Officials told “fire tourists” to keep away from blazes raging in eastern Spain on Sunday, saying onlookers were putting themselves at risk and disrupting efforts to quell the flames.

More than 500 firefighters backed by 20 planes and helicopters were battling the fire four days after it broke out near the village of Villanueva de Viver in Valencia region, emergency services said.

Police had spotted 14 cyclists near the scene trying to get a closer look, Gabriela Bravo, the regional head of interior affairs in the Valencia region, told reporters.

“We ask once again and above all tourists not to engage in fire tourism, not to approach the perimeter area,” she said.

Spain’s first major wildfire of the year has destroyed more than 4,000 hectares of forest and forced 1,700 villagers to leave their homes in the Valencia and Aragon regions, officials said.

One firefighter slightly injured his hand as he battled the blaze, emergency services said.

Around 200 residents from the Teruel area of Aragon were allowed to return home on Sunday, authorities said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was due to visit the area on Monday, his office said.

Residents said the fire could have a devastating impact on the local economy which depended on tourism.

“The people here live from cycling, hiking, and the few bars,” said Jorge Grausell, 72.

“You see this and it is a disaster for anyone who likes nature.”

An unusually dry winter across parts of southern Europe has raised fears there could be a repeat of last year’s devastating wildfires.

Last year, about 785,000 hectares were destroyed in Europe, more than double the annual average for the past 16 years, based on European Commission statistics.

In Spain, 493 fires destroyed a record 307,000 hectares of land last year, according to the Commission’s European Forest Fire Information System.
…

Hundreds of volunteers descended on the beaches of the North Sea coast this weekend to collect sea shells as a measure of the sea’s biological diversity.

While there is a serious scientific purpose to the exercise, it is also a fun day out on the coast for Belgian, French and Dutch families with kids.

On Saturday, Natascha Perales and her children marked a wide spiral pattern on the sand in Middelkerke, in Flanders, and filled their plastic buckets with shells.

The harvests were taken to a sorting center run by volunteers, to be counted and divided up by species.

“We found mussels, oysters, cockles, at least six different species,” 40-year-old Perales told AFP. “It’s a great activity, despite the weather.”

Braving stiff gusts of wind, the dozen participants kept the Middelkerke collection point busy.

Laurence Virolee, 41, came with her three children.

“We learned a lot of things,” she said. “Last year we took part in a clean-up day on the beach. It’s important for the kids to see the evolution in biodiversity and make them aware of the climate.”

The collections took place along 400 kilometers of coastline and around 800 people took part in three countries, with France joining the sixth annual event for the first time.

In total, around 38,000 shells were brought in, roughly as many as in last year’s event.

Invasive species

“Shells are a good indicator of the state of biodiversity in the North Sea, ” explained Jan Seys, who organizes the survey for the Flanders Marine Institute.

“Last year, 15% of the shells found belonged to exotic species,” he said, amid fears that foreign shellfish species might become an invasive danger to native organisms. “We have seen, for example the Atlantic Jackknife Clam appearing on our coasts.”

The volunteers were also on the lookout for shells with holes in them, trying to measure the spread of predatory sea snails preying on shellfish.

Near the beach, retired biologist Joris Hooze, 75, taught volunteers how to examine mollusks under his microscope and distinguish their differences.

“We’ve seen organisms that normally live in warm waters turning up more and more,” he said. “It’s a sign of climate change.”

The European Union wants to clean up the seas around its coasts and restore the natural ecosystem by 2030. To do that, it has assigned 800 million euros ($861,600,000) in funding to the task.

“If we’re going to hit that target, we’ll need the general public,” said Seys. As well as its scientific value, the shell hunt served to raise awareness, he added.
…

Choirs from across the world joined their voices to sing for peace in Ukraine Sunday, with nearly 300 singers gathering in Madrid where the initiative began a year ago. 

Under cloudless blue skies, singers from 46 choirs in and around the Spanish capital gathered outside the Reina Sofia art museum and began singing at midday (1000 GMT) in an event involving thousands of others across Europe and Latin America.

