ON BOARD A TRAIN FROM SUMY TO KYIV, Ukraine: A team of journalists from the AP spent two days traveling by train with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he visited the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, which still faces regular shelling from Russian forces, and northern towns in the Sumy region that were liberated shortly after the war began a year ago.
The AP is the first news organization to travel extensively with Zelensky since the war began. Here are some takeaways from an interview with Zelensky as he returned to Kyiv late Tuesday.
WESTERN WEAPONS
Throughout much of the war, Ukraine’s military has been bolstered by billions of dollars of ammunition and weaponry from Western nations. Zelensky welcomed the help but said some of the promised weapons had not yet been delivered.
“We have great decisions about Patriots, but we don’t have them for real,” he said, referring to the US-made air defense system.
Ukrainian soldiers have received training in the US since January on how to use the Patriot system, but it hasn’t yet been deployed in Ukraine.
Ukraine needs 20 Patriot batteries to protect against Russian missiles, and even that may not be enough “as no country in the world was attacked with so many ballistic rockets,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky added that a European nation sent another air defense system to Ukraine, but it didn’t work and they “had to change it again and again.” He did not name the country.
Zelensky also reiterated his longstanding request for fighter jets, saying “we still don’t have anything when it comes to modern warplanes.” Poland and Slovakia have decided to give Soviet-era fighter jets to Ukraine, but no Western country so far has agreed to provide modern warplanes amid concern that it could escalate the conflict and draw them in deeper.
PUTIN’S ISOLATION
Zelensky was unsparing in his assessment of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, calling him an “informationally isolated person” who had “lost everything” over the last year of war.
“He doesn’t have allies,” Zelenskky said, adding that it was clear that even China — an economic powerhouse long favorable toward Moscow — was no longer willing to back Russia. Chinese President Xi Jinping recently visited Putin i n Russia but left without publicly announcing any overt support for Moscow’s campaign against Ukraine.
Zelensky suggested that Putin’s announcement shortly after Xi’s visit that he would move tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, closer to NATO territory, was meant to deflect from the fact that the Chinese leader’s visit did not go well. Putin said the move was a counter to Britain’s decision to provide more depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine.
Despite Putin’s nuclear provocations, Zelenskky said he does not believe the Russian leader is prepared to use the bomb.
“If a person wants to save himself, he really ... will use these,” he said. “I’m not sure he’s ready to do it.”
AVOIDING A NUCLEAR DISASTER
On Zelensky’s itinerary this week was a meeting with Rafael Mariano Grossi, the visiting head of the UN’s atomic energy agency. Grossi was in the region to take stock of the situation at the nearby Zaporizhizhia Nuclear Power Plant, which Russia took control of last year.
Fierce fighting around the plant, Europe’s largest, has put the facility and the broader region at significant risk. During his meeting with Zelensky on Monday, Grossi said the situation was not improving.
Grossi has called for a “protection zone” around the plant but has failed to come up with terms that would satisfy both Ukraine and Russia. Grossi told the AP on Tuesday he believed a deal was “close.” However, Zelensky, who opposes any plan that would legitimize Russia’s control over the facility, said he was less optimistic a deal was near. “I don’t feel it today,” he said.
THE FIGHT FOR BAKHMUT
The longest battle of the war is raging in the eastern city of Bakhmut, where Ukrainian and Russian forces have been locked in a grinding conflict for seven months.
Some Western military analysts have questioned why Ukraine is willing to suffer so many losses to defend the territory, arguing that the city is not of strategic significance. Zelensky argued otherwise, saying any loss in the war will give Russia an opening. He predicted that if Russia defeats Ukraine in Bakhmut, Putin would set out to “sell” a victory to the international community.
“If he will feel some blood, smell that we are weak, he will push, push, push,” Zelensky said, adding that the pressure would come not only from the international community but also from within his own country.
“Our society will feel tired,” he said. “Our society will push me to have compromise with them.”
Zelensky recently made traveled near Bakhmut for a morale-boosting visit with troops fighting in the hard-hit city.
