1UA TV

The Hungarian government on Monday fired the head of the national weather service and her deputy, two days after a fireworks display to celebrate Hungary’s national holiday was delayed for fear of storms.

Technology Minister Laszlo Palkovics, under whose authority the National Meteorological Service (NMS) falls, relieved President Kornelia Radics and her deputy Gyula Horvath from their duties but did not provide a reason.

The ministry did not immediately return AFP’s call.

But the announcement came a day after pro-government media criticized NMS for their forecast of thunderstorms and gusts of wind, which prompted the cancellation of the fireworks on Saturday.

Online news outlet Origo said the agency had given “misleading information about the extent of the bad weather, which misled the operation team responsible for security.”

The NMS agency apologized on Sunday, citing “a factor of uncertainty inherent in the profession.”

In a reaction broadcast on the social network Facebook, liberal politician Andras Fekete-Gyor joked: “They couldn’t produce the desired weather, they were fired.

“No, it’s not a dictatorship in Central Asia, it’s the Hungary of Fidesz,” he said, referring to the country’s ruling party.

The fireworks display — billed as “the biggest in Europe” to celebrate “Hungary’s millennial state” — has been rescheduled for later this week.

The opposition had earlier called for its cancellation, denouncing it as “a useless waste of money” at a time when the country’s economy is struggling.

In 2006, the annual festivities were hit by a violent storm that killed five people and injured several hundred, causing widespread panic among more than a million people who had gathered to watch on the banks of the Danube.
…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already killed some 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers since it began nearly six months ago, a general said, and the fighting Monday showed no signs that the war is abating.

At a veterans event, Ukraine’s military chief, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said many of Ukraine’s children need to be taken care of because “their father went to the front line and, perhaps, is one of those almost 9,000 heroes who died.”

In Nikopol, across the river from Ukraine’s main nuclear power plant, Russian shelling wounded four people Monday, an official said. The city on the Dnieper River has faced relentless pounding since July 12 that has damaged 850 buildings and sent about half its population of 100,000 fleeing.

“I feel hate toward Russians,” said 74-year-old Liudmyla Shyshkina, standing on the edge of her destroyed fourth-floor apartment in Nikopol that no longer has walls. She is still injured from the Aug. 10 blast that killed her 81-year-old husband, Anatoliy.

“The Second World War didn’t take away my father, but the Russian war did,” noted Pavlo Shyshkin, his son.

The U.N. said 5,587 civilians have been killed and 7,890 wounded in the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began Feb. 24, although the estimate is likely an undercount. The U.N. children’s agency said Monday that at least 972 Ukrainian children have been killed or injured since Russia invaded. UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said these are U.N.-verified figures but “we believe the number to be much higher.”

U.S. President Joe Biden and the leaders of Britain, France and Germany pleaded Sunday for Russia to end military operations so close to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant — Europe’s largest — but Nikopol came under fire three times overnight from rockets and mortar shells. Houses, a kindergarten, a bus station and stores were hit, authorities said.

There are widespread fears that continued shelling and fighting in the area could lead to a nuclear catastrophe. Russia has asked for an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council Tuesday to discuss the situation — a move “the audacity” of which Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy decried in his evening video address.

“The total number of different Russian cruise missiles that Russia used against us is approaching 3,500. It is simply impossible to count the strikes of Russian artillery; there are so many of them, and they are so intense,” Zelenskyy said Monday.

Vladimir Rogov, an official with the Russia-installed administration of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, claimed that because of shelling from Ukraine, staffing at the nuclear plant had been cut sharply. Ukrainians say Russia is storing weapons at the plant and has blocked off areas to Ukrainian nuclear workers.

Monday’s announcement of the scope of Ukraine’s military dead stands in sharp contrast to Russia’s military, which last gave an update March 25 when it said 1,351 Russian troops were killed during the first month of fighting. U.S. military officials estimated two weeks ago that Russia has lost between 70,000 to 80,000 soldiers, both killed and wounded in action.

On Monday though, Moscow turned its attention to one specific civilian death.

Russia blamed Ukrainian spy agencies for the weekend car bombing on the outskirts of Moscow that killed the daughter of a far-right Russian nationalist who ardently supports the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB, said Monday the killing was “prepared and perpetrated by the Ukrainian special services.” It charged that the bombing that killed 29-year-old TV commentator Darya Dugina, whose father, political theorist Alexander Dugin, is often referred to as “Putin’s brain,” was carried out by a Ukrainian citizen who left Russia for Estonia quickly afterward.