This year, choirs joined from 81 locations in nine countries, with 1,000 singers from Ukraine joining their voices with others from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Portugal and Venezuela.

Standing in the museum square, they sang “Dona Nobis Pacem,” the Hebrew slaves’ chorus from Verdi’s Nabucco and finally “Sing an Anthem for Our Peace,” which was written specially by U.S. composer Jim Papoulis. 

The simultaneous event, which was broadcast live on YouTube, was organized by Choirs for Peace, an initiative started by Madrid choir a month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine whose first event drew over 25,000 singers. 

“We are here to support Ukraine and say we need peace now, that we have to stop this war,” said Elvira Polyenova, a 48-year-old Ukrainian soprano who used to perform at the Odesa opera house, and who sang the opening solo in “There is Peace.” 

“Music unites people, so the choir is a perfect instrument for spreading messages of peace and unity,” said Mariano Garcia, choir director at Santiago Apostol church which started Choirs for Peace last year.

“Although its power of influence is limited, we believe all choral music has the capacity to make us all a little more aware … and might even reach those with the capacity to decide,” he told AFP.

After seeing last year’s event, Elena Redondo, 54, decided to join a choir so she could be part of this year’s initiative.

“We all forget there’s not only this war in Ukraine but others all over the world, and we seem to get used to it. So, events like this are an important wake-up call,” she said. “Music changes many things, not only on a global level, but also on an individual level, it really changes the way you see things. I think it’s important to join together with other voices.”
…

As the United States prepares to co-host the second Summit for Democracy in Washington, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports on how the weapons that Russia has used so far in its war on Ukraine have already taken a heavy toll not only on the civilian population in Ukraine, but also on that country’s environment. Video editor: Marcus Harton.
…

У Зеленського звернули увагу, що президент Росії «порушує договір про нерозповсюдження ядерної зброї»
…

Berlin votes on Sunday on making the city climate neutral by 2030, in a binding referendum that will force the new conservative local government to invest heavily in renewable energy, building efficiency and public transportation.

Climate campaigners gathered over 260,000 signatures in support of the referendum, which will make Berlin one of few major European cities with a legally binding goal to become carbon neutral in seven years.

The European Union last year started a scheme to help 100 cities inside and outside of the bloc become climate neutral by 2030, but the scheme and the financial support it offers are not legally binding.

The referendum’s results would show whether Germans, or at least Berliners, want Germany’s climate policy, which now aims to make Europe’s biggest economy carbon-neutral by 2045, to be more ambitious.

Climate activists who initiated the vote say the government’s target is too far in the future to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“At the moment, climate policy is simply not sufficient to ensure a future worth living in our city,” Jessamine Davis, a spokesperson for Climate New Start Berlin, told Reuters.

Unlike Berlin’s previous referendums, including one calling for expropriation of large landlords or on keeping the former Tempelhof airport free from development, Sunday’s climate referendum will be legally binding for the government in Berlin.

“The new version will automatically apply if Berlin population votes if favor,” Davis said.

The initiative, if approved, will only oblige the local government to achieve climate-neutrality in seven years, but the group says various scientific studies offer a wide range of specific measures to reach that goal.

They include a mandate to install solar panels on all suitable roofs in the city to generate around 25% of the city’s electricity, in addition to expanding wind power turbines in the neighboring Brandenburg state to supply the capital.

Installing a large heat pump on the Spree river and renovating buildings across the city to replace oil and gas heaters with efficient heat pumps are also among the measures that will be needed if Berliners back the new 2030 goal.

Germany’s capital would also have to expand electric vehicles usage and add bike lanes while making public transport more attractive, the group suggested on its website.

The referendum comes as Germany’s conservative CDU party is negotiating a possible coalition with the Social Democrats in the city after its clear victory in a repeat election, driving the environmentalist Greens into opposition.

Stefan Taschner, a Greens Berlin lawmaker, said a positive referendum result would force the new ruling coalition in the city-state to conduct a more active climate policy.

