On New Year’s Eve, Russian missiles rained on Ukraine nationwide. At least one person was killed and at least 28 were wounded as eight massive explosions rocked the city of Kyiv.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that at least one person was killed in the western Solomianskyi district, and that among the 11 wounded in Kyiv is a Japanese journalist, and another person is in critical condition. Klitschko warned residents to remain in shelters.

In downtown Kyiv, missiles hit residential buildings, including a hotel, as well as the Ukraine Palace and concert hall.

Explosions also were reported in other regions of Ukraine, including the embattled eastern Donetsk oblast. Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko said that a missile strike hit targets in an industrial zone, but no casualties have been reported.

Mykolaiv oblast Governor Vitaliy Kim said at least six people were wounded in the southern city of Mykolaiv. Three of them were hospitalized, with one listed in critical condition.

Deputy head of the president’s office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said two people were wounded by a missile strike in the western city of Khmelnytskyi.

In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, residential buildings were damaged, but information about casualties and destruction is being clarified, Tymoshenko noted.

‘Intensive wave’

Multiple reports on social media earlier said the air defense was working in Kyiv, Kherson, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, and Zhytomyr oblasts.

Russia’s nationwide barrage comes three days after another massive attack was waged on Ukraine December 29.

Britain’s Defense Ministry had warned in an intelligence update that Russia is expected to continue an “intensive wave” of long-range strikes across Ukraine, “primarily targeting the power distribution network.”

The Saturday report, posted on Twitter, said, “Russia is almost certainly following this approach in an attempt to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. There is a realistic possibility that Russia will break this pattern to strike again in the coming days in an effort to undermine the morale of the Ukrainian population over the new year holiday period.” 

In a combative nine-minute New Year’s video address, the longest New Year’s address of his two-decade rule, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Russia would never give in to the West’s attempts to use Ukraine as a tool to destroy Russia.  

 

Putin lashes out

In the video message broadcast on Russian state TV, Putin said Russia was fighting in Ukraine to protect its “motherland” and to secure “true independence” for its people.

He accused the West of lying to Russia and of provoking Moscow to launch what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

“For years, Western elites hypocritically assured us of their peaceful intentions,” he said in a speech recorded in front of Russian service personnel at the headquarters of Russia’s southern military district.

“In fact, in every possible way they were encouraging neo-Nazis who conducted open terrorism against civilians in the Donbas,” Putin said.

“The West lied about peace,” Putin said. “It was preparing for aggression … and now they are cynically using Ukraine and its people to weaken and split Russia. ”We have never allowed this and will never allow anybody to do this to us,” Russian state-run news agencies quoted Putin as saying in the clip, which was broadcast at midnight in Russia’s far east.

Earlier Saturday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu vowed victory in Ukraine was “inevitable” as he praised the heroism of Russian soldiers fighting on the frontlines and those who had died during the 10-month war.

Kyiv and the West reject Moscow’s claims, calling the Russian invasion of Ukraine a baseless war of aggression in a bid to seize territory and topple Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In a tweet Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said, “War criminal Putin celebrates New Year by killing people. Russia must be kicked out of its UN Security Council seat which it has always occupied illegally.” 

 

On Saturday afternoon local time, explosions were heard at the Dzhankoi airport in Russian-occupied Crimea, according to local Telegram channels. The Dzhankoi airport is a military airbase currently operated by Russian occupying forces. Ukrainian armed forces also reported explosions at the airport.

Telegram channels monitoring launches of missiles reported that Dzhankoi was allegedly hit by a high-precision weapon.

Ukrainian authorities didn’t comment on the incident, and occupation authorities didn’t either. 

On the eastern front, Ukrainian forces killed and wounded up to 10 Russian troops, destroyed two vehicles and damaged three more near the occupied city of Donetsk, according to the Ukrainian General Staff’s evening briefing on Telegram.

Intense fighting continues in Donetsk oblast, as Russian forces continue to assault the city of Bakhmut and the area around Lyman, while strengthening their tactical positions near Avdiivka, as well as Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast.

A dozen towns near Bakhmut have been damaged by recent shelling, according to the report. Russian forces are also continuing to hit the southern city of Kherson with multiple rocket launchers, aircraft and kamikaze drones.

In the weeks following the liberation of Kherson in November, Russia has intensified its attacks on the frontline in Donbas, particularly around Bakhmut, where it has made small incremental gains supported by mass artillery bombardment.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said Friday that Ukraine continues to endure and repel waves of Russian air attacks and that Ukrainian air defenses have been made “stronger than ever.”

“In the new year,” he added, “Ukrainian air defense will become even stronger, even more effective.”

He said Ukrainian air defense “can become the most powerful in Europe,” a guarantee of security “not only for our country, but for the entire continent.”

The United States last week announced nearly $2 billion in additional military aid, including the Patriot Air Defense System, which offers protection against aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles.

Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 
…

For millions of Ukrainians, many of them under Russian bombardment and grappling with power and water shortages, New Year’s celebrations will be muted as Russia’s 10-month war rumbles on with no end in sight.

But for some families, it is a chance to reunite, however briefly, after months apart.

At Kyiv’s central railway station on Saturday morning, Mykyta, still in his uniform, gripped a bouquet of pink roses tightly as he waited on platform 9 for his wife Valeriia to arrive from Poland. He hadn’t seen her in six months.

“It actually was really tough, you know, to wait so long,” he told The Associated Press after hugging and kissing Valeriia.

Nearby, another soldier, Vasyl Khomko, 42, joyously met his daughter Yana and wife Galyna who have been living in Slovakia because of the war, but they returned to Kyiv to spend New Year’s Eve together.

The mood contrasted starkly with that from 10 months ago when families were torn apart by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Back in February, fathers, husbands and sons had to stay behind as their wives, mothers and daughters boarded trains with small children seeking safety outside the country. Scenes of tearful goodbyes seared television screens and front pages of newspapers across the world.

But on the last day of the year marked by the brutal war, many returned to the capital to spend New Year’s Eve with their loved ones.

As Russian attacks continue to target power supplies leaving millions without electricity, no big celebrations are expected, and a curfew will be in place as the clock rings in the new year. But for most Ukrainians being together with their families is already a luxury.

Valeriia first sought refuge from the conflict in Spain but later moved to Poland. Asked what their New Year’s Eve plans were, she answered simply: “Just to be together.”

The couple declined not to share their family name for security reasons as Mykyta has been fighting on the front lines in both southern and eastern Ukraine.

On platform 8, another young couple reunited. University student Arseniia Kolomiiets, 23, has been living in Italy. Despite longing to see her boyfriend Daniel Liashchenko in Kyiv, Kolomiiets was scared of Russian missiles and drone attacks.

“He was like, ‘Please come! Please come! Please come!’” she recalled. “I decided that (being) scared is one part but being with beloved ones on the holidays is the most important part. So, I overcome my fear and here I am now.”

Although they have no electricity at home, Liashchenko said they were looking forward to welcoming 2023 together with his family and their cat.