Ukrainian officials have vehemently denied any involvement in the car bombing. Estonian officials say Russia has not asked them to look for the alleged bomber or even spoken to them about the bombing.

On the front lines, the Ukraine military said it carried out a strike on a key bridge over the Dnieper River in the Russian-occupied Kherson region. Local Russia-installed officials said the strike killed two people Monday and wounded 16 others.

Photos on social media showed thick plumes of smoke rising over the Antonivskyi Bridge, an important supply route for the Russian military in Kherson.

On the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, anxiety has been spreading following a spate of fires and explosions at Russian facilities over the past two weeks. The Russian-backed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, ordered signs showing the location of bomb shelters be placed in the city, which had long seemed untouchable.

Razvozhaev said on Telegram the city is well-protected but “it is better to know where the shelters are.”

Sevastopol, the Crimean port that is the home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, has seen a series of drone attacks. A drone exploded at the fleet’s headquarters July 31, and another was shot down over it last week. Authorities said air-defense systems have shot down other drones as well.

On Monday evening, Sevastopol residents reported hearing loud explosions on social media. Razvozhaev said the air-defense system had shot down “an object … at high altitude.”

“Preliminary (conclusion) is that it is, again, a drone,” he wrote on Telegram.

Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t directly mention the war during a speech Monday marking National Flag Day but echoed some of the justifications cited for the invasion.

“We are firm in pursuing in the international arena only those policies that meet the fundamental interests of the motherland,” Putin said. He maintains that Russia sent troops into Ukraine to protect its people against the encroaching West.
…

The U.N. children’s agency says nearly 1,000 Ukrainian children have been confirmed killed or injured from violence since Russia invaded Ukraine almost six months ago.

UNICEF said Monday its tally of at least 972 child casualties represents only those that have been verified by the United Nations and said the true number is likely to be much higher.

Most of the casualties have been caused by explosive weapons, according to a statement by UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

“Once again, as in all wars, the reckless decisions of adults are putting children at extreme risk. There are no armed operations of this kind that do not result in children being harmed,” she wrote.

Russell said that beyond the children who have been killed or injured in the violence, “almost every child in Ukraine has been exposed to deeply distressing events, and those fleeing violence are at significant risk of family separation, violence, abuse, sexual exploitation, and trafficking.”

She said the start of Ukraine’s school year in just over a week is a reminder of how much children in the country have lost.

Russell said her agency estimates that 1 in 10 schools in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed in the war.

“All children need to be in school and learning, including children caught up in emergencies. Children in Ukraine and those displaced by this war are no exception,” she said.

UNICEF called for an end to the use of explosive weapons in populated areas as well as attacks on civilian facilities and infrastructure.

Ukraine’s government has accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians in Ukraine, a charge Moscow denies.
…

A bag with an explosive charge was found in a Stockholm park during an annual cultural festival and police have opened a preliminary investigation into attempted public destruction, police in Sweden said Monday.

On Sunday, a bag was found and its content was immediately “assessed as dangerous.” The surrounding area was cordoned off and traffic was temporarily rerouted, police said. A bomb squad neutralized the content of the bag on the spot.

“It is only after the investigation at the national forensic center that we can say whether the dangerous object was functional,” said Erik Åkerlund, local police manager.

The police department said it was working “widely,” interviewing witnesses and examining photo and video images. At the moment no one is in custody.

Police said the bag was found at 9:40 p.m. Sunday. The Aftonbladet newspaper said it was left near the Cafe Opera, a famous nightclub.

The five-day Stockholm Culture Festival ended Sunday with a concert by Iranian pop singer Ebi, whose real name is Ebrahim Hamedi and who is a known Iranian dissident. The free festival included musical acts, activities and performances in six areas across the Swedish capital.
…

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has tested negative in a drug test she took following the publication of video footage last week that showed her partying with friends, the prime minister’s office said on Monday.

Video clips of Marin, 36, at a party with Finnish celebrities began circulating on social media last week and they were soon published by several media outlets in Finland and abroad.  

On Thursday, Marin said she was upset that videos of her dancing at private parties were published online as they were meant to be seen only by friends.

