Russia said on Wednesday that it had appointed one of its most senior army commanders to lead a peacekeeping force in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, as tensions rise again between Armenia and Azerbaijan. 

Russian peacekeepers were deployed in 2020 to end a war over Nagorno-Karabakh, the second that Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought since the 1991 Soviet collapse. The mountain enclave is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but populated mainly by ethnic Armenians. 

The Russian armed forces said the peacekeepers were now headed by Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov, deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian ground forces. He replaces Major-General Andrei Volkov, a more junior officer. 

No reason was given for the change, announced hours after a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. 

Armenia has voiced increasing frustration that the Russian force has failed to keep open the Lachin corridor, the only land route that links it to Karabakh across Azerbaijani territory. 

Russian media quoted an Armenian spokesperson on Tuesday as saying the country had appealed to the International Court of Justice over Azerbaijan’s installation of a checkpoint on the highway on Sunday, calling it a “flagrant violation” of Baku’s obligation to ensure free movement.  

Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov said the checkpoint was set up in response to “safety concerns in light of Armenia’s continued misuse of the road for the transport of weapons and other illegal activities.” 

He added: “We continue to be in close contact with the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] and the Russian peacekeeping contingent to best facilitate humanitarian access.” 

An Armenian spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. 
…

The European Union’s environment agency on Wednesday urged member states to reduce pesticide use over concern that sales of harmful chemicals remain strong despite its effects on human health and biodiversity.

The warning comes amid findings that one or more pesticides were detected above thresholds of concern at 22% of all monitoring sites in rivers and lakes across Europe in 2020, the European Environment Agency said.

“From 2011 to 2020, pesticide sales in the EU-27 remained relatively stable at around 350,000 tonnes (tons) per year,” the EEA said in a new report, citing data from Eurostat.

Pesticides are widely used in the agriculture sector but also in forestry, along roads and railways, and in urban areas such as public parks, playgrounds or gardens.

The insecticide imidacloprid and the herbicide metolachlor showed the highest absolute number of above-threshold levels across Europe, primarily in northern Italy and northeastern Spain.

In groundwater, the herbicide atrazine caused the most above-threshold levels, even though it has been banned since 2007.

Dangers of pesticides

Human exposure to chemical pesticides, primarily through food but also through the air in agriculture-intense regions, is linked to the development of cardiac, respiratory and neurological disease, as well as cancer, the report said.

“Worryingly, all of the pesticides monitored … were detected in higher concentrations in children than in adults,” the EEA said.

In a study conducted in Spain, Latvia, Hungary, Czech Republic and the Netherlands between 2014 and 2021, at least two pesticides were detected in the bodies of 84% of survey participants.

Pesticide pollution is also driving biodiversity loss across the continent, causing significant declines in insect populations and threatening the critical role they play in food production.

A German study cited in the report found a 76% decline in flying insects in protected zones over a period of 27 years.

It identified pesticides as one of the reasons for the decline.

Sales drop in some countries

In 11 EU member states, pesticide sales decreased between 2011 and 2020, with the biggest drops in the Czech Republic, Portugal and Denmark.

Latvia and Austria saw the strongest rates of increase in terms of sales, while the sharpest rises in volumes were registered in Germany and France.

These two latter countries, along with Spain and Italy, the EU’s four biggest agricultural producers, account for the highest volumes sold for most groups of active substances.

Modern food production systems rely on high volumes of chemical pesticides to ensure crop yield stability and quantity, and to maintain food security.

According to the EEA, 83% of agricultural soils tested in a 2019 study contained pesticide residues.

“We could reduce our dependency on chemical pesticides to maintain crop yields and our overall pesticide use volumes by shifting to alternative models of agriculture, such as agroecology,” it said.

A separate report published Wednesday by the European Food Safety Authority showed that in 2021, 96% percent of food samples analyzed were within legal limits for pesticide residue.

Grapefruit imported from outside the EU had the highest level of pesticide residues in 2021 and new controls were therefore introduced, the EFSA said.
…

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of a Russian government-backed paramilitary group, has offered weapons to one of the warring parties in Sudan, according to several media reports.

Since the fighting began in April, there have been unconfirmed reports and diplomatic sources who spoke to news outlets saying that Wagner fighters are supporting the paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces and supplying them with weapons.

Cameron Hudson, a former U.S. State Department official and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA that the Wagner Group is supplying portable air defense systems, shoulder-fired rockets, tank busters and heavy armor. 

The RSF denies receiving support from Russia.

As news emerges, however, that the Wagner Group could be taking sides, experts warn such external involvement can only worsen the conflict, citing the group’s negative track record and trail of atrocities in Africa.