CALLS FOR TOUGHER SANCTIONS
Western sanctions against Russia don’t go far enough, according to Zelensky, who called for more far-reaching measures against people in Putin’s inner circle.
More than 30 countries, representing more than half the world’s economy, have imposed sanctions on Russia, including price caps on Russian oil and restrictions on access to global financial transactions. The West has also directly sanctioned about 2,000 Russian firms, government officials, oligarchs and their families. More than $58 billion worth of sanctioned Russians’ assets have been blocked or frozen worldwide, according to a recent report from the US Treasury Department.
Zelensky said more should be done to target Putin’s enablers, who “have to know that they will lose all their money … all their real estate in Europe or in the world, their yachts everywhere.”
RIDING THE RAILS
Most of Zelensky’s travel in Ukraine is done by rail. There are few other options: Commercial air travel has been grounded and Ukraine’s expanse, as well as the unpredictability of life in a war-torn country, make road travel arduous.
The state railway system, however, has remained remarkably stable throughout the war and largely untouched by the constant barrage of Russian missiles. One notable exception: the April 2022 bombing of the crowded Kramatorsk train station that killed dozens of people.
Though Zelensky rides on a train set aside for him and his delegation, it is largely indistinguishable on the outside from the blue-and-yellow trains ferrying other people and goods across the country. Most Ukrainians barely looked up to acknowledge Zelensky’s train as it zipped through towns across the countryside, passing picturesque fields and the occasional bombed-out building or bridge.
Volodymyr Zelensky: Russia’s Vladimir Putin has ‘lost everything’ over the last year of war with Ukraine
https://arab.news/neqt5
Volodymyr Zelensky: Russia’s Vladimir Putin has ‘lost everything’ over the last year of war with Ukraine
- Ukraine’s military has been bolstered by billions of dollars of ammunition and weaponry from Western nations
- Volodymyr Zelensky on Vladimir Putin: He is an ‘informationally isolated person’
Ivory Coast is losing US aid as Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups are approaching
- In Kimbirila-Nord, US funding helped young people get job training, built parks for cattle to graze so they are no longer stolen by jihadis on Malian territory
- In 2019, President Donald Trump signed the Global Fragility Act that led to the initiatives in northern Ivory Coast
- In January, Trump ordered a freeze on foreign assistance and a review of all US aid and development work abroad
KIMBIRILA-NORD, Ivory Coast: With its tomato patches and grazing cattle, the Ivory Coast village of Kimbirila-Nord hardly looks like a front line of the global fight against extremism. But after jihadis attacked a nearby community in Mali five years ago and set up a base in a forest straddling the border, the US committed to spending $20 million to counter the spread of Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group here and in dozens of other villages.
The Trump administration’s sweeping foreign aid cuts mean that support is now gone, even as violence in Mali and other countries in the Sahel region south of the Sahara has reached record levels and sent tens of thousands refugees streaming into northern Ivory Coast.
Locals worry they have been abandoned. Diplomats and aid officials said the termination of aid jeopardizes counterterrorism efforts and weakens US influence in a part of the world where some countries have turned to Russian mercenaries for help.
In Kimbirila-Nord, US funding, among other things, helped young people get job training, built parks for cattle to graze so they are no longer stolen by jihadis on Malian territory, and helped establish an information-sharing system so residents can flag violent encounters to each other and state services.
“What attracts young people to extremists is poverty and hunger,” said Yacouba Doumbia, 78-year-old chief of Kimbirila-Nord. “There was a very dangerous moment in 2020. The project came at the right time, and allowed us to protect ourselves.”
“Seize a narrow prevention window”
Over the last decade, West Africa has been shaken by extremist uprisings and military coups. Groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group have conquered large areas and killed thousands in the Sahel and have been spreading into wealthier West African coastal states, such as Ivory Coast, Benin and Togo.
In 2019, President Donald Trump signed the Global Fragility Act that led to the initiatives in northern Ivory Coast. The US goal in this area was to “seize a narrowing prevention window,” according to this year’s congressional report about the implementation of the bipartisan legislation.
Experts say local concerns help drive the popularity of extremist groups: competition for land and resources, exclusion, marginalization and lack of economic opportunities. Across the region, Islamic extremists have recruited among groups marginalized and neglected by central governments.