According to the initiative organizers, around 455,000 Berliners have requested to cast their votes via mail so far. In addition to a majority of positive votes, the initiative needs at least 608,000 “Yes” votes to make the results binding.

Danny Freymark, a CDU Berlin lawmaker, said the initiative had a high chance of winning approval, but he would vote against it, saying a new binding target would deprive the new government of any leeway and would lead to disappointment.

“Because even if we do everything we can, we wouldn’t make it in 2030,” Freymark told Reuters.

As a city of four million, with few renewable energy sources nearby or geothermal heating, Berlin lacks what is necessary to make that target more achievable, said Bernd Hirschl from Berlin’s Institute for Ecological Economy Research.

Still, the referendum is a way to revive the debate over climate policy and the changes people must accept to reach climate neutrality regardless of the deadlines, Hirschl told Reuters.

“Because it’s not about 2030. It’s about the question of whether we want to send a signal to politicians or not,” he added.
…

На думку секретаря РНБО Олексія Данілова, Кремль взяв Білорусь у «ядерні заручники»
…

A controversy over John Paul II’s legacy looks set to spur some undecided voters in Polish elections due by November, political analysts say, as allegations that the late pope concealed child abuse deepen rifts in the predominantly Catholic country.

Claims in a new book and TV documentary that the late pope, born Karol Wojtyla, knowingly hid clerical pedophilia scandals as archbishop of Krakow have led some Poles to demand that his legacy be reassessed.

This has provoked a furious response from religious conservatives, with politicians from the ruling nationalists Law and Justice (PiS) defending John Paul II in the face of what they say is a left-wing plot to discredit the nation’s biggest moral authority.

“Defending the pope’s stance, even against documents and facts, may be crucial for those that in normal circumstances would not have voted, but in this case they might go to defend John Paul II’s legacy,” Olgierd Annusewicz, a political scientist at Warsaw University, told Reuters.

Support for PiS has risen by 3 points to 31%, a March 14-16 Kantar opinion poll for private broadcaster TVN24 showed, while liberal opposition party Civic Platform (PO) has fallen 3 points to 26%.

While political analysts say it is too early to attribute this to the papal controversy, a PiS’ vocal stance backed by a resolution passed in the lower house of parliament on March 9 to defend his name has pushed the issue onto the election agenda.

“I’m not a ruling party supporter, but others that were not backing it till now may change their minds because our pope is being insulted,” pensioner Elzbieta Molag, 67, told Reuters in Krakow.

The opposition PO abstained from voting on the resolution. Its leader, Donald Tusk, said on March 19 that pedophilia in church cannot be excused but should not be a reason to question the pope’s role in Polish political history.

The Polish Catholic church urged Poles to respect the late pope’s memory, saying that a review of its archives did not confirm the accusations against the church hierarchy, adding that some files could be opened in future. The Vatican has not responded to requests for comment about the allegations in the book, called “Maxima Culpa.”

“Opening the files that contain sensitive personal data requires care and consent from a local bishop, and possibly also the Vatican. It won’t be a quick process,” priest Lukasz Michalczewski, spokesman for the archbishop of Krakow, told Reuters.

Abuse

The account of Slawomir Mastek, a 56-old photographer from the late pope’s hometown Wadowice, opens the book by a Dutch investigative journalist published on March 8. Mastek said he was molested by two priests when he was a 13-year-old altar boy.

While one of the priests acknowledged his guilt, when Mastek confronted the church about the other case in 2011, he says local priests banned him from filming religious ceremonies and he lost up to 80% of his business.

Michalczewski said he was not familiar with Mastek’s case, adding that the church has apologized to those that feel hurt by its actions and is ready to apologize again.

Mastek’s studio on John Paul II central square Wadowice remains open but he now makes his living renovating houses. With elections due in autumn, he worries the politicization of the issue will delay justice for other victims.

“If politicians want to help they should speak to the church so that it finally starts dialogue and opens its archives,” Mastek told Reuters.

In the 1980s, the Catholic Church was a voice of freedom in Poland, inspiring people to stand up against communist rule.

