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U.S. lawmakers just back from a visit to Ukraine warn that Washington’s threats of sanctions and diplomatic maneuvering are not doing enough to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin from potentially launching an invasion. 

The group of Democrats and Republicans visited Kyiv Saturday and Sunday where they met with the commander of the Ukrainian special forces and with U.S. special operators and National Guard troops who have been helping the Ukrainian military with training. 

They described the situation as “very concerning” and urged the White House to speed up the delivery of weapons to the Ukrainian forces in the hopes of staving off a Russian invasion. 

“I think promising tough action, just to be candid, after an invasion, will do very little in terms of Putin’s calculus,” Republican Representative Michael Waltz told reporters Tuesday.

“We’re seeing Putin, I think, do this in many respects because he knows he can get away with it,” Waltz added. “We need to help Ukraine porcupine themselves and raise the costs now.” 

Democrats on the trip likewise urged the White House to take actions that will make Russia feel the blowback for an invasion of Ukraine almost instantly. 

“If Putin invades, I want him to know that he’ll have trouble buying a soda from a vending machine in the next five minutes, not that NATO will convene a conference to debate what to do next over the ensuing several weeks,” Representative Seth Moulton said. 

“We need to clearly communicate how the weapons we provide will cause large losses of Russian troops on Day One, not just over time,” he said. “Not just convincing them or trying to convince them that an occupation will be painful, but rather that an immediate full-scale invasion will be hard to take immediately.” 

The lawmakers also expressed confidence that unlike in 2014, when Russia invaded and occupied Crimea, Ukrainian forces are prepared to mount a fierce resistance if Putin sends in Russian troops. They said it would be folly, though, to think Ukrainian troops could hold out for long. 

“I think what we have to work on in the immediate future, right now, is to create the capability for a strong resistance in nonconventional warfare,” said Democrat Ruben Gallego.

“(Ukraine) being able to hold out and impose costs will be very helpful,” he said. And that would “hopefully change the calculation that Putin is using.” 

The lawmakers called for the White House to speed up the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, including ship-to-shore missiles, air defense missiles and additional Javelin anti-tank missiles. 

Some analysts have suggested such a strategy, aimed at imposing a military cost on Moscow, could work. 

“I think if Putin goes big, it could become very costly for him,” Luke Coffey of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation said Monday in response to a question from VOA. 

“They have a very robust reserve system in Ukraine where they can call up huge numbers of forces,” he said. “The further west that Russian forces would move, the stiffer the resistance would become, without a doubt.”

The White House signaled Tuesday it is prepared to stay the course, however, promising Moscow will pay a “terrible price” should it invade Ukraine due to what U.S. President Joe Biden has described as devastating sanctions.

“Our objective continues to be to keep this on a diplomatic path and for that to lead to de-escalation,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday. 

“We’re obviously engaged in daily conversations with Europeans, with Russians, with Ukrainians, and conveying exactly what we think should happen here to de-escalate the situation on the ground,” Psaki said.

Yet those talks, including meetings by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried with Russian officials in Moscow, seem to be having little impact on the ground, at least so far. 

The Pentagon said Tuesday it has seen no evidence of a pullback by Russian forces massed along the border with Ukraine. 

Putin on Tuesday reiterated Russia’s concern about Ukraine’s potential membership in NATO during a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, insisting the West provide Moscow with needed security guarantees. 

“The Russian president emphasized the importance of immediately launching international negotiations to develop legally fixed guarantees that would prevent any further NATO expansion to the east and the deployment of weapons to neighboring states, primarily in Ukraine, that threaten Russia,” the Kremlin said in a statement. 

Russia’s deputy foreign minister earlier threatened that Moscow could be forced to deploy tactical nuclear weapons if the U.S. and NATO fail to put an end the alliance’s eastward expansion. 

 NATO Tuesday dismissed such talk as hypocritical, specifically the Kremlin’s call for a moratorium on intermediate-range nuclear forces in Europe. 

“We had a ban, and they violated that ban,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters. “It is not credible when they now propose a ban on something they actually have already started to deploy.” 

Some information from Reuters was used in this report. 
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Russian journalism experienced extreme highs and lows in 2021. On the plus side, a Nobel Peace Prize for newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov. But the downside saw an escalating government crackdown on independent media. News organizations and individual reporters were declared “foreign agents” and “undesirable elements,” while some journalists went into exile.
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Britain will end a ban on visitors from 11 African countries aimed at combatting COVID-19, the government said Tuesday, despite an alarming spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

After the variant was first detected in southern Africa and Hong Kong in November, the British government compiled a travel “red list” of the 11 African nations later in the month.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced in parliament Tuesday that the ban would be lifted on Wednesday at 0400 GMT since the country had achieved community transmission of omicron.

