Month: June 2023

Russia said it was evacuating hundreds of children from villages because of intensifying shelling in the border region of Belgorod, where the situation was deemed alarming by the Kremlin.

More than a year into its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is now seeing stepped-up attacks on its soil, including an unprecedented incursion last week in the southern region of Belgorod and a drone attack on Moscow on Tuesday.

Authorities began evacuating children from the border districts of Shebekino and Graivoron, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.

Gladkov said the first 300 evacuated children will be taken to Voronezh, a city about 250 kilometers further into Russia. And more than 1,000 more children will be moved to other provinces over the coming days, he added.

A correspondent for state-run agency RIA Novosti near Voronezh said buses had arrived with around 150 people on board.

Gladkov said the situation was growing worse in the village of Shebekino, where he reported more shelling during the day that injured four people but didn’t cause any deaths.

On Tuesday, one person was killed and two others were wounded in a strike on a center for displaced people in the region. Several oil depots have also been hit in recent weeks.

The attacks have come as Kyiv says it is preparing for a major offensive against Moscow’s forces.

“The situation is quite alarming,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said about shelling in the region.

“We have not heard a single word of condemnation from the West so far,” Peskov said.

The Kremlin has accused Ukraine — and its Western backers — of being behind the increasing number of reported attacks.

On Tuesday, the foreign ministry said the West was “pushing the Ukrainian leadership towards increasingly reckless acts” after a drone attack on residential areas in Moscow.

The Russian defense ministry said that eight drones were used in the attack, adding that five of them were downed and three disabled.

At least three buildings were lightly damaged, including two high-rise residential buildings in Moscow’s affluent southwest.

Ukraine, which has seen almost nightly attacks on its capital, denied any “direct involvement.”

The United States said it did not support any attack inside Russia, instead providing Kyiv with equipment and training to reclaim its territory.

AFP journalists went to the regional capital city, which is also called Belgorod, over the weekend.

Residents confessed to a certain amount of worry, but a sense of fatalism prevailed.

“What can we do? We just shout ‘Oh! and ‘Ah!’ What will that change?” said retired teacher, 84-year-old Rimma Malieva.

Most people AFP spoke to said they trusted the authorities to fix the weaknesses laid bare by the latest raid.

Evgeny Sheikin, a 41-year-old builder, still said “it should not have happened.”

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The U.S. military says a Chinese fighter jet flew close to one of its reconnaissance aircraft during a patrol mission over the South China Sea last week.   

A statement by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command says a Chinese J-16 fighter jet “flew directly in front of the nose” of the RC-135 plane “in an unnecessarily aggressive maneuver,” forcing the pilot to fly through the turbulence caused by the fighter jet. 

Video footage of the incident from the cockpit of the U.S. reconnaissance plane showed the plane shaking soon after the Chinese fighter jet flew across its flight path. 

The statement said the RC-135 reconnaissance plane was conducting “safe and routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace, in accordance with international law.” 

Last week’s incident occurred six months after a similar incident in December, when the crew of another RC-135 plane was forced to take evasive maneuvers to avoid colliding with a Chinese fighter jet.  

The incidents come during a time of rising tensions between Beijing and Washington over a host of issues, including China’s aggressive expansion across the South China Sea and its increasing military and diplomatic pressure on self-ruled Taiwan, which it considers a breakaway province of China.  Along with the aerial reconnaissance missions, the U.S. has also sailed its naval warships through the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait under the concept of “freedom of navigation.” 

The Pentagon said that China has rejected an invitation for Defense Minister General Li Shangfu to meet with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue regional security summit in Singapore this week. 

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

Former Vice President Mike Pence will officially launch his widely expected campaign for the 2024 Republican nomination for president in Iowa next week, adding another candidate to the growing Republican field and putting him in direct competition with his former boss. 

Pence will hold a kickoff event in Des Moines on June 7, his 64th birthday, according to two people familiar with his plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to share details ahead of the official announcement. He is also expected to release a video message as part of the launch. 

His team sees early voting Iowa as critical to his potential path to victory, and advisers say he plans to campaign aggressively for the conservative, evangelical Christian voters who make up a substantial portion of the state’s Republican electorate. Pence is an avowed social conservative and is staunchly opposed to abortion rights, favoring a national ban. 

The campaign is expected to lean heavily on town halls and retail stops aimed at showcasing Pence’s personality as he tries to emerge from former President Donald Trump’s shadow. 

Pence, who served in Congress and as Indiana’s governor before he was tapped as Trump’s running mate in 2016, had been an exceedingly loyal vice president until he broke with Trump over the 2020 election. 