However, it is slowly losing ground partly due to clerical sex abuse scandals, and accusations of cover-ups that have rocked the Church in recent years not only in Poland but in many countries, and involved John Paul II’s successors. As many as 70% of Poles support abortion rights, up 17 points since 2019, and children’s attendance at religion classes has been falling since 2010, polls show.

Attack

Filip Kaczynski, a PiS lawmaker from Wadowice, said he has not seen the documentary but is convinced it aims to smear the late pope.

“Given that it was aired by a TV station that is openly supporting the opposition it’s not an accident, it’s an attack on the church that may be part of a political infighting,” he said.

In Wadowice, the Museum of the Family Home of John Paul II has no plans to include the controversy, Deputy Director Katarzyna Coufal-Lenczowska said.

“You can’t redefine the most important values and that’s what this exhibit is about,” she told Reuters.

However, despite around three dozen people in Wadowice refusing to comment on camera, some residents voiced criticism of the town’s relationship with the church.

“In Wadowice everybody knows each other and PiS rule here, so if somebody works in a school or a public institution and talks loudly about their views they could face consequences,” a 46-year-old woman working as a freelance tutor told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
…

Russia on Saturday accused Azerbaijan of violating the Moscow-brokered cease-fire that ended a 2020 war with Armenia by letting its troops cross over the demarcation line.

Arch foes Baku and Yerevan have been locked for decades in a territorial conflict over Azerbaijan’s Armenian-majority region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The fragile Russian-mediated truce, which ended six weeks of fighting in autumn 2020, has stood despite occasional shootouts along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and in Karabakh.

“On March 25 … a unit of the armed forces of Azerbaijan crossed a line of contact in the district of Shusha, in violation” of the agreement of November 9, 2020, the Russian defense ministry said in a statement.

It said Russian peacekeepers “are taking measures aimed at preventing escalation … and mutual provocations.”

‘Necessary control measures’

Earlier on Saturday, Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said it had taken control of some auxiliary roads in Karabakh.

The ministry said “necessary control measures were implemented by the units of the Azerbaijan army in order to prevent the use of the dirt roads north of Lachin” for arms supplies from Armenia.

The sole road linking Karabakh to Armenia, the Lachin corridor, has for months been under Azerbaijani blockade, which Yerevan says has led to a humanitarian crisis in the enclave and is aimed at driving Armenians from Karabakh.

Baku has denied the claims.

Accusations

Last week, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned against a “very high risk of escalation” in Karabakh.

Armenia has also accused Russian peacekeepers of failing to protect ethnic Armenians living in the restive region.

Yerevan has said it would appeal to the international community to help prevent genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh.

On Thursday, Armenia accused Azerbaijani troops of killing an Armenian soldier along the countries’ volatile frontier.

Last week, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of opening fire on its army positions along the border and in Karabakh.

Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have held several rounds of peace talks mediated by the European Union and the United States.

Last week, Pashinyan noted some progress in the peace process, but said “fundamental problems” remain because “Azerbaijan is trying to put forward territorial claims, which is a red line to Armenia.”

Yerevan has accused Baku forces of occupying about 150 square kilometers in Armenia, along the countries’ shared border, after the 2020 war.

The European Union last month deployed an expanded monitoring mission to the Armenian side of the border as Western engagement grows in a region that is traditionally the Kremlin’s sphere of influence.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ethnic Armenian separatists in Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan. The ensuing conflict claimed some 30,000 lives.
…

20 березня заступниця міністра оборони Великої Британії Аннабель Голді заявила, що Лондон разом із танками Challenger 2 передасть Києву «боєприпаси, включно з бронебійними снарядами, що містять збіднений уран»
…

At a historic military cemetery in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, Valeriy Pushko lights up two cigarettes. One is for himself, the other for his son whose portrait is fixed to a cross planted in the ground.

“I smoke with my son,” the gray-haired man said.

“We used to take cigarette breaks together. It’s a bad habit but it makes things easier. I talk to him, think about him and that makes me feel better.”

Pushko said many others come here to smoke with their fallen husbands or sons.

