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A fire in a cafe in the Russian city of Kostroma killed 15 people and injured five others Saturday, local authorities said.

The blaze erupted in the early hours after someone apparently used a flare gun during a dispute, authorities said.

Rescuers were able to evacuate 250 people. The governor of the Kostroma region, Sergei Sitnikov, said five people were slightly injured and received medical assistance.

The roof of the cafe collapsed during the fire.

A criminal investigation has been launched, and the police are searching for the person who used the flare gun.

Kostroma, a riverside city of 270,000, is roughly 340 kilometers north of Moscow.

It wasn’t the first time that pyrotechnics caused a deadly fire at a recreational venue in Russia. In 2009, more than 150 people were killed in a blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in the city of Perm that erupted after someone set off fireworks.
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Russia’s “newly mobilized conscripts likely have minimal training or no training at all,” Britain’s defense ministry said Saturday in its intelligence update.

The report said that “Russia is probably struggling to provide military training for its current mobilization drive and its annual autumn conscription intake. The Russian Armed Forces were already stretched providing training for the approximate 300,000 troops required for its partial mobilization, announced in September.

“These issues,” the ministry said, “will be compounded by the additional regular autumn annual conscription cycle” that begins in November for about 120,000 conscripts.

Russia has resorted to training troops in Belarus, the ministry said, “due to a shortage of training staff, munitions and facilities in Russa.” The intelligence update said, “Deploying forces with little or no training provides little additional offensive combat capability.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. is providing about $400 million in security assistance to Ukraine as the fight against Russia’s invasion enters its ninth month.

The Defense Department said in a statement that the latest package “underscores the continued U.S. commitment to supporting Ukraine by meeting their most urgent needs, while also building the capacity of Ukraine’s Armed Forces to defend its sovereignty over the long term.”

The U.S. now has committed more than $18.2 billion to Ukraine since the beginning “of Russia’s unprovoked and brutal invasion February 24,” the statement read.

The U.S. military assistance includes refurbishing HAWK air defense missiles, funding for 45 refurbished T-72B Tanks with advanced optics, communications, and armor packages, 1,100 Phoenix Ghost tactical unmanned aerial systems, 40 armored riverine command boats, funding to refurbish 250 M1117 armored security vehicles, as well as tactical secure communications systems and surveillance systems, along with funding for training, maintenance, and sustainment.

In his nightly address Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the United States for its latest military assistance and said it is the armored vehicles in particular that “we very much need to move forward at the front.”

“I am grateful to President Biden, the U.S. Congress and the entire American people for the continued and vital assistance,” he said.

Earlier Friday, Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, said during a visit to Kyiv that U.S. support for Ukraine would remain “unwavering and unflinching” following next Tuesday’s midterm congressional elections.

“We fully intend to ensure that the resources are there as necessary, and that we’ll get votes from both sides of the aisle to make that happen,” Sullivan told reporters during a briefing at the Ukrainian presidential administration.

Some Republicans have indicated they would try to scale back U.S. aid to Kyiv if they win control of the U.S. Congress in Tuesday’s elections. Last month, Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the U.S. House, said Americans should not “write a blank check” for Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands said it would spend nearly $45 million on T-72 tanks, as it cooperates with the U.S. and the Czech Republic on a shipment of 90 modernized Czech tanks. Ukraine also received the first batch of BMP-1 armored vehicles from Greece. Zelenskyy thanked Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou for the aid.

In a tweet, the Ukrainian minister of foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, thanked the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and the U.S. for their joint decision to provide 90 T-72 tanks to Ukraine.

In an interview Friday with VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara, John Kirby, the White House National Security Council spokesperson, said the U.S. “is working in lockstep with the Ukrainians.” He said officials in Washington and Kyiv talk almost daily about Ukraine’s military capabilities, what is needed and what the Washington can provide for them.

Kirby said the U.S. is looking at providing more advanced capabilities to help Ukraine knock down the drones and cruise missiles the Russians are firing on civilian infrastructure.

“We are also working with allies and partners of some 40 other countries [who] are contributing security assistance to Ukraine. France, Spain, Germany have been real big contributors with respect to providing some additional air defense capabilities,” Kirby added.

Kirby also told VOA it is encouraging to hear that Russians do not want a nuclear exchange.