In a rare admission to the group’s involvement in Sudan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that the decision to involve the Wagner Group is up to African leadership.  

“Central African Republic and Mali and Sudan, a number of other countries, whose governments, whose legitimate authorities turn for this kind of services [to Wagner Group], have the right to do so,” Lavrov told a news conference at the United Nations.

High-level U.S. officials continue to express concern over the involvement of the Wagner Group in Sudan, where it is involved in mineral extraction.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that the group’s involvement has the potential to further ignite the conflict. 

“Obviously, we don’t want to see this conflict expand or broaden, and we certainly wouldn’t want to see additional firepower brought to bear; that will just continue the violence and continue to escalate the tensions,” he said.

The fight to grab power is between two generals, General Abdel Fattah Burhan, head of the armed forces, and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, or Hemedti, the leader of the RSF paramilitary group.

Hemedti traveled to Russia shortly after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and has sought to win support from the Wagner Group.

“Through this visit, we hope to advance relations between Sudan and Russia to broader horizons, and strengthen the existing cooperation between us in various fields,” Dagalo said in a Twitter post at the time of his Moscow visit.

Jacqueline Burns is a senior policy analyst with RAND Corporation, a global policy research group. She said by supporting Hemedti, Russia is seeking to protect its own interests.

“Russia and the Wagner Group, they benefit from gold concessions in Sudan and the illicit smuggling of gold out of the country,” she told VOA. “The Wagner Group is siding with the party they think is most likely to be able to continue to secure these interests, particularly in opposition to any civilian-led government.” 

The Wagner Group’s history in Sudan dates to the previous government of Omar al-Bashir. Prigozhin had a close relationship with the autocratic leader, who allowed Wagner-affiliated companies access to gold mining. 

After the army ousted al-Bashir in 2019 amid a popular uprising, Wagner continued to have a close relationship with the Sudanese military, particularly the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces headed by Hemedti. This replicates its model of engagement in other African countries.

“Wagner Group does seem to engage with African countries on a pretty predictable sort of pattern,” said Ben Dalton, a program manager at New America’s Future Frontlines, a Washington-based research group.

“Normally it starts with a cultivation of elites, or at least a subset of elites, and then that is followed up with a formal military technical agreement between the states. And this could be something like, you know, Russia will supply arms in exchange for concessions that allow them to do mining or other kinds of resource extraction.”

Russia views Sudan as a strategic location with vast mineral wealth and is eager to help install a friendly leader, say analysts. 

“We’ve seen a lot in recent months about Russia’s efforts to gain a port on the Red Sea in Sudan through an official military relationship and they’ve signed other official military relationships with other countries in the region,” said Hudson.

Wagner’s involvement in other parts of the continent, however, has only brought strife to the population, Dalton said.

“Engaging with this group tends to go pretty badly for the population that has to deal with them. They’ve been associated with widespread atrocities everywhere they go; you see civilian deaths and various atrocities,” Dalton said. 

“Russia’s interests are in extracting the continent’s resources so that it can strengthen its own position and build a web to resist … international sanctions. They don’t really have the interests of Africans at heart.”

Patsy Widakuswara and Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
…

British antitrust regulators on Wednesday blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of video game maker Activision Blizzard, thwarting the biggest tech deal in history over worries that it would stifle competition for popular titles like Call of Duty in the fast-growing cloud gaming market.

The Competition and Markets Authority said in its final report that “the only effective remedy” to the substantial loss of competition “is to prohibit the Merger.” The companies have vowed to appeal.

The all-cash deal faced stiff opposition from rival Sony, which makes the PlayStation gaming system, and also was being scrutinized by regulators in the U.S. and Europe over fears that it would give Microsoft and its Xbox console control of hit franchises like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.

The U.K. watchdog’s concerns centered on how the deal would affect cloud gaming, which streams to tablets, phones and other devices and frees players from buying expensive consoles and gaming computers. Gamers can keep playing major Activision titles, including mobile games like Candy Crush, on the platforms they typically use.

Cloud gaming has the potential to change the industry by giving people more choice over how and where they play, said Martin Colman, chair of the Competition and Markets Authority’s independent expert panel investigating the deal.

“This means that it is vital that we protect competition in this emerging and exciting market,” he said.

The decision underscores Europe’s reputation as the global leader in efforts to rein in the power of Big Tech companies. A day earlier, the U.K. government unveiled draft legislation that would give regulators more power to protect consumers from online scams and fake reviews and boost digital competition.

The U.K. decision further dashes Microsoft’s hopes that a favorable outcome could help it resolve a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. A trial before FTC’s in-house judge is set to begin Aug. 2. The European Union’s decision, meanwhile, is due May 22.

