KYIV: Four Western leaders arrived in Kyiv on Saturday to show solidarity with Ukraine on the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, which has cost tens of thousands of lives and ravaged the country’s economy.
The prime ministers of Italy, Canada and Belgium — Giorgia Meloni, Justin Trudeau and Alexander De Croo — traveled with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on an overnight train from neighboring Poland.
Their presence was designed to underline the West’s commitment to helping Ukraine even as it suffers growing shortages of military supplies, impacting its performance on the battlefield where Moscow is grinding out territorial gains.
Von der Leyen wrote on the social media platform X that she was in Kyiv “to celebrate the extraordinary resistance of the Ukrainian people.” She added: “More than ever, we stand firmly by Ukraine. Financially, economically, militarily, morally. Until the country is finally free.”
Meloni and Trudeau are expected to sign security pacts with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during their brief stay, in line with deals recently agreed with France and Germany that are worth billions of dollars.
However, $61 billion in aid promised by US President Joe Biden is being blocked by Republicans in Congress, casting a long shadow over Kyiv’s hopes of pushing back the much larger, better supplied Russian military.
Biden is due to take part in a video conference call of fellow leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies on Saturday, which will be chaired by Meloni, with Zelensky invited to join the discussion.
Italy holds the rotating presidency of the G7 and organized the call, saying it was vital to challenge perceptions that the West had grown weary of the conflict and that Russia was winning.
When Russian tanks and infantry streamed across the border before dawn on Feb. 24, 2022, Ukraine’s 40 million people defied expectations — and the Kremlin’s best-laid plans — by holding them back and preventing a widely predicted defeat.
But as the war enters its third year, setbacks on the eastern front have left the Ukraine army looking vulnerable.
Seeking to maintain Western focus on Ukraine, even as the war between Israel and Hamas dominates headlines, Zelensky has warned that Russia, led by President Vladimir Putin, may not stop at Ukraine’s borders if it emerges victorious.
Putin dismisses such claims as nonsense. He casts the war as a wider struggle with the United States, which the Kremlin elite says aims to cleave Russia apart. The West sees the invasion as an unjustified act of aggression that must be repelled.
Old war and new
There will be events across Ukraine on Saturday to mark the anniversary, including a commemoration service for those who died in Bucha, north of Kyiv — scene of some of the worst alleged war crimes of the conflict.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general said on Friday it had launched investigations into more than 122,000 suspected war crimes cases in the last two years. Russia denies carrying them out.
The initial shock of the invasion gradually morphed into familiarity and then fatigue, as the world watched initial Russian gains and a stunning Ukrainian counteroffensive in late 2022 slow into grinding, attritional trench warfare.
In scenes reminiscent of the battlefields of World War One, soldiers under heavy artillery fire are dying in their thousands, sometimes for a few kilometers of land.
Both sides have developed huge and increasingly sophisticated fleets of air, sea and land drones for surveillance and attack, an unprecedented use of unmanned vehicles that could point the way to future conflicts.
Russia, with a much bigger population to replenish the army’s ranks and a larger military budget, might favor a drawn-out war, although the costs have been huge for Moscow as it seeks to navigate sanctions and a growing reliance on China.
Ukraine’s position is more precarious. Villages, towns and cities have been razed, troops are exhausted, ammunition is running low and Russian missiles and drones rain down almost daily.
Russia this month registered its biggest victory in nine months, capturing the eastern town of Avdiivka and ending months of deadly urban combat.
Yet Zelensky remained defiant ahead of the anniversary.
“I am convinced that victory awaits us,” he told diplomats in Kyiv this week in an emotional address. “In particular, thanks to unity and your support.”
Tens of thousands of troops have been killed on both sides and tens of thousands more wounded, while thousands of Ukrainian civilians have perished.
Rising costs
The scale of devastation in Ukraine is staggering.
A recent World Bank study said that rebuilding Ukraine’s economy could cost nearly $500 billion. Two million housing units have been damaged or destroyed, and nearly 6 million people have fled abroad.
In addition to raising money and arms to continue the war, Zelensky is pushing legislation through parliament allowing Ukraine to mobilize up to half a million more troops — a target some economists say could paralyze the economy.
Russia’s finances have proved resilient so far to unprecedented sanctions. While natural gas exports have slumped, shipments of oil have held up, thanks largely to Indian and Chinese buying.
Russia’s GDP expanded 3.6 percent in 2023, although some Russia-based economists warned that this was driven by a leap in defense spending and that stagnation or recession loom.
That will not jeopardize Putin’s victory in elections in March, which he is set to win by a landslide amid broad support for his performance and for the war, described by the Kremlin as a “special military operation.”
In the last two years, authorities have cracked down hard on any form of dissent over the conflict. On Feb. 16, Putin’s most formidable domestic opponent, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 30-year sentence.
On Friday, Putin addressed troops fighting in Ukraine as Russia marked Defender of the Fatherland Day, hailing them as heroes battling for “truth and justice.”
He laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier at the foot of the Kremlin wall to honor those who have died in battle.
Western leaders in Kyiv to show support on war anniversary
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Western leaders in Kyiv to show support on war anniversary

- Four Western leaders in Kyiv to show solidarity
- Biden to join G7 video conference, Zelensky invited
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

- 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

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

- 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.
Hong Kong to open universities to more foreign students after US ban

- Trump's administration moves to ban foreign students from enrolling into Harvard university.
- Hong Kong local universities are now relaxing their measures in a bid to attract more foreign students after Washington's decision.
HONG KONG: Hong Kong has said it will open its universities to more international students, highlighting those affected by the US government’s move this week to block Harvard from enrolling foreign nationals.
The sharp escalation in US President Donald Trump’s longstanding feud with the prestigious university came as tensions simmer between Washington and Beijing over trade and other issues.
The Trump administration’s decision on Thursday — which was temporarily halted by a US judge after Harvard sued — has thrown the future of thousands of foreign students and the lucrative income stream they provide into doubt.
On Friday, Hong Kong Education Secretary Christine Choi called on universities in the Chinese city to welcome “outstanding students from all over the world.”
“For international students affected by the United States’ student admission policy, the Education Bureau (EDB) has appealed to all universities in Hong Kong to provide facilitation measures for eligible students,” Choi said in a statement, noting the ban on Harvard’s admission of international students.
She said local universities were making use of government measures, including relaxing the maximum limits on foreign students to attract more to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on Friday invited international students enrolled at Harvard, as well as anyone with offers to attend the elite school, to continue their studies at HKUST.
“HKUST is extending this opportunity to ensure talented students can pursue their educational goals without disruption,” it said in a statement.
The university “will provide unconditional offers, streamlined admission procedures, and academic support to facilitate a seamless transition for interested students,” it added.
Harvard is ranked number one in US News and World Report’s most recent list of the world’s top universities, while HKUST is 105 out of more than 2,000 ranked.
President Trump is furious at Harvard for rejecting his administration’s push for oversight on admissions and hiring amid his claims the school is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and “woke” liberal ideology.
A US judge on Friday halted the administration’s move to prevent Harvard from admitting foreign students after the university sued, calling the government’s action unlawful.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that the administration’s decision would hold Harvard “accountable for fostering violence, anti-Semitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.”
Beijing condemned the “politicization of educational cooperation,” adding that the move by Washington would “only harm the image and international standing of the United States.”
Around 1,300 Chinese students are enrolled at Harvard, around a fifth of its international student body, according to university data.
Hundreds of thousands more attend other US colleges and universities, long viewed by many in China as beacons of academic freedom and rigour.