“Ivory Coast is one of the few countries that still resist the terrorist threat in the Sahel,” said a UN official working in the country who was not authorized to speak on the matter publicly. “If we do not continue to support border communities, a minor issue could send them into the arms of extremists.”
Trump issued an executive order in January directing a freeze on foreign assistance and a review of all US aid and development work abroad. He charged that much of foreign aid was wasteful and advanced a liberal agenda.
“Everyone was just looking out for themselves”
In 2020, when the jihadis struck a Malian village 10 kilometers (6 miles) away, Kimbirila-Nord in many ways fit the description of a community susceptible to extremism.
The lives of Malians and Ivorians were intertwined. People crossed the border freely, making it easy for extremists, who like residents spoke Bambara, to access Kimbirila-Nord. Many residents did not have identity cards and few spoke French, leaving them with no access to states services or official information. Different ethnic groups lived next to each other but were divided by conflicts over scarce natural resources and suspicions toward the state. And young people did not have opportunities to make money.
“We were very scared” when the extremists attacked, said Aminata Doumbia, the head of the village’s female farmers cooperative. “Everyone was just looking out for themselves.”
The Ivorian government runs a program that provides professional training, grants and microloans. But access is difficult in villages such as Kimbirila-Nord.
Kimbirila-Nord is home to refugees from Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea. Sifata Berte, 23, fled there with his family two years ago from Mali. He is not eligible for the government-run program, but got training through the project funded by the US Agency for International Development and now works as an apprentice in an iron workshop.
Other things the USAID-funded project set up included a network of community radios in local languages, so people could get access to information. It also used mobile government trucks to help tens of thousands of people across the region get their identity documents. And it brought people together with microcredit cooperatives and with a special committee of ranchers and farmers that helps resolve tensions over land.
“It’s thanks to the project that we can sleep at night,” Doumbia, the village chief, said. “We learned how to be together.”
Equal Access International, an international nonprofit, designed and implemented the US-funded project.
The USAID project also has been the only direct source of information on the ground in northern Ivory Coast on violent events for the US-based Armed Conflict and Location & Event Data Project, the main provider of data on violence in the Sahel.
The village had big plans
Ivory Coast became known as a target for extremists in 2016, when an attack on the seaside resort of Grand Bassam killed tourists. In 2021, a string of attacks occurred near the country’s northern border, but the violence has been largely contained after Ivorian authorities, Western governments and aid groups rushed into this impoverished and isolated part of the country with military build up and development projects.
In 2024, the US Africa Command provided over $65 million to projects in Ivory Coast, most of which “focused on counterterrorism and border security” in the northern part of the country, according to the group’s website. The Pentagon said in a statement that it was “not aware of any budget cuts that have undermined counterterrorism training or partnership programs in Africa.”
Ivory Coast has the second-highest GDP per capita in West Africa, but according to the UN it remains one of the world’s least developed countries. Many in remote villages like Kimbirila-Nord do not have access to running water.
“At first we thought that we only had to solve these problems with a military solution,” Famy Rene, the prefect of Korhogo, the region’s capital, said. “But we saw that this was not enough. We had to put in place programs that strengthen the resilience of the population.”
Residents of Kimbirila-Nord had big plans before the US froze aid. The US was supposed to finance the first well in the village, help create a collective farm, and expand vocational training,
Now they fear they have been left alone to deal with extremists.
“If you forget, they will come back,” said Doumbia, the village chief. “As long as there is war on the other side of the border, we must remain on a high alert.”
Trump administration deports hundreds of immigrants even as a judge orders their removals be stopped
Trump administration deports hundreds of immigrants even as a judge orders their removals be stopped
- The bar on deportations stands for up to 14 days and the immigrants will remain in federal custody during that time
The Trump administration has transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration targeting Venezuelan gang members, officials said Sunday. Flights were in the air at the time of the ruling.
US District Judge James E. Boasberg issued an order Saturday blocking the deportations but lawyers told him there were already two planes with immigrants in the air — one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras. Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not and he did not include the directive in his written order.