In southeastern Lviv, the Lychakiv cemetery is one of the oldest in Europe and is often compared to the historic Pere Lachaise in Paris, where dozens of celebrities are buried.

It is the resting place of prominent figures including the poet Ivan Franko and thousands of soldiers who perished in World War I and II.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine over a year ago, rows of new graves have appeared. A sea of blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags and red-and-black nationalist banners mark them.

Some mourners leave stuffed animals, cigarettes, and cups of coffee at the graves of their loved ones.

More unusual symbols of love and sorrow included children’s drawings, vinyl records, a golf ball, and a bottle of beer.

A funeral nearly every day

Shortly after the Russian invasion in February 2022, authorities began burying soldiers killed in the fighting at the Lychakiv cemetery.

But the area initially designated for military burials quickly filled up, said city official Oleg Pidpysetsky.

The authorities then began laying Ukrainian servicemen to rest at a new site bordering Lychakiv.

Funerals are held nearly every day in the new burial ground. Called the Field of Mars, it now contains about 350 graves.

“No one knew how critical the situation was,” Pidpysetsky told AFP.

“Someone thought it would end in a month, two, three, six months. But, unfortunately, the war has only gotten bigger.”

Oleg, one of the mourners who came to visit a friend’s grave, called the losses irreparable.

“We will have our victory, of course, but this is the price we pay. And that is not the end,” said the 55-year-old. “These people gave their lives for us.”

Oleg mourns the loss of his 45-year-old friend also called Oleg.

He said the father of two volunteered to go to the front.

“Unfortunately, nothing can be done now. Thousands of Russians will not replace my Oleg,” he said, bitterly.

‘The only connection with their heroes’

Kyiv does not reveal the number of its military casualties, but Western officials say more than 100,000 Ukrainians have been killed or wounded.

Olga, who came to visit her brother-in-law’s grave, says the mementos people leave “is all that’s left, the only connection with their heroes.”

Her sister comes to the cemetery every day, she added.

“That’s her second home now,” Olga said.

Vyacheslav Sabelnikov, who served in the infantry before receiving a serious injury, says several men he fought with are now buried at the cemetery.

“I came to visit a friend whose birthday is today,” said Sabelnikov, placing a candle in front of his portrait.

Sabelnikov said he lights candles to remember his friends, saying it was important to honor their memory.

Anna Mikheyeva, a 44-year-old social worker, came to visit her son Mykhailo’s grave. He served in the 80th Parachute Brigade and was killed last year at the age of 25.

Mikheyeva said she often brings her son things he liked including Coca-Cola, sweets, and cigarettes.

“If I come in the morning, I buy a coffee for myself and also for him,” added the dark-haired woman.

She said she felt calm at the Field of Mars.

“There are only young people here. They are like sons and brothers to me,” she said. “When I come I always say ‘Hi guys.’ And I always, always thank them.”
…

Глава держави стверджує, що Україна стала міцнішою, а «ворог став іще більш ізольованим, іще більш безнадійним»
…

Members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany held a memorial service Saturday for the six people killed during a mass shooting at a religious service in Hamburg this month.

A 35-year-old German man who opened fire during the March 9 service killed himself as police arrived at a Jehovah’s Witnesses hall where the service was taking place. The attack wounded nine people, including a pregnant woman who lost her unborn child.

“We are speechless in the face of the violence and brutality. There’s no word for this,” Dirk Ciupek, a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, said in his sermon. “This was an attack not just on a few of us, but an attack on all of us.”

Ciupek expressed gratitude to the police officers who he said prevented more deaths and to the medical personnel who tended to the wounded with dedication and empathy.

“Do not let evil defeat you,” he said, addressing the family members of those who died. He spoke about each victim individually, including the unborn baby.

“We miss them, their love, their smiles, everything,” Ciupek said.

All the victims were German citizens apart from two wounded women, one with Ugandan citizenship and one with Ukrainian.

The gunman, identified by authorities only as Philipp F. due to German privacy laws, was a former member who left the Jehovah’s Witnesses two years ago. Investigators have said his departure was “apparently not on good terms.”

