Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has turned to Huda Par, a radical Islamist party, to consolidate his Kurdish base. But the move is controversial, with the Huda Par accused of past links to political violence. Dorian Jones reports from Diyarbakir.
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Much of western Europe is dealing with dwindling populations, and the problem is especially severe in Spain, where the government says more than half of the country’s municipalities are in danger of total depopulation as many young people move to cities or choose not to have children. Jonathan Spier narrates this report from Alfonso Beato in the Catalonian town of Vilada, where a Honduran immigrant and her three daughters are breathing life into a community.
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The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Poland’s decision to rename the Russian city of Kaliningrad in its official documents was a “hostile act,” as ties continue to fray over the war in Ukraine. 

Kaliningrad, which sits in an exclave that is sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic coast, was known by the German name of Koenigsberg until after World War II, when it was annexed by the Soviet Union and renamed to honor politician Mikhail Kalinin. 

Warsaw says Kalinin’s connection to the 1940 Katyn massacre — when thousands of Polish officers were executed by Soviet forces — had negative connotations and that the city should now be referred to as Krolewiec, its name when it was ruled by the Kingdom of Poland in the 15th and 16th centuries. 

“The current Russian name of this city is an artificial baptism unrelated to either the city or the region,” Poland’s committee on geographical standardization said on Tuesday. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the decision “bordered on madness.” 

“We know that throughout history, Poland has slipped from time to time into this madness of hatred towards Russians,” he told a briefing. 

Kaliningrad was cut off from Moscow when Lithuania became independent during the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.  

In the city itself, people questioned in the street were split over the Polish move. 

“[This land] is conquered by us, by my ancestors … this is our territory and there can be no Krolewiec whatsoever,” said an elderly man who did not give his name. 

Others appeared to be less upset. One woman noted Lithuania had also renamed the city Krolewiec. 

“Nothing would change … apart from the need to change all their documents. If they want it, let them do it,” she said.  

Relations between Poland and Russia have historically often been very strained. 

Moscow says it liberated Poland when its forces drove out Nazi forces at the end of Worl War II. Most Poles believe the Soviet Union replaced Nazi occupation with another form of repression. 

Poland, a NATO member, strongly backed Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, and has stepped up the demolition of memorials to fallen Soviet troops across the country. 
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Repeated attempts by hackers, including some linked to Russia, to damage or take down critical infrastructure in Latvia have been answered, thanks in part to help from U.S. and Canadian cyber personnel.

The three countries Wednesday announced the completion of a three-month-long operation focused on hunting down threats to Latvia’s infrastructure that also involved a series of defensive actions.

The so-called “hunt forward” mission involved more than a dozen U.S. personnel from U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force, a Canadian cyber task force and Latvia’s CERT.LV, the Latvian military’s cybersecurity response division. 

“Latvia has demonstrated incredible resilience for the past year, having been among the most targeted EU states by Russian hacktivists and Russian state-supporting hacking groups,” CERT.LV General Manager Baiba Kaškina said in a joint statement by the three countries.

“The defensive cyber operations conducted allowed us to ensure our state infrastructure is a harder target for malicious cyber actors,” he said. “We remain focused on making sure critical infrastructure and e-services are secure and are available for the general public and the government.”

A report published earlier this year by the European Union’s Computer Emergency Response Team found that Latvia has been the second-most targeted country for cyberattacks since January 2022, trailing only Poland.

And Latvian Public Broadcasting reported some of the country’s energy and transport companies were attacked this past February, most likely by hackers financed by Russia, though officials said the attack caused few disruptions.

U.S. Cyber Command has been conducting hunt forward operations since 2018, deploying 47 times to 22 countries.

The goal is to seek out malicious coding and other tools being developed by adversaries, whether nation states or criminal organizations, and take caution to make sure they cannot be used to launch successful attacks.

Earlier this year, U.S. Cyber Command announced the completion of a hunt forward mission to Albania, which followed a series of crippling cyberattacks against Albanian government websites by Iran.

U.S. officials praised the operation with Albania, saying it generated “incredibly valuable insights” into Iranian cyber exploits. And they said the recently concluded operation with Latvia was likewise helpful.

“Partnerships like this one with Latvia are key to our defense,” U.S. Army Major General William Hartman, commander of Cyber National Mission Force, said in the joint statement.

“With our hunt forward missions, we can deploy a team of talented people to work with our partners, find that activity before it harms the U.S., and better posture the partner to harden critical systems against bad actors who threaten us all,” he added.
…

United States to provide $1.2 billion in new military aid to Ukraine, including air defenses and ammunition.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says “only a matter of time before we can restore a sustainable and just peace for our part of Europe, for Ukraine.”
Agence France-Presse journalist Arman Soldin was killed by rocket fire in eastern Ukraine where journalists were with a group of Ukrainian soldiers.

Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power plant operator warned Wednesday that Russia planned to evacuate more than 3,000 workers from the town that serves the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Energoatom posted on Telegram that “there is now a catastrophic lack of skilled personnel” at the plant, which is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.

Russia has occupied the site since the early stages of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Energoatom said the new evacuations of the Ukrainian personnel living in the town of Enerhodar “will exacerbate the already extremely urgent issue of having enough staff to ensure the safe operation” of the Zaporizhzhia plant.

The company said it will do its best to ensure safe operation by pulling together teams of staff who are in areas under Ukrainian control and specialists from other nuclear power plants in Ukraine.

The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog has repeatedly highlighted safety and security concerns regarding the Zaporizhzhia, both in regard to fighting nearby and the staffing situation.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi said Sunday that the situation around the plant “is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous.”

“We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment,” Grossi said in a statement.  “This major nuclear facility must be protected.”

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Nearly one year into a 3½-year prison term, Georgian journalist Nika Gvaramia says he’s doing OK.

“I’m good. I met all this very prepared,” he told VOA from a prison in Rustavi, Georgia, through written messages shared with VOA via his lawyer. “I knew it was going to happen and I knew I would have to endure it.”

Gvaramia is a former member of the Georgian parliament and founder of the pro-opposition broadcaster Mtavari Arkhi. Last May, a court convicted him of abuse of power related to his work in 2019 as the director for a separate broadcaster, Rustavi 2.

Gvaramia denies the charges and is appealing his case at the Supreme Court. His colleagues and press freedom advocates believe the conviction is retaliatory.

The case “is purely political,” said Tamar Kintsurashvili, executive director of the Tbilisi-based Media Development Foundation. “There’s no legal grounds for his detention. He was critical of the current government.”

“It actually reflects recent developments in this country,” she said. “Nika’s detention is just an illustration of their goals.”

Gvaramia is the only journalist jailed in Georgia over his work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the first jailed in Georgia over his work since at least 1992, when the press freedom group started keeping track.

EU diplomats and others see his case as a red flag for press freedom. Some have said that Gvaramia’s trial was linked to apparent efforts to undermine the country’s candidacy for European Union membership.

Gvaramia’s lawyer, Tamta Muradashvili, believes that his case is “directly linked to Georgia’s European future.” The fates of Gvaramia and his country are intertwined, she said.

His colleague at Mtavari Arkhi, Eka Kvesitadze, went further, saying that the arrest “was a clear sabotage, and it was done to hinder this process with the EU, and it was done deliberately.”

A September 2022 poll from the National Democratic Institute found that 75% of Georgians support EU membership, with the government’s lack of political will listed as the main barrier.

Georgia was expected to receive EU candidacy status last June, alongside Ukraine and Moldova.

Ukraine and Moldova were granted candidate status. But Georgia was denied, with the EU listing 12 reforms — including on press freedom — needed before the country can be granted candidacy status.

Georgia was once lauded as among the freest former Soviet countries. But in recent years, concerns have deepened over whether the country is moving away from the West amid corruption issues, democratic backsliding, and the apparent influence of billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who founded the ruling Georgian Dream political party in 2012. Critics say he still exercises significant influence despite no longer holding a formal position.

Still, others say that Georgian Dream may be trying to walk a fine line with Russia since the invasion of Ukraine out of fear of angering its neighbor.

The Georgian Embassy in Washington told VOA that the country is committed to EU integration.

“Georgia is closer than ever to its goal of becoming a full-fledged member of the EU,” the embassy said, adding that claims that Gvaramia was jailed to block the country’s EU candidacy “is based on absolutely false information.”

“Georgia has a free, independent, and pluralistic media environment,” the embassy email read.

This year, Reporters Without Borders ranked Georgia 77 out of 180 countries in the world, where 1 shows the best media environment. In 2022, Georgia ranked 89.

Double blow

On May 16, 2022, the day that Gvaramia was sent to prison, the journalist sent his children to school like normal. It was windy and drizzling in Tbilisi.

“They left to school, and we went to the courtroom,” his wife, Sofia Liluashvili, told VOA.

After the decision was announced, “the only thing he asked me was not to cry,” Liluashvili said. The tears flowed after she left the building.

“As Nika’s partner, as his friend, and as a person who shares Nika’s values, I’m trying to do all I can for Nika — of course personally, but for my country,” Liluashvili said. “Georgia’s future is at stake.”

Gvaramia’s jailing has also taken a toll on the broadcaster Mtavari Arkhi, especially financially. “Nika’s channel is in constant survival mode,” Liluashvili said.

Kvesitadze, a presenter at Mtavari Arkhi, has worked with Gvaramia since 2013.

“I have been missing him so much,” she told VOA. “We’re the two hosts for prime time, and I’m the only one now. And it’s a horrible, horrible feeling, and still it’s so hard to operate without him.”