“Oopsie…Too late,” Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a Trump ally who agreed to house about 300 immigrants for a year at a cost of $6 million in his country’s prisons, wrote on the social media site X above an article about Boasberg’s ruling. That post was recirculated by White House communications director Steven Cheung.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who negotiated an earlier deal with Bukele to house immigrants, posted on the site: “We sent over 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua which El Salvador has agreed to hold in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars.”
Steve Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, said that Boasberg’s verbal directive to turn around the planes was not technically part of his final order but that the Trump administration clearly violated the “spirit” of it.
“This just incentivizes future courts to be hyper specific in their orders and not give the government any wiggle room,” Vladeck said.
The Department of Justice in court papers filed Sunday said some immigrants were already out of the country by the time the hold was issued Sunday night. The department added that it has appealed the order and would use other laws for deportations in coming days if the appeal is not successful.
The immigrants were deported after Trump’s declaration of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which has been used only three times in US history.
The law, invoked during the War of 1812 and World Wars I and II, requires a president to declare the United States is at war, giving him extraordinary powers to detain or remove foreigners who otherwise would have protections under immigration or criminal laws. It was last used to justify the detention of Japanese-American civilians during World War II.
A Justice Department spokesperson on Sunday referred to an earlier statement from Attorney General Pam Bondi blasting Boasberg’s ruling and didn’t immediately answer questions about whether the administration ignored the court’s order.
Venezuela’s government in a statement Sunday rejected the use of Trump’s declaration of the law, characterizing it as evocative of “the darkest episodes in human history, from slavery to the horror of the Nazi concentration camps.”
Tren de Aragua originated in an infamously lawless prison in the central state of Aragua and accompanied an exodus of millions of Venezuelans, the overwhelming majority of whom were seeking better living conditions after their nation’s economy came undone last decade. Trump seized on the gang during his campaign to paint misleading pictures of communities that he contended were “taken over” by what were actually a handful of lawbreakers.
The Trump administration has not identified the immigrants deported, provided any evidence they are in fact members of Tren de Aragua or that they committed any crimes in the United States. It did also send two top members of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang to El Salvador who had been arrested in the United States.
Video released by El Salvador’s government Sunday showed men exiting airplanes into an airport tarmac lined by officers in riot gear. The men, who had their hands and ankles shackled, struggled to walk as officers pushed their heads down to have them bend down at the waist.
The video also showed the men being transported to prison in a large convoy of buses guarded by police and military vehicles and at least one helicopter. The men were shown kneeling on the ground as their heads were shaved before they changed into the prison’s all-white uniform – knee-length shorts, T-shirt, socks and rubber clogs – and placed in cells.
The immigrants were taken to the notorious CECOT facility, the centerpiece of Bukele’s push to pacify his once violence-wracked country through tough police measures and limits on basic rights
The Trump administration said the president actually signed the proclamation contending Tren de Aragua was invading the United States Friday night but didn’t announce it until Saturday afternoon. Immigration lawyers said that, late Friday, they noticed Venezuelans who otherwise couldn’t be deported under immigration law being moved to Texas for deportation flights. They began to file lawsuits to halt the transfers.
“Basically any Venezuelan citizen in the US may be removed on pretext of belonging to Tren de Aragua, with no chance at defense,” Adam Isacson of the Washington Office for Latin America, a human rights group, warned on X.
The litigation that led to the hold on deportations was filed on behalf of five Venezuelans held in Texas who lawyers said were concerned they’d be falsely accused of being members of the gang. Once the act is invoked, they warned, Trump could simply declare anyone a Tren de Aragua member and remove them from the country.
Boasberg barred those Venezuelans’ deportations Saturday morning when the suit was filed, but only broadened it to all people in federal custody who could be targeted by the act after his afternoon hearing. He noted that the law has never before been used outside of a congressionally-declared war and that plaintiffs may successfully argue Trump exceeded his legal authority in invoking it.
The bar on deportations stands for up to 14 days and the immigrants will remain in federal custody during that time. Boasberg has scheduled a hearing Friday to hear additional arguments in the case.
