refusal to rule out deploying Western troops to Ukraine triggered a dressing down from Scholz.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told Reuters that “indecision and uncoordinated action” among Kyiv’s allies was leading to “grave consequences.” “Russia starts to get cocky and begins to believe that it can quantitatively squeeze Ukraine,” he said. “Ukraine, in turn, is experiencing a severe shortage of specific resources, primarily shells, and is partially losing the initiative.”
Tusk said the meeting on Friday showed “that some malicious rumors that there are differences between European capitals are very exaggerated.”
Tusk, who is seeking to revitalize the Weimar Triangle after eight years of nationalist rule in Warsaw, said Macron and Scholz had accepted his invitation to meet again in early summer to present their next joint plans.


Pope takes message of dialogue, unity to the Curia

Updated 1 sec ago
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Pope takes message of dialogue, unity to the Curia

VATICAN: Pope Leo XIV took his message of building bridges and promoting dialogue to the Roman Curia on Saturday, in his first audience with members of the Catholic Church’s governing body.
The late Pope Francis had sometimes difficult relations with the Curia and Vatican officials, accusing them early in his papacy of “spiritual Alzheimer’s” and a lust for power.
The new pontiff, the first from the United States, said Saturday that his inaugural meeting was an opportunity to say thanks for all their work.
“Popes come and go, the Curia remains,” Leo told the audience of officials, staff and their families in the Vatican’s vast Paul VI hall.
He repeated his first words from St. Peter’s Basilica when he became pope on May 8, where he urged people to “build bridges” and to welcome “with open arms, everyone who needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love.”
“If we must all cooperate in the great cause of unity and love, let us try to do so first of all with our behavior in everyday situations, starting from the work environment,” the pope said.
“Everyone can be a builder of unity with their attitudes toward colleagues, overcoming inevitable misunderstandings with patience and humility, putting themselves in the shoes of others, avoiding prejudices, and also with a good dose of humor, as Pope Francis taught us.”
From decentralising power and increasing transparency to providing greater roles for lay people and women, Francis implemented several reforms of the Roman Curia.
But his criticism left a lasting impression among many officials, and he also drew accusations of being too authoritarian in his governance, regularly bypassing the administrative bodies of the Holy See.
In 2024, the Vatican — where trade unions are not recognized — also saw an unprecedented strike by around 50 employees of the Vatican Museums over their working conditions.
The pope spent two decades working in Peru but for the past two years was head of the Vatican department responsible for appointing bishops worldwide.

US ‘deeply concerned’ over activists’ treatment in Tanzania

Updated 24 May 2025
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US ‘deeply concerned’ over activists’ treatment in Tanzania

  • Prominent East African activists are facing detention and torture following government crackdown on dissent in Uganda and Tanzania.
  • The United States voiced its concern over the mistreatment of several activists and called for an investigation into human rights abuses.

NAIROBI: The United States expressed concern Saturday over the “mistreatment” of two east African activists in Tanzania, days after they were detained and reportedly tortured.
Prominent campaigners Boniface Mwangi of Kenya and Agather Atuhaire of Uganda traveled to Tanzania this week in solidarity with detained opposition leader Tundu Lissu ahead of his court hearing on charges of treason, which carries a potential death penalty.
But they themselves were detained before being deported and then found abandoned near the Tanzanian border.
Mwangi and rights groups allege that both were tortured while held “incommunicado” for days.
The US Bureau of African Affairs said on X it was “deeply concerned by reports of the mistreatment” of Atuhaire and Mwangi while in Tanzania.
“We call for an immediate and full investigation into the allegations of human rights abuses,” it said, urging “all countries in the region to hold to account those responsible for violating human rights, including torture.”
Atuhaire received in 2023 the EU Human Rights Defender Award for her work in Uganda and was honored last year with the International Women of Courage Award by former US First Lady Jill Biden.
Mwangi is a longtime critic of the Kenyan government, frequently denouncing instances of alleged injustice and rights abuses.
Human rights groups say Tanzania and neighboring Uganda have accelerated crackdowns on opponents and dissidents as they prepare for presidential elections in the next seven months.
But Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has slammed what she called interference in the country’s affairs and had urged security services “not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here.”