Gvaramia, too, is well aware of the challenges for his channel.

“It is not a question of optimism. It is a question of struggle and dedicated work. My fantastic team proves every day that they can do it, and every day they win against the system,” he said. “Georgian media is the most outstanding fighter in this country.”

EU dreams

Among the EU’s recommendations for Georgia is that it should “undertake stronger efforts to guarantee a free, professional, pluralistic and independent media environment, notably by ensuring that criminal procedures brought against media owners fulfil the highest legal standards.”

Releasing Gvaramia is a clear step to achieving that, advocates said.

“We called on the Georgian president [Salome Zourabichvili] to release Gvaramia and hope that she will do that soon,” said Gulnoza Said, who covers violations in Georgia at the CPJ. “Otherwise, the stain on Georgia’s reputation will remain unwashed.”

Georgia has until the end of the year to implement the EU’s recommendations.

But some analysts told VOA they believe failed attempts this year to pass a foreign agent law is another sign that the government is trying to move away from Western values.

The proposed bill required all nonprofits and media groups to register as foreign agents if they received more than 20% of funding from abroad. Met with widespread protests, the bill was withdrawn.

The foreign agent law was another attempt by the government to establish control over the media, according to CPJ’s Said, adding, “It was unsuccessful. For now.”

From cell 212, Gvaramia is waiting for updates or any information on his appeal at the Supreme Court, which has until June to issue its decision.

Until then, he has established a routine: He watches TV in the morning and spends much of the rest of the day reading, adding, “I have a lot of books in my cell.”

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end with the discipline to confront your current reality, whatever it might be,” Gvaramia said. “You must retain your fortitude and freedom, but you must also be able to find tranquility. This is the most important thing, and I was able to do it.”
…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s primary challenger in the May 14 elections, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, is targeting the Kurdish vote in presidential and parliamentary elections. This marks a turnaround for Kilicdaroglu’s CHP party, which for decades ignored Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish region. Dorian Jones reports from the region’s main city, Diyarbakir.
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The foreign ministers of Turkey and Syria will hold their first official meeting on Wednesday since the start of Syrian civil war more than a decade ago, officials said. 

The talks in Moscow will also involve the top diplomats of Russia and Iran, Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The announcement delivers a diplomatic boost to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan just days before he faces the toughest general election of his 21-year rule on Sunday.

Erdogan supported early rebel efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, keeping a military presence in northern stretches of the war-torn country that angers Damascus.

But Erdogan reversed course after Turkey plunged into an economic crisis two years ago.

The Turkish leader has made up with former rivals across the region and is now courting a presidential summit with Assad.

Syria had refused, insisting that Turkey first pull out its troops.

A reconciliation with Syria is also supported by Erdogan’s opponents and plays an important part in Turkey’s election campaign.

Erdogan has pledged to speed up the repatriation of nearly four million Syrian refugees and migrants who fled to Turkey to escape poverty and war.

An agreement with Damascus is seen as a prerequisite for this process.

Iran and Russia have been helping mediate talks between the two sides.

Ankara said the repatriation will be discussed at the talks.

The sides will “exchange views on the normalization of relations between Turkey and Syria, discuss humanitarian issues … and the voluntary, safe and dignified return of asylum-seekers,” the Turkish foreign ministry said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu exchanged a few words with his Syrian counterpart on the sidelines of a regional summit in 2021.

But both sides insisted that this did not mark a resumption of formal talks.

Erdogan turned into one of Assad’s fiercest opponents when the violent repression of protests set off Syria’s civil war in 2011.

The Turkish leader called Assad a “murderer” in 2017, saying he should be brought to justice before an international tribunal.

But reversing course, Erdogan this year said that a presidential summit could help “establish peace and stability in the region.”

The Moscow meeting follows several rounds of lower-level talks in Moscow involving the four countries’ defense ministers.

The last one in April ended with Damascus insisting on “the withdrawal of Turkish forces” from Syria. 
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The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are to meet next week in Brussels, the European Union said Monday, the latest attempt to secure a durable peace accord and resolve long-standing differences over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. 

The meeting on May 14 between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev follows talks between their two foreign ministers that prompted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to suggest a breakthrough was possible. 

An announcement on the EU Council’s website said a three-corner meeting with Council President Charles Michel would take place at EU headquarters. 

Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet states, have fought two wars over 30 years focusing on Nagorno-Karabakh, recognized as part of Azerbaijan but populated mainly by Armenians. 

In a six-week conflict in 2020, ended by a Russian-brokered truce, Azerbaijan recovered territory lost in the first war dating from the collapse of Soviet rule. Border skirmishes erupt periodically between the two sides. 

Pashinyan and Aliyev have held several rounds of talks, generally organized by the EU or Russia, but have failed to resolve outstanding difficulties, including border demarcation and access to areas across each other’s territory. 