Marin, who became the world’s youngest serving government leader in December 2019, agreed on Friday to take the drug test, saying she had never taken drugs and that she had not seen anyone doing so at the party she attended.  

Social Democrat leader Marin also said her ability to perform her official duties had remained unimpaired on the Saturday night in question and that she would have left the party had she been required to work.

Some Finns have voiced support for Marin and others have raised questions about her judgment.
…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of potential Russian actions as Ukraine prepares to mark its independence on Wednesday.

During his nightly address Sunday, Zelenskyy said he had spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron about “all the threats” posed by Russia, and that similar messages had been sent to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“All of Ukraine’s partners have been informed about what the terrorist state can prepare for this week,” Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian leader mentioned one action Russia may take is holding a trial for a group of Ukrainian soldiers captured during the siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

“If this despicable show trial were to go ahead … this would be the line beyond which negotiations are no longer possible,” Zelenskyy said. “There will be no more conversations. Our state has said everything.”

Thousands of deaths

Wednesday’s 31st anniversary of Ukraine’s independence from Soviet rule coincides with six months since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

The war between the neighboring countries, raging since Russia’s February 24 invasion, has killed thousands of fighters on both sides and Ukrainian civilians, while forcing millions of Ukrainians to flee their homes for safety in the western part of the country, far from the front battle lines in eastern Ukraine, or go to neighboring countries.

Artillery shells hit Ukraine’s southern city of Nikopol early Sunday, not far from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Russia targeted sites near Odesa, Ukraine’s key Black Sea port and grain export hub. But the bombardment of Nikopol was of particular concern, with Ukrainian regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko writing on the Telegram messaging app that 25 artillery shells hit the city, setting fire to an industrial facility and cutting power to 3,000 people.

Fear of nuclear a accident

The fighting near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and Saturday’s missile strike on the southern Ukrainian town of Voznesensk, not far from Ukraine’s second-largest atomic facility, has spurred fear among world leaders of a nuclear accident.

Ukraine has asked the United Nations and other international organizations to force Russia to leave the Zaporizhzhia plant, which it has occupied since March, even as Ukrainian technicians operate the facility.

Enerhodar, a town near the plant, has recently seen repeated shelling, with Moscow and Kyiv trading blame.

Talks have been under way for more than a week to arrange for a visit to the plant by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In a phone call Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron that Russia would allow international inspectors to enter the plant.

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

Serbia’s president called on NATO on Sunday to “do their job” in Kosovo or he says Serbia itself will move to protect its minority in the breakaway province.

The fiery televised address to his nation by President Aleksandar Vucic followed the collapse of political talks between Serbian and Kosovo leaders earlier this week mediated by the European Union in Brussels.

Serbia, along with its allies Russia and China, has refused to recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence. A NATO-led intervention in 1999 ended the war between Serbian forces and separatists in Kosovo and stopped Belgrade’s bloody crackdown against Kosovo’s majority Albanians.

The EU has overseen years of unsuccessful talks to normalize their ties, saying that’s one of the main preconditions for Kosovo and Serbia’s eventual membership in the 27-nation bloc.

“We have nowhere to go; we are cornered,” Vucic said. “We will save our people from persecution and pogroms, if NATO does not want to do it.”

He also claimed that Kosovo Albanian “gangs” need to be stopped from crossing into northern Kosovo, where most of the Kosovo Serbs live. He offered no proof for the claim.

There are widespread fears in the West that Russia could encourage its ally Serbia into an armed intervention in northern Kosovo that would further destabilize the Balkans and shift at least some world and NATO attention from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Nearly 4,000 NATO-led peacekeepers have been stationed in Kosovo following the 1998-99 war and any armed intervention there by Serbia or Russia would mean a major escalation of a simmering conflict in Europe.

Following the collapse of the EU-mediated talks, NATO peacekeeping troops in Kosovo have been deployed at main roads in its north, saying they are ready to protect the freedom of movement for all sides.

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo soared anew last month when the Kosovo government led by Prime Minister Albin Kurti declared that Serbian identity documents and vehicle license plates would no longer be valid in Kosovo’s territory. Serbia has been implementing the same measures for Kosovo citizens crossing into Serbia for the past 10 years.