India’s monsoon rains arrive eight days early, says weather bureau

Updated 24 May 2025
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India’s monsoon rains arrive eight days early, says weather bureau

  • Summer rains, critical for economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, usually begin to lash Kerala around June 1

MUMBAI: Monsoon rains hit the coast of India’s southernmost state of Kerala on Saturday, eight days earlier than usual, the weather office said, offering respite from a grueling heat wave while boosting prospects for bumper harvests.

Summer rains, critical for economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, usually begin to lash Kerala around June 1 before spreading nationwide by mid-July, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, corn, cotton, soybeans and sugarcane.


Ukraine says downed 6 missiles, 245 drones overnight

Updated 24 May 2025
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Ukraine says downed 6 missiles, 245 drones overnight

KYIV: Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that it had downed six ballistic missiles and 245 drones from a massive Russian barrage overnight that was mainly targeted at the capital Kyiv.
“Air defense shot down 6 Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles (Kyiv) and neutralized 245 enemy Shahed-type UAVs,” the air force said in a statement.


Kyiv comes under large-scale Russian drone and missile attack with explosions heard throughout city

Updated 5 min 44 sec ago
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Kyiv comes under large-scale Russian drone and missile attack with explosions heard throughout city

  • Russian overnight attacks have Kyiv residents fleeing to underground shelters in the capital.
  • The attacks come after a prisoner swap exchange agreed by both Ukraine and Russia in Türkiye last week.

KYIV: Ukraine’s capital came under a large-scale Russian drone and missile attack early Saturday with explosions and machine gun fire heard throughout the city, forcing many Kyiv residents to take shelter in underground subway stations.
The nighttime Russian attack came hours after Russia and Ukraine began a major prisoner exchange, swapping hundreds of soldiers and civilians in the first phase of an exchange that was agreed on by the two sides at a meeting in Istanbul last week. The agreement was a moment of cooperation in otherwise failed efforts to reach a ceasefire in the 3-year-old war.
The debris of intercepted missiles and drones fell in at least four city districts of the Ukrainian capital early Saturday, acting head of Kyiv military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, wrote on Telegram. According to Tkachenko, six people required medical care after the attack and two fires were sparked in the Solomianskyi district of Kyiv.
Yurii Bondarchuk, a local resident, said the air raid siren “started as usual, then the drones started to fly around as they constantly do.”
Moments later, he heard a boom and saw shattered glass fly through the air.
“The balcony is totally wiped out, as well as the windows and the doors,” he said, describing the damage to his apartment as he stood in the dark in the middle of the night. He smoked a cigarette to calm his nerves while firefighters worked to extinguish the flames.
The air raid alert in Kyiv lasted more than seven hours overnight, warning of incoming missiles and drones.
Prior to the attack, city mayor Vitalii Klitschko warned Kyiv residents of more than 20 Russian strike drones heading toward Kyiv. As the attack continued, he said drone debris fell on a shopping mall and a residential building in Obolon district of Kyiv. Emergency services were headed to the site, Klitschko said.
The prisoner swap Friday was the first phase of a complicated deal involving the exchange of 1,000 prisoners from each side.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the first phase brought home 390 Ukrainians, with further releases expected over the weekend that will make it the largest swap of the war. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it received the same number from Ukraine.
The swap took place at the border with Belarus in northern Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The released Russians were taken to Belarus for medical treatment, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
As the freed men entered the medical facility Friday, people holding signs and photos of their relatives shouted names or brigade numbers, seeking any news of a loved one.
“Vanya!” cried Nataliia Mosych, among the gathered relatives, “My husband!”
The exchange, the latest of dozens of swaps since the war began and the biggest involving Ukrainian civilians at one time, didn’t herald any halt in fighting.
Battles continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed, and neither country has relented in its deep strikes.
After the May 16 Istanbul meeting, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called the prisoner swap a “confidence-building measure” and said the parties had agreed in principle to meet again.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that there has been no agreement yet on the venue for the next round of talks to end the fighting as diplomatic maneuvering continued.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday night that Moscow would give Ukraine a draft document outlining its conditions for a “sustainable, long-term, comprehensive” peace agreement once the ongoing prisoner exchange had finished.
European leaders have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts while he tries to press his larger army’s battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.
The Istanbul meeting revealed that both sides remained far apart on key conditions for ending the fighting. One such condition for Ukraine, backed by its Western allies, is a temporary ceasefire as a first step toward a peaceful settlement.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had shot down 788 Ukrainian drones away from the battlefield between May 20 and May 23.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 175 Shahed and decoy drones, as well as a ballistic missile since late Thursday.