The latest EU announcement said the two leaders would also meet on June 1 in Moldova during an EU-sponsored development meeting to be attended by President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany. 

“The leaders have also agreed to continue to meet trilaterally in Brussels as frequently as necessary to address ongoing developments on the ground and standing agenda items of the Brussels meetings,” the EU statement said.  
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Drought-stricken Spain says last month was the hottest and driest April since records began in 1961. 

The State Meteorological Agency, known by the Spanish acronym AEMET, said Monday that the average daily temperature in April was 14.9 degrees Celsius (58.8 Fahrenheit), which was 3 degrees Celsius above the average. 

AEMET said average maximum temperatures during the month were up by 4.7 degrees Celsius. 

Rainfall was a fifth of what would normally be expected in the month, making it the driest April on record in Spain. 

Last year was Spain’s hottest since record-keeping started in 1961, and also the country’s sixth driest. 

Three years of scant rainfall and high temperatures put the country officially into long-term drought earlier this year. 

A flash study by a group of international scientists last week found that record-breaking April temperatures in Spain, Portugal and northern Africa were made 100 times more likely by human-caused climate change and would have been almost impossible in the past. 

The government has requested emergency funds from the European Union to support farmers and ranchers whose crops are being affected by the situation.  
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In just a few months, U.S. officials have pivoted from publicly warning Beijing not to provide material support for Russia’s war in Ukraine to acknowledging there is a role for China to play in brokering peace talks.

On February 24, the day that China unveiled its 12-point peace proposal, Blinken voiced skepticism during remarks to the United Nations Security Council Ministerial Meeting on Ukraine.

“No member of this council should call for peace while supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine and on the U.N. Charter,” the top U.S. diplomat said one year after Russia invaded Ukraine.

By May 3, Blinken publicly acknowledged that it’s possible China would have a “very beneficial” role to play in peace talks.

Analysts and former American officials told VOA the shift in U.S. tone is partly a response to Washington’s European allies, who view Chinese President Xi Jinping as the only possible leader who can influence Russian President Vladimir Putin’s thinking about the war in Ukraine.

China has since announced it will send a peace envoy to Ukraine, although some remain skeptical that Beijing can be neutral.

China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, is expected to travel to Ukraine and other nations in a bid to bring a cease-fire and a diplomatic resolution to the war.

Li, a fluent Russian speaker, was Beijing’s former envoy to Russia from 2009 to 2019 and was among a few people awarded the Medal of Friendship by Putin.

When asked by VOA if the U.S. thinks China can be bias-free in mediating an end to Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, a State Department spokesperson said, “When it comes to diplomacy, nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. The other key part of this is obviously Russia. The Kremlin has yet to demonstrate any meaningful interest in ending this war; quite the opposite.”

“No, China cannot be bias-free. China is clearly supportive of President Putin,” said Ambassador William Taylor, vice president for Europe and Russia at the Washington-based U.S. Institute of Peace. “So, it cannot present itself as a neutral mediator.”

Taylor was charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv in 2019 and as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009.

As U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is reported to be weighing whether to work with Beijing to seek a negotiated settlement in Ukraine, Taylor told VOA, “The key caution is to be sure that any conversation with the Chinese about the Russian war on Ukraine has the Ukrainians as participants.”

“The Chinese as a mediator are not terribly forceful,” said Dennis Wilder, an assistant professor of Asian studies at Georgetown University, who from 2009 to 2015 was senior editor of the U.S. President’s Daily Brief, a summary of intelligence from across the government.

“If people are expecting the Chinese to come up with the creative solution, they’ll be disappointed. That’s not the way China operates. If people are looking for China to offer its good offices, China is pretty good at that. But the Chinese very rarely come up with the solution,” Wilder told VOA.

Last Wednesday, when asked by The Washington Post about working with China to achieve a stable outcome in Ukraine and China’s offer to mediate an end to the war, Secretary of State Antony Blinken struck a warmer tone.

“It’s certainly possible that China would have a role to play in that effort, and that could be very beneficial,” he said.

Experts say those remarks reflect the European Union’s belief that there has been some progress in encouraging Xi to oppose the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine and to support Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty. They hope China will do more going forward.

“While agreeing with the U.S. that it is necessary to warn Beijing against supplying lethal aid to Russia, at the same time they want to urge China to use its leverage over Moscow to bring an end to the war,” said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Others, including former Assistant Secretary for Europe Philip Reeker, who now heads the Global Europe Program at the Wilson Center, believes “working together to help end Putin’s disastrous adventure would give Washington and Beijing an opportunity for engagement that could help in their own strained bilateral relations.”