Minority Serbs in Kosovo reacted with anger to the proposed changes, putting up roadblocks, sounding air raid sirens and firing guns into the air and in the direction of Kosovo police officers. No one was injured.

Under apparent pressure from the West, Kurti postponed implementation of the measure for a month to Sept. 1, when more trouble is expected if a compromise is not reached by then.

Vucic said Serbia will “work hard” to reach a “compromise solution in the next 10 days” and accused the Kosovo leadership of “only being interested in abolishing any trace of the Serbian state in Kosovo.”

Vucic also claimed, again without proof, that Kosovo’s government wanted “the final removal of the Serbian people from Kosovo” — something that has been repeatedly denied by Kosovo officials.

Kosovo Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla on Sunday visited Kosovo police units stationed near the northern border with Serbia, saying that he hopes there will be no trouble when the new measures begin on Sept.1.

“Our common interest here is that this land is ours and we will not give it up at any price,” he said.
…

The leaders of the United States, Britain, France and Germany discussed efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the White House said on Sunday in a statement largely focused on Ukraine.  

“In addition, they discussed ongoing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, the need to strengthen support for partners in the Middle East region, and joint efforts to deter and constrain Iran’s destabilizing regional activities,” the White House said in its description of the call among the four.

The White House provided no further details regarding the Middle Eastern portion of the discussion among U.S. President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The European Union and United States last week said they were studying Iran’s response to what the EU has called its “final” proposal to revive the deal, under which Tehran curbed its nuclear program in return for economic sanctions relief.

Failure in the nuclear negotiations could raise the risk of a fresh regional war, with Israel threatening military action against Iran if diplomacy fails to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapons capability.

Iran, which has long denied having such ambitions, has warned of a “crushing” response to any Israeli attack.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump reneged on the nuclear deal reached before he took office, calling it too soft on Iran, and reimposed harsh U.S. sanctions, spurring the Islamic Republic to begin breaching its limits on uranium enrichment.
…

Ukraine is set this week to mark six months since the Russian invasion.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Saturday, “I remember what various ‘advisers’ told me and advised me then. … I know that many of them are now ashamed of the words that were said then. … Ukrainians have proven that our people are invincible, our defenders are invincible.”

Zelenskyy said, “We still need to fight, we still need to do a lot, we still need to persevere and endure, unfortunately, a lot of pain. … But Ukrainians can feel proud of themselves, their country, and their heroes.

“We should be aware,” he added, “that this week Russia may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel. Such is our enemy. But in any other week during these six months, Russia did the same thing all the time – disgusting and cruel.”

Russian air defenses shot down a drone in Crimea on Saturday, Russian authorities said. It was the second such incident at the headquarters of its Black Sea Fleet in three weeks.

Oleg Kryuchkov, an aide to Crimea’s governor, also said without elaborating that “attacks by small drones” triggered air defenses in western Crimea.

Russia considers Crimea to be Russian territory, but Ukrainian officials have never accepted its 2014 annexation.

Mikhail Razvozhaev, the governor of Sevastopol, said the drone that was shot down fell on the roof of the Russian fleet’s headquarters but did not cause casualties or major damage.

Razvozhaev posted a new statement on Telegram on Saturday night asking residents to stop filming and disseminating pictures of the region’s anti-aircraft system and how it was working, Reuters reported.

The incident underlines the vulnerability of Russian forces in Crimea.

Earlier this month, explosions at a Russian air base destroyed nine Russian warplanes and earlier this week a Russian ammunition depot in Crimea was hit by a blast. A drone attack on the Black Sea headquarters July 31 injured five people and forced the cancelation of observances of Russia’s Navy Day, The Associated Press said.

Ukrainian authorities have not claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, but Zelenskyy referred obliquely to them Saturday in his nightly video address, Reuters reported, saying there was anticipation there for next week’s anniversary of Ukrainian independence from Soviet rule.

“You can literally feel Crimea in the air this year, that the occupation there is only temporary, and that Ukraine is coming back,” he said.

Christopher Miller, a professor of international history at Tufts University, told The New York Times, that Ukraine may try to disrupt Russian logistics and supply lines, and also put the war back on the Russian domestic political agenda.

Heightened nuclear fears

For weeks shelling around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has raised fears of a nuclear disaster.