In an attempt to ensure residents have light during their celebrations, the regional government of Ukraine’s southwestern Odesa province is planning to limit the work of the most energy-intensive industries on Dec. 31 and Jan 1.

Regional head Maksym Marchenko made the announcement on Friday via Telegram and said that power engineers in the province had used all means possible to “eliminate the consequences” of Russia’s barrage of attacks on Ukraine on Thursday and reinstate the power supply.

In Kyiv, recent attacks have left many on edge, unsure about whether the skies will be peaceful on the last day of the year.

“We are hoping there will be no surprises today,” said Natalya Kontonenko who had traveled from Finland. It was the first time she had seen her brother Serhii Kontonenko since the full-scale invasion began on February 24. Serhii and other relatives traveled from Mykolaiv to Kyiv to meet Natalya.

“We are not concerned about the electricity, because we are together and that I think is the most important,” he said.
…

When Pope Gregory XII, the last pope to resign before Benedict, died in 1417, the world was not watching.

Gregory had stepped down two years earlier in 1415 and spent his remaining days in virtual obscurity hundreds of miles from Rome. He was quietly buried in Recanati, a town near the northern Adriatic coast.

It will be vastly different for Pope Emeritus Benedict.

The Vatican has painstakingly elaborate rituals for what happens after a reigning pope dies but no publicly known ones for a former pope.

The Vatican will be at least partially scripting new protocols. They could be a template for other popes who choose to resign instead of ruling for life, including Pope Francis himself someday, Vatican sources say.

Those for a reigning pope include a 30-page constitution called “Universi Dominici Gregis,” Latin for “The Shepherd of the Lord’s Whole Flock,” and “Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis,” (Funeral Rites for a Roman Pontiff) a missal of more than 400 pages that includes liturgy, music, and prayers.

Those rules say a pope’s burial should take place between four and six days after his death as part of a nine-day period of mourning known as the Novendiale.

Vatican officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss such matters, said the script for Benedict’s passing will depend on two key elements: If Benedict himself left any instructions and decisions that will be taken by Pope Francis.

Solemn farewell

Francis has often praised his predecessor as a great pope who had the courage to resign, so he would probably like to give Benedict the most solemn ceremonial farewell as possible, perhaps even the whole works, one Vatican official said.

The last pope to die, John Paul II, was buried on April 8, 2005, six days after he died.

His body first laid in state in the frescoed Clementine Hall for Vatican staff and then was moved to St. Peter’s Basilica for viewing by the public.

Millions of people queued up for hours to see him, in perhaps the biggest event in Vatican history, and monarchs and presidents attended his funeral.

He was first buried in crypts under St. Peter’s Basilica and moved in 2011 to a chapel on the main level of the largest church in Christendom.

Many people will want to pay their respects to Benedict, who succeeded John Paul in 2005 and resigned in 2013.  The Vatican has already announced that Benedict’s body will lie in state in St. Peter’s Basilica beginning Monday.

In 2020, Benedict’s authorized biographer, Peter Seewald, was quoted as telling Bavarian newspaper Passauer Neue Presse that the emeritus pope had prepared a spiritual testament stating that he wanted to be buried in the same crypt where John Paul II was originally laid to rest. 

Benedict, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, presided at John Paul’s funeral in 2005 in St. Peter’s Square and Francis is expected to preside at Benedict’s.

After the death of a reigning pope, the person in charge of ordinary affairs at the Vatican until the election of a new pope is the camerlengo, or chamberlain.

The position is currently held by Irish American Cardinal Kevin Farrell but because the Church has a pope and there will be no conclave to elect another, Farrell would have no role.

Most of the work, including the scripting of an unprecedented event in Vatican history, will fall to Monsignor Diego Ravelli, the papal master of ceremonies.
…

Britain’s Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update about the Russian invasion of Ukraine that Russia is expected to continue an “intensive wave” of long-range strikes across Ukraine, “primarily targeting the power distribution network.”

The Saturday report, posted on Twitter, said, “Russia is almost certainly following this approach in an attempt to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. However, there is a realistic possibility that Russia will break this pattern to strike again in the coming days in an effort to undermine the morale of the Ukrainian population over the new year holiday period.”

The leaders of Russia and Ukraine are set to deliver New Year’s addresses Saturday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Puttin are expected to give their assessments on the fighting and how long it is expected to last.

Zelenskyy said Friday that Ukraine continues to endure and repel waves of Russian air attacks and that Ukrainian air defenses have been made “stronger than ever.”

“In the new year,” he added, “Ukrainian air defense will become even stronger, even more effective.”

He said Ukrainian air defense “can become the most powerful in Europe,” a guarantee of security “not only for our country, but for the entire continent.”

The United States last week announced nearly $2 billion in additional military aid, including the Patriot Air Defense System, which offers protection against aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on member states to supply more weapons to Ukraine.

“I call on allies to do more. It is in all our security interests to make sure Ukraine prevails and Putin does not win,” Stoltenberg told German news agency DPA on Friday.

Stoltenberg said the need for ammunition and spare parts was “enormous.” He told DPA that military support for Ukraine was the fastest way to peace, Reuters reported.

“We know that most wars end at the negotiating table — probably this war too — but we know that what Ukraine can achieve in these negotiations depends inextricably on the military situation,” he said.

Russia’s ongoing offensive

Russia shelled Ukrainian towns across a long stretch of the front line from north to south, Ukrainian officials said Friday, a day after Moscow fired dozens of missiles in its latest barrage against critical infrastructure.

In an evening report Friday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Russian forces had tried to advance near Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the east, while firing on several towns and villages, and shelled settlements further west in the Donetsk region, including the town of Vuhledar.

Zelenskyy said the nation’s forces were holding their positions in the eastern Donbas region.

“There are also some areas of the front where we are advancing a bit,” he said.

Russian forces shelled several towns near Kupiansk, in the northeast Kharkiv region recaptured by Ukraine in September, the General Staff report said, as well as settlements in the Luhansk region, where Ukrainian forces hope to advance after the gains of recent weeks.

Areas of the Zaporizhzhia region, to the south, also came under heavy Russian shelling, including the contested town of Hulyaipole. Additionally, there was also shelling in and around Ukrainian-held Nikopol, on the opposite side of the Kakhovka reservoir from the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station.

On the southern front, there were renewed Russian strikes targeting infrastructure in the city of Kherson, which Russian forces abandoned last month, and Kachkarivka, further north on the west bank of the Dnipro River.

Air attack sirens blared overnight into Friday in the capital, Kyiv, and Reuters reported several explosions and the sound of anti-aircraft fire south of the city, as Russian forces launched 16 Iranian-made Shahed drones, the officials said.

The Ukrainian military said all of the drones had been destroyed. Seven had targeted Kyiv, where an administrative building was damaged, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Putin-Xi deepen ties

Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping vowed Friday to strengthen their bilateral cooperation. During their opening remarks on a publicly broadcast videoconference, the two leaders welcomed strengthening ties between Moscow and Beijing amid what they called “geopolitical tensions” and a “difficult international situation,” with Putin expressing his wish to extend military collaboration.