He said he had to act because the immigrants whose deportations may actually violate the US Constitution deserved a chance to have their pleas heard in court.
“Once they’re out of the country,” Boasberg said, “there’s little I could do.”
NASA’s stuck astronauts welcome their newly arrived replacements to the space station
- The four newcomers will spend the next few days learning the International Space Station's ins and outs
- The new crew floated in one by one to the station and were greeted with hugs and handshakes
FLORIDA: Just over a day after blasting off, a SpaceX crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, delivering the replacements for NASA’s two stuck astronauts.
The four newcomers — representing the US, Japan and Russia — will spend the next few days learning the station’s ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Then the two will strap into their own SpaceX capsule later this week, one that has been up there since last year, to close out an unexpected extended mission that began last June.
Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week when they launched on Boeing’s first astronaut flight. They hit the nine-month mark earlier this month.
The Boeing Starliner capsule encountered so many problems that NASA insisted it come back empty, leaving its test pilots behind to wait for a SpaceX lift.
While the seven space station residents prepared for the new arrivals, one of the Russians — Ivan Vagner — briefly put on an alien mask in a lighthearted moment. Wilmore swung open the space station’s hatch and rang the ship’s bell as the new crew floated in one by one and were greeted with hugs and handshakes..
“It was a wonderful day. Great to see our friends arrive,” Williams told Mission Control.
Wilmore’s and Williams’ ride arrived back in late September with a downsized crew of two and two empty seats reserved for the leg back. But more delays resulted when their replacements’ brand new capsule needed extensive battery repairs. An older capsule took its place, pushing up their return by a couple weeks to mid-March.
Weather permitting, the SpaceX capsule carrying Wilmore, Williams and two other astronauts will undock from the space station no earlier than Wednesday and splash down off Florida’s coast.
Until then, there will be 11 aboard the orbiting lab, representing the US, Russia and Japan.
59 dead in North Macedonia nightclub fire
SKOPJE: A fire tore through a nightclub in North Macedonia early Sunday, killing 59 people, apparently after on-stage fireworks set the place ablaze, authorities said, announcing arrest warrants for four people.
They said 155 injured people had been taken to hospitals across the country, 18 of them in critical condition. Some of the serious cases were to be taken to other European countries for treatment.
The blaze started in the Club Pulse in the eastern town of Kocani, as the place was packed with more than 1,000 mostly young fans attending a concert by a popular hip-hop duo called DNK.
“Initially we didn’t believe there was a fire. Then there was huge panic in the crowd and a stampede to get out,” one young woman told local media outside a hospital in the capital Skopje.
Fire crews and paramedics responded quickly and “tried to resuscitate people ... but it wasn’t enough,” said the woman, who was waiting outside for one of her friends, who was being treated for burns to his hand.
The fire was probably caused by the use of pyrotechnic devices “used for light effects at the concert,” said Interior Minister Pance Toskovski, who visited the scene with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski.
“Sparks caught the ceiling, which was made of easily flammable material, after which the fire rapidly spread across the whole discotheque, creating thick smoke,” Toskovski said.
The Interior Ministry announced that arrest warrants had been issued for four people in relation to the tragedy, and a criminal investigation opened.
“There are 59 persons deceased of which 35 are identified. Of the identified, 31 persons are from Kocani and four from Stip,” Toskovski said.
“The number of wounded, according to latest information up to noon, is 155 persons who are in hospitals across the country,” Toskovski said.
“Preparations are being made to transport people seriously injured in the fire in Kocani to top hospitals in several European countries,” the head of North Macedonia’s Crisis Center, Stojanche Angelov, said.
The head of the Kocani hospital, Kristina Serafimovska, told media that the patients being treated there were aged between 14 and 25.
“Seventy of the patients have burns and carbon monoxide poisoning,” she said.
One of the members of the DNK duo that had performed, Vladimir Blazev, had burns to his face and needed assistance breathing, his sister told local media outlets.
“This is a difficult and very sad day” for the country, Mickoski wrote on his Facebook account.
“The loss of so many young lives is irreparable, and the grief of their families, their loved ones and their friends is immeasurable,” he said.