On Saturday, the town of Voznesensk, which is about 30 kilometers from the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, the second-largest in Ukraine, was hit by a Russian missile Reuters reported, quoting Vitaliy Kim, the Mykolaiv regional governor.

Kim said on Telegram that the missile injured at least nine people and damaged houses and an apartment block in Voznesensk. State-run Energoatom, which manages all four Ukrainian nuclear energy generators, called the attack on Voznesensk “another act of Russian nuclear terrorism,” Reuters reported.

“It is possible that this missile was aimed specifically at the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, which the Russian military tried to seize back at the beginning of March,” Energoatom said in a statement.

Reuters was unable immediately to verify the situation in Voznesensk. There were no reports of any damage to the Pivdennoukrainsk plant. Russia did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters said.

Ukraine has asked the United Nations and other international organizations to force Russia to leave the Zaporizhzhia plant, which it has occupied since March.

Enerhodar, a town near the Zaporizhzhia plant, has recently seen repeated shelling, with Moscow and Kyiv trading blame for the attacks, according to Reuters.

Talks have been underway for more than a week to arrange for a visit to the plant by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In a phone call Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron that Russia would allow international inspectors to enter the Zaporizhzhia plant.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi “welcomed recent statements indicating that both Ukraine and Russia supported the IAEA’s aim to send a mission” to the plant.

Sober warning from Britain

Conservative British Member of Parliament Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House of Commons Defense Select Committee, cautioned that any nuclear accident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant could draw NATO into the war between Russia and Ukraine.

“Let’s make it clear now: any deliberate damage causing potential radiation leak to a Ukrainian nuclear reactor would be a breach of NATO’s Article 5,” he said Friday on Twitter.

Article 5 of the NATO treaty states that an armed attack against one or more NATO allies in Europe or North America is to be considered an attack against them all and compels each to take any action it deems necessary to assist the attacked member state.

There is growing concern in Europe that shelling around Zaporizhzhia could result in a catastrophe worse than the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

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

Pope Francis on Sunday called for an “open and sincere” dialogue to resolve a stand-off between the Church and government in Nicaragua, following the arrest of a bishop who is a leading critic of President Daniel Ortega.

Speaking to pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter’s Square for his weekly blessing, Francis made his first comments on the crisis in the Central American country, where in recent months authorities have detained priests while others have gone into exile.

Francis, who did not specifically mention the arrest of the Bishop Rolando Alvarez of Matagalpa in the north of the country, said he was following the situation in Nicaragua “with worry and pain” and asked for prayers for the country. 

“I would like to express my conviction and my wish that, through an open and sincere dialogue, the foundations for a respectful and peaceful coexistence can be found,” Francis said.

Alvarez was whisked away during a pre-dawn raid in Matagalpa on Friday and put under house arrest in the capital, Managua.

Alvarez, a critic of Ortega’s government and one of the Nicaraguan Church’s most influential figures, had been confined for two weeks in a Church house in Matagalpa along with five priests, one seminarian and a cameraman for a religious television channel.
…

The daughter of an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin was killed Saturday when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving exploded in Russia.

Darya Dugin, a journalist, was killed in the blast Saturday near Moscow.

Darya’s father is Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, often referred to a “Putin’s brain.”

Media reports say the elder Dugin, an ultra-nationalist, may have been the intended target.

Both father and daughter were supporters of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
…

Shortly before his two-day trip to Canada, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz received support for his interest in Canadian liquid natural gas to help replace Russian gas imports from an unexpected ally: Ukrainian state-owned gas company Naftogaz.

Kyiv has been at loggerheads with Berlin over its gas imports policy: firstly, over its deal with Moscow to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and more recently over its deal with Canada to get a repaired turbine for the Nord Stream 1 delivered back to Germany.

But the prospect of LNG deliveries to Europe from Canada, one of the world’s top gas producers, is something that not only Naftogaz supports, it’s something it has also been quietly working on itself.

Naftogaz earlier this year signed a little-reported memorandum of understanding with Canadian energy developer Symbio Infrastructure to purchase LNG from Canada.

Meanwhile, Canada and Germany have been discussing building LNG terminals on the Canadian Atlantic coast.

Naftogaz’s CEO Yuriy Vitrenko told Reuters in an emailed statement that Canadian gas had many advantages.