The debate on whether Washington could work with Beijing in achieving a negotiated settlement in Ukraine came as the White House said Washington and Beijing are discussing a potential trip to China by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Blinken also said he was hopeful to reschedule a visit to China this year.
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The United States’ top international development chief, Samantha Power, is heading to Serbia and Kosovo this week to meet with leaders there, as U.S. and European leaders work to stabilize relations between those two former wartime enemies at a time of heightened tensions.

Power becomes the first head of the U.S. Agency for International Development to travel to Serbia, which maintains close historical and cultural ties with Russia.

Serbia and Kosovo have remained on often hostile terms since Kosovo’s 1990s split from Serbia at the end of the Cold War. Frictions between Serbia and Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority and an ethnic Serb minority, have rebounded in the general tensions since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

Power is to meet with the prime ministers and presidents of both countries, encouraging both to stay on a path of normalizing relations between themselves and to keep moving toward membership in the European Union.

She “will underscore USAID’s support for Serbia’s path to European Union accession through our partnership to foster economic growth and democratic development,” the USAID said in a statement.

Power will be the first senior U.S. government official to travel to the region since the European Union brokered a meeting between heads of the two governments last week in Brussels, encouraging them to get back into peaceful dialogue.

The EU has spent 12 years facilitating negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Serbia does not recognize its statehood.

Brussels and the United States often intervene to calm down tensions between the two capitals, more so in the past year since Russia attacked Ukraine.

The war in Kosovo erupted when separatist ethnic Albanians rebelled against Serbia’s rule, and Serbia responded with a brutal crackdown. About 13,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, died. NATO’s military intervention eventually forced Serbia to pull out of the territory.

Power also will meet in Serbia and Kosovo with members of civil society, business leaders, journalists and others, including Serbian former NBA player Vlade Divac and athletes with disabilities.
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New developments:

Fears about the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant are growing after the Moscow-installed governor of the Ukrainian region where it is located ordered civilian evacuations.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prighozin said his forces will remain in the besieged Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. He indicated his soldiers will continue the assault on the city after the Russian military promised more arms and ammunition.
Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin sent a defiant message to those who attempted to assassinate him. Prilepin is recovering from extensive injuries after a car bomb exploded killing his driver.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Russian forces in Ukraine will be defeated like Nazi Germany was defeated in World War II.

“We fought then and we fight now so that no one ever again enslaves other nations and destroys other countries,” Zelenskyy said in a video message. “And all those old evils that modern Russia is bringing back will be defeated just as Nazism was defeated.”

Zelenskyy said Russia’s goal in Ukraine is “enslavement or destruction,” and he compared the support Ukraine has received from other nations to the allied effort to defeat Germany in 1945.

“This enemy once again put aggression and annexation, occupation and deportation, mass murder, and torture, bombing cities and burning villages up against our ideals,” Zelenskyy said. “Our victory will be the answer to all this. The victory of Ukraine and the free world, liberation of our lands, the return of our people, protecting our values and, inevitably, justice.”

The Ukrainian leader’s address also included the announcement of a decree to have the remembrance of the victory over Germany take place on May 8, as Western allies do.  That in is contrast to Russia, which holds its celebration on May 9.

Zelenskyy said that Ukraine will instead use May 9 to honor Europe’s support for Ukraine in the years since Russia annexed Crimea and since Russian forces launched their full-scale invasion last year.

“This will be the Day of Europe, which helps us fight in all directions: on the battlefield with weapons and on the diplomatic front – with determination, against missile terror and the winter blackout, in the economy and on the legal front,” Zelenskyy said. “This will be the Day of Europe – our ally. Which gives shelter to Ukrainian women and children. Which does not encroach on our sovereignty and does not call into question our right to choose our own national path.”

Russian attacks

Russian forces have increased attacks in recent days ahead of its Tuesday Victory Day parade, including what Ukrainian officials said was an assault by drones and cruise missiles early Monday on the capital, Kyiv.

First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova tweeted that Ukrainian forces shot down 35 Iranian-made Shahed drones, but that debris had hit apartment buildings in Kyiv and injured five people.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the messaging app Telegram that three people were wounded in blasts in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi district and two in the Sviatoshyn district, both west of the capital’s center.

Klitschko also said drone wreckage had fallen on a two-story building in the Sviatoshyn region.

In the Black Sea city of Odesa, Dzhaparova said Russian missiles hit a food warehouse and a recreation area.

Nuclear plant concerns

Fears about the safety of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in east Ukraine grew Sunday after Russian officials ordered the evacuation of civilians from 18 settlements around the nuclear power plant.

The plant is near the front line of battles between Russian and Ukrainian forces. Russia fired more than 30 shells at Nikopol, a Ukrainian-held town neighboring the plant, killing a 72-year-old woman and injuring three others Sunday, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Ukraine has also mounted attacks in the vicinity of the plant, according to The Associated Press.

The head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency said in a statement Saturday the situation near the plant “is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous.”

“I’m extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said. “We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment.”

