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'Fugitive' Ukrainian Soldier Shot At Moldovan Border
![More than 23,000 Ukrainian men have crossed the border illegally into neighboring Moldova since Russian troops poured into Ukraine in February 2022. (file photo)](https://gdb.rferl.org/051f0000-0aff-0242-8be6-08da189586fe_w250_r1_s.jpg)
Ukraine's main investigative office said on July 15 that it was looking into the circumstances surrounding the death in the Odesa region of a serviceman who it suggested was shot after going AWOL and trying to get to Moldova illegally along with three other men.
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The incident comes with Ukrainian officials pressing conscription and other measures to bolster their fighting forces as the full-scale Russian invasion nears its 30th month.
The State Bureau of Investigations (DBR) said border guards detained the dead man and three other "fugitives" as they tried to cross the border into Moldova by foot on July 14.
It said one of the detainees attacked a border guard "while trying to escape."
"In response, he used a service weapon and shot the assailant," the investigators said.
The agency said its investigation was based on the death of a serviceman and was intended to clarify whether the guard used appropriate force.
More than 23,000 Ukrainian men have crossed the border illegally into neighboring Moldova since Russian troops poured into Ukraine in February 2022 in Europe's first all-out army invasion since World War II.
As part of early defense efforts, Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 59 were banned from leaving the country.
In April, Ukrainian officials lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25.
To address a shortfall in troops, hundreds of thousands of whom are thought to have been killed or wounded so far in the war, they also required men to update their draft registration information.
They also imposed pressure and punishments on Ukrainians abroad who refused to register for possible military service.
Ukrainian border officials have detained small numbers of individuals trying to leave the country into Moldova.
They reported the deaths of at least a dozen people this year who were trying to cross a western river on the border between the two countries.
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Bodies Of 17 Dead Found Amid Wreckage Of Russian Helicopter in Kamchatka
![A photo from Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry shows the site of the deadly helicopter crash in Kamchatka on August 31.](https://gdb.rferl.org/eda8e85f-53a9-4d5e-ba75-ef78e29ce190_w250_r1_s.jpg)
The bodies of 17 dead were recovered on September 1 amid the wreckage of a civilian Mi-8 helicopter that disappeared the previous day in Russia’s Kamchatka region with 22 on board. The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said all 22 -- 19 passengers and three crew -- were presumed dead. The state-run TASS news agency said the helicopter crashed into a hill. Officials said the helicopter belonged to the Vityaz-Aero airline, which has been engaged in passenger and tourist transportation for 15 years. Authorities said a criminal investigation into possible safety violations was under way. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Russian Service, click here.
Crash Of Raisi Helicopter Caused By Weather, Iranian Military's Report States
![Rescue crews work at the crash site of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's helicopter on May 20.](https://gdb.rferl.org/01000000-0aff-0242-a3e3-08dc789df5f2_cx0_cy5_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
The deadly May 19 crash of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was due to "complex climatic and atmospheric conditions," including heavy fog, the "final" report issued by a special commission said on September 1. The report by the general staff of the armed forces ruled out the possibility of the helicopter being targeted with "offensive and defense systems, electronic warfare, and the creation of magnetic fields and lasers." An August 22 report by the semiofficial Fars news agency said the helicopter had been "overweight," but the general staff rejected that claim and did not mention the weight issue in its latest report. Raisi and seven others were killed when the helicopter crashed on its way to the city of Tabriz on May 19 in heavy fog as it crossed a mountainous and forested area. To read the original report by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, click here.
Pakistan Military Says Army Officer, 3 Others Freed After Being Abducted By Insurgents
![A video grab shows Pakistani Lieutenant Colonel Khalid Ameer, who was abducted by insurgents on August 28. The officer and three family members were later freed, the military said.](https://gdb.rferl.org/01000000-0a00-0242-1450-08dcca5734fc_cx1_cy1_cw96_w250_r1_s.jpg)
Pakistan’s military said on August 31 that four people -- including an army officer -- who had been abducted by insurgents three days earlier had been freed and were “safe at home.” In a brief statement, officials did not release full details but said their “safe and unconditional” release was “secured due to a role played by tribal elders and local notables.” Lieutenant Colonel Khalid Ameer was abducted on August 28 while in a mosque after attending his father's funeral, according to local police. Three members of his family were also seized in an action claimed by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan militants. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal, click here.
- By Andy Heil
Azerbaijani Official Shocked At Armenia's Emergency Nuclear Shutdown, Questions 'Certain Technologies'
![Azerbaijani Deputy Minister Of Energy Elnur Soltanov (file photo)](https://gdb.rferl.org/01000000-c0a8-0242-b856-08dcca7d238d_cx0_cy4_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
PRAGUE -- Azerbaijan’s deputy minister for renewable energy has expressed surprise at the emergency weekend suspension of operations at a nuclear plant in neighboring Armenia and hinted at concerns over “certain technologies that Armenians are using currently.”
Deputy Minister Elnur Soltanov warned in the comments to RFE/RL on September 1 that “nuclear plants in the neighborhood” might not be up to world standards and “it’s not just Armenia that will suffer” in the event of an accident.
The comments follow the emergency shutdown and temporary disconnection from the grid of Caucasus neighbor Armenia’s only functioning nuclear reactor, at Metsamor, after a lightning strike late on August 30. The facility was put back online the next day.
Soltanov was speaking to RFE/RL on the sidelines of the Globsec security conference in Prague early on September 1.
Approached as he left a panel discussion on navigating climate change and the upcoming UN climate conference, COP29, which his country is hosting in November, Soltanov was initially unclear what “crisis” he was being asked about.
Informed that neighboring "Armenia's only nuclear power plant suffered a safety-related shutdown" about 36 hours earlier, he said, “Really? I have no idea. Oh my God.”
Soltanov continued to discuss the COP29 cooperation including “mutual support” that resulted in the lifting of Armenia’s veto on Baku hosting the event.
Then he argued the importance of nuclear technology in the climate fight as “sine qua non” to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
“But it has to be secure. It has to be safe. It should be answering the global standards,” Soltanov said.
“Because we know what happened in certain technologies that Armenians are using currently. So in that sense, yes. Anything that is constructively contributing to the process, pushing the situation to the world standards, which we believe that may not be the case with the nuclear plants in the neighborhoods, would be very great.”
“Because…it's not just Armenia that will suffer, right?” Soltanov said. “Everybody will suffer, and the consequences could be dire for everybody.”
Armenia’s only nuclear power plant is located 36 kilometers from the capital, Yerevan, and is less than 100 kilometers from Azerbaijani territory.
The plant’s initial Soviet-era construction with VVER-440 plant technology with no secondary containment building and with technology designed to withstand quakes of limited magnitude was controversial in a region regarded as heavily earthquake-prone.