German prosecutors said they were investigating whether there was a religious motive for the crime, but that there were no indications he was involved in any network or had far-right views.

The Hamburg congregation that was holding the service has about 60 members and is one of 47 in the port city, which is home to almost 4,000 denomination members, according to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

About 3,300 people attended Saturday’s memorial service, which took place in a gymnasium in Hamburg, German news agency dpa said. The event also was livestreamed for Jehovah’s Witnesses who couldn’t be there in person.

Mark Sanderson, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, traveled to Hamburg from the United States and addressed the mourners.

“Our hope, our faith, our love, can survive tragedy, they can overcome hatred and violence,” he said. “If we show our love to those around us, we reflect our faith to God.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses are part of an international church founded in the United States in the 19th century and headquartered in Warwick, New York. The church claims a worldwide membership of about 8.7 million, with about 170,000 in Germany.

Members are known for their evangelistic efforts that include knocking on doors and distributing literature in public squares. The denomination’s practices include a refusal to bear arms, receive blood transfusions, salute a national flag, or participate in secular government.
…

ISeveral people were injured Saturday following clashes between French police and protesters opposed to a large water reservoir for farm irrigation, despite a ban on gatherings in the area. 

Police fired tear gas to repel some protesters who threw fireworks and other projectiles as they crossed fields to approach the construction area in the western rural district of Sainte-Soline. At least three police vehicles were set alight, television footage showed. 

Two protesters were seriously hurt, including one who is in a critical condition after suffering a head injury, as well as 16 police officers, the local prefecture said. One officer was evacuated by helicopter. Thousands of protesters had converged on the site of the planned reservoir, where a similar protest last October also turned violent. 

Emmanuelle Dubee, the prefect of the surrounding region, said around 1,000 radical individuals were expected among an estimated 6,000 protesters. 

Around 3,200 police were deployed for the demonstration, said Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said, who blamed far-left groups for the violence. 

The heavy police presence included helicopters and squads riding quads. 

The protest over the irrigation project comes after weeks of demonstrations in France against a pension reform that have turned violent since the government pushed through the legislation without a final parliamentary vote. 

France’s worst drought on record last summer sharpened the debate over water resources in the European Union’s biggest agricultural sector. 

Supporters say artificial reservoirs are a way to use water efficiently when needed, while critics – who call them “mega-basins” — argue they are outsized and favor large farms. 
…

«Ми говорили про те, що ми зачищаємо смугу хоча б у 30 кілометрів для того, щоб полегшити життя Правобережжю», – Гуменюк
…

«Не треба в ефірах ставити експертам питання щодо контрнаступу, також не варто писати блоги та пости на цю тему»
…

New developments:

Transcript of Ukrainian president’s daily address: "The enemy must know: Ukraine won't forgive offenses against our people, won't forgive these deaths and injuries." – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

The British Defense Ministry said Saturday in its daily intelligence report on Ukraine that Russia is likely conducting “a more defensive operational design after inconclusive results from its attempts to conduct a general offensive since January 2023” in its campaign in Ukraine.

Ukrainian troops have dug in at Bakhmut instead of pulling back. Some Western military experts said this tactic might be risky because the Ukrainians need to conserve forces for a counterattack.

However, according to the British ministry, the Russian assault in Bakhmut has “largely stalled … a result of extreme attrition of the Russian force.”

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross says some 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, many who are older or have disabilities, were clinging on in grisly circumstances in Bakhmut and surrounding settlements.

“They are living in very dire conditions, spending almost the entire days in intense shelling in the [underground] shelters,” said Umar Khan of the ICRC, speaking to a news briefing via video link from Dnipro, Ukraine.

“All you see is people pushed to the very limits of their existence and survival and resilience.”

In its latest report on human rights abuses in the war, the United Nations confirmed thousands of civilian deaths as well as disappearances, torture and rape, mostly of Ukrainians in Russian-occupied areas. Russia denies carrying out atrocities in what it calls a “special military operation.”