Activision lashed out, portraying the watchdog’s decision as a bad signal to international investors in the United Kingdom at a time when the British economy faces severe challenges.

The game maker said it would “work aggressively” with Microsoft to appeal, asserting that the move “contradicts the ambitions of the U.K.” to be an attractive place for tech companies.

“We will reassess our growth plans for the U.K. Global innovators large and small will take note that — despite all its rhetoric — the U.K. is clearly closed for business,” Activision said.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft also signaled it wasn’t ready to give up.

“We remain fully committed to this acquisition and will appeal,” President Brad Smith said in a statement. The decision “rejects a pragmatic path to address competition concerns” and discourages tech innovation and investment in Britain, he said.

“We’re especially disappointed that after lengthy deliberations, this decision appears to reflect a flawed understanding of this market and the way the relevant cloud technology actually works,” Smith said.

It’s not the first time British regulators have flexed their antitrust muscles on a Big Tech deal. They previously blocked Facebook parent Meta’s purchase of Giphy over fears it would limit innovation and competition. The social media giant appealed the decision to a tribunal but lost and was forced to sell off the GIF sharing platform.

When it comes to gaming, Microsoft already has a strong position in the cloud computing market, and regulators concluded that if the deal went through, it would reinforce the company’s advantage by giving it control of key game titles.

In an attempt to ease concerns, Microsoft struck deals with Nintendo and some cloud gaming providers to license Activision titles like Call of Duty for 10 years — offering the same to Sony.

The watchdog said it reviewed Microsoft’s remedies “in considerable depth” but found they would require its oversight, whereas preventing the merger would allow cloud gaming to develop without intervention.
…

South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa backtracked on remarks he made Tuesday that the country would withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

The president’s office late Tuesday walked back comments Ramaphosa made earlier that day at a briefing, saying he misspoke when he said the governing African National Congress (ANC) party would “pull out” of the International Criminal Court.  

His remarks sparked controversy as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who is wanted by the ICC for war crimes in Ukraine, is invited to an August summit in South Africa. 

As a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC, Pretoria is required to arrest Putin if he sets foot in the country.  

But just hours after Ramaphosa said the ANC party would quit the court in The Hague, his spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, said the remarks were an error.

“South Africa remains a signatory to the ICC in line with a resolution of the 55th national conference of the ANC – held in December 2022 – to rescind an earlier decision to withdraw from the ICC,” he said.

Magwenya said the correction followed an error made at a media briefing by the ANC on South Africa and the ICC, which he said the president had “regrettably” and “erroneously” affirmed.  

Ramaphosa had said there had long been a feeling in the governing party that the court treats some countries unfairly. 

The ANC wanted to pull out of the ICC some years ago but was prevented from doing so by a South African court ruling that found it unconstitutional.  

It is not yet clear if Putin will attend a summit of the BRICS group of emerging nations– Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. 

Even if he does, it is far from guaranteed that South Africa would arrest the Russian president.  

Pretoria refused to act on an ICC arrest warrant in 2015, when former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited.

The African National Congress party is staunch friends with Moscow, which as leader of the Soviet Union supported its fight against Apartheid’s white minority rule.   

Kyiv also supported the ANC’s struggle for democracy, but Pretoria has so far refused to condemn the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
…

Latest Developments  

Three Russian aircraft intercepted over Baltic Sea by Germany and Britain 
British Defense Ministry says heavy short-range combat continues in western districts of Bakhmut  
Russian opposition former mayor on trial over Ukraine criticism 

Three Russian military reconnaissance aircraft were intercepted in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, the German air force reported Wednesday. 

German officials said the aircraft, flying without their transponders on, were intercepted by German and British planes. 

Tuesday Norway said its air force had identified a group of Russian military planes flying over the Barents Sea. The Norwegian air force identified the aircraft as two bombers, two refueling tankers and three fighter jets. 

In Wednesday’s update on the situation in Ukraine, the British defense ministry said heavy, short-range combat continues in the western districts of Bakhmut. 

In the post on Twitter the ministry said during the past week Ukraine is seeking to maintain control of an important supply route, since other resupply options into Bakhmut are likely complicated by mud. 

The former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Roizman, has gone on trial on charges of discrediting the Russian military over its offensive in Ukraine.  

Roizman is a popular opposition figure. He is the last prominent Kremlin critic who is still in Russia and not in prison. 

Russian targets 

Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile struck a museum in the city of Kupiasnk on Tuesday, killing at least two people and injuring 10 others. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia is doing all it can to destroy Ukraine’s history, culture and its people. 

“Killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods,” Zelenskyy said after the Kupiansk attack. “We have no right to forget about it for a single second. We must and will respond!” 

Zelenskyy said those responsible for committing war crimes “will definitely be brought to justice and it will be merciless.” 

Russian forces seized Kupiansk, an important rail hub in northeastern Ukraine, during the early part of the invasion it launched in Ukraine last year. Ukrainian forces took it back in September. 

Grain deal

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed a “way forward” of the Black Sea Grain Deal to Russian President Vladimir Putin.   

Guterres outlined his proposal in a letter to the Russian president on “the improvement, extension and expansion” of a grain deal that would allow the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain, a U.N. spokesperson said on Monday after Guterres and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in New York.  

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Monday an agreement between Moscow and the United Nations on Russia’s grain and fertilizer exports is not being fulfilled and there are “lots of details” to be discussed by Lavrov and Guterres.   

The Kremlin has indicated it will not allow the deal — brokered by the U.N. and Turkey last year — to continue beyond May 18 unless Russia’s terms on its own grain and fertilizer exports are met.    

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

A slick new video that has gone viral on Russian social media platforms shows a taxi driver, a security guard and a fitness coach at work.

“Did you really dream of being this kind of defender?” the footage released by the Russian defense ministry says.

The video, set to dramatic music, then depicts armed men in full combat gear walking across a battlefield in thick fog.

“You’re a real man! Be one!” says the ad, encouraging Russians to sign a contract with the defense ministry.

Moscow has launched an aggressive military recruitment campaign complete with videos and ubiquitous billboards as Kyiv gears up for a counter-offensive after months of stalemate in eastern Ukraine.

“Our job is defending the motherland,” reads one of the billboards in the capital, showing three soldiers under a big blue sky.

“An honorable job and a decent salary,” says another slogan.

Last September, President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial” military mobilization — Russia’s first since World War II — sending shockwaves across the country and prompting tens of thousands to flee.

Unwilling to announce a second mobilization drive, Moscow has instead opted for a massive PR campaign, hoping to lure Russians with financial incentives.

Tapping into macho culture

The authorities have not disclosed their target but various estimates say Moscow could be trying to recruit 400,000 volunteers.

“The authorities are almost certainly seeking to delay any new, overt mandatory mobilization for as long as possible to minimize domestic dissent,” British military intelligence said this week.

Those who sign a contract with the Russian defense ministry are promised a monthly salary of at least 204,000 rubles ($2, 450).

A notice on the Moscow mayor’s website specifies that servicemen will be paid “at least 204,000 rubles” in “the zone of the special military operation”, the Kremlin’s official term for the offensive in Ukraine.

Those who take part in offensives are promised a daily bonus of 8,000 rubles (around $100) and at least 50,000 rubles (around $615) for capturing or destroying enemy weapons and military equipment.

Some praised the recruitment drive.

“In Russia, this is a good amount to support your family, and even your parents,” Pyotr Lipka, a 21-year-old student from the southern city of Volgograd, told AFP.

“This makes sense: if a person defends his motherland, why shouldn’t he get paid?” Lipka said, adding that signing a contract was better than being mobilized.

The PR campaign in support of the army builds on Russia’s macho culture, promoting the image of a “real man” as strong and patriotic.

Last year, the authorities admitted embarrassing mistakes in their troop call-up for Ukraine, after some public outrage over students, older or sick people being mistakenly ordered to report for duty.

‘Avoiding a new shock’

Yevgeny Krapivin, 41, served as a professional soldier when Russia fought Chechen separatists in 1999-2002 and would like to sign up again to fight in Ukraine.

He said recruitment officers first turned him away, pointing to his age. “Then they told me: ‘Wait. You can get a call at any moment’,” he told AFP in central Moscow. “I am ready.”

The launch of the new recruitment drive has coincided with preparations for May 9 celebrations marking the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, which has reached a cult status under Putin.

This month Putin approved a controversial bill to create a digital draft system that could stop men from leaving the country.

Kremlin critics say the bill will greatly facilitate mobilizing men to fight and clamp down on those avoiding the draft as the assault on Ukraine stretches into a second year.

Political observers say the Kremlin is keen to keep a tight lid on social discontent in Russia as economic troubles mount.

“Authorities clearly want to avoid a new shock, a new stress for society,” Denis Volkov, head of independent pollster Levada Centre, told AFP, referring to a military mobilization.

“And they’ve opted for a different scenario: to recruit volunteers,” he said.

The campaign could be successful, especially in Russia’s small, poverty-stricken towns, he added.

The new approach seemed to be working, Volkov said.