Both of Metsamor’s reactors were closed in the late 1990s but Armenia reopened one of them in 1995 as energy demand grew.
Longtime bitter foes Armenia and Azerbaijan are currently locked in tough discussions around a possible peace treaty following Azerbaijan’s decisive operation to retake Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas controlled for decades by Yerevan-backed ethnic Armenians.
Soltanov has been deputy energy minister since 2018 responsible for renewable energy and energy efficiency.
He was also appointed chief executive officer for the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP29, which Baku will host in mid-November.
Voting Ends In Azerbaijani Elections Amid Reports Of Irregularities
![Voters line up to cast their ballots at a polling station in Baku on September 1.](https://gdb.rferl.org/3b64f9cd-183c-4cbe-bf86-3e2bfdb7ebd2_cx0_cy8_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
BAKU -- Voting has concluded in Azerbaijan’s first parliamentary elections since it reclaimed full control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, with reports of irregularities taking place at polling stations in the highly controlled electoral process.
The balloting offered Azerbaijan's 6 million-plus voters limited alternatives to loyalists of President Ilham Aliyev and came early in a fifth term built for decades on petro-wealth and carefully choreographed elections.
Although the outcome was never in doubt, one exit poll showed the ruling party winning 63 of 125 seats, down from 69 in the current legislature, the Milli Mejlis parliament, which is dominated by Aliyev’s New Azerbaijan party. Most of the rest belong to small pro-government parties or independents.
RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service said instances of alleged vote tampering were being reported. It posted several videos that appeared to show the same voters casting ballots more than once.
When asked by RFE/RL whether he had voted twice as it appeared in a video, a man in the Neftchala region refused to answer. A member of the election commission denied that a person had voted twice.
A woman in Baku and one in Sumgait were also filmed apparently voting twice. The woman filmed in Sumgait gave her name as Shahnaz Mammadova and indicated to RFE/RL that she had voted at two different voting stations and said she was sent by people from her work office.
An RFE/RL correspondent also filmed what appeared to be two people entering a single voting booth at the same time in the city of Sumgait.
An hour before polls closed, election officials reported a turnout of 33.8 percent.
The national election commission said 50 organizations would conduct observer missions. The largest observer contingent, from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, is scheduled to present its preliminary assessment of the election on September 2.
The Musavat party, the major opposition grouping, put forward 34 candidates for the election but only 25 of them were registered. The Republican Alternative opposition party has 12 candidates. The leading opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (AXCP) is staying away from "the government's masquerade of a fraudulent election" for the seventh straight time.
Aliyev was himself reelected to another seven-year term in a snap poll in February that was widely deemed to have been unfair and flawed.
Western observers have consistently criticized elections cementing Aliyev's reign as undemocratic, and Azerbaijani votes stretching back to 2003 and as recently as 2020 have been marred by violence.
Aliyev has sought a boost in popular support following Azerbaijan's victory over ethnic-Armenian separatist forces in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region in September 2023 in a lightning offensive.
Baku has been negotiating with Yerevan on a peace treaty looking to end decades of violence in the region.
With reporting by Reuters
Moscow Accuses Kyiv Of Launching Massive Drone Strike On Russia
![Ukrainian firefighters extinguish a blaze on September 1 after a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv.](https://gdb.rferl.org/c980f65d-c8fd-4225-a305-998a0c801ecd_cx0_cy8_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
Russian officials say Ukraine launched drone attacks early on September 1 targeting several regions of the country, including power and refinery plants in the Moscow and Tver regions.
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RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
The Russian Defense Ministry, quoted by the state-run TASS news agency, said 158 drones had been destroyed by the country’s arm defense systems. The ministry said on Telegram that the highest number -- 122 -- were downed over the regions of Kursk, Bryansk, Voronezh and Belgorod, which border Ukraine.
It was not possible to independently confirm the Russian reports.
In a Telegram post, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not confirm the drone attacks directly but said that “it is only fair that Ukrainians can respond to Russian terror exactly as necessary to stop it. Every day and every night our cities and villages are under enemy attack."
The barrage comes just days after Ukraine's energy infrastructure was targeted by over 200 Russian drones and missiles in one of the biggest such attacks. On September 1, Ukraine reported more Russian attacks in its eastern and southeastern regions.
It is also nearly a month since Ukraine went on the offensive in Russia's Kursk region, even as Russian troops are reported to be making advances in eastern Ukraine, especially in the Donetsk region.
Kyiv is urging Washington to lift restrictions on using allied-supplied weapons to strike deep inside Russia. Ukraine argues such strikes would greatly impede Moscow’ s ability to continue its attacks on Ukraine.
Senior officials from Zelenskiy's administration were in Washington last week, appealing to the United States for what Zelenskiy called, "capabilities to truly and fully" protect the country.
Early on September 1, loud blasts were reported near the Konakovo Power Station in the Tver region, one of the largest regional energy producers, according to the Baza Telegram news channel, which is close to Russia’s security services.
Five drones were destroyed over the Tver region, according to Igor Rudenya, the regional governor. He did not mention possible damage.
A Ukraine-launched drone was destroyed near the Moscow Oil Refinery, said the Russian capital's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin. There was no damage or threat to the refinery's production process, he said.
The refinery is owned by Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom.
Ukraine also allegedly attempted to strike the Kashira Power Plant in the Moscow region with three drones, Mikhail Shuvalov, the head of the Kashira city district said on Telegram. There was no fire, damage or casualties as a result of the attack, he said.
"Electricity is being supplied without problems," Shuvalov said.
At least nine drones were destroyed in Moscow and in the surrounding region, Sobyanin said.
Some 26 Ukraine-launched drones were destroyed over the border region of Bryansk in Russia's southwest, the region's governor, Aleksandr Bogomaz, said on Telegram.
More than 10 drones were destroyed over the Voronezh region and several were downed over the Kursk, Lipetsk, Ryazan and Tula regions, the governors of these regions said, according to Reuters.
No injuries or damage were reported as a result of the attacks. Russia rarely discloses the full extent of damage caused by Ukrainian air attacks.
In Ukraine overnight, eight drones were shot down out of 11 launched by Russia, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
One person was killed and four wounded in shelling in the Sumy region, local officials said, while in Kharkiv 13 people were wounded in intermittent shelling during the day, according to regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov.
With reporting by Reuters and AFP
Armenian Nuclear Plant Reconnected To Grid After Lightning Strike Shuts Down Facility
![The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP) in Metsamor (file photo).](https://gdb.rferl.org/1C95FDF7-EC6E-41A5-B9E1-E4E6E1CA59DB_cx0_cy5_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP) was reconnected to the grid on August 31 after being shut down a day earlier following a lightning strike, authorities said. The plant in Metsamor -- about 30 kilometers west of the capital, Yerevan -- was hit late on August 30 by the lightning strike, forcing its disconnection from the national grid. The Soviet-built plant, which features two reactors, generates 35-40 percent of Armenia’s electricity. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, click here.