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

New developments:

Fears about the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is growing after the Moscow-installed governor of the Ukrainian region where it is located ordered civilian evacuations.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prighozin said his forces will remain in the besieged Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. He indicated his soldiers will continue the assault on the city after the Russian military promised more arms and ammunition.
Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin sent a defiant message to those who attempted to assassinate him. Prilepin is recovering from extensive injuries after a car bomb exploded killing his driver.

At least five people were injured in Kyiv early Monday when Russia launched a massive strike on the Ukraine capital.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the messaging app Telegram that three people were wounded in blasts in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi district and two in the Sviatoshyn district, both west of the capital’s center.

Klitschko also said drone wreckage had fallen on a two-story building in the Sviatoshyn region.

The city administration said debris fell on a parked car, causing the car to catch fire.

Russian missiles also set ablaze a food warehouse in the Black Sea city of Odesa and blasts were reported in several other Ukrainian regions, Reuters reported.

The large-scale attacks come as Moscow prepares for its Victory Day parade on Tuesday.

Moscow reportedly wants a complete capture of Bakhmut to coincide with the country’s upcoming Victory Day, the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group reversed its intention to withdraw from the besieged eastern Ukrainian city. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said his forces will remain there after Moscow promised to provide more arms to conscripts.

Also Sunday, fears about the safety of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in east Ukraine grew after Russian officials ordered the evacuation of civilians from 18 settlements around the nuclear power plant.

The plant is near the front line of battles between Russian and Ukrainian forces. Russia fired more than 30 shells at Nikopol, a Ukrainian-held town neighboring the plant, killing a 72-year-old woman and injuring three others Sunday, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Ukraine has also mounted attacks in the vicinity of the plant, according to The Associated Press.

The head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency said in a statement Saturday the situation near the plant “is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous.” 

“I’m extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said.  “We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment.” 

Labor shortage

Russia is facing one its worst labor shortages since 1998. In an intelligence update Sunday, the British Defense Ministry wrote that the Russian Central Bank surveyed 14,000 employees and found that its labor force was at its lowest level since 1998.

The British Defense Ministry said the attrition of manpower due to the war in Ukraine as well as the mass exodus of Russians trying to avoid the draft are partially to blame for the labor shortage. The survey also showed that the Russian population has decreased by 2 million in the last three years due to the COVID pandemic and an aging population.

Russian car bombing

The prominent Russian nationalist writer, Zakhar Prilepin, who barely escaped death from a car bomb attack Saturday, sent a defiant message to his attackers.

“To the demons I say: You will scare nobody. There is a God. We will win,” he wrote Sunday on the messaging app Telegram from the hospital in the Nizhny Novgorod region where he is recovering.

Russia’s state Investigative Committee said his Audi Q7 was blown up Saturday in a village, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Moscow. The attacker fled the scene.

Prilepin said both his legs were broken by the explosion that killed his driver. Russia’s Foreign Ministry blamed Ukraine and the Western states backing it, particularly the United States, for the attack on the pro-Russia writer.

Ukraine’s security services neither confirmed nor denied involvement. Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he believed Russian authorities had staged the attack.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ukrainian offensive 

The Washington Post reported Saturday that Ukrainian officials expressed concerns about outsized international expectations for a planned major offensive by Ukrainian troops and that falling short of those expectations could mean losing military aid. 

“Most people are … waiting for something huge,” the Post quoted Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov saying in an interview last week. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Post in an interview last week: “I believe that the more victories we have on the battlefield, frankly, the more people will believe in us, which means we will get more help.” 

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Days after two mass shootings left 17 people dead in Serbia, the European country’s Interior Ministry urged citizens Sunday to turn in all unregistered weapons or run the risk of a prison sentence.

Individuals who hand over illegally owned guns, grenades, ammunition and other weaponry between Monday and June 8 will not face any charges, the ministry said in a statement. Those who ignore the order will face prosecution and if convicted, potentially years behind bars, government officials have warned.

Weekend funerals were held for the victims of the shootings at a Belgrade school Wednesday and in a rural area south of the capital city Thursday night. The violence, which also wounded 21 people, has stunned and anguished the Balkan nation.

While Serbia is awash with weapons and tops the European list of registered arms per capita, it is no stranger to crisis situations following the wars of the 1990s that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia.

The most recent previous mass shooting was in 2013, when a war veteran killed 13 people. The assailant in the country’s first mass school shooting was a 13-year-old boy who opened fire on his fellow students, killing seven girls, a boy and a school guard.

The next day, a 20-year-old man fired randomly in two villages in central Serbia, killing eight people. Both he and the boy in the primary school attack were apprehended.

While the country struggles to come to terms with what happened, authorities promised a gun crackdown and said they would boost security in schools and all over the state.