“Canadian suppliers do not have dominance in the German market, do not abuse it, as Gazprom, who is artificially decreasing supplies, ‘cornering the market’, and ripping off its customers,” he said.

Still, the challenges to these proposals are considerable, German and Canadian officials point out.

The costs of transporting gas from Alberta in the Canadian west to the East Coast would be high. New pipelines would be needed, and the global shift away from fossil fuels means the terminal’s lifetime would be too short to be profitable unless converted into a hydrogen terminal when gas demand declines.

German officials acknowledged this week that Canadian LNG deliveries were, at best, a medium-term prospect and played up instead a deal on hydrogen that Scholz is set to sign with Canadian Prime Minister Justine Trudeau.

Sensitive political topic

German government officials are keen not to cause ally Trudeau more headaches after a backlash to his decision to allow a turbine for the Nord Stream gas pipeline to be delivered back to Germany after repairs in Canada.

Scholz and Economy Minister Robert Habeck will also meet with Quebec Premier Francois Legault — from a different political camp than Trudeau — because of considerable resistance there to the construction of an LNG terminal and the necessary infrastructure.

Michael Link, transatlantic coordinator for the German government, said it would make much more sense to import LNG from Canada than from autocratic governments, noting it was important Scholz was visiting the provinces in the federal country.

“Canada is reliable, democratic and disposes of the highest environmental and social standards,” he said in an interview.

Yet, at the end of the day, even Canadian LNG deliveries to Asia from the West coast would help, he said.

“The gas exported there goes onto the world market, it increases the supply and puts downward pressure on prices,” Link told Reuters.
…

The first surprise, for the Finnish conscripts and officers taking part in a NATO-hosted military exercise in the Arctic this spring: the sudden roar of a U.S. Marine helicopter assault force, touching down in a field right next to the Finns’ well-hidden command post.

The second surprise: Spilling out of their field headquarters, the Finnish Signal Corps communications workers and others inside routed the U.S. Marines — the Finns’ designated adversary in the NATO exercise and members of America’s professional and premier expeditionary force — in the mock firefight that followed.

Finnish camouflage for the Arctic snow, scrub and scree likely had kept the Americans from even realizing the command post was there when they landed, Finnish commander Lt. Col. Mikko Kuoka suspected.

“For those who years from now will doubt it,” Kuoka wrote in an infantry-focused blog of an episode he later confirmed for The Associated Press, “That actually happened.”

As the exercise made clear, NATO’s addition of Finland and Sweden — what President Joe Biden calls “our allies of the high north” — would bring military and territorial advantages to the Western defense alliance. That’s especially so as the rapid melting of the Arctic from climate change awakens strategic rivalries at the top of the world.

Sophisticated partners

In contrast to the NATO expansion of former Soviet states that needed big boosts in the decades after the Cold War, the alliance would be bringing in two sophisticated militaries and, in Finland’s case, a country with a remarkable tradition of national defense. Both Finland and Sweden are in a region on one of Europe’s front lines and meeting places with Russia.

Finland, defending against Soviet Russia’s invasion on the eve of World War II, relied on fighters on snowshoes and skis, expert snow and forest camouflage, and reindeers transporting weapons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, along with his pointed reminder about the Kremlin’s nuclear arsenal and his repeated invocation of broad territorial claims stemming from the days of the Russian Empire, have galvanized current NATO nations into strengthening their collective defenses and bringing on board new members.

Finland — until 1917 a grand duchy in that empire — and Sweden abandoned longtime national policies of military nonalignment. They applied to come under NATO’s nuclear and conventional umbrella and join 30 other member states in a powerful mutual defense pact, stipulating that an attack on one member is an attack on all.

Putin justified his invasion of West-looking Ukraine as pushing back against NATO and the West as, he said, they encroached ever closer on Russia. A NATO that includes Finland and Sweden would come as an ultimate rebuke for Putin’s war, empowering the defensive alliance in a strategically important region, surrounding Russia in the Baltic Sea and Arctic Ocean, and crowding NATO up against Russia’s western border for more than 1,300 kilometers (800 miles).

“I spent four years, my term, trying to persuade Sweden and Finland to join NATO,” former NATO secretary-general Lord George Robertson said this summer. “Vladimir Putin managed it in four weeks.”

Biden has been part of bipartisan U.S. and international cheerleading for the two countries’ candidacies. Reservations expressed by Turkey and Hungary keep NATO approval from being a lock.