- By dpa
Baltic States Commemorate 30 Years Since Russian Troop Withdrawal
![Estonian President Alar Karis highlighted the symbolic, political, and legal significance of the withdrawal of Russian troops from his country 30 years ago. (file photo)](https://gdb.rferl.org/930dd829-a5f5-438f-a42d-5092526c618c_cx0_cy4_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
Estonia and Latvia commemorated the 30th anniversary of the withdrawal of Russian troops from the two Baltic states with various events on August 31. In the Estonian capital, Tallinn, President Alar Karis, and in the Latvian capital, Riga, his Latvian counterpart Edgars Rinkrvics highlighted the symbolic, political, and legal significance of the events three decades ago. Both heads of state emphasized that without the troop withdrawal, neither genuine independence nor the path to the 2004 accession to the European Union and NATO defense alliance would have been possible. With the troop withdrawal, half a century of Russian military presence in the Baltics came to an end, a year after Russian forces had already withdrawn from Lithuania.
Moldova 'Confident' Of Democratic Vote Despite Warnings
![Moldovan Foreign Minister Mihail Popsoi speaks to RFE/RL at the Globsec security conference in Prague on August 31.](https://gdb.rferl.org/01000000-0a00-0242-e1e9-08dcc9e105df_w250_r1_s.jpg)
Foreign Minister Mihai Popsoi has expressed confidence that Moldovan authorities and society can ensure smooth and democratic elections despite fears of Russian meddling when voters go to the polls in three months to pick a president and weigh in on EU aspirations.
Senior Moldovan officials have repeatedly accused Moscow of hybrid and other attempts to undermine the pro-Western government in Chisinau -- including through covert operations and influence campaigns -- since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in early 2022.
Reform-minded President Maia Sandu is running for reelection on October 20 in a vote that will coincide with a referendum asking Moldovans if they want the pursuit of EU membership enshrined in the constitution.
“We are confident…like in previous elections, when we've had challenges, but we've always had democratic elections,” Popsoi told RFE/RL at the Globsec security conference in Prague on August 31, after acknowledging the perceived risk from Russian and pro-Russian elements.
“And democratic standards for elections are sacrosanct in Moldova,” he added.
The United States, in particular, has warned of alleged Russian plans to use disinformation to interfere in the October voting to derail Moldova’s significant progress on reforms.
Moldova lies between Ukraine and Romania and has been riven for decades by a pro-Russian breakaway leadership in its Transdniester region, where Russia maintains hundreds of troops at a former Soviet weapons depot.
“We are working with our electorate, campaigning, explaining, the risks and the threats that Moldova faces in a democratic environment, in a competitive democratic space, which unfortunately the pro-Russian candidates would not be able to enjoy in Russia,” Popsoi said.
Moldovan authorities initially banned a party founded by fugitive businessman Ihan Shor, a 37-year-old entrepreneur convicted in Moldova of masterminding the theft in 2014 of around $1 billion in banking assets who has since resettled in Russia.
But critics have also suggested that pro-Russian parties are trying to unseat Sandu and her allies but also use the threat of unrest to destabilize the vote.
“Of course there might be attempts, but as long as there is a democratic election, our citizens have learned through many iterations to accept the outcomes of elections,” Popsoi said. “You may not like it, but it's a democratic election.”
U.S. officials have said the election will be "historic and pivotal" for the country of around 3 million people.
“We are optimistic that our citizens, by and large the majority, know to make the difference between right and wrong,” Popsoi said. “And those that may be full victims to certain instrumentalizations by the Kremlin will not be large enough to cause any significant troubles.”
- By Krenare Cubolli and
- Andy Heil
Taking Heat From Allies, Kosovo President Blames 'Dark Forces'
![Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani speaks to RFE/RL's Kosovo Service in Prague on August 31.](https://gdb.rferl.org/01000000-0a00-0242-0b0b-08dcc9cb47c3_w250_r1_s.jpg)
PRAGUE -- Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani has defended her country’s right to protect its sovereignty in line with its constitution but acknowledged that the success and sustainability of those efforts depend on better cooperation with allies.
Kosovar authorities have increasingly imposed central authority over aspects of daily life in the north of the Balkan country where many Serbs, who are a majority locally, are resisting recognition of Kosovo’s independence, which was declared by its ethnic Albanian majority in 2008.
The moves have drawn blunt criticism from partly recognized Kosovo’s Western partners as being uncoordinated and unilateral and potentially harmful to decadelong international efforts to help normalize Serbian-Kosovar relations.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Kosovo Service at the Globsec security conference in Prague on August 31, Osmani cautioned against allowing "any dark force, any state that has malicious intentions toward Kosovo and the region, to create division between us and our allies.”
She was responding to criticism from the United States, the European Union, and Britain, Germany, and France over Kosovar security forces’ closure on August 30 of five so-called “parallel” facilities in majority-Serb municipalities.
“The situation in the north of Kosovo is very challenging, because according to the 2013 agreement, which requires all illegal structures to be dismantled, [those illegal structures] have been strengthened by [Serbian President Aleksandar] Vucic in this decade and have turned into mafia groups that challenge security and sovereignty but also the very lives of citizens living in the north of the country.”
Neighboring Serbia -- along with Russia, China, and a few EU member states -- does not recognize Kosovo’s sovereignty and continues to encourage Kosovar Serbs’ reliance on Belgrade for shadow institutions that Pristina calls illegal.
Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s government has called the shuttered facilities a violation of the country’s constitution and laws, an accusation that echoes recent crackdowns on the use of Serbian dinars and Serbian postal and bank outlets by the tens of thousands of ethnic Serbs in the area.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien this week urged Kurti once again to stop “uncoordinated actions that negatively affect our partnership.”
Washington has been among Pristina’s strongest allies since independence but has signaled increasing frustration with the Kurti government’s actions over the past 18 months, when violence has erupted that has pitted Serbs against Kosovar authorities and sometimes NATO KFOR peacekeepers.
"This separation, in the long term, costs Kosovo a lot,” Osmani told RFE/RL. “Kosovo has the opportunity to be successful in extending its sovereignty, together with its allies. More communication, more consultation, more coordination is required."
Serbian and others’ refusal to recognize Kosovo’s statehood costs Pristina deeply and blocks its integration into international institutions.
But a failure to resolve the impasse through the mediated dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina is also hindering Serbia’s EU accession efforts -- a point Vucic reiterated on August 31 was “a very difficult issue for us.”