“Now that there is community transmission of omicron in the U.K. and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of omicron from abroad,” he said.

While the ban remains in effect, only British citizens or residents arriving from the listed countries are allowed to enter the U.K. on condition they quarantine in a hotel at their expense.

The countries on the list are Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Javid said Monday that omicron, which is more transmissible than earlier variants, would be dominant in London “within 48 hours.” U.K. health authorities say omicron infections are doubling every two to three days, amounting to about 200,000 new cases daily.

South African scientists say the health effects of omicron may be less severe than the delta variant but warn it is premature to reach conclusions.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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The United Nations’ top refugee official is urging nations to strengthen their support for people fleeing conflict, persecution, and violence and to keep their borders open to people in need of international protection.

In a video, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, sets the scene for this two-day virtual event: “for centuries, experiences of exile and traditions of refuge have formed part of our collective heritage,” Grandi notes on the video clip. The meeting is the first follow-up to the Global Refugee Forum held two years ago. Nearly 1,400 pledges were made then to better support refugees and host communities.

Senior government officials, refugees and various partners are here to take stock of how many pledges have been kept. High Commissioner Grandi gives the global picture a mixed review.

He says countries are doing better at including refugees in national COVID-19 and health care responses, and in providing protection and greater livelihood opportunities. He says progress has been made toward eradicating statelessness and in the field of education.

He warns, however, that too many countries are turning their backs on people in need of safety and protection.

“To this end, I must repeat my grave concerns regarding certain trends in some of the world’s industrialized countries, including closed borders, sometimes very violent pushbacks, the construction of walls and barriers, the outsourcing of international legal and moral obligations concerning people’s right to seek asylum,” he expressed.

The UNHCR reports at least 83.4 million people have been forcibly displaced around the world, and of that number, 26.4 million are refugees. Developing countries host about 85 percent of the world’s refugees.

Grandi is calling on wealthier countries to assume a greater share of this responsibility. He also is appealing for more third country solutions to intractable refugee problems.

“Resettlement is of course a key avenue, and I am grateful to all those states that have continued to maintain or increase their resettlement quotas over the past years, as well as to the United States of America for reinvigorating its resettlement program,” he pointed out.

Officials attending the event will spotlight several key areas, including the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate action, and displacement.
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A Belarusian court has delivered verdicts and harsh sentences to a group of bloggers, opposition activists, and the husband of exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. All of those of them were rounded up by security officials before a controversial presidential election that saw authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko claim a sixth term in power despite widespread belief that the vote was rigged.

Rights groups consider all six of those sentenced in the southeastern city of Homel on Tuesday to be political prisoners. At 173 days, the trial was one of the longest in Belarus’s history.

The crackdown on the pro-democracy movement has only intensified since mass protests erupted in the wake of Lukashenko’s August 2020 reelection, which is not recognized by the opposition and the West.

Popular video blogger Syarhei Tsikhanouski , who intended to run against Lukashenko before being disqualified and ultimately arrested ahead of the election, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

After being disqualified, his political novice wife, Tsikhanouskaya, mobilized voters and won the election, according to the opposition and Western countries.

Tsikhanouskaya has been living in exile in Lithuania since fleeing Belarus after the election due to concerns about her safety and that of the couple’s two children.

“The very existence of these people is a crime for the regime. They’re repressed for wanting to live in a free Belarus,” Tsikhanouskaya said in a tweet immediately after news of the verdict broke.

“The dictator publicly takes revenge on his strongest opponents. While hiding the political prisoners in closed trials, he hopes to continue repressions in silence. But the whole world watches. We won’t stop,” she added.

Another blogger, Ihar Losik, who is also an RFE/RL consultant, was handed a sentence of 15 years. He was arrested before the election and accused of using his popular Telegram channel to prepare actions to violate public order.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly called on the Lukashenko regime to end its “reprehensible” treatment of Losik and other journalists.

“The closed-door trial he and his co-defendants have endured for the past five months has been an outrageous travesty of justice. We again call on the Lukashenko regime to stop their assault on news organizations and journalists and bloggers like Ihar and let him return to his wife and daughter,” Fly said ahead of the verdict.