U.S. senators from both parties urged the Biden administration Friday to share information that could assist the International Criminal Court as it pursues war crimes charges against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The letter to President Joe Biden from Democrats Dick Durbin, Bob Menendez, Richard Blumenthal and Sheldon Whitehouse and Republicans Lindsey Graham and Thom Tillis noted that Congress passed legislation to give the administration more flexibility in assisting the ICC.

“Knowing of your support for the important cause of accountability in Ukraine we urge you to move forward expeditiously with support to the ICC’s work so that Putin and others around him know in no uncertain terms that accountability and justice for their crimes are forthcoming,” the letter said.

Although the United States is not a party to the ICC, Biden said last week that Putin has clearly committed war crimes, adding that the ICC warrant was justified.

Last week, the court issued an arrest warrant for Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. The legal move will obligate the court’s 123 member states to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot in their territory.

Firing on Donbas

Russian forces fired a barrage of missile strikes Friday on northern and southern sections of the front line in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

At least 10 civilians were killed and 20 were wounded in several parts of Ukraine by Russian missile strikes, according to regional officials. Five people died in Kostiantynivka, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province, when a Russian missile hit an aid station.

In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned these attacks, saying, “The enemy must know: Ukraine won’t forgive offenses against our people, won’t forgive these deaths and injuries. All Russian terrorists will be defeated.”

Officials in Kyiv said the Russians used S-300 anti-aircraft missiles in the attacks. According to Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, the Russians targeted the Center for the Registration of Homeless Persons, which recently served as an “invincibility point” where war-stricken residents could warm up, recharge their cellphones, and get food. Five refugees lived in the destroyed wing at the time of the attack.

Russian forces also used air-launched missiles, exploding drones and gliding bombs to attack several regions, Ukraine air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said.

Airstrikes and rocket and artillery attacks killed two civilians and wounded nine overnight in the town of Bilopillia in Sumy province, according to officials in the northeastern region. In southern Ukraine, Russian shelling killed one person in the city of Kherson.

Ukrainian forces are poised for a spring counteroffensive to dislodge Russian troops from occupied areas as warmer weather sets in and new weapons, including tanks, come in from the West.

Nuclear warning

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and now deputy head of the country’s Security Council, said its forces were ready to repel a counterattack.

“Our General Staff is assessing all that,” he said. Medvedev asserted that any Ukrainian attempt to take Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, could trigger a nuclear response from Moscow.

“An attempt to split part of the state away means an encroachment at the very existence of the state,” he said. “Quite obviously, it warrants the use of any weapons. I hope our ‘friends’ across the ocean realize that.”

Medvedev’s warning echoes Russia’s security doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear attack or one with conventional weapons that threatens “the very existence of the Russian state.”

Additionally, Medvedev said Western weapons, such as the U.S.-made Patriot air defense missile systems supplied to Ukraine, could be targeted. Russian officials claim that foreign instructors stationed in Ukraine to train Ukrainian soldiers would also be targeted.

“If Patriot or other weapons are delivered to the territory of Ukraine along with foreign experts, they certainly make legitimate targets, which must be destroyed,” Medvedev said in a video posted to his messaging app channel. “They are combatants, they are the enemies of our state, and they must be destroyed.”

Kyiv denies this assertion and says soldiers are receiving their training in the U.S.

Medvedev disclosed that the Kremlin wants to create a “sanitary cordon” of up to 100 kilometers around Russian-held areas, so that short- and medium-range weapons can’t hit them.

He asserted that Moscow may even try to grab a chunk of Ukrainian territory stretching all the way to the Polish border.

Nordic air defense

To counter the rising threat from Russia, air force commanders from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark said Friday they have signed a letter of intent to create a unified Nordic air defense.

Their aim is to operate jointly based on known ways of operating under NATO, according to statements by the four countries’ armed forces.

The move to integrate the air forces was triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year, commander of the Danish air force, Major General Jan Dam, told Reuters.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Violent pension reform protests in France led to the postponement Friday of British King Charles III’s trip to the country, highlighting the growing security and political problems faced by President Emmanuel Macron.