Russia Pounds Kharkiv, Donetsk Regions As Ukraine Defense Chief Presses U.S. On Weapons
![Rescue crews work to extinguish a fire in a residential building following a missile attack in Kharkiv on August 30.](https://gdb.rferl.org/3dedfc5e-f9e2-4334-814d-8d12f840f3b9_cx0_cy10_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
Ukraine's Kharkiv and Donetsk regions continued to be hit by deadly strikes from Russia, even as Kyiv’s defense chief traveled to the Pentagon to maintain pressure on Washington to loosen restrictions on the use of U.S.-made long-range weapons and allow strikes deeper into Russia to stop Moscow from “killing our citizens.”
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine
RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, said on August 31 that a Russian guided bomb attack on a residential building killed two people and injured 10 others -- including children -- in the village of Cherkaska Lozova.
"Two women were killed. One was removed from the rubble, the other died in an ambulance," he said.
A day earlier, Synyehubov reported that at least seven people were killed and nearly 100 injured -- including at least 22 children -- when a Russian strike on Kharkiv hit a high-rise residential building and playground.
In the Donetsk region, five people were killed by Russian shelling on August 31 in Chasiv Yar, according to Vadym Filashkin, the head of the Donetsk regional government.
“Chasiv Yar -- is a city in which normal life has been impossible for more than two years. Don't turn yourself into a Russian target! Evacuate!” he wrote on Telegram.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on August 31 that its forces had captured the settlement of Verezamske, in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, part of incremental gains claimed by Moscow’s forces at a time when Ukrainian troops are operating in Russia's Kursk region following their surprise cross-border attack on August 6.
The reports could not immediately be confirmed.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, visiting the Pentagon, told CNN that the U.S. administration is still considering Kyiv’s request to lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons to hit deeper inside Russia, saying he has presented a list of proposed targets to senior U.S. officials.
“We have explained what kind of capabilities we need to protect our citizens against the Russian terror that Russians are causing us, so I hope we were heard,” Umerov said in the August 30 interview.
Umerov, who met on August 30 with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, told CNN that “we are showing that the airfields that they are using to hit our cities are within the range of deep strikes.”
“They’re killing our citizens. That’s why we want to deter them, we want to stop them, we don’t want [to] allow their aviation to come closer to our borders to bomb the cities,” he said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has pressed the United States and other allies to ease restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), saying the use of such weapons would allow Kyiv to strike sites inside Russia used by the Kremlin to launch attacks against civilian areas in Ukraine.
On August 26, he called on Ukraine's global allies to take "decisive action" after Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack on Kyiv and other cities across the country that damaged vital utilities.
The United States and other allies of Ukraine have placed restrictions on the use of the weapons over concerns that it could escalate the war.
Washington has signaled it has given its approval to Kyiv to strike over the border in response to Russian attacks into Ukraine but has resisted further loosening of restrictions.
“You’ve heard us say that the Ukrainians can use U.S. security assistance to defend themselves from cross-border attacks, in other words counterfire,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said this week.
“But as it relates to long-range strike, deep strikes into Russia, our policy has not changed,” he added.
Umerov also said the recent dismissal of Air Force chief Mykola Oleshchuk was “not related” to the crash of an F-16 fighter jet and was more related to a “rotation” of leadership.
“I would probably say that this is a rotation. These are two separate questions...at this stage, I would not link them," Umerov said.
"We are analyzing what happened [in regard to the crash]. We have also opened this case to our partners so that they can also analyze it and investigate it with us," he added.
Zelensky dismissed Oleshchuk from his post as commander of the Air Force on August 30, a move that came after Ukraine lost the first F-16 fighter jet provided by Western partners. The pilot was killed in the crash.
With reporting by Reuters
UN Vows To Remain Engaged In Afghanistan Despite Taliban's Latest Restrictions On Women
![UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric (file photo).](https://gdb.rferl.org/201866DC-AA55-4971-B7B9-7FC89327EAFD_w250_r1_s.jpg)
The United Nations said it will continue to engage with all parties in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, even after the hard-line rulers issued a “distressing” new morality law that severely bans women’s activities in public.
“We have been very vocal on the decision to further make women’s presence almost disappear in Afghanistan,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a news conference in New York on August 31.
“In terms of the contacts with the de facto authorities...we will continue to engage with all stakeholders in Afghanistan, including the Taliban.”
"We have always done so following our mandate. And I would say impartially and in good faith, always upholding the norms of the UN, pushing the messages of human rights and equality. And we will continue our work as mandated by the Security Council,” he added.
Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said on August 25 that the laws presented a “distressing vision” for Afghanistan’s future.
The laws expand the "already intolerable restrictions” on the rights of women and girls -- with “even the sound of a female voice” in public deemed a violation of morality laws.
The Taliban has attempted to police the public appearances and behavior of millions of Afghans, especially women, since seizing power in 2021.
Enforcement of the extremist group’s rules governing morality, including its strict Islamic dress code and gender segregation in society, was sporadic and uneven across the country.
But on August 21, the hard-line Islamist group formally codified into law its long set of draconian restrictions, triggering fear among Afghans of stricter enforcement.
The Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice imposes severe restrictions on the appearances, behavior, and movement of women. The law also enforces constraints on men.
Taliban leaders say the laws are based on their interpretation of Shari'a law.
Several leading Afghan clerics have come out publicly to oppose the latest restrictions.
Mawlawi Abdul Sami Ghaznavi, said it was the Taliban’s "responsibility to create favorable conditions for women's education."
On August 27, the UN Human Commission on Human Rights demanded that the "repressive law be immediately repealed."
"This is utterly intolerable," it said.
"We call on the de facto authorities to immediately repeal this legislation, which is in clear violation of Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law."
With reporting by AP
Report: U.S. Rejected Proposal To Send F-16 Technicians To Ukraine
![The White House deemed it too risky to send American technicians to help maintain F-16 fighter jets and other Western equipment in Ukraine.](https://gdb.rferl.org/01000000-c0a8-0242-4490-08dcc11f706c_w250_r1_s.jpg)
The White House rejected a Pentagon proposal to send U.S. specialist contractors to Ukraine to help maintain F-16 fighters and other Western military equipment over security concerns, unidentified U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal. The WSJ said the U.S. intelligence community considered the plan too risky as Russian could "target American contractors in Ukraine." Instead, the report said, U.S. officials hope responsibilities for servicing the F-16s will be taken up by European nations. At the end of July, Ukraine received six of the 80 F-16 fighters it had been promised, but without civilian technicians. On August 26, a U.S.-made F-16 crashed, killing the pilot, Ukraine’s military said. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.
- By Andy Heil
Montenegrin President Says EU Shares Early Outlook On Membership
![Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic attends the GLOBSEC regional security forum in Prague on August 31.](https://gdb.rferl.org/a3276cb4-3d3e-41aa-988a-2f04427a8b68_cx0_cy3_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
PRAGUE -- Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic predicted on August 31 that his Balkan nation of under a million people will join the European Union within the next five years.
He also told the audience at the Globsec security conference in the Czech capital that he had spoken with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen the previous day and suggested she agrees.