“We invite all citizens who possess illegal weapons to respond to this call, to go to the nearest police station and hand in weapons for which they do not have proper documents,” police official Jelena Lakicevic said.

The voluntary surrender applies to all firearms, explosive devices, weapon parts and ammunition that people keep illegally in their homes, Lakicevic said.

Serbia has refused to fully face its role in the wars of the 1990s, war criminals are largely regarded as heroes and minority groups routinely face harassment and sometimes physical violence.
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Ukrainians are on war footing, even if they’re not the ones on the front lines. A much hyped and widely expected spring counteroffensive could come any day now. But Ukraine’s defense minister recently warned against putting too much hope in his country’s counterstrikes. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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After the gilded spectacle of King Charles III’s crowning in an ancient religious ceremony, coronation festivities took a more down-to-earth turn Sunday with thousands of picnics and street parties held across the U.K. in his honor.

The community get-togethers, part of a British tradition known as the Big Lunch, were intended to bring neighbors together to celebrate the newly crowned king even as support for the monarchy wanes. Critics complained about the coronation’s cost at a time of exorbitant living expenses amid double-digit inflation.

Thousands of luncheons were organized as part of the celebrations Sunday, along with a nighttime concert at Windsor Castle featuring Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and 1990’s boy band Take That. Charles encouraged residents to engage in volunteer activities Monday, which was a holiday.

The king and Queen Camilla were not expected at any of the luncheons but planned to attend the concert that will include a speech by his son, Prince William, heir to the throne.

The king’s siblings, Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, and Anne, the Princess Royal, and their spouses took on lunch duty for the royal family. Edward was in Cranleigh and his sister hit an event in Swindon. The king’s nieces, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, the daughters of Prince Andrew, were to join a lunch in Windsor.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hosted U.S. first lady Jill Biden and her granddaughter Finnegan Biden at the Big Lunch party held in front of his office. Other guests included Ukrainian refugees and community activists.

As in other neighborhoods with street parties, Downing Street was decked out in Union Jack bunting for the occasion.

The lower-key events followed regalia-laden pageantry that saw the king and queen crowned together in Westminster Abbey. They were presented with centuries-old swords, scepters and a jewel-encrusted golden orb symbolizing the monarch’s power in a medieval tradition celebrated with liturgy, song and hearty cheers of “God save the king.”

The couple then paraded through the streets in a gilded horse-drawn carriage led by the largest ceremonial military procession since the coronation of Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, 70 years ago. Some 4,000 troops marched in formation through the streets, their scarlet sleeves and white gloves swinging in unison to the sound of drums and bugles from marching bands, including one group of musicians on horseback.

Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the route in the rain to see it in person. Nearly 19 million more watched on television in the U.K., according to ratings released by Barb, a research organization. That’s about 40% fewer viewers than had watched the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September.

Charles and Camilla said Sunday in a statement that they were “deeply touched” by the celebration and “profoundly grateful both to all those who helped to make it such a glorious occasion — and to the very many who turned out to show their support.”

Not everyone was there to celebrate, though, and criticism continued Sunday over arrests of more than 50 protesters, including members of a republican group shouting “Not my king” and environmentalists aiming to end the use of fossil fuels.

Graham Smith, leader of Republic, a group advocating for abolishing the monarchy, said he was arrested as he planned peaceful protest and spent 16 hours in police custody.

“These arrests are a direct attack on our democracy and the fundamental rights of every person in the country,” Smith said. “Each and every police officer involved on the ground should hang their heads in shame.”

The Metropolitan Police acknowledged concerns over the arrests, but defended the force’s actions.

“The coronation is a once-in-a-generation event and that is a key consideration in our assessment,” Commander Karen Findlay said.

In addition to the lunch celebrations, hundreds of troops marched through the center of Glasgow on Sunday to celebrate the coronation.
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A multi-vehicle crash in southern Turkey’s Hatay province killed at least 12 people and injured 31 others, including three seriously, officials said.

A truck crossed into opposite lanes after the driver lost control late Saturday, colliding with nine cars and two minibuses, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Many of the vehicles were parked by the roadside near a gas station as friends and relatives said goodbye to men leaving to carry out mandatory military service.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said that fires broke out on the Iskenderun-Antakya highway. The minister tweeted that 22 ambulances and three medical rescue teams were sent to the scene in Topbogazli.

“May God have mercy on our citizens who lost their lives, I express my condolences to their relatives,” he tweeted. “We will do our best to ensure that the injured regain their health as soon as possible.”

Hatay was one of the worst hit of the 11 Turkish provinces affected by a Feb. 6 earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey and Syria. At least 50,783 died in Turkey, according to the government.

The private Demiroren news agency said that the truck was carrying excavated earthquake rubble and hit another truck before crossing the highway at around 7 p.m. local time (1600 GMT).