“In the face of increasing geopolitical tensions, the significance of the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership is growing as a stabilizing factor,” he said.

Putin added that he expected Xi to visit Moscow in the spring. Such a trip “will demonstrate to the whole world the strength of the Russian-Chinese ties on key issues, will become the main political event of the year in bilateral relations,” he said.

Xi said through a translator that “in the face of a difficult and far from straightforward international situation,” Beijing was ready “to increase strategic cooperation with Russia, provide each other with development opportunities, be global partners for the benefit of the peoples of our countries and in the interests of stability around the world.”

But an official Chinese transcript of the video summit between the two leaders highlighted differences in their approach to their developing alliance, making no mention of Xi’s visit to Moscow and stressing that Beijing, which has declined to back or condemn the invasion, would maintain its “objective and fair” stance.

The U.S. expressed concern about the Russian-China rapprochement.

“We are monitoring Beijing’s activity closely,” a State Department spokesperson said.

“Beijing claims to be neutral, but its behavior makes it clear, it is still investing in close ties to Russia.”

U.S. officials have repeatedly said they have yet to see Beijing provide material support to Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, a move that could provoke sanctions against China.

Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Ukraine continues to endure and repel waves of Russian air attacks and that Ukrainian air defenses have been made “stronger than ever.” 

“In the new year,” he added, “Ukrainian air defense will become even stronger, even more effective.”

The Ukrainian leader said Ukrainian air defense “can become the most powerful in Europe,” a guarantee of security “not only for our country, but for the entire continent.”

The United States last week announced nearly $2 billion in additional military aid, including the Patriot Air Defense System, which offers protection against aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on NATO member states to supply more weapons to Ukraine.

“I call on allies to do more. It is in all our security interests to make sure Ukraine prevails and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin does not win,” Stoltenberg told German news agency DPA on Friday.

Stoltenberg said the need for ammunition and spare parts was “enormous.” He told DPA that military support for Ukraine was the fastest way to peace, Reuters reports.

“We know that most wars end at the negotiating table — probably this war too — but we know that what Ukraine can achieve in these negotiations depends inextricably on the military situation,” he said.

Russia’s ongoing offensive

Russia shelled Ukrainian towns across a long stretch of the front line from north to south, Ukrainian officials said Friday, a day after Moscow fired dozens of missiles in its latest barrage against critical infrastructure.

In an evening report Friday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Russian forces had tried to advance near Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the east, while firing on several towns and villages, and shelled settlements further west in the Donetsk region, including the town of Vuhledar.

Zelenskyy said the nation’s forces were holding their positions in the eastern Donbas region.

“There are also some areas of the front where we are advancing a bit,” he noted.

Russian forces shelled several towns near Kupiansk, in the northeast Kharkiv region recaptured by Ukraine in September, the General Staff report said, as well as settlements in the Luhansk region, where Ukrainian forces hope to advance after the gains of recent weeks.

Areas of the Zaporizhzhia region, to the south, also came under heavy Russian shelling, including the contested town of Hulyaipole. Additionally, there was also shelling in and around Ukrainian-held Nikopol, on the opposite side of the Kakhovka reservoir from the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station. 

On the southern front, there were renewed Russian strikes targeting infrastructure in the city of Kherson, which Russian forces abandoned last month, and Kachkarivka, further north on the west bank of the Dnipro River.

Air attack sirens blared overnight into Friday in the capital, Kyiv, and Reuters reported several explosions and the sound of anti-aircraft fire south of the city, as Russian forces launched 16 Iranian-made Shahed drones, the officials said.

The Ukrainian military said all of the drones had been destroyed. Seven had targeted Kyiv, where an administrative building was damaged, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Putin-Xi deepen ties

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping vowed Friday to strengthen their bilateral cooperation. During their opening remarks on a publicly broadcast videoconference, the two leaders welcomed strengthening ties between Moscow and Beijing amid what they called “geopolitical tensions” and a “difficult international situation,” with Putin expressing his wish to extend military collaboration.

“In the face of increasing geopolitical tensions, the significance of the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership is growing as a stabilizing factor,” he said.

Putin added that he expected Xi to visit Moscow in the spring. Such a trip “will demonstrate to the whole world the strength of the Russian-Chinese ties on key issues, will become the main political event of the year in bilateral relations,” he said.

Xi said through a translator that “in the face of a difficult and far from straightforward international situation,” Beijing was ready “to increase strategic cooperation with Russia, provide each other with development opportunities, be global partners for the benefit of the peoples of our countries and in the interests of stability around the world.”

But an official Chinese transcript of the video summit between the two leaders highlighted differences in their approach to their developing alliance, making no mention of Xi’s visit to Moscow and stressing that Beijing, which has declined to back or condemn the invasion, would maintain its “objective and fair” stance.

The U.S. expressed concern about the Russian-China rapprochement.

“We are monitoring Beijing’s activity closely,” a State Department spokesperson said. “Beijing claims to be neutral, but its behavior makes it clear, it is still investing in close ties to Russia.”

U.S. officials have repeatedly said they have yet to see Beijing provide material support to Russia on its invasion on Ukraine, a move that could provoke sanctions against China.

Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.  

 
…

Behind the frontline near Kreminna, a strategically located Russian-controlled city in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s troops say they are facing a tough enemy.

“We fight them every day, in any weather. We attack in the direction of Kreminna, but they are not easy to defeat,” said a 24-year-old Ukrainian soldier who goes by the call sign “Kulak” or “Fist.”

“They are good, they are tough,” he told Agence France-Presse in Yampil, a village some 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of Kreminna and recaptured by Ukrainian forces in late September.

The city in the eastern Luhansk region — which Moscow claimed to have annexed along with three other Ukrainian regions — has been the scene of intense fighting in recent days.

“We had some successes on the Ukrainian side, but nothing huge. The enemy is not giving up,” Kulak said with a smile.

For the past few days, the region’s governor, Serhiy Gaidai, has been posting encouraging — if slightly contradictory — messages on social media.

On Thursday, he wrote that Ukraine’s troops advanced 2.5 kilometers in the direction of Kreminna in a week.

A day earlier, he said Russians had sent reinforcements to the area, while adding that the city could be retaken early next year.

According to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian forces “appear to be preparing for a decisive effort” in the Luhansk region.

‘Get it over with’

Yampil looks like a hive of wartime activity.

Military vehicles crisscross the main street of this largely destroyed village. There are nearly as many soldiers as there are civilians.

In a field behind several half-abandoned houses, soldiers are busy keeping two tanks — nicknamed Natalya and Salvador — in fighting shape. The tanks were captured during the Russian army’s retreat.

“If we liberate Kreminna, we will cut off the Russians’ supply route in Rubizhne, Severodonetsk and Lysychansk,” said one of the soldiers, Vlad, referring to other occupied towns in the region.

“We don’t want the situation to be put on ice. We want to push them back, get it over with,” said Vlad, who hails from Kyiv.

‘Nowhere better than home’

Although Yampil was liberated by Ukrainian forces during a sweeping counteroffensive in the fall, it is still within reach of Russian artillery.