Von der Leyen addressed the same forum in Prague on August 30.
“Now I truly believe, and I think that she also believes, that Montenegro can and will become [an EU] member state during her mandate,” Milatovic said.
Von der Leyen was recently approved for a second five-year stint as president of the EU’s executive arm, which should keep her in the post into the latter half of 2029.
She has not publicly commented on any discussions this week with Milatovic.
Speaking on a separate panel on August 31, the EU special representative for the Serbia-Kosovo dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, said Montenegro's goal of accession in 2028 was "realistic."
Montenegro has been an EU candidate country since 2010 and has long been regarded as a front-runner for the first wave of bloc expansion since Croatia joined in 2013.
Momentum waned for years over enlargement despite Balkan enthusiasm as the bloc grappled with its own internal problems, but it has publicly increased since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began early in 2022.
Milatovic, 37, a former finance minister elected president in early 2023, suggested at a panel discussion beside Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic that “size matters” in terms of the bloc’s ability to absorb new members and Montenegro is the smallest of the Western Balkan aspirants.
But, describing himself as an “optimist” and Vucic a “pessimist” on EU enlargement, he also said Montenegro had been using the euro and aligning its foreign and security policies with the European Union for decades and been a NATO member since 2017.
Montenegro is the region’s only EU aspirant to have opened all of its negotiating chapters with the European Union, Milatovic said, although he acknowledged it had closed just three.
But Milatovic added that his country had passed key barometers on rule of law and “there is a hope that by the end of the year we will be able to close a few new chapters.”
Vucic Denies Close Ties To Putin, Says Serbia Is No 'Trojan Horse' For Russia
![Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic speaks at the Globsec regional security forum in Prague on August 31.](https://gdb.rferl.org/18bb8154-5cd8-4504-af57-57d043fabe1a_cx0_cy1_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
PRAGUE -- Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic denied having close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin and repeatedly batted back the notion that his EU candidate country was a “Trojan horse” for Moscow despite its refusal to join European sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine and other differences with the bloc.
Speaking at the Globsec conference in Prague on August 31, Vucic said he hadn’t met or spoken to Putin in at least the two and a half years since Russian troops rolled across the Ukrainian border in February 2022.
“There are no ‘both sides,’” Vucic said. “We are on the EU path. Yes, we have traditionally very good ties -- and we are not hiding it and I’m not ashamed of that -- with Russia; it has always been the case between Serbs and Russians.”
He said that, while he’d recently had a “great” conversation with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who was also in Prague this week, “Nobody in Europe agrees with me on this issue, but everybody in Europe understands my position.”
He added that he thinks Serbia has implemented its growth and reform agenda “better than anyone else.”
Serbia and Turkey are the only EU candidate countries that have avoided imposing sanctions on Russia.
Serbian officials, particularly current Vice Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin, have maintained close ties with Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine.
Alongside his Montenegrin counterpart in Prague, President Jakov Milatovic, Vucic called on his EU partners to show more trust in Serbia's intention to join.
He said the process depends not on Serbia's relations with Russia but primarily on normalizing relations with Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008. Belgrade does not recognize its former province’s sovereignty.
“Yes, we are on [an] EU path, and the biggest problem for Serbia…is our relationship with Pristina,” Vucic said. “It’s not all this stuff on Ukraine, because all these big political decisionmakers, they know everything.”
“It’s all about this, and this is a very difficult issue for us; everybody knows it,” Vucic said.
Kosovo and Serbia have been negotiating normalization since 2011 through the Brussels dialogue, supervised by the EU.
“The goal is to establish mutual trust between Serbia and the EU, not to view Serbia as a Russian ‘Trojan horse,’” Vucic said.
Vucic disagreed with Milatovic regarding the EU perspective. Milatovic took an “optimistic position,” predicting that Montenegro could become an EU member by 2029, while Vucic said Serbian integration would not be possible before 2030.
Kazakh Activists Say Facebook Accounts Blocked For Opposing Recycling Fees
![Kazakh civic activists say Facebook has sent their group repeated warnings over the content of their posts, possibly in response to government pressure. (file photo)](https://gdb.rferl.org/01000000-0aff-0242-ed76-08dcb511459a_cx0_cy5_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Members of a Facebook group that opposes expensive recycling fees imposed by the Kazakh government, especially those on cars and other vehicles, have had their accounts on the platform either removed or restricted, the group said, attributing the moves to government pressure.
Activists with the No To Recycling Fees (Nyetutilsboru) group authored a petition earlier this year calling for recycling fees on imported goods to be lowered to nominal rates, forcing a public hearing and a government review of the policy after the petition gained more than 50,000 signatures.
While the group has questioned all recycling fees, it is especially concerned about those imposed on cars and agricultural vehicles. The activists say that the charges have artificially inflated the cost of vehicles sold in Kazakhstan, benefiting only a small group of automakers whose factories they argue are not internationally competitive.
Kazakhstan's government cut recycling fees in half and effectively liquidated the private company set up to collect them in 2022, but they are still high by global standards, often amounting to thousands of dollars per vehicle.
After the July 15 hearing, Kazakhstan's Industry Ministry ruled to keep recycling fees on goods such as cars at their current levels, dismissing the group's arguments as baseless.
No To Recycling Fees activists have said that they would continue their campaign.
But they now complain that multiple administrators of their Facebook group have been forced to restore accounts or create new ones in recent weeks, while Facebook has sent the group repeated warnings over the content of their posts.
Administrator Vladimir Kim said on August 28 that he and four other administrators had lost access to their Facebook accounts over alleged copyright infringements.
"The Facebook office in [Kazakhstan] is simply following the authorities' orders," Kim wrote from a new account that he created this month.
Both Facebook and Instagram are owned by Meta, which did not respond to a request for comment.
A representative of the Culture and Information Ministry contacted by RFE/RL on August 29 denied any role in the removal and restriction of accounts related to the group.
Kazakhstan has a special agreement with Facebook that allows the government to remove content it deems "harmful."
Under the agreement, authorities in Kazakhstan can access Facebook's internal content-reporting system.
The joint agreement between Kazakhstan and Meta Platforms, reached in 2021, came after Astana threatened to block the social media giant's millions of local users. It is the first of its kind in Central Asia.
Iranian Police Commander Fired After Death In Custody
![A banner in the northern Iranian city of Langarud shows the deceased Mohammad Mirmusavi, who died in police custody.](https://gdb.rferl.org/01000000-0a00-0242-8160-08dcc8828f52_cx0_cy22_cw0_w250_r1_s.png)
Iran’s police force has fired the police commander in the city of Lahijan shortly after the death in custody of Mohammad Mirmusavi.
In announcement issued late on August 30, the national police command said the Lahijan commander was dismissed for “lack of sufficient supervision over the performance and behavior of employees.”
Earlier, rights activists published a video of Mirmusavi’s lifeless body and alleged that he had died “due to a severe beating.”