Among the other defendants in the trial, former presidential candidate Mikalay Statkevich received a prison sentence of 14 years, opposition activist Uladzimer Tsyhanovich 15 years, activist Artsyom Sakau 16 tears, and another activist, Dzmitry Papou, 16 years.

The defendants, who have been in pretrial detention since their arrests, are accused of various alleged crimes, including organizing mass disorder, inciting social hatred, impeding the activities of the Central Election Commission, and organizing activities that disrupt social order. It’s unclear why some of the defendants are being tried together or the reason for the trial being held behind closed doors.

In the wake of the election, tens of thousands of people were detained and human rights activists say more than 800 people are considered political prisoners.

Independent media, opposition social-media channels, and civil society groups have also been harassed and shut down, while much of the opposition is either in prison or exile.

 
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Students and faculty members from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music arrived with their families Monday in Portugal, where they are being granted asylum and where they hope to rebuild their acclaimed school. 

The 273-person group, including some 150 students, flew into Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, from Doha, Qatar. Their departure from Afghanistan was staggered in five airlifts to Doha over six weeks in October and November. 

“The arrival of the (institute’s) community today means that the first and most important step of saving lives and insuring freedom is now over,” said the institute’s founder and director, Dr. Ahmad Sarmast. 

Governments and corporate and private donors met the group’s evacuation and resettlement expenses. 

“From now on, (the institute’s) musicians will be a symbol of courage and resolve, not only for Afghan artists, but also for the people of Afghanistan, in their struggle against the oppression and tyranny of the Taliban,” Sarmast said.

The musicians are among tens of thousands of Afghans, including many from the country’s sports and arts community, who have fled since Taliban fighters seized Afghanistan in August, when the U.S. and NATO ended their 20-year military presence. 

The Afghanistan girls’ youth soccer team has also resettled in Portugal, a country of 10.3 million that has taken in 764 Afghans since summer. 

Afghanistan has a strong musical tradition, and a pop music scene had flourished there over the past two decades. But many musicians fear for their futures under the Taliban, which rules according to a harsh interpretation of Islamic law. 

The Afghanistan National Institute of Music, founded in 2010, was renowned for its inclusiveness. It became a symbol of a new Afghanistan, with boys and girls studying together and performing to full houses in the United States and Europe. 

The school’s campus in Kabul is now occupied by a Taliban faction. Its bank accounts were frozen and its offices ransacked, according to former school officials. 

The plan is to recreate the school in Portugal, allowing the students to continue their educations, as part of a wider Lisbon-based center for Afghan culture that will welcome exiles. 

 
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Russia has vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that warns about the security implications of climate change, with its envoy calling it “unacceptable” for his government. 

“We are against creating a new area for the council’s work which establishes a generic, automatic connection between climate change and international security, turning a scientific and socio-economic issue into a politicized question,” Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vassily Nebenzia said just before casting his veto.

Twelve Security Council members voted to adopt the resolution Monday, while China abstained and India voted no.

“The force of the veto can block the approval of a text, but it cannot hide our reality,” said Ambassador Abdou Abarry of Niger, who along with Ireland’s ambassador, penned the draft. 

India’s envoy asked what a resolution could achieve that the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) could not. 

“Why is it that one needs a U.N. Security Council resolution to take action on climate change, when we have commitments under the UNFCC toward concerted climate action?” Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti asked. 

In a rare occurrence, the text was co-sponsored by 113 countries from the U.N. membership, showing the majority’s belief that the council should consider the link between global warming and security issues. 

While the Security Council has considered climate change in some of its work, this would have been the first time it singled out the subject for a resolution of its own. 

“This resolution is about enabling the U.N. Security Council to address climate change with the tools it has within its mandate,” Ireland’s envoy Geraldine Byrne Nason said before the vote. “The council has already taken steps to integrate climate-related security risks into some of its mandated operations.” 

Among the sponsors were several small island states in the Pacific, who say global warming and rising seas could put their countries underwater, as well as nations in Africa’s Sahel — Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria — where climate events including recurring severe droughts have contributed to intercommunal fighting. 

U.S. envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield said climate change is “a threat to every person, in every nation, on every continent” and clearly within the council’s purview.

“We categorically reject the notion that Security Council action undermines the Paris Agreement and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change,” she said. “In fact, it does exactly the opposite. The Security Council can and should complement, support, and reinforce our collective work under the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC in ways that are necessary to fight this security threat.” 