A few kilometers up north, battles are raging in the village of Torske, and the shelling has intensified in recent days.

“It’s more or less fine. It would be better if it weren’t for these deafening noises,” said Olga, a 69-year-old retired teacher, declining to give her last name.

Every day, she meets with other residents of Yampil outside the only operating store.

The convenience store is both a collection point for humanitarian aid and a place to gather for a chat.

Despite the cold, they sit around a table in front of the store, talking and arguing as military vehicles drive by.

“We come here to talk; it’s our living room,” Olga said, smiling while a woman sitting next to her lamented the power cuts and lack of aid in the village.

“They don’t care about us!” she said.

Humanitarian aid dominates conversations here.

Not far away, an 84-year-old woman wearing a blue head scarf bursts into tears as she points to the people gathered round the table.

“When help arrives, they take everything, they don’t share anything. Why?” she asked tearfully, standing in front of her heavily damaged home.

But local official Yulia Rybalko insists that “nobody is starving” in Yampil.

She said she organizes the distribution of food, clothing and firewood delivered by NGOs.

Only some 600 civilians remain in the village that used to have a population of 2,500 people before Russia invaded on February 24.

But according to Olga, the former math teacher, many of those who leave choose to eventually return.

“Nowhere is better than home,” she said.
…

The condition of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI remains stable, the Vatican said Friday, as Catholics prayed for the 95-year-old former pontiff whose health has seriously deteriorated.

The German, who in 2013 was the first pope since the Middle Ages to resign as head of the worldwide Catholic Church, has become increasingly frail over the years.

Pope Francis said Wednesday his predecessor, whose birth name is Joseph Ratzinger, was “very ill.”

On Friday, the Vatican said his condition was “stable,” adding that Benedict had rested well overnight and taken part in a mass held in his bedroom.

Benedict moved out of the papal palace and into a former convent within the Vatican when he retired.

Francis called Wednesday for people to pray for him, before visiting him at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery.

The Vatican later confirmed the former pope’s health had worsened “due to advancing age,” while a Vatican source told Agence France-Presse it had begun deteriorating “about three days ago.”

“It is his vital functions that are failing, including his heart,” the source said, adding that no hospital admission was planned, as he has the “necessary medical equipment” at home.

The Rome diocese celebrated a special mass for Benedict at the Basilica of St. John Lateran Friday. In his homily, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis said as “priest, theologian, bishop, pope,” Benedict “expressed at the same time, the strength and the sweetness of faith.”

Gratitude

In Germany, in the church of St. Oswald in Marktl am Inn, where the former pope was baptized, a photo of Benedict was set up on a tripod next to a baptistery.

Photos from his 2006 trip to the town line the walls. A red candle burns on the floor of the white building, which is topped by a black bell tower.

One visitor, Tobias Ferstl, 43, prayed with his eyes closed for several minutes in front of the photograph of Benedict.

“I was passing through, so I decided to stop by the birthplace of the Pope Emeritus,” the devout Catholic, an altar server at Regensburg Cathedral, told AFP.

“I don’t feel any great sadness or astonishment, but rather gratitude,” he said, despite a few tears filling his eyes. Benedict was “a gentle person,” he said.

At Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican, tourists and pilgrims taking selfies in front of the Christmas tree and Nativity scene contrasted with the few journalists on standby in case of a death announcement.

“He was a great pope,” Italian Carmelo Dellisanti told AFP. “Perhaps misunderstood by some in the Catholic world, but he served the Church. He produced extraordinary homilies and writings.”

A difficult time

Benedict was 78 when he succeeded the long-reigning and popular John Paul II in April 2005.

His eight-year pontificate was marked by multiple crises, including the global clerical sex abuse scandal, which has dogged him in retirement as well.

A damning report for the German church in January 2022 accused him of personally having failed to stop four predatory priests in the 1980s, when he was archbishop of Munich.

Benedict has denied wrongdoing, but in a letter released after the report, asked “for forgiveness.”

“I think he had a difficult time as pope, because of the pedophilia scandal, and he never really wanted to be pope, so it would be nice if he went to heaven,” said 30-year-old German Annika Hafner.

Benedict has appeared increasingly frail in recent months, using a wheelchair, but was still receiving visitors. He appears frail in photos taken December 1.

The last public video of him, released by the Vatican in August, shows a thin man with a hearing aid who can no longer speak, but whose eyes are still bright.
…

Romanian authorities have arrested divisive social media personality Andrew Tate on suspicion of human trafficking and rape.
 

Prosecutors in Bucharest asked a court Friday to extend by 30 days Tate’s detention.

 

Tate, a former professional kickboxer, was detained along with his brother and two other men.  

 

Tate did not comment but his attorney confirmed he had been detained.

 

Tate has been barred from some media platforms because of his misogynistic comments and hate speech.  

 

Reuters reports that prosecutors say they found six sexually exploited women when they detained the four men.   

 

Tate recently was involved in an online exchange with 19-year-old environmentalist Greta Thunberg, after he said he owned 33 cars.  

 

 
…

As the person who dressed the Sex Pistols, Vivienne Westwood, who died Thursday at 81, was synonymous with 1970s punk rock, a rebelliousness that remained the hallmark of an unapologetically political designer who became one of British fashion’s biggest names.

“Vivienne Westwood died today, peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London. The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better,” her fashion house said on Twitter.

Climate change, pollution and her support for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange were all fodder for protest T-shirts or banners carried by her models on the runway.

She dressed up as then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for a magazine cover in 1989 and drove a white tank near the country home of a later British leader, David Cameron, to protest fracking.

The rebel was inducted into Britain’s establishment in 1992 by Queen Elizabeth, who awarded her the Order of the British Empire medal. But, ever keen to shock, Westwood turned up at Buckingham Palace without underwear — a fact she proved to photographers by a revealing twirl of her skirt.

“The only reason I am in fashion is to destroy the word ‘conformity,'” Westwood said in her 2014 biography. “Nothing is interesting to me unless it’s got that element.”

Instantly recognizable with her orange or white hair, Westwood first made a name for herself in punk fashion in 1970s London, dressing the punk rock band that defined the genre.

Together with the Sex Pistols’ manager, Malcolm McLaren, she defied the hippie trends of the time to sell rock ‘n’ roll-inspired clothing.

They moved on to torn outfits adorned with chains as well as latex and fetish pieces that they sold at their shop in London’s King’s Road variously called “Let It Rock,” “Sex” and “Seditionaries,” among other names.

They used prints of swastikas, naked breasts and, perhaps most well-known, an image of the queen with a safety pin through her lips. Favorite items included sleeveless black T-shirts, studded, with zips, safety pins or bleached chicken bones.

“There was no punk before me and Malcolm,” Westwood said in the biography. “And the other thing you should know about punk too: it was a total blast.”

‘Buy less’

Born Vivienne Isabel Swire on April 8, 1941, in the English Midlands town of Glossop, Westwood grew up at a time of rationing during and after World War II.