The August 30 police statement said officials were awaiting a final report on the “cause of the death of this citizen.”
A police statement earlier on August 30 said local police in the city in the northern Gilan Province had exhibited a “lack of anger control” in handling Mirmusavi. A police station commander and several officers were reportedly suspended.
Mirmusavi was arrested on August 24 after being involved in a fight. The Norway-based Kurdish rights group Hengaw said on August 28 that Mirmusavi died the day of his arrest, but it was not known whether his body had been handed over to relatives.
The incident occurred shortly before the second anniversary of the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died after being detained by Iran’s so-called morality police for allegedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress code.
Her death sparked national outrage and a wave of anti-government protests.
Javad Ruhi, who was involved in the Amini protests, died in custody under unclear circumstances in September 2023. Ruhi’s supporters said he had been told he would “never leave prison alive.”
Following Ruhi’s death, Amnesty International called for those responsible to be “criminally investigated and held to account,” adding that his “death in custody again exposes the Iranian authorities’ assault on the right to life.”
- By Andy Heil
Prague Backs Ukraine Defense On Russian Territory But Acknowledges 'Dilemma'
![Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky](https://gdb.rferl.org/01000000-0aff-0242-babc-08dc8c604559_w250_r1_s.jpg)
PRAGUE -- Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky has insisted Ukraine has a right to defend itself, including through attacks on Russian territory amid a debate over Western-imposed limits on the use of weaponry, but he acknowledged that Prague’s allies supplying the most sophisticated weapons face “strategic dilemmas.”
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Speaking on the second day of the Globsec security conference in Prague on August 31, the Czech Republic’s top diplomat also acknowledged broadly that there are “a lot of difficulties and a lot of divergences” ensuring that allies are on the same page.
“The Czech Republic has a very simple stance: Ukraine is a victim of aggression, and according to the UN Charter, the aggressor has the right to defend itself,” Lipavsky said. “This defense can logically also take place on the territory of the aggressor. That means the Czech Republic does not set any limits on the systems it provides, or on the weapons or ammunition it supplies, to what military equipment is supplied to Ukraine.”
Czech President Petr Pavel and outgoing EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell each argued publicly on August 30 for abandoning restrictions on how Ukraine can use donated weapons.
With the United States and Germany most notably said to be imposing such curbs, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly urged them and others to take "decisive action" and allow Ukraine to strike military targets deeper inside Russia with Western-provided weapons.
Earlier this month, Ukraine launched an incursion into Russian territory with Zelenskiy saying Russia "must feel what it has done."
“On the other hand,” Lipavsky said in Prague, “let's be realistic in that the most sophisticated weapons systems, which may have a long reach, or simply put the supplier into certain strategic dilemmas, do not flow from the Czech Republic. That means we do not [face] the questions that some of our allies have, for example.”
Russian aerial bombardments have devastated Ukraine’s power and other infrastructure and caused large numbers of civilian casualties throughout the country in the two-and-a-half-year full-scale invasion, although Moscow insists it does not target civilians.
“It's better if the plane with the missile or bomb doesn't even take off, to give an example, than trying to shoot down the plane or the missile that is targeting [Ukraine]. I think that is logical and Russia has no claim it can impose on Ukraine,” Lipavsky said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said a day earlier that Central Europe was “the beating heart of solidarity” since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
But the Czech Republic's neighbors -- and fellow EU and NATO members -- Slovakia and, especially, Hungary have resisted or, in Budapest’s case, refused to supply Kyiv with military aid despite widespread consensus among most members.
Lipavsky said the Czech stance “is absolutely clear and Czechia is committing to support Ukraine militarily, humanitarily, [and] politically as long as it is necessary for Ukraine to win.”
But he acknowledged that maintaining the kind of “solidarity” that von der Leyen referred to is a challenge even among Central Europeans, keeping allies like Hungary and Slovakia on side.
“We have to work on that. It is not easy,” Lipavsky told RFE/RL. “Here is a lot of difficulties and a lot of divergences. But this is the task, to keep them as close as possible.”
Civilian Helicopter Crashes In Russia's Kamchatka Region
![It's likely that the Mi-8 helicopter was carrying a group of tourists when it crashed. (file photo)](https://gdb.rferl.org/01000000-0aff-0242-75ec-08dbcf1843cc_cx0_cy9_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
A helicopter with 22 people on board has crashed in Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka region, Russia’s civil aviation agency reported on August 31. Rescue efforts were reportedly under way, although they were hampered by high winds. The 112 Telegram channel reported that the Mi-8 helicopter was flown by the Vityaz Aero company and likely was carrying a group of 19 tourists, as well as three crew members. Other Russian media reported that Russian Soccer Union Director Arseny Zamyatin and his wife may have been aboard the helicopter. Officials said a criminal investigation on suspected violations of safety regulations had been opened. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Russian Service, click here.
Russia Says Alleged Pro-Ukraine Mercenaries Detained In Venezuela
![Russia's Foreign Ministry has sought to pressure countries to arrest foreigners accused of having fought for Ukraine.](https://gdb.rferl.org/01000000-0aff-0242-e5df-08dc8a146009_cx0_cy10_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on August 30 that authorities in Venezuela had arrested two Colombian citizens believed to have served as mercenaries with the Ukrainian armed forces. The two men were reportedly heading back to Colombia with a stopover in Caracas. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has actively sought to detain foreign mercenaries around the world. Alleged mercenaries have been detained in Cuba, India, Syria, and other countries. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Russian Service, click here.
Poland Pressuring Belarus To Release Political Prisoners, Parliament Speaker Says
![The speaker of the Polish parliament, Szymon Hołownia (file photo)](https://gdb.rferl.org/01000000-0a00-0242-f76c-08dc10fdb469_cx0_cy7_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
PRAGUE -- Poland continues to pressure the Belarusian regime for the release of journalist Andrzej Poczobut and other political prisoners, the speaker of the Polish parliament (Sejm) said on August 30 at the Globsec security conference in Prague.
Poland is doing everything possible at the diplomatic level to send signals to authoritarian Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka that he must release political prisoners, Szymon Holownia said.
"If he wants the border crossings to be opened, if he wants to have transit corridors, he needs to cooperate with us on this issue," said Holownia in response to a question from RFE/RL. "We are trying to show that if he does not cooperate, the consequences for him, his regime, and his country will be very challenging."
Poland in 2023 closed all but one of its crossings with Belarus in response to the expulsion of several Polish diplomats from Minsk, as well as the sentencing of Poczobut to eight years in prison on multiple charges that Warsaw says are unjust and politically motivated.
Poczobut, a correspondent for the respected Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, was sentenced on charges of encouraging actions aimed at harming the national security of Belarus, trying to rehabilitate Nazism, and inciting ethnic hostility. Human rights defenders have recognized him as a political prisoner.