“We are not seeing any of the panic that there was in autumn,” he said.

“No one is queueing up to go across the border.”
…

In the largest penalty of its kind, tobacco giant British American Tobacco has agreed to pay U.S. authorities nearly $630 million to settle charges of violating U.S. sanctions on North Korea. 

The hefty penalty is part of a “deferred prosecution agreement” that the company has reached with the U.S. Justice Department, officials announced on Tuesday.   

At the same time, a Singapore-based subsidiary of BAT pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions. 

The settlement caps a long-running U.S. investigation into BAT’s alleged violations of U.S. sanctions on North Korea.   

In 2007, the company spun off its North Korea sales to a third-party company, announcing that it was no longer doing business in the country.  

But in reality, BAT continued to do business in North Korea through the third-party company that was controlled by its Singapore subsidiary, according to court documents.  

Over the 10-year period, BAT and its subsidiary sold nearly $428 million worth of tobacco products to North Korea. 

To pay BAT, North Korean purchasers allegedly used front companies to hide the transactions from U.S. financial institutions.  

A ‘warning to companies’

Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general for national security, said the nearly $630 million BAT has agreed to pay is the largest penalty ever imposed by the Justice Department in connection with U.S. sanctions on North Korea.  

“And the latest warning to companies everywhere about the cost and the consequences of violating U.S. sanctions,” he said.   

“Holding corporate wrongdoers who violate U.S. sanctions accountable is an important priority for the Justice Department,” Olsen said at a news conference.   

In a statement, BAT chief executive Jack Bowles expressed regret for the “misconduct,” adding that “we fell short of the highest standards rightly expected of us.” 

BAT said it had stopped all business activities related to North Korea in 2017. 

Three accused in tobacco scheme

Separately, the Justice Department unsealed charges against North Korean banker Sim Hyon-Sop, 39, and Chinese nationals Qin Guoming, 60, and Han Linlin, 41, in connection with an illegal effort to facilitate the sale of tobacco to North Korea. 

The three men are accused of engaging in a scheme, from 2009 to 2019, to buy $74 million worth of leaf tobacco for North Korean state-owned cigarette manufacturers and using front companies to hide North Korea’s involvement from the U.S. banks that processed the transactions.  

The banks would have frozen, blocked, investigated or declined to process the transactions had they known they were connected to trade with North Korea, the Justice Department said. 

The tobacco purchases resulted in nearly $700 million in revenue for the North Korean manufacturers, one of which was owned by the country’s military. 

U.S. prosecutors say cigarette trafficking is a significant source of revenue for the North Korean government and helps fund its nuclear weapons program.  

Every $1 North Korea spends on smuggled tobacco products generates revenue of up to $20, prosecutors say. 

The U.S. State Department announced a reward of $5 million for information leading to the arrest of Sim, and a reward of $500,000 for Qin and Han. 

The charges against the three men are unrelated to BAT’s violation of U.S. sanctions.  
…

The graves are dug in the morning. Four plots, each two meters deep in the section of a cemetery in a central Ukrainian city devoted to the nation’s fallen soldiers. 

The day begins for Oleh Itsenko, 29, and Andrii Kuznetsov, 23, shortly after dawn, when the two diggers report for the grueling work. A day in their lives tells the story of Ukraine’s mounting war dead. They won’t be finished until sunset. 

With a tractor equipped with an earth auger, they bore into the ground. Armed with shovels, they go about carving out perfect rectangles with precision, the final resting place for the country’s soldiers killed in fierce battles on Ukraine’s eastern front. 

There will be four funerals today in the main cemetery of Kryvyi Rih, an iron-mining city 400 kilometers from the capital, Kyiv. 

“It’s hard,” says Itsenko, a former metal worker. “But someone’s got to do it.” 

In Ukraine, even the business of death has become routine as funerals are held for soldiers across the country almost every day, at times multiple times a day. The war’s death toll is kept a closely guarded secret by government and military officials, but it can be measured in other ways: through the long, working hours of the two young men, the repetitive rhythm of shovels and spades scooping up soil, the daily processions of weeping mourners. 

Western officials estimate there have been at least 100,000 Ukrainians soldiers killed or wounded since Russia’s full-scale invasion began last year. Estimates for Moscow’s war dead and wounded are double that as Ukrainian military officials report Russia is using wave tactics to exhaust resources and deplete their morale. 

Many soldiers have died fighting in Bakhmut, in what has become the war’s longest battle, and among the deadliest. Ukrainian forces in the city are surrounded from three directions by advancing Russian invaders and are determined to hold on to the city to deprive Moscow of any territorial victories. In the process, many Ukrainian servicemen have died. 