A recycling mentality pervaded her work, and she repeatedly told fashionistas to “choose well” and “buy less.” From the late 1960s, she lived in a small flat in south London for some 30 years and cycled to work.

When she was a teenager, her parents, a greengrocer and a cotton weaver, moved the family to north London where she studied jewelry-making and silversmithing before retraining as a teacher.

While she taught at a primary school, she met her first husband, Derek Westwood, marrying him in a homemade dress. Their son, Ben, was born in 1963, and the couple divorced in 1966.

Now a single mother, Westwood was selling jewelry on London’s Portobello Road when she met art student McLaren, who would go on to be her partner romantically and professionally. They had a son, Joe Corre, co-founder of lingerie brand Agent Provocateur.

After the Sex Pistols split, the two held their first catwalk show in 1981, presenting a “new romantic” look of African-style patterns, buccaneer trousers and sashes.

Westwood, by then in her 40s, began to slowly forge her own path in fashion, eventually separating from McLaren in the early 1980s.

Often looking to history, her influential designs have included corsets, Harris Tweed suits and taffeta ballgowns.

Her 1985 “Mini-Crini” line introduced her short puffed skirt and a more fitted silhouette. Her sky-high platform shoes garnered worldwide attention in 1993 when model Naomi Campbell stumbled on the catwalk in a pair.

“My clothes have a story. They have an identity. They have character and a purpose,” Westwood said.

“That’s why they become classics. Because they keep on telling a story. They are still telling it.”

The Westwood brand flourished in the 1990s, with fashionistas flocking to her runway shows in Paris, and stores opening around the world selling her lines, accessories and perfumes.

She met her second husband, Andreas Kronthaler, teaching fashion in Vienna. They married in 1993, and he later became her creative partner.

Westwood used her public profile to champion issues including nuclear disarmament and to protest anti-terrorism laws and government spending policies that hit the poor. She held a large “climate revolution” banner at the 2012 Paralympics closing ceremony in London, and frequently turned her models into catwalk eco-warriors.

“I’ve always had a political agenda,” Westwood told L’Officiel fashion magazine in 2018.

“I’ve used fashion to challenge the status quo.”
…

A new wave of Russian missile strikes pounded cities throughout Ukraine on Thursday, damaging power stations and other critical infrastructure during freezing winter weather.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said a number of energy facilities were damaged and that “Russia is trying to deprive Ukrainians of light before the new year.”

However, the Ukrainian military said it had managed to neutralize most of the missiles, avoiding much larger damage.

“According to preliminary data, 69 missiles were launched in total. Fifty-four enemy cruise missiles were shot down,” said Ukraine’s top military general, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhniy.

“The enemy is attacking Ukraine from various directions with air- and sea-based cruise missiles from strategic aircraft and ships,” Ukrainian air defense said on social media, describing the scope of the attack as massive.

‘Senseless barbarism’

Officials earlier said more than 120 missiles were fired, according to Reuters. In addition to the cruise missiles, Ukraine’s military said anti-aircraft and S-300 ADMS (air defense missile system) were used.

Russia has repeatedly used missiles to target Ukrainian cities, including strikes that have destroyed critical infrastructure sites, though it denies targeting civilians.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the attacks “senseless barbarism.”

“These are the only words that come to mind seeing Russia launch another missile barrage at peaceful Ukrainian cities ahead of New Year,” he said.

Several people were wounded in the capital, as rescuers continued search-and-rescue operations.

“At the moment, there are three victims in Kyiv, including a 14-year-old girl. Everyone was hospitalized,” said Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

He warned of potential electricity cuts and called on residents to stock up on water and to charge their electronic devices.

Kharkiv, other cities attacked

Russian kamikaze drones targeted infrastructure in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, where there were numerous explosions throughout the city.

“The Russian occupiers once again struck the energy infrastructure of Kharkiv, using 13 Iranian Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicles in the attack. Ukrainian defense shot down 11 of these drones,” the Ukraine General Staff said.

Local officials said the attacks killed at least two people around Kharkiv.

The strikes also targeted Zaporizhzhia and the Dnipropetrovsk regions, but most of them were downed by the Ukrainian military, the General Staff said, and five drones were shot down around the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Additional strikes were aimed at the Black Sea port city of Odesa and Lviv, where Russian attacks are rare, which was left without power. There were power cuts in the Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions to reduce potential damage to the power infrastructure.

Andriy Sadovyi, mayor of Lviv, said the attack left his city near the Polish border about 90% without electricity.

Shelling on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia damaged electricity lines and gas pipelines and damaged houses.

Russia has attacked Ukrainian power and water supplies almost weekly since October while its ground forces struggle to hold ground and advance.

As heavy fighting in the Donbas region continued without significant advances on either side, the Ukrainian military said Russian forces rained scores of missile and rocket salvos along the whole front line in the east, while attempting to push ahead with their stalemated offensive in the Bakhmut and Avdiyivka areas of Donetsk.

Ukraine leader promotes peace plan

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been advocating a 10-point peace plan that calls for Russia to recognize Ukraine’s territory and withdraw its troops.

The Kremlin reiterated its dismissal of the proposal Wednesday, doubling down on its stance that Ukraine must accept the annexation Russia claimed in September after referendums rejected by Ukraine and most other nations as shams. The four Ukrainian regions include Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.

“There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today’s realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. “Plans that do not take these realities into account cannot be peaceful.”

After the latest Russian air strikes, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted, “There can be no ‘neutrality’ in the face of such mass war crimes. Pretending to be ‘neutral’ equals taking Russia’s side.”

Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

Georgiy Yatsenko was hiding in the basement trying to comfort his anxious grandchildren on Thursday morning when an explosion rocked his normally sleepy street in southern Kyiv.

The blast blew out all of his windows, but the scene that greeted him when he stepped outside was even more frightening: half a dozen nearby houses were mostly destroyed by Russia’s latest missile barrage targeting Ukraine.

“The main thing is that people are alive,” he said as he watched excavators try to clear the resulting mess of bricks, wooden planks and power lines.

Missiles cities in Ukraine

Ukrainian officials said the air defense systems downed all 16 missiles that targeted Kyiv on Thursday, part of a broader assault that also hit Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, in the east and the western city of Lviv on the border with Poland.

Multiple witnesses said the explosion on Yatsenko’s street in Kyiv’s southern Bortnychi neighborhood was probably caused by a missile fragment, not a direct hit.

It made little difference to Tetiana Denysenko, who rushed to the scene after receiving a distressing call from her young granddaughter.

“She said, ‘Grandma, our house is on fire. We’ve been hit. My mother (Denysenko’s daughter) was thrown to the ground. She’s lying unconscious,'” the 62-year-old recalled.

“That’s all I could hear,” she said.

By the time Denysenko arrived, her daughter was being taken in an ambulance for emergency surgery.

“Thank God the children are alive,” Denysenko said through tears. “Thank God my granddaughter only had an injured leg.”

Siren, then explosions

Sergiy, who lives in the same neighborhood and gave only his first name, said that despite an air raid siren early Thursday morning, he had spent a leisurely few hours having breakfast and walking his dog.