Poczobut was arrested in March 2021 amid rising tensions between Minsk and Warsaw following the brutal suppression of mass protests against Lukashenka after he claimed a landslide victory in a 2020 presidential election. The Belarusian opposition claimed the election was rigged in favor of Lukashenka, who has been in power since 1994.
Relations between Poland and Belarus worsened further after a migrant crisis on their shared border and after Lukashenka allowed Moscow to use its territory as a launching pad for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Holownia noted that the migration pressure on the Poland-Belarus border has significantly decreased compared to a few months ago. He attributed this to steps taken by the Polish government. Poland has built a fence equipped with electronic protection and beefed up the number of border guards along its 400-kilometer border with Belarus.
But Holownia admitted that Polish politicians sometimes do not know "which buttons to press to activate processes in Belarus."
"Lukashenka has turned Belarus -- a proud, independent country -- practically into a colony of Russia," he said. "But we sometimes do not know the nature of their relations and the level of mutual hatred, envy, and aggression that exists between [Lukashenka and Russian President Vladimir Putin]."
EU's Balkan Envoy Says Serbia-Kosovo Stalemate Risks 'Outbursts Of Instability'
![The EU's special representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues, Miroslav Lajcak, at the Globsec forum in Prague on August 30](https://gdb.rferl.org/01000000-c0a8-0242-caeb-08dcc9037daa_cx6_cy3_cw93_w250_r1_s.png)
PRAGUE -- The European Union’s special envoy for efforts to normalize relations between Serbia and its former province Kosovo has warned of the danger of “outbursts of instability” for years to come if those Balkan neighbors can’t overcome their current impasse and unilateral actions continue.
In an extended interview with RFE/RL’s Kosovo Service at the Globsec security conference in Prague on August 30, Miroslav Lajcak said the clear task for both sides is to implement their commitments from last year’s so-called Ohrid Agreement within the decade-old “dialogue” to avoid “hostile or even violent” actions and responses.
He lamented a lack of momentum on EU enlargement in the past but also repeated Brussels’ stance that a lack of progress on normalization directly hinders Serbia’s and Kosovo’s respective EU membership bids.
“[W]e either have normalization, which will bring stabilization, open the way for regional cooperation, which is struggling right now," Lajcak said, "or we will continue with the actions which are not coordinated, with prompt reaction which is again not coordinated, and could become hostile or even violent, and we might be kept busy for years with this repetition of, I would say, outburst[s] of instability. And this obviously prevents the region from progressing on the European path.”
He suggested Serbian and Kosovar societies “are not ready for normalization” but said the unresolved problem of Serbian-Kosovar relations goes well beyond those two countries and is “very much a regional and European issue.”
Serbia does not acknowledge the independence of its predominantly ethnic Albanian former province since Pristina declared sovereignty in 2008, a move officially recognized by more than 100 countries but not by Russia, China, or a handful of EU member states. A bitter ethnic war punctuated by NATO intervention in 1999 preceded UN interim administration ahead of Kosovo’s independence.
During two leadership stints since 2020, Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s government has conducted a mounting campaign of “reciprocal” measures to pressure Belgrade to recognize Kosovo’s statehood and official institutions.
The Serbian and Kosovar sides reached agreement in the resort town of Ohrid on normalization steps in early 2023, but key elements of the deal remain unfulfilled, including Pristina’s pledge dating back to 2013 to establish a legal foundation for an association to represent majority-Serb municipalities in Kosovo.
But two subsequent flareups of violence in northern Kosovo – unrest that injured dozens of NATO KFOR peacekeepers in May 2023 and the killing of a Kosovar police officer by a group of commando-like Serbs at an Orthodox monastery in September 2023 -- alarmed the international community and lent urgency to the dialogue.
More recently, Pristina has clamped down on the use of Serbian currency at banks and postal outlets, as well as other aspects of daily life for thousands of Serbs who resist Kosovar central authority, prompting the United States and the European Union to urge against “unilateral” and “uncoordinated” steps by either side.
Kurti says Kosovar authorities are establishing rule of law and public order.
Serbian President Aleksandr Vucic has accused Kosovo’s government of trying to terrorize and intimidate the local Serb population.
“If you ask me, the problem is that the two societies are not ready for normalization,” Lajcak told RFE/RL. He said his four-year term “has been probably more dedicated to crisis management than to promoting of normalization.”
In July, the EU Council extended Lajcak’s mandate by five months, to January 2025, at the request of outgoing EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell.
Lajcak downplayed suggestions that Borrell’s successor, former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, would do without such an envoy to the delicate Serbia-Kosovo dialogue.
“The job is not done and, therefore, the job must continue,” Lajcak said. “And I believe that there should be an [EU special representative] assisting the high representative until the Ohrid Agreement is implemented.
“But one important element that I will, of course, stress also to my successor and to the new high representative is that this process must be visibly and directly linked to the European integration.”
Serbia was awarded EU candidate status along with other hopefuls in 2012, while Kosovo remains a “potential candidate” with its participation in other multinational organizations, including the UN, blocked by its partial recognition.
Lajcak said the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine had sparked an “awakening” within the European Union of the risks of stalled enlargement since Croatia’s accession in 2013, and he insisted the “dynamic has changed already.”
“Paradoxically, this awakening came as a consequence of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's aggression against Ukraine when the European Union also decided to invite Ukraine and Moldova to join,” Lajcak said. “So this is a huge new opportunity for the Balkans. The door that has been closed for 10 years is now open.”
'No Worries' About Putin's Visit To Mongolia, Kremlin Says, Despite ICC Warrant For His Arrest
![Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) with Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh (file photo)](https://gdb.rferl.org/09850000-0aff-0242-cb71-08da971f8bc4_cx34_cy16_cw64_w250_r1_s.jpg)
The Kremlin on August 30 said it is not concerned about President Vladimir Putin's visit to Mongolia on September 3, despite an arrest warrant that the International Criminal Court (ICC) says Mongolia is obligated to act on.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during his daily conference call on August 30 that the Kremlin has “no worries” about the upcoming trip, adding that Russia has “a wonderful dialogue with our friends from Mongolia.”
The trip will be Putin’s first to a country that is a member of the ICC since the arrest warrant was issued in March 2023 over suspected war crimes in Ukraine.
ICC members are bound to detain suspects for whom the court has issued an arrest warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no enforcement mechanism. Mongolia signed the Rome Statute, the court’s founding treaty, in 2000 and ratified it in 2002.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said earlier on August 30 that it hoped that the Mongolian government “will realize the fact that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal” and called on the Mongolian authorities to comply with the international arrest warrant and hand Putin over to the ICC.
ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah underscored in a statement quoted by the AP on August 30 that Mongolia “is a State Party to the ICC Rome Statute” and thus has the obligation to cooperate with the court.