The French president condemned the latest burst of violence overnight, while a human rights watchdog criticized the “excessive use of force” by police during recent demonstrations.

King Charles’ first foreign trip as monarch had been intended to highlight warming Franco-British relations. Instead, it has underlined the severity of demonstrations engulfing Britain’s neighbor just 10 months into Macron’s second term.

Uproar over legislation to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 years of age was enflamed when Macron exercised a controversial executive power to push the plan through parliament without a vote last week.

With fresh strikes expected Tuesday on what would have been the second day of the king’s tour, Macron asked for the postponement of the royal visit, a British government spokesperson said.

The decision was made “to welcome His Majesty King Charles III in conditions which reflect our friendly relations,” Macron’s office said.

Police arrested more than 450 people Thursday, according to interior ministry figures.

In addition, 441 members of the security forces were injured on the most violent day of protests since the start of the year.

More than 900 fires were lit around Paris, with anarchist groups blamed for setting uncollected rubbish ablaze and smashing shop windows, leading to frequent clashes with riot police.

But rights groups, magistrates and left-wing politicians have also denounced alleged police brutality in recent days.

The Council of Europe — the continent’s leading human rights watchdog — warned that sporadic acts of violence “cannot justify excessive use of force by agents of the state” or “deprive peaceful protesters of their right to freedom of assembly.”

More than a million

More than a million people marched in France on Thursday, according to official estimates, as the protest movement was reinvigorated by Macron’s refusal to back down over the past week.

In the northeast city of Rennes, regional officials denied claims by union leaders that police had deliberately targeted them with tear gas and a water cannon during Thursday’s protests.

In Bordeaux, protesters set fire to the ancient wooden entrance to the city hall Thursday. King Charles had been set to visit the southwestern city Tuesday, after a day in Paris.

With protesters threatening to disrupt the royal visit and the streets of the capital strewn with rubbish because of a strike by waste collectors, some feel the trip’s postponement will avoid further embarrassment for France.

Speaking to reporters during a trip to Brussels on Friday, Macron said discussions over rescheduling the visit could take place in the coming months.

“We have proposed that at the beginning of the summer, depending on our respective agendas, we can arrange a new state visit,” he said.

He also insisted that Paris “would not give in to the violence.”

“I condemn the violence and offer my full support to the security forces who worked in an exemplary manner.”

Way out?

It remains unclear how the government will defuse a crisis that comes just four years after the “Yellow Vest” demonstrations rocked the country.

“Everything depends on one man who is a prisoner of the political situation,” political scientist Bastien Francois from the Sorbonne University in Paris told AFP.

The leader of the moderate CFDT union, Laurent Berger, said Friday he had spoken to an aide to the president and suggested a pause on implementing the pensions law for six months while opening a channel for negotiations.

“It’s the moment to say, ‘Listen, let’s put things on pause, let’s wait six months,'” Berger told RTL radio. “It would calm things down.”

While France’s Constitutional Court still needs to give the final word on the reform, Macron said in a televised interview Wednesday that the changes needed to “come into force by the end of the year.”

Blockades of oil refineries by striking workers continued on Friday, but the energy transition ministry said it had requisitioned enough workers to restart production at one of these and resume fuel supply to the capital.

About 15% of gas stations were still out of at least one fuel by Friday morning, according to an analysis of public data by AFP.

Some flights have been canceled until at least Wednesday at airports around the country due to a strike by air traffic controllers.

Police and protesters will face off again Saturday, and not just at demonstrations over the pension reform.

At Saint Solines, central France, thousands of people are expected at a protest against the deployment of new water-storage infrastructure for agricultural irrigation, despite an official ban on the gathering.
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«Україна не може відправляти своїх хоробрих захисників у контрнаступ без достатньої кількості озброєння» – президент
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«З першого дня РФ майже щодня завдає ударів по медичній інфраструктурі. Ракетами та снарядами окупантів зруйновано або пошкоджено щонайменше 978 медзакладів»
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