At 11 a.m., when the first coffin arrives, the two men lean back, exhausted, under the late morning sun. Shovels to the side, they peer from under baseball caps as the familiar scene, now a routine, unfolds. 

The family of Andrii Vorobiov, 51, weep as they enter the premises. Dozens more mourners arrive in buses. The deceased’s fellow servicemen weep as the coffin, draped in the yellow and blue of the national flag, is placed on the gravel. Vorobiov died in an aerial bomb attack in Bakmut, leaving behind three children. 

When the priest is done reciting the funeral rites, Vorobiov’s wife throws her hands over his coffin and wails. His daughter holds his medals, won for acts of bravery in the battlefield. 

“I won’t see you again,” she screams. “You won’t come to breakfast. I can’t bear it!” 

Between tears and screams, Itsenko and Kuznetsov wait for the last handful of dirt to be tossed onto the lowered coffin. Then they can begin the work of filling Vorobiov’s grave. 

The outpouring of grief is normal, Kuznetsov said. He isn’t affected most of the time because they are strangers. 

But once, he was asked to help carry the coffin because there weren’t enough pallbearers. He couldn’t hold back his anguish in the middle of that crowd. 

He didn’t even know the guy, he reflected. 

Kuznetsov never imagined he would be a gravedigger. He has a university degree in technology. A good degree, he was told by his teachers. 

“If it’s so good, then why am I doing this?” he asked, panting as he shoveled dirt into Vorobiov’s grave. 

There were no jobs, and he needed the money, he said finally. 

Itsenko lost his job when the war broke out, and learned the local cemetery needed diggers. Without any options, he didn’t need to think twice. 

It is 1:30 p.m. While the two young men are still working to fill the first grave, another funeral is starting. 

The family of Andrii Romanenko, 31, erects a tent to protect the coffin from the afternoon sun. The priest reads the rites, and the wailing starts again. 

Romanenko died when he was hit by a mortar defending the city of Bakhmut. A fellow serviceman, Valery, says they had served together in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk but parted ways in December. 

“He went too soon,” says Valery, sighing deeply. He speaks on the condition his last name be withheld, citing Ukrainian military protocols for active soldiers. 

As mourners bid their last farewell and toss earth into Romanenko’s grave, Itsenko and Kuznetsov still have not finished filling the first. 

“Got to hurry,” says Itsenko, wiping the sweat from his brow. 

There will be two more funerals in the next hour. And tomorrow, there will be another three funerals. Neither man can afford to stop. 

“What we are doing is for the greater good,” Itsenko says. “Our heroes deserve a proper resting place.” 

But he, his family’s only breadwinner, wouldn’t want to be fighting alongside them. 

“It’s better here,” he says, patting Vorobiov’s grave with his shovel. Kuznetsov plunges the cross into the earth, the last step before the flowers are laid. 

One done, three more to go. 
…

German authorities have arrested a Syrian man on suspicion of planning to carry out an explosives attack motivated by Islamic extremism, officials said Tuesday.

Federal police said officers arrested the 28-year-old man early Tuesday in the northern city of Hamburg based on a court-issued warrant for suspected terrorism financing offenses.

Investigators say the man is suspected of trying to obtain substances online that would have allowed him to manufacturer an explosive belt “in order to carry out an attack against civilian targets.”

Police say the man was encouraged and supported in his action by his 24-year-old brother, who lives in the southern town of Kempten. German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported that the younger man was also detained.

The brothers, whose names weren’t immediately released, were described by federal police as being motivated by “radical Islamist and jihadist” views.

Authorities said they had no information indicating a concrete target for the planned attack.

Search yields chemical substances

Police searched properties in Hamburg and Kempten, seizing large amounts of evidence including chemical substances, officials said. Some 250 officers were involved in the operation.

Germany’s top security official thanked police, saying their actions “have prevented possible Islamist attack plans.”

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the case showed that the danger of Islamic extremism remained high and pledged that German security agencies would continue to take all information about such threats seriously.

“Germany remains a direct target of Islamist terrorist organizations,” she said. “Islamist-motivated lone perpetrators are another significant threat.”

Attack at Duisburg gym

In a separate case, authorities in western Germany said Tuesday that they are investigating a possible extremist motive in an attack at a gym in Duisburg last week. A 26-year-old Syrian was arrested days after the attack, in which four men were seriously wounded and one of them remains in life-threatening condition.

Duesseldorf prosecutors said a review of the suspect’s cellphone indicated that “there may have been an Islamist motive” behind the attack but declined to elaborate. The man is currently being held on suspicion of attempted murder and other offenses.
…

Lithuania’s parliament passed legislation Tuesday to make it legal to deny entry to asylum seekers, the EU member’s latest move to fight illegal immigration from Belarus to the dismay of rights activists.