Russia in recent years has been “rearming up in the north, with advanced nuclear weapons, hypersonic missiles and multiple bases,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said this month. “Russia’s threats, and Russia’s military build-up, mean that NATO is strengthening its presence in the north.’

Finland and Sweden would bring a lot to that mix. But they’re not without flaws.

Both countries downsized their militaries, cut defense funding and closed bases after the collapse of the Soviet Union lulled Cold War-era fears. As of just five years ago, Sweden’s entire national defense force could fit into one of Stockholm’s soccer stadiums, a critic noted.

But as Putin grew more confrontational, Sweden reinstated conscription and otherwise moved to rebuild its military. Sweden has a capable navy and a high-tech air force. Like Finland, Sweden has a valued homegrown defense industry; Sweden is one of the smallest countries in the world to build its own fighter jets.

Finnish Winter War

Finland’s defense force, meanwhile, is the stuff of legend.

In 1939 and 1940, Finland’s tiny, miserably equipped forces, fighting alone in what became known as the Winter War, made the nation one of few to survive a full-on assault by the Soviet Union with independence intact. Over the course of an exceptionally, deathly cold winter, Finnish fighters, sometimes cloaked in white bedsheets for camouflage and typically moving unseen on foot, snowshoes and skis, lost some territory to Russia but forced out the invaders.

Finns were responsible for up to 200,000 fatalities among invading forces versus an estimated 25,000 Finns lost, said Iskander Rehman, a fellow at Johns Hopkins’ Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs.

It helped fuel a Finnish national credo of “sisu,” or grit. Finnish Winter War veterans were recruited for the U.S. Army’s winter warfare training, Rehman noted.

Finland’s constitution makes rallying to the national defense an obligation of every citizen. Finland says it can muster a 280,000-strong fighting force, built on near-universal male conscription and a large, well-trained reserve, equipped with modern artillery, warplanes and tanks, much of it U.S.

The U.S. and NATO are likely to increase their presence around the Baltic and Arctic with the accession of the two Scandinavian countries.

“Just looking at the map, if you add in Finland and Sweden, you essentially turn the entire Baltic Sea into a NATO lake,” with just two smaller bits of Russia lining it, said Zachary Selden, a former director of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s defense and security committee who is now a national security expert at the University of Florida.

Likewise, Russia will become the only non-NATO member among countries with claims to Arctic territory, and the only non-NATO member of the Atlantic Council, an eight-member international forum created for Arctic issues.

Selden predicts a greater NATO presence in the Baltics as a result, perhaps with a new NATO regional command, along with U.S. military rotations, although likely not any permanent base.

Russia sees its military presence in the Arctic as vital to its European strategy, including ballistic missile submarines that give it second-strike capability in any conflict with NATO, analysts say.

The Arctic is warming much faster under climate change than the Earth as a whole, opening up competition for Arctic resources and access as Arctic ice vanishes.

Russia has been building its fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, aiming to escort expected future commercial shipping traffic through the melting Arctic, “as a way to create this toll road for transit,’ said Sherri Goodman, a former U.S. first deputy undersecretary of defense, now at the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute and at the Center for Climate & Security.

Goodman points to future threats NATO will need to be able to deal with as the melting Arctic opens up, such as the kind of shadowy, unofficial forces Russia has used in Crimea and in Africa and elsewhere, and the increased risk of a hard-to-handle Russian nuclear maritime accident.

NATO strategy increasingly will incorporate the strategic advantage Finland and Sweden would bring to such scenarios, analysts said.
…

Sixteen people were killed in southeast Turkey on Saturday when a bus crashed into emergency workers and journalists who were working at an earlier accident on a highway near the city of Gaziantep, local authorities said.

Regional governor Davut Gul said the dead included three firefighters, four emergency health workers and two drone operators from a Turkish news agency.

“At around 10:45 this morning, a passenger bus crashed here,” Gul said, speaking from the scene of the accident on the road east of Gaziantep.

“While the fire brigade, medical teams and other colleagues were responding to the accident, another bus crashed 200 meters behind. The second bus slid to this site and hit the first responders and the wounded people on the ground.”

Vice President Fuat Oktay said the emergency workers and journalists had “lost their lives in the line of duty.”
…