“We hope that they actually mean that, because we agree that a nuclear war should never be fought. It certainly can’t be won,” he said. But, he added, Washington is “judging them” not by what they are saying but by what they are doing on the ground.

He was referring to Putin’s mobilization of more than 300,000 reserves and Moscow’s “sham referendum” in Ukraine to politically annex ground it could not occupy militarily, as well as to Russia seeking help from countries like Iran and North Korea.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin signaled it is withdrawing from Kherson, a region strategic for Russia’s for westward expansion. The Russian flag has been removed from Kherson’s city council.

Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly endorsed the evacuation of civilians from parts of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region on Friday, the latest sign of Russia’s retreat in one of the most bitterly contested areas in Ukraine.

In recent weeks, Russian-installed officials in Kherson have evacuated tens of thousands of civilians from the city and surrounding areas while pro-Kremlin media members have reported that withdrawing Russian troops carried away bronze statues of 18th-century Russian commanders and have moved their headquarters 80 kilometers to the southeast.
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Nineteen-year-old-year-old Mykyta wants to be a doctor, but not right now. Instead, he, like other young men and women in Ukraine, has volunteered to join the fight against invading Russian troops. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. VOA footage and video editing by  Paviel Syhodolskiy.
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Europe’s challenges in formulating a common approach to China were on display this week as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz set out on a high-profile visit to Beijing while lawmakers from seven European countries and the European Union were winding up a show of solidarity in Taiwan.

The eight lawmakers — from Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Kosovo, the Netherlands, Ukraine and the European Parliament — belong to IPAC, the global Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. The group was established two years ago with the goal of alerting their governments to what they see as a threat to peace and democracy posed by China as it is led by the Chinese Communist Party.

The group met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who thanked them for their work to strengthen political and economic ties between democratic countries and Taiwan. Tsai was gifted with a traditional shirt known as a vyshyvanka by Ukrainian lawmaker Mykola Kniazhytskyi, while Foreign Minister Joseph Wu was given a pair of boxing gloves signed by brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, former champion fighters who have gained further fame with the Russia-Ukraine war. Vitali Klitschko is also known as a former mayor of Kyiv.

“Thank you for passing on the fighting spirit of Ukraine to Taiwan. We stand in solidarity and box against authoritarianism,” Wu said in a statement posted on social media, alongside photos of himself putting the gloves into action.

Els Van Hoof, a member of the Belgian parliament, spoke Thursday at a press conference hosted by the IPAC lawmakers in Taipei. “Taiwan’s safety — and the safety of all our democracies — grows with stronger partnerships,” she said. “We will push to increase the number of inter-parliamentary visits between Taiwan and our legislatures, to aid mutual understanding and cooperation.”

IPAC lawmakers are also committed to “work towards appropriate military and defense cooperation between our countries and Taiwan,” while pushing for Taiwan’s greater involvement in international institutions and increased bilateral trade, Van Hoof said.

Dutch lawmaker Sjoerd Wiemer Sjoerdsma told VOA before leaving Taipei on Friday that he was impressed by the resilience and optimism he witnessed on the trip.

“Nevertheless, the sense of urgency among their leaders is real,” he said. Taiwan’s leaders, he noted, are committed to de-escalating tension and are seeking international partners to help them do this, while preparing for the scenario “in which the threats of the leader of the Chinese Communist Party are not just rhetoric.”

The delegation was led by Reinhard Buetikofer, a member of the German Green Party who was among 10 European lawmakers sanctioned by Beijing in March 2021 for what the Chinese foreign ministry described as severely harming China’s sovereignty and interests “and maliciously spread[ing] lies and disinformation.” The action followed unilateral sanctions imposed on China by the EU over Beijing’s human rights record.

In Taipei, the government presented Buetikofer with its Grand Medal of Diplomacy for his “determination to stand up for democracy, strengthen Taiwan-EU ties and support our international participation.”

As the IPAC lawmakers wound up their trip to Taiwan, Chancellor Scholz was headed to Beijing with some of Germany’s leading business executives. Facing criticism over the trip at home, he defended it in a recent opinion article published jointly by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Politico.