The ICC relies on its state parties and other partners to execute its decisions, including arrest warrants, El Abdallah said in the statement.
The ICC accused Putin in March 2023 of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. Maria Lvova-Belova, Moscow’s commissioner for children's rights, is also named in the warrant, which alleges they committed war crimes in connection with the deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children.
Russia is not a member of the ICC and refuses to hand over suspects. Russian officials have dismissed the warrants as “null and void.”
Putin will travel to Mongolia at the invitation of President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh to participate in ceremonies marking the 85th anniversary of the joint victory of the Soviet and Mongolian armies over Japan on the Khalkhin Gol River, a Kremlin statement said.
Putin will also hold talks with Khurelsukh and other top Mongolian officials, the statement said.
With reporting by AP
Russia Bombs High-Rise In Kharkiv, Killing 7, As Zelenskiy Begs West To Lift Weapons Restrictions
Ukraine needs "strong decisions" from its partners to stop the terror that Russia is perpetrating in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on August 30 after a Russian air strike on Kharkiv hit a high-rise residential building and playground, killing at least seven people, including a 14-year-old girl.
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Scores of people were injured, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said, accusing Russia of targeting "civilian objects, peaceful people, children."
Local authorities said five strikes hit the city in eastern Ukraine. The worst was on the 12-story apartment building, where Regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said there were many victims whose limbs had to be amputated.
He raised the number of dead from six to seven late on August 30 after a woman's body was retrieved from the charred building.
"As of now, we have information on 59 victims -- among them 9 children aged 5 to 16 years. People continue to go to hospitals," he said on Telegram.
In his evening address, Zelenskiy identified the 14-year-old girl as Sofia and said she would have turned 15 in the fall.
He said the strike was carried out by a Russian guided aerial bomb and said it would not have happened if Ukraine's defense forces had the ability to target military sites on Russian territory.
"This strike was a Russian guided aerial bomb. A blow that would not have happened if our defense forces had the ability to destroy Russian military aircraft where they are based. We need strong solutions from our partners to stop this terror. This is an absolutely fair need. And there is no rational reason to limit Ukraine in defense. We need long-range capabilities," Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
The bombs that struck Kharkiv were fired from the Belgorod region, which lies to the north of Ukraine's Kharkiv region. Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, said late on August 30 that five people were killed and 37 were injured by Ukrainian rockets fired on the city of Belgorod.
"One woman and four men died on the spot from their wounds before the ambulance arrived," Gladkov said on Telegram. There are children among the wounded, and 10 people are in serious condition, he said.
In the village of Dubovoye, 13 cars were damaged, and two houses, another car, and a garage caught fire, he said, adding that firefighters quickly extinguished the flames.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Rustem Umerov, at the Pentagon on August 30, condemned recent Russian attacks on civilian targets.
"Let me be clear: It is never acceptable to target civilians, and Ukraine's resilience will help it prevail over [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's aggression and atrocities," Austin said as he hosted Umerov and Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy's chief of staff, at the Pentagon.
Austin said the United States plans to advocate for a further expansion of the country's air defense at the Ukraine Contact Group meeting next week at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Umerov and Yermak briefed Austin about the situation on the battlefield, according to a statement from the president's office.
"Russia hit Ukraine with more than 400 missiles of various types and drones this week," the statement said. "The Ukrainian side noted that Ukraine needs to strengthen air defense to protect people and critical infrastructure."
Umerov thanked the U.S. and its allies for their support and said he wanted to inform Austin about the situation on the battlefield and the current needs of the Ukrainian military.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Russian forces are conducting "two key tactical operations" as part of their offensive to capture the strategic city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on August 29.
The first is along the Novogrodivka-Hrodivka line east of Pokrovsk with the aim of advancing to the outskirts of the city. The second is along the Selydove-Ukrayinsk-Hirnyk line to the southeast with the aim of "eliminating vulnerabilities to Ukrainian counterattacks."
The operations are seen by the Russian military as key to an "intensified offensive effort against Pokrovsk itself," ISW wrote.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian military said there had been 109 combat clashes during the day, and most of the fighting took place in the Pokrovsk area in the Donetsk region.
There was also fighting in the areas near Kupyansk and Lyman, the General Staff said in its late afternoon assessment on August 30. In total, Russian troops advanced in 11 directions, it said.
Zelenskiy in his evening address on August 30 named Pokrovsk as one of the most challenging areas.
"It is crucial that everyone, at all state levels, who is involved in this, really make their maximum efforts to ensure our resilience and that of our warriors," he said.
With reporting by Reuters
Zelenskiy Dismisses Ukraine's Air Force Chief After Crash Of F-16
![Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks to the media in a front of an F-16 after marking the Day of the Ukrainian Air Forces at an undisclosed location in Ukraine on August 4.](https://gdb.rferl.org/ada3cf7a-5dad-4f7e-a983-c7c293d60f12_cx0_cy10_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on August 30 dismissed the commander of the country's air force shortly after the crash of a U.S.-made F-16 fighter jet that had been recently deployed in the country's fight against Russia's full-scale invasion.
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The crash occurred on August 26 and killed pilot Oleksiy Mes, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
"I have decided to replace the commander of the air forces of the armed forces of Ukraine," Zelenskiy said in a video message, expressing gratitude to all military pilots, engineers, "warriors," and air-defense units.
Zelenskiy published a decree to remove Mykola Oleshchuk from his post earlier on August 30, saying the decision was in line with the goal of strengthening Ukraine's military leadership.
He reiterated the message in his video, saying, "We must strengthen ourselves. And take care of people. Take care of personnel -- take care of all our warriors."
Oleshchuk was appointed commander of the air force on August 9, 2021, replacing Serhiy Drozdov.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Mes died while repelling a massive Russian strike. During the air battle, three cruise missiles and one drone were destroyed, the air force said.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that an F-16 was destroyed in a crash on August 26. An unidentified U.S. official quoted by the newspaper on August 29 said that initial reports indicated that the jet wasn’t shot down by enemy fire and that it likely crashed as a result of pilot error.
The Ukrainian military said an investigation into the crash had already been launched and that international experts would be invited to participate.
Oleshchuk said earlier on August 30 that a “detailed analysis" was being conducted into why the F-16 went down.
“We must carefully understand what happened, what the circumstances are, and whose responsibility it is,” Oleshchuk said on Telegram.
Ukraine received the warplanes at the end of last month and at a ceremony on August 4 marking Air Force of Armed Forces Day, Zelenskiy said the air force had begun to use them.
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7Zelenskiy Says Kyiv Test-Fired Its First Ukraine-Made Ballistic Missile
8Live Briefing: Russia Invades Ukraine
9Ukraine Confirms Report That F-16 Crashed Earlier This Week, Killing Pilot
10Netherlands OKs Use Of Its F-16s By Ukraine On Russian Territory
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