Once he heard reports of explosions elsewhere in Kyiv, he decided to go to a local shelter for cover. But he and his wife had only reached their front door when the explosion occurred around 9 a.m., local time.

“We heard a bang, very strong, and there was a second explosion, but less powerful,” the 59-year-old said.

“We went outdoors and saw the windows in our house were broken and the house opposite ours was destroyed.”

He and his neighbors now must race to repair their houses as they prepare for the depths of winter amid persistent blackouts.

Nearly half of Kyiv’s population was left without power after the attacks on Thursday, as was 90% of Lviv, officials said.

Yatsenko said he planned to cover his window frames with plastic in an attempt to warm the house where he lives with nine other relatives.

It was unclear what the options would be for those whose houses suffered heavier damage.

At Denysenko’s daughter’s house, neighbors helped cart out salvageable items including a refrigerator, but the elderly woman had no answer when asked where the family would go.

“I don’t know,” Denysenko said, sobbing. “I don’t know.”
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Kosovo has reopened the main border crossing with Serbia, as Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic has announced dozens of other roadblocks in Northern Kosovo also would be removed.

 

Thursday, after days of the crossing between Kosovo and Serbia being blocked by barricades, trucks now can traverse it again. The removal of barricades blocking the main border crossing paves the way for easing tensions between Kosovo and Serbia, in a volatile Balkan region.   

 

The blocking in the Merdare border crossing came as a gesture of support for Serbs in Northern Kosovo who had erected barricades for almost three weeks, protesting the arrest by Kosovo authorities of a former Serb policeman.

 

Kosovo police said the road blocked inside of Serbia’s territory had been “cleared for traffic.” Other roadblocks, according to local media, also are being removed.

 

The end of the blockade was announced by the President Vucic following his meeting with Kosovo Serbs who erected the roadblocks 19 days ago, in protest over the arrest of a former police officer.

 

Vucic said the process of removing the roadblocks may take up to two days.  

 

The announcement comes as welcome news, giving hope for easing tensions in the region.  

 

Kosovo citizens in Pristina told VOA the removal of the blockades is the right move to end the crisis in the north.

 

“Nobody benefitted from these barricades. It only left the roads blocked for 19 days, the Serbs gained nothing from these barricades. It was just a populist move of Vucic in Belgrade,” Mustafë Halili, a resident of Pristina told VOA Albanian.

 

“I think this is just one of their tactics. More than 20 years after the war, Serbia continues to use these kinds of maneuvers for its own political purposes and I think it will be repeated again. But we, our government, I think it should be more vigilant,” Xhevdet Gjocaj says.

 

“It will present challenges for us. After the removal, talks will be intensified, as will the request for the formation of the Association of Serbian municipalities. This will be the first step and the Serbs will demand more,” Adem Veseli says.  

 

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said Wednesday that “there is only a peaceful and democratic solution for the relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and that is mutual recognition.”

 

The EU and the U.S. are mediating talks between Belgrade and Pristina and have voiced their relief the situation has been resolved.   

 

Josep Borrell, EU high representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, posted on Twitter welcoming the news as well: “Diplomacy prevailed in de-escalating tensions in north Kosovo. Violence can never be a solution. Welcome responsible leadership of President Vučić & Prime Minister Kurti. Great EU, US &@NATO_KFOR teamwork.”

A State Department spokesperson said, “We welcome the news about the reopening of the main border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia. For additional information, we refer you to the joint statement.”

 

The NATO-led peacekeeping Kosovo Force (KFOR) issued a statement, saying it welcomed the decision to remove the barricades in the north of Kosovo. “The removal of the barricades has to be done quickly, in a safe and secure way, avoiding any kind of incidents or risks. All parties should avoid any rhetoric or actions that can cause further escalation. KFOR is closely monitoring developments. We remain extremely vigilant and ready to intervene, if necessary.”

 

In his comment to VOA Serbian, Greg Delawie, former United States Ambassador to Kosovo, said, “I am very glad there seems to have been a peaceful resolution to this unfortunate situation. I hope both Kosovo and Serbia will reflect on the events of the last few weeks and redouble their efforts to achieve a durable peace for the benefit of all of their citizens.”

 

The conflict between Serbia and Kosovo dates to a war in the late 1990s. In 2008, following the war, Kosovo declared its independence, which is backed by the United States and the West, though Serbia does not recognize it.

 

Russia and China have supported Serbia’s position and its efforts blocking Kosovo’s membership in the United Nations and other global institutions. Since 2011, Pristina and Belgrade have been negotiating through an EU-led dialogue.  

 

An estimated 50,000 Serbs are living in the north of Kosovo, which they assert is still part of Serbia.

 

In Kosovo, many were not happy with the decision to dismantle the barricades. Srđan Simonović from the Kosovo NGO Humani Centar Mitrovica, said in a comment to VOA that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s decision to remove the barricades is illogical.

 

“In the end, Serbian people are losing, because if you look closely, we have an effective government here in Pristina that is governing in the rest of Kosovo and Metohija, but not yet in Northern Kosovo,” Simonović said.   

 

Following the arrest of a Serbian ex-police officer, Dejan Pantic, December 10 on suspicion of attacking the Kosovo force, re-escalating the tensions, hundreds of ethnic Serbs set up roadblocks in northern Kosovo and paralyzed traffic through two border crossings. Additionally, reports of a rise in shootings, the latest of which occurred late on December 25, according to NATO-led peacekeeping force KFOR, added to a spiraling situation.  

 

On Wednesday, Pantic was released from custody and put under house arrest after a request from the prosecutor’s office.

 

Budimir Nicic and Milan Nesic contributed to this report.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press. 
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Sarah Ashton-Cirillo used to be journalist based in Los Angeles. A transgender woman, she is now a military medic in Ukraine’s Armed Forces. Tatiana Vorozhko met with her in Washington in early December, when she came to brief U.S. lawmakers and experts on developments on the front lines. VOA footage by Dmytro Melnyk. Video editing by Dmytro Melnyk and Anna Rice.
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The Bulgarian foreign ministry on Thursday summoned Russia’s ambassador to explain why Moscow has placed a Bulgarian journalist working for an international investigative website on a list of wanted persons.

Christo Grozev, the leading Bellingcat researcher on Russia, who carried out investigations into the poisonings of opposition politician Alexey Navalny and former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, has focused this year on alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Galab Donev said Thursday that his country has not been informed through official channels by Russia about any charges brought against Grozev.

“This act is unacceptable … it constitutes an encroachment on the freedom of speech and an attempt to intimidate a Bulgarian citizen,” he said.

Grozev, who doesn’t share his location for security reasons, said in a tweet on Monday that he had no idea on what grounds the Kremlin has put him on its “wanted list” and added: “In a way it doesn’t matter — for years they’ve made it clear they are scared of our work and would stop at nothing to make it go away.”

Speaking to local TV channels by video link from an undisclosed location, Grozev expressed fear for his and his family’s life, and said that he expects support from the Bulgarian state.

He said he has already been offered help by several European countries, including Austria, where he has sometimes lived in the last decade.