The Baltic state had already been engaging in so-called pushbacks since 2021, when thousands of migrants and refugees — mainly from the Middle East and Africa — began trying to enter the European Union via Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.

The EU argued that the influx was a “hybrid attack” orchestrated by the Belarusian regime in retaliation for international sanctions against Minsk.

The number of attempted crossings has since fallen, but Lithuanian border guards still deny entry to up to several dozen migrants a day.

“When it comes to national security and human rights, there are no easy solutions, but also there are no alternatives,” Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite told journalists.

“Our country must defend itself,” she added.

Bilotaite said authorities had intel that Belarus was negotiating new direct flight routes to Minsk with Iran and Iraq, which suggested “possible new [migrant] flows.”

“We have to be ready and we need instruments,” she said.

Last week, Amnesty International warned that the law would “green-light torture.”

The legislation still requires approval by the president and activists said they would call for a veto.

“These amendments are against both international law and our own commitments,” Jurate Juskaite, the head of Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights, told AFP.

“They are immoral, they endanger the life and health of the people trying to enter,” she added.

Last year, Lithuania finished building a four-meter razor wire fence along the border with Belarus to tackle illegal immigration.

It spans around 550 kilometers, while the entire border is nearly 700 kilometers long.

Neighboring Poland has also regularly resorted to pushbacks at its border with Belarus in recent years.

The controversial action is allowed under Polish law — through an interior ministry decree and the foreigners act — though in two separate cases, courts found it had violated refugee rights.
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Britain’s Prince William has settled a phone-hacking claim against Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper arm for a “huge sum” after a secret deal struck with Buckingham Palace, lawyers for the heir’s brother Prince Harry said in court documents.

Harry, the younger son of King Charles, is suing Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) at the High Court in London for multiple unlawful acts allegedly committed on behalf of its tabloids, the Sun and now defunct News of the World, from the mid-1990s until 2016.

In preliminary hearings this week, NGN, which has paid out millions of pounds to settle more than a thousand phone-hacking cases, is seeking to strike out claims by the prince and British actor Hugh Grant, arguing they should have taken action sooner.

It also denies anyone from the Sun was involved in any unlawful activity.

In a submission to the court, Harry’s legal team said the reason he had not brought action before was because a deal had been agreed between NGN and the “institution” — Buckingham Palace — to hold off any claims until the conclusion of other outstanding phone-hacking litigation.

“In responding to this bid by NGN to prevent his claims going to trial, the claimant has had to make public the details of this secret agreement, as well as the fact that his brother, His Royal Highness, Prince William, has recently settled his claim against NGN behind the scenes,” his lawyers said.

In a witness statement, Harry said NGN had settled William’s claim “for a huge sum of money in 2020… without any of the public being told, and seemingly with some favourable deal in return for him going ‘quietly’ so to speak.”

William’s office said it could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings and NGN had no comment.

During a criminal trial brought against News of the World journalists and others in 2014, its former royal editor Clive Goodman said in the mid-2000s he had hacked the voicemails of Harry as well as those of William, and William’s wife Kate.

Her phone was hacked 155 times, William’s 35 and Harry’s nine times, Goodman said.

In his 31-page statement, Harry railed against senior NGN figures and his own family, who he has accused of being in cahoots with the press to protect their image, saying the secret deal was struck to avoid a member of the royal family in the witness box.

Buckingham Palace “wanted to avoid at all costs” the reputational damage caused by publication in the 1990s of details of an “intimate telephone conversation” between Charles and the now Queen Consort Camilla, when his father was still married to his mother Princess Diana, his statement said.
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EU countries Tuesday gave the final approval to the biggest revamp to date of Europe’s carbon market, which is set to make it more costly to pollute and sharpen the 27-member bloc’s main tool for cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

The world’s first major carbon trading system has since 2005 forced power plants and factories to buy permits when they emit CO2 and has cut emissions from those sectors by 43%.

European Union members approved a deal agreed last year by negotiators from EU countries and Parliament to reform the carbon market to cut emissions by 62% from 2005 levels by 2030, which is designed to deliver the EU’s emissions-cutting targets.

After nearly two years of EU negotiations, the member states’ approval means the policy will now pass into law. The EU Parliament approved the deal last week.

The reform is set to hike the cost of polluting for sectors including cement manufacturing, aviation and shipping, while also raising billions of euros through CO2 permit sales, for national governments to invest in green measures.

Heavy industries will lose the free CO2 permits they currently receive by 2034, while airlines will lose theirs from 2026, exposing them to higher CO2 costs. Emissions from ships will be added to the scheme from 2024.