Acknowledging the consolidation of Communist Party rule and power under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Scholz wrote that it “is precisely because ‘business as usual’ is no longer an option in these circumstances that I’m traveling to Beijing.”

“The outcome of the Communist Party Congress that has just ended is unambiguous: Avowals of Marxism-Leninism take up a much broader space than in the conclusions of previous congresses … As China changes, the way that we deal with China must change, too,” Scholz wrote.

However, the visit remains controversial even for some members of Scholz’s governing coalition, which includes Buetikofer’s Green Party and the traditionally pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), one of whose members was part of the IPAC delegation to Taiwan.

Speaking to VOA in September, legislator Gyde Jensen, a member of the FDP who participated in the IPAC delegation, said China’s treatment of Hong Kong and the Muslim minorities in Xinjiang have “disqualified” Beijing as a “trusted member of our rules-based order, which should alarm [every]one, especially those who conduct business there.”

Human rights “in my opinion, is the lens that every politician should look through, because human rights are at the heart and center of our liberal democracies,” Jensen said while in Washington to attend IPAC’s 2022 summit.

“I firmly believe that we can only counter the growing influence of the Chinese Communist Party and preserve our rules-based order if we join forces and build alliances across the globe,” Jensen added.
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Two U.S. senators met with families in Ukraine’s capital Thursday and promised continued humanitarian support for the war-torn country as winter nears.

Democrat Chris Coons and Republican Rob Portman emphasized their commitment to the people of Ukraine while visiting a distribution center in Kyiv and speaking to families bracing for a dark, cold season with inadequate heating and electricity.

Ukrainian authorities say Russian strikes on energy infrastructure have knocked out 40% of the country’s energy system, cutting off power for tens of thousands of people. Although crews make repairs as quickly as possible, it’s not certain they will be able to keep up with the damage.

“Russia has responded to Ukraine’s success on the battlefield by once again attacking not on the battlefield but attacking the civilians of Ukraine. Trying to turn off the lights, turn off the heat, turn off the water. It’s cowardly. It’s brutal,” Portman said at a news conference. “We cannot let this stand.”

‘The most important fight for freedom’

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the U.S. government has provided $1.5 billion in humanitarian assistance to millions of people in Ukraine and neighboring countries, according to the United States Agency for International Development.

Last month, the U.S. announced a $55 million, five-year investment in Ukraine’s heating infrastructure to support repairs and the maintenance of pipes and other equipment needed to heat homes, hospitals, schools and businesses.

Watch related video by VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara:

Coons and Portman’s trip came less than a week before the crucial U.S. midterm elections. Coons said the elections would not impact future support for Ukraine, whatever the outcome.

“I am confident that bipartisan robust American support for the fight of the Ukrainian people will continue in Congress,” he said. “The United States has long been a nation that fights for freedom, and this is the most important fight for freedom in the world today.”

Residents of southern Ukraine’s city of Mykolaiv have been without water for a month. People on the front line of the fighting in the eastern city of Bakhmut live in constant fear of not having heating and electricity, said Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the regional administration of the Donetsk region.

Earlier this week, a barrage of Russian cruise missiles and drone strikes hit Kyiv, Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities, knocking out water and power in several areas in apparent retaliation for what Moscow alleged was a Ukrainian attack on its Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.

In Kyiv, water was cut off to 80% of the capital city’s more than 3 million people. Residents lined up to fill water containers at hand pumps around the city. Workers quickly repaired the damage, and water supplies resumed within about 12 hours.

“Thank god this water problem is in autumn, when it’s not so cold. But we don’t know what the war will bring in winter,” Yulia Shypik, a Kyiv resident, said while waiting in line at a pump. “It’s the first time in our lives we have a situation like this. We don’t know what will be tomorrow.”

‘The toughest winter of their lives’

Russia’s illegal annexation and declaration of martial law in four regions of Ukraine may make it more difficult for civilians to move in and out of those areas and for aid groups to reach vulnerable people, according to the United Nations.

Aid groups warn that while governments have given tens of billions of dollars to support Ukraine, people are displaced from their homes and living without reliable access to electricity, water and food.

“After eight months of a relentless war, they are preparing to face what may be the toughest winter of their lives,” Matthew Hollingworth, the emergency coordinator in Ukraine for the U.N.’s World Food Program, told The Associated Press.
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