Witness Ali Sarrac said that some of those killed had burned to death, Anadolu reported. Images showed burning vehicles as emergency teams tried to keep people away from the blaze.
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New developments: 

Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said Sunday that Russia has promised to provide his mercenaries with all the ammunition they need for their fight in Ukraine. Prigozhin had said he was withdrawing his fighters from the strategic location of Bakhmut, but now says his fighters will have “everything necessary” to defend Bakhmut.
Russian officials say they beat back a Ukrainian drone strike overnight over Russian-annexed Crimea.
Ukrainian officials issued air raid alerts on Saturday evening for areas covering roughly two-thirds of the country, from Kyiv and regions to the west through the east as well as south to Kherson region and Russian-annexed Crimea.
Ukraine’s air force intercepted and downed a hypersonic Russian missile with an American Patriot defense system.
Six Ukrainian demining workers were killed and two were injured as Russian shelling intensifies in Kherson Oblast.
A fired Russian general known as the "Butcher of Mariupol" has a new job. He's joining forces with the Wagner mercenary group.   

Russia is facing one of its worst labor shortages in decades and the war in Ukraine in partially to blame, the British Defense Ministry said Sunday in an intelligence update about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine posted on Twitter.

The Russian Central Bank conducted the survey over the last three years and found that the Russian population has decreased by 2 million people more than expected.  This was due, the report said, to the war in Ukraine and the COVID pandemic.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry claimed on Saturday that Ukraine and the West are responsible for a car bombing that injured a prominent nationalist Russian writer and killed his driver.

Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin, known for his pro-war views, suffered serious leg injuries after his car exploded Saturday in the Nizhny Novgorod oblast, Russia’s state news agency, Tass, reported, citing emergency and law enforcement officials.

Prilepin was still conscious after his Audi Q7 exploded near the city of Nizhny Novgorod, about 400 kilometers east of Moscow, and he was taken to the nearest hospital, according to Russian news agency RBC.

Prilepin was in stable condition under a medically induced coma after his operation, Tass reported, and a suspect in the assassination attempt was arrested Saturday.  

“Responsibility for this and other terrorist acts lies not only with Ukrainian authorities, but also their Western patrons, the United States in the first instance,” the Russian ministry statement stated, without providing evidence.

The statement added that Washington’s failure to denounce this and other attacks was “self-revealing” for the U.S. administration.

Officials at the White House, Pentagon and State Department did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. No comment was immediately available from Britain’s Foreign Office, the wire agency reported.

Ukraine’s security would neither confirm nor deny involvement in the car bombing that injured the Russian writer or other attacks.

“Officially, we cannot confirm or deny the SBU’s involvement in this or other explosions which occur with the occupiers or their henchmen,” Ukraine news agency Ukrinform quoted Ukraine security officials saying.

Prilepin was sanctioned in 2022 by Ukraine, the European Union, the U.K. and Canada for supporting the Russian invasion. He joined Russia’s National Guard to fight against Ukraine in January, according to several Russian media reports.

Hypersonic missile downed

Ukraine’s air force said Saturday it had intercepted and downed a Russian hypersonic missile over Kyiv using newly acquired American Patriot defense systems.

This is the first known time the country has been able to intercept one of Moscow’s most modern missiles, The Associated Press reported.

Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said in a post on the messaging app Telegram that the Kinzhal-type ballistic missile had been intercepted in an overnight attack on the Ukrainian capital earlier in the week. It was the first time Ukraine is known to have used the Patriot defense system.

Flying at 10 times the speed of sound, the Kinzhal is one of the latest and most advanced Russian weapons, and it is difficult to intercept.

Using hypersonic speed and a powerful warhead, the Kinzhal is capable of demolishing robustly fortified targets such as underground bunkers and deep mountain tunnels.

In an interview on Ukraine TV, Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said intercepting the Kinzhal was “a slap in the face for Russia.”

The first delivery of Patriot missiles arrived in Ukraine in late April. Ukraine has not specified how many of the systems it has received from the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, or where they have been deployed.

Meanwhile, Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said Sunday that Russia has promised to provide his mercenaries with all the ammunition they need for their fight in Ukraine. Prigozhin had said he was withdrawing his fighters from the strategic location of Bakhmut, but now says his fighters will have “everything necessary” to defend Bakhmut.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency has issued a warning about the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine and the surrounding community.

Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement Saturday that the general situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has become “increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous.”

Grossi said “the nearby town of Enerhodar,” where most of the plant staff live, is being evacuated. The operating staff, however, remains on-site at the plant.

However, the IAEA experts, based at the plant, have not been able to visit Enerhodar recently. Grossi said the experts “are continuing to hear shelling on a regular basis.”

The plant is located in southern Ukraine which, according to the statement, “has seen a recent increase in military presence and activity.”

“I’m extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant,” Grossi said. “We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment. This major nuclear facility must be protected.”
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