Grozev said that in the last couple of years he and his colleagues from Bellingcat have travelled “with last-minute ticket purchases so that it is not easy to find out where we are going and what we are investigating.” Now, he added, “we have to avoid getting into the territory of a country that might do the Kremlin a favor.”

Thursday’s move to summon the Russian ambassador came after the main parties in Bulgaria’s parliament called for support for Grozev.

Once the Soviet Union’s closest ally, Bulgaria is now a European Union and NATO member and has strongly backed Western sanctions against Moscow over its war on Ukraine.

In late April, Russia cut off gas supplies to Bulgaria after officials refused a Moscow demand to pay gas bills in rubles, Russia’s currency.

Two months later, Bulgaria expelled 70 Russian diplomatic staff and their families. The mass expulsion, one of the biggest in Europe, sent tensions soaring between the historically close nations.

Bulgaria’s expulsion decision was announced by then-Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, who took a strong stance against Russia after it invaded Ukraine on February 24. Petkov, who eventually lost a no-confidence vote, claimed Moscow had used “hybrid war” tactics to bring down his government.
…

Russia attacked Ukraine with a barrage of missiles Thursday, including ones that targeted the capital, Kyiv, as well as the city of Kharkiv.

Ukraine’s military said it shot down 54 of 69 missiles launched by Russia.

“Senseless barbarism. These are the only words that come to mind seeing Russia launch another missile barrage at peaceful Ukrainian cities ahead of New Year,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted.  “There can be no ‘neutrality’ in the face of such mass war crimes. Pretending to be ‘neutral’ equals taking Russia’s side.”

Ukrainian presidential aide Miykhailo Podolyak tweeted that Russia launched at least 120 missiles “to destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse.”

The attack prompted air raid sirens across the country, and Ukrainian officials said air defense systems were able to knock down incoming missiles.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported explosions in his city and said authorities were determining what had been hit and whether there were any casualties.

Russia has repeatedly used missiles to target Ukrainian cities, including strikes that have destroyed critical infrastructure sites.

“At some point terrorist Russians will run out of missiles, but Ukrainians will never run out of courage, devotion to freedom and democracy and love to our country,” Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, tweeted Thursday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is advocating a 10-point peace plan that calls for Russia to recognize Ukraine’s territory and withdraw its troops.

The Kremlin reiterated its dismissal of the proposal Wednesday, doubling down on its stance that Ukraine must accept the annexation Russia claimed in September after referendums rejected by Ukraine and most other nations as shams. The four Ukrainian regions include Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.

“There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today’s realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. “Plans that do not take these realities into account cannot be peaceful.”

Also on Wednesday, Zelenskyy addressed the Ukrainian parliament in a closed-door session, urging lawmakers to remain united against Russia’s aggression, while praising Ukrainians for leading the West to “find itself again.”

“Our national colors are today an international symbol of courage and indomitability of the whole world,” he said in his 45-minute speech, his last of the year.

“In any country, in any continent, when you see blue and yellow, you know it’s about freedom. About the people who did not surrender, who stood, who united the world, and which will win,” he said.

Zelenskyy said the world had seen that freedom can be triumphant through Ukraine’s gains on the battlefield, and he thanked Ukraine’s military.

Zelenskyy noted Ukraine has gained the release of 1,456 prisoners of war since Russia’s invasion 10 months ago. Russia is believed to have thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war, though actual figures are not known.

Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

Kosovo reopened the country’s main border crossing with Serbia on Thursday after a nearby barricade that led to its closure was removed, while Serbia’s president said more than a dozen other Serb roadblocks in northern Kosovo also would be dismantled. 

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Serbs would start removing their barricades on Thursday. The move could defuse weeks of tensions between Kosovo and Serbia that triggered fears of new clashes in the Balkans.

Kosovo had demanded that NATO-led peacekeepers remove the barricades or said its forces would do it. Serbia then raised combat readiness of its troops on the border with Kosovo, demanding an end to “attacks” against Kosovo Serbs.

The removal agreement was reached at a late-night crisis meeting with the leaders of Kosovo’s Serbs, Vucic said. 

It followed the release from jail of a former Kosovo Serb police officer, whose detention on a terrorism change triggered protests and clashes in northern Kosovo. A court ordered him placed under house arrest Wednesday.

The roadblocks, which consist mostly of loaded heavy trucks, other vehicles and tents, were still in place as of mid-morning Thursday. Unknown assailants set fire to two trucks on a roadblock in the northern town of Mitrovica, Kosovo police said.

The former police officer, Dejan Pantic, was detained Dec. 10 for “terrorism” after allegedly assaulting a Kosovo police officer during an earlier protest. 

Kosovo’s president and prime minister have criticized a Kosovo court’s decision to release Pantic from jail. 

“How is it possible for someone who is accused of terrorism to go from detention to house arrest,” President Vjosa Osmani said late Wednesday.

The main Merdare border crossing with Serbia closed down earlier this week because of a roadblock a few kilometers away, on the Serbian side of the border. 

Kosovo police told expatriates heading to Kosovo from European countries for the holidays that they could again use that route instead of going through North Macedonia or other entry points.

The unrest over Pantic’s detention sparked tense standoffs and gunshots but no major clashes. However, international concerns grew of a new conflict in the Balkans while the war in Ukraine is raging as well.

A separatist rebellion by Kosovo’s majority Albanians led to a 1998-99 war that featured a brutal Serbian crackdown in the territory that was its province at the time.

NATO intervened in 1999 to stop the onslaught and push Serbia out of Kosovo. But Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence and has relied on Russia and China for backing.

Both Serbia and Kosovo have been told they must normalize relations in order to become members of the EU. Washington and Brussels recently have stepped up efforts to push forward EU-mediated dialogue between the former war foes. 
…

Recent Russian-Belarusian military exercises have raised fears of a second invasion of Ukraine from the north. While Ukrainians see Belarus as an aggressor, some observers and members of the Belarusian opposition say that not all Belarusians side with Russia. In fact, some Belarusians decided to prove their allegiance to Ukraine by joining its army. Myroslava Gongadze met with members of a Belarusian regiment before they were sent to the front lines.
…

Bernard Phelan, a French Irish tour operator who has been detained in Iran for the past three months, was “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” his sister said Wednesday.

Phelan’s family spoke with The Irish Times about the diplomatic dispute he is involved in.

According to the Times, Phelan, 64, was arrested by Iranian police on Oct. 3. He is being held in Vakilabad prison in Mashhad, in northeast Iran, and is sharing a cell with 15 other people, the Times reported.

Iran has leveled multiple charges against Phelan, including spreading propaganda against Iran and taking photos of police officers, all of which he denies.

Irish security sources believe he was detained on trumped-up charges in order to send a message to the French government: “Stay out of our business,” the paper reported.

Phelan lives in France and had arrived in Iran with a French passport.

In September, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, died while in police custody. She had been detained by the country’s morality police for violating the dress code. Her death sparked continuing protests in Iran and around the globe.

Tehran has accused France, among other Western nations, of attempting to stir up the protests, while the French government has said its nationals – at least seven — are being held as state hostages.