Rawalpindi’s century-old mosque offers spiritual sanctuary during holy month
- Markazi Jamia Masjid blends history, architecture and faith
- Surrounded by busy markets, the mosque is an architectural marvel and a retreat for devotees
- The foundations were laid in 1896 by Amanullah Khan, who later became king of Afghanistan
RAWALPINDI: Sheikh Sajid Mahmood, a Pakistani entrepreneur in his late 50s, basks in the winter sunshine after offering Dhuhr prayers at a mosque in the city of Rawalpindi. The tranquil appeal of the place of worship — a spiritual and cultural beacon — draws thousands like Mahmood, particularly during Ramadan.
Surrounded by busy markets and towering buildings, the Markazi Jamia Masjid, or central grand mosque, is an architectural marvel in Pakistan that not only offers a retreat to devotees, but also captivates visitors with its vibrant frescoes and intricate design, offering a glimpse into the rich religious and cultural heritage of Rawalpindi.
The mosque’s foundations were laid in 1896 by Amanullah Khan, who later became the king of Afghanistan, alongside a prominent local religious figure, Peer Mehar Ali Shah of Golra Sharif in Islamabad. Since its completion, the mosque has been a central place of worship for Muslims in the city, whose numbers multiply in Ramadan.
“I am from the second generation (of devotees praying here). I am almost 60 years old now. (We) get a lot of spiritual satisfaction by praying here,” Mahmood told Arab News, explaining how the vastness of the space provides a sense of serenity.
FASTFACT
Surrounded by busy markets and towering buildings, the Markazi Jamia Masjid offers a glimpse into the rich religious and cultural heritage of Rawalpindi.
“Look at the sunlight, there are rows of prayer mats laid out in the courtyard. You can also get an idea from this; smaller mosques are confined on the sides.”
Mufti Muhammad Siddiq-ul-Hasnain Sialvi, who leads prayers at the mosque, shares a “deep connection” with the place.
“This mosque is the largest in the Rawalpindi division, accommodating up to 7,000 worshippers,” he said. “The arrangements for (late night) Taraweeh prayers during Ramadan are excellent, and we also have a grand arrangement for iftar. A large number of people perform itikaf (or seclusion in the last 10 days of Ramadan) here as well.”
The Markazi Jamia Masjid’s architectural beauty blends elements of Mughal architecture with local designs. The main prayer hall, dominated by three domes and several minarets, reflects the grandeur of traditional Mughal architecture, featuring arches and intricate floral motifs. Local adaptations imbue the mosque with a unique identity that speaks of Rawalpindi’s heritage.
The interior walls are adorned with hand-painted frescoes, some of which have been meticulously restored over the years. The frescoes, with their detailed floral patterns and geometric symmetry, evoke the splendor of Mughal craftsmanship. Although some of the vibrant blues, reds and yellows have faded with time, they retain their beauty, telling the story of an era long past.
The mosque’s spacious courtyard is the heart of the complex, where worshippers gather before entering the prayer hall. During Ramadan, the worship place comes alive, especially during iftar and Taraweeh as the open space allows for a comfortable congregation, offering a welcoming environment for all.
“There is more rush here in Ramadan, the open courtyard makes it comfortable for people,” said Waqas Iqbal, a jeweler who regularly visits the mosque. “You don’t feel cramped, whether it’s summer or winter.”
But for Mahmood, the mosque is a sanctuary of peace.
“The open courtyard and the peaceful surroundings make it a special place to pray,” he said, explaining how the vastness of the space provides a sense of serenity that “smaller mosques often lack.”
More than just a place of worship, Rawalpindi’s Markazi Jamia Masjid offers visitors a chance to connect with the city’s past. Its management, which falls under the Punjab Auqaf and Religious Affairs Department, ensures the mosque undergoes maintenance every 10 to 15 years, so that it stays in pristine condition for future generations.
“Many prominent personalities have offered prayers in this grand mosque and the imam of Haram Sharif (Grand Mosque in Makkah) has visited and led prayers here,” said Sialvi, who added that all these factors make it a special place for the residents of the neighborhood and an honor for Rawalpindi.