Countries also approved the EU’s world-first policy to phase in a levy on imports of high-carbon goods from 2026, targeting steel, cement, aluminum, fertilizers, electricity and hydrogen.

The carbon border levy aims to put EU industries and foreign competitors on a level footing, to avoid EU producers relocating to regions with less stringent environmental rules.

The price of EU carbon permits has soared in recent years, boosted by anticipation of the reforms. EU carbon permits were trading at around 88 euros per ton Tuesday, having more than tripled in value since the start of 2020.

EU countries also backed plans to launch a new EU carbon market covering emissions from fuels used in cars and buildings in 2027, plus a $97 billion EU fund to support consumers affected by the costs.
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Latest Developments

Estonian Prime Minister supports Ukraine’s bid to join NATO, EU
China says it respects the sovereignty of former Soviet states
Letter containing unknown substance was sent to the French embassy in Moscow, the TASS news agency said Monday, citing law enforcement.

Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile struck a museum in the city of Kupiasnk on Tuesday, killing at least one person and injuring 10 others.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia is doing all it can to destroy Ukraine’s history, culture and its people.

“Killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods,” Zelenskyy said after the Kupiansk attack. “We have no right to forget about it for a single second. We must and will respond!”

Zelenskyy said those responsible for committing war crimes “will definitely be brought to justice and it will be merciless.”

Russian forces seized Kupiansk, an important rail hub in northeastern Ukraine, during the early part of the invasion it launched in Ukraine last year. Ukrainian forces took it back in September.

Grain deal

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed a “way forward” of the Black Sea Grain Deal to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Guterres outlined his proposal in a letter to the Russian president on “the improvement, extension and expansion” of a grain deal that would allow the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain, a U.N. spokesperson said on Monday after Guterres and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in New York.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Monday that an agreement between Moscow and the United Nations on Russia’s grain and fertilizer exports is not being fulfilled and there are “lots of details” to be discussed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary-General Guterres.

The Kremlin has indicated it will not allow the deal — brokered by the U.N. and Turkey last year — to continue beyond May 18 unless Russia’s terms on its own grain and fertilizer exports are met.

The European Union and Japan have pushed back against a U.S. proposal for G-7 countries to ban all exports to Russia, the Financial Times reported Monday.

Lavrov did not answer questions on his way in or out of the 90-minute meeting with Guterres. “Don’t shout at me,” he told reporters.

During the Security Council meeting Monday, Guterres said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “causing massive suffering and devastation to Ukraine and its people” and contributing to “global economic dislocation triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“Tensions between major powers are at a historic high. So are the risks of conflict, through misadventure or miscalculation,” he remarked.

Sitting next to the U.N. chief, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the council that the world is now in a more dangerous situation than even during the Cold War. “As during the Cold War, we have reached the dangerous, possibly even more dangerous, threshold,” Lavrov said during the session on “Maintenance of International Peace and Security” that he was chairing.

Russia holds the monthly rotating presidency of the 15-member body for April.

Some material in this report came from Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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The European Union’s top diplomat described as good news China’s distancing from controversial comments from one of its envoys who questioned the sovereignty of Ukraine and other former Soviet states.    

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s remarks come after China’s ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, sparked an uproar by suggesting countries emerging from the ashes of the Soviet Union did not have status under international law.     

“They [China] issued a tweet yesterday saying they hope that this statement or remark issued was not the official position of China,” Borrell said. “And now we have the concrete answer from China that it’s not. So, it’s good news.”     

Made during an interview with French media, Ambassador Lu’s remarks add to European unease about China’s growing economic and political clout — and its stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.    

Beijing says it wants to be a mediator ending the war. But some EU member states are skeptical — especially those once part of the Soviet Union.     

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said at an EU foreign ministers meeting Monday in Luxembourg that “We’ve been always saying that we do not trust China as a mediator, as a possible mediator. It definitely has chosen a side. It’s sided with Russia, politically.”    

Ammunitions for Ukraine was another top item at the Luxembourg meeting. The EU has promised to deliver a million artillery shells or missiles to Kyiv within a year. But member states are at odds over whether to procure them only within the EU — France’s position to boost the bloc’s defense industry — or tap other countries.    

“I understand those who want to see the European military industry flourishing. Indeed, we need that. But if we delay currently, Ukrainians might not push as far and as successfully as they could with our assistance,” Landsbergis argued. “Therefore, speed is the main factor that we should be looking for now.”    

The EU’s Borrell predicts member states would finalize a plan to procure ammunitions for Ukraine within days.   
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