Irish and French diplomats have been working behind the scenes to secure Phelan’s release, the Times reported.

Phelan was traveling through the city of Mashhad on Oct. 3 as part of a research trip, when he was arrested for allegedly taking photographs of police officers and a mosque that had been burned, The Irish Times reported.

The paper reported that Phelan was held in solitary confinement for two weeks before being transferred to Vakilabad prison.

After a month in custody, officials charged Phelan with engaging in propaganda against the Iranian regime and with sending photographs to the Guardian newspaper, the Times reported.

“It’s a political issue,” Caroline Massé-Phelan, Bernard Phelan’s sister, told the Times. “On the Irish side, there is no reason for him to be held because the Iranians have a fairly good relationship with Ireland. He should be released.”

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told the Times the department “is aware of the case and has been providing consular assistance, in close coordination with France.

The French and Iranian embassies in Dublin did not respond to requests for comment.

His family told the newspaper they have only had two phone calls from Phelan in the 84 days he has been detained.

“Bernard was supposed to be with me for my 97th birthday in November and also with me for Christmas,” Vincent Phelan, Bernard’s father, said Tuesday. “I fear that I will never see him again.”
…

The Biden administration is marking the four-year anniversary of the detention in Russia of American businessman Paul Whelan, whose continued imprisonment is one of several major irritants in tattered relations between Washington and Moscow.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday that securing Whelan’s release remains a top administration priority.

U.S. officials had hoped to include Whelan in a prisoner swap earlier this month in which they traded detained WNBA star Brittney Griner for a convicted Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout. The administration considers Whelan, like Griner, to have been wrongfully detained.

See related video by VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara:

Blinken said Whelan and his family are “suffering through an unfathomable ordeal,” and he again condemned the American’s conviction, which was based on secret evidence, and 16-year prison sentence.

“His detention remains unacceptable, and we continue to press for his immediate release at every opportunity,” Blinken said. “Our efforts to secure Paul’s release will not cease until he is back home with his family where he belongs.”

Charges of espionage

Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive, is jailed in Russia on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have said are baseless. U.S. officials said Russia refused to consider including Whelan in the Griner deal, calling it a “one or none” decision.

“Paul and the Whelan family recently showed the entire country the meaning of generosity of spirit in celebrating a fellow American’s return while Russia continues its deplorable treatment of Paul as a bargaining chip,” said President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.

The Whelan family supported the exchange that freed Griner but expressed fears that Whelan would not be released for years.

His brother, David Whelan, said when the swap was announced, “I think we all realize that the math is not going to work out for Paul to come home anytime soon, unless the U.S. government is able to find concessions.”

1,461 days

Paul Whelan, 52, was sentenced in 2020.

In a statement Wednesday, David Whelan said, “Today is the 1,461st day that Paul has been held hostage by the Russian Federation. Russian authorities entrapped him four years ago today. How do you mark such an awful milestone when there is no resolution in sight?”

The anniversary, he said, “is both awful and mundane, just another day that Paul has to suffer in a Russian labor colony for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
…

Ukraine has bought some 1,400 drones, mostly for reconnaissance, and plans to develop combat models that can attack the exploding drones Russia has used during its invasion of the country, according to the Ukrainian government minister in charge of technology.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Mykhailo Fedorov, the minister of digital transformation, described Russia’s war in Ukraine as the first major war of the internet age. He credited drones and satellite internet systems like Elon Musk’s Starlink with having transformed the conflict.

Ukraine has purchased drones like the Fly Eye, a small unmanned aerial vehicle used for intelligence, battlefield surveillance and reconnaissance.

“And the next stage, now that we are more or less equipped with reconnaissance drones, is strike drones,” Fedorov said. “These are both exploding drones and drones that fly up to 3 to 10 kilometers and hit targets.”

He predicted “more missions with strike drones” in the future but would not elaborate.

“We are talking there about drones, UAVs, UAVs that we are developing in Ukraine,” he said. “Well, anyway, it will be the next step in the development of technologies.”

Russian authorities have alleged several Ukrainian drone strikes on its military bases in recent weeks, including one on Monday in which they said Russian forces shot down a drone approaching the Engels airbase located more than 600 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

Russia’s military said debris killed three service members, but no aircraft were damaged. The base houses Tu-95 and Tu-160 nuclear-capable strategic bombers that have been involved in launching strikes on Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities have never formally acknowledged carrying out such drone strikes, but they have made cryptic allusions to how Russia might expect retaliation for its war in Ukraine, including within Russian territory.

Ukraine is carrying out research and development on drones that could fight and down other drones, Fedorov said. Russia has used Iranian-made Shahed drones for its airstrikes in Ukrainian territory in recent weeks, in addition to rocket, cruise missile and artillery attacks.

“I can say already that the situation regarding drones will change drastically in February or March,” he said.

Fedorov sat for an interview in his bright and modern office. Located inside a staid ministry building, the room contained a vinyl record player, history books stacked on shelves and a treadmill.

The minister highlighted the importance of mobile communications for both civilian and military purposes during the war and said the most challenging places to maintain service have been in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa and Kyiv regions in the center and east of the country.

He said there are times when fewer than half of the mobile phone towers are functioning in the capital, Kyiv, because Russian airstrikes have destroyed or damaged the infrastructure that power them.

Ukraine has some 30,000 mobile phone towers, and the government is now trying to link them to generators so they can keep working when airstrikes damage the power grid.

The only alternative, for now, is satellite systems like Starlink, which Ukrainians may rely on more if blackouts start lasting longer.

“We should understand that in this case, the Starlinks and the towers, connected to the generators, will be the basic internet infrastructure,” Fedorov said.

Many cities and towns are facing power cuts lasting up to 10 hours. Fedorov said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree that instructs mobile phone companies to ensure they can provide signals without electricity for at least three days.

Meanwhile, with support from its European Union partners, his ministry is working to bring 10,000 more Starlink stations to Ukraine, with internet service made available to the public through hundreds of “Points of Invincibility” that offer warm drinks, heated spaces, electricity and shelter for people displaced by fighting or power outages.

Roughly 24,000 Starlink stations are in operation in Ukraine. Musk’s company, SpaceX, began providing them during the early days of the war after Fedorov tweeted a request to the billionaire.

“I just stood there on my knees, begging them to start working in Ukraine, and promised that we would make a world record,” he recalled.

Fedorov compared Space X’s donation of the satellite terminals to the U.S.-supplied multiple rocket launchers in terms of significance for Ukraine’s ability to mount a defense to Russia’s invasion.

“Thousands of lives were saved,” he said.

As well as the civilian applications, Starlink has helped front-line reconnaissance drone operators target artillery strikes on Russian assets and positions. Fedorov said his team is now dedicating 70% of its time to military technologies. The ministry was created only three years ago.

Providing the army with drones is among its main tasks.

“We need to do more than what is expected of us, and progress does not wait,” Fedorov said, scoffing at Russian skill in the domain of drones. “I don’t believe in their technological potential at all.”
…