China, India and Russia have drafted a resolution of their own focused on the situation in Africa’s Sahel, where climate has been linked to conflict. China’s envoy urged council members and the wider U.N. membership to support that text instead. 

“China, Russia and India have jointly submitted a draft resolution focusing on security issues in the Sahel region, including climate change challenges,” Ambassador Zhang Jun told the council. “The aim of which is to effectively respond to the specific concerns of the countries in the Sahel region.” 

No date has been announced for a vote on their text. 

Speaking to reporters after the failed adoption, Irish Ambassador Byrne Nason said the Security Council must adjust to a changing world. 

“This council will never live up to its mandate for international peace and security if it does not adapt,” she said. “It must reflect the moment we are now living in, the threats to international peace and security which we now face.” 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been at the forefront of global efforts to mitigate the impact of global warming. His spokesman said the secretariat would continue to integrate climate risks into its political analysis, conflict prevention and peacebuilding efforts.
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An imprisoned Azerbaijani activist says he is now refusing to drink water as he enters his 38th day of a hunger strike to protest what he calls his wrongful imprisonment.

Initially detained on narcotic possession charges, Saleh Rustamov, a government critic and opposition activist, was later sentenced to seven years and three months of imprisonment on additional charges including money laundering and illegal entrepreneurship.

Numerous human rights organizations and international observers view the charges as politically motivated.

Rustamov previously warned authorities that he would continue his hunger strike until death. On Monday, his lawyer, Bahruz Bayramov, told VOA that Rustamov announced that he would start refusing water.

“He can no longer walk. He has no strength to walk,” Bayramov said. “He has lost 17 kilograms in weight. His speech is slurred, and he cannot sleep due to pain.”

On Friday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price urged the Azerbaijani government to release Rustamov on “humanitarian grounds,” saying U.S. officials are deeply troubled by reports of his worsening condition.

The rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of Azerbaijan raised alarms about Rustamov’s condition as early as October. 

“Mr. Rustamov’s case is one of many examples of the lack of independence of the justice illustrated by a long-standing pattern of repression of the government’s critics which is a major concern in Azerbaijan,” Austria’s Stefan Schennach and Britain’s Richard Bacon said in a statement calling upon the Azerbaijani authorities to review the cases of all alleged political prisoners.

Azerbaijani authorities have not responded to the international calls with regard with Rustamov’s case. The request by the European Court of Human Rights for Azerbaijani authorities to report on Rustamov’s state of health has gone unanswered.

The Penitentiary Services of Azerbaijan’s Justice Ministry issued a statement on December 9 calling the reports on social media regarding Rustamov’s health “untruthful,” although it did confirm that he was refusing food.

The statement noted the authorities have facilitated visits to the prisoner by the representatives of the International Red Cross, Ombudsman’s Office and civil rights activists.

In recent weeks, dozens of protesters took to the streets of capital city Baku to demand Rustamov’s release.

The protests were quickly dispersed as the police detained the activists, severely beating some of them.

Rustamov, who had served in the government during the 1992-93 rule of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, had been living in Russia since 1997.

Rustamov was arrested in May of 2018 when he returned to Azerbaijan to attend the funeral of a relative.
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Britain has recorded its first death from the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the death Monday, the day after he warned during a nationally televised speech that Britain was facing a “tidal wave” of new infections from omicron.

Johnson announced his government was launching a campaign to get everyone in the country a third shot of the COVID-19 vaccine by New Year’s Eve, accelerating his previous deadline by a full month.

The prime minister said that more than 40 military planning teams will be deployed across the country to establish vaccination centers, and ordered primary doctors, known in Britain as general practitioners, or GPs, to postpone appointments for routine medical procedures to help meet the goal of vaccinating 1 million people a day.

The government raised the COVID-19 alert level Sunday before Johnson’s speech from level three to level four – its second-highest — warning that omicron is spreading much faster than the delta variant, which would overwhelm the National Health Service with new case. Recent studies suggest a third dose is more effective in preventing infections from omicron than the standard two-dose regimen.

Prime Minister Johnson’s accelerated vaccination campaign comes as he faces a revolt from members of his Conservative party over his government’s new restrictions, including mandatory mask wearing and requiring people to show proof they have been vaccinated before they can enter large venues.

Johnson is also under fire over revelations that his staff held parties at his official office and residence on 10 Downing Street last year despite a strict lockdown imposed on the public.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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