Trump, desperate to overturn his loss and remain in power, had tried to convince Pence — and his supporters — that Pence could somehow reject voters’ will as he presided over the ceremonial counting of the Electoral College votes on January 6, 2021, even though the vice president has no such power. As the count was underway, a violent mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the building, smashing through windows, assailing police and sending Pence, his family and his staff racing for cover as members of the mob chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!” 

Pence has said Trump’s “reckless words” endangered his family and everyone else who was at the Capitol that day. He has said “history will hold Donald Trump accountable.” 

“For four years, we had a close working relationship. It did not end well,” Pence wrote in his book, So Help Me God. 

Pence has spent the 2-1/2 years since then strategically distancing himself from Trump as he has laid the groundwork for the campaign. While he consistently praises the record of the “Trump-Pence administration,” he has also stressed differences between the two men, on both policy and style. 

He has called on his party to move on from Trump’s election grievances and warned against the growing tide of populism in the Republican Party. He admonished “Putin apologists” unwilling to stand up to the Russian leader over his assault on Ukraine, distinguishing himself from Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running a distant second to Trump in the polls. 

He has also argued in favor of changes to programs such as Social Security and Medicare — which both Trump and DeSantis have vowed not to touch — and criticized DeSantis for his escalating feud with Disney. 

Pence also testified last month before a federal grand jury investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 

Pence has spent months visiting early voting states, delivering policy speeches, speaking at churches and courting donors. 

The week will be a busy one for Republican announcements. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is planning to launch his campaign Tuesday evening at a town hall event in New Hampshire, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum will announce his own bid on June 7 in Fargo. 

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is expected to launch a Republican presidential campaign next week in New Hampshire.

Christie, who also ran in 2016, is planning to make the announcement at a town hall Tuesday evening at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics, according to a person familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm Christie’s plans.

The timing, which was first reported by Axios, comes after several longtime Christie advisers started a super political action committee to support his expected candidacy.

The Associated Press had previously reported that Christie was expected to enter the race “imminently.”

Christie critical of Trump

Christie has cast himself as the only potential candidate willing to aggressively take on former President Donald Trump, the current front-runner for the nomination. Christie, a former federal prosecutor, was a longtime friend and adviser to Trump, but broke with Trump over his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election. Christie has since emerged as a leading and vocal critic of the former president.

Christie, who is currently polling at the bottom of the pack, dropped out of the 2016 presidential race a day after finishing sixth in New Hampshire’s primary.

In addition to Trump, Christie would be joining a GOP field that includes Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, and biotech entrepreneur and “anti-woke” activist Vivek Ramaswamy.

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum is expected to announce his candidacy on June 7, according to two GOP operatives. And former Vice President Mike Pence is also expected to launch a campaign soon.

‘I’m not a paid assassin’

Allies believe that Christie, who has been working as an ABC News analyst, has a unique ability to communicate. They say his candidacy could help prevent a repeat of 2016, when Trump’s rivals largely refrained from directly attacking the New York businessman, wrongly assuming he would implode on his own.

Christie has also said repeatedly that he will not run if he does not see a path to victory. “I’m not a paid assassin,” he recently told Politico.

While Christie is expected to spend much of his time in early-voting New Hampshire, as he did in 2016, advisers believe the path to the nomination runs through Trump, and they envision an unconventional, national campaign for Christie with a focus on garnering media attention and directly engaging with Trump.

Sudan’s military Wednesday broke off negotiations with the country’s paramilitary forces over extending a cease-fire agreement, accusing their rivals of repeatedly violating the U.S.-Saudi-brokered truce.  

Both sides to the six-week-old conflict signed a seven-day cease-fire in the Saudi city of Jeddah on May 20 intended to allow for the delivery of humanitarian assistance. A five- day extension was agreed on May 29. 

The United States and Saudi Arabia are monitoring implementation of the cease-fire and have said both sides have violated it. 

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council met Wednesday in a 90-minute-long, closed-door session at the request of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. It is only the fifth time in his more than five-year tenure that he has requested such a meeting. 

“We are facing a dramatic situation in Sudan, both on the political and the humanitarian end, and the secretary-general wanted to share some thoughts that he has with council members,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters. 

Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, has been mired in violence since April 15, when fighting broke out between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces after relations broke down between military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF chief General Mohamed Hamdan Degalo.  

The two generals are former allies who together orchestrated an October 2021 military coup that derailed a transition to civilian rule following the 2019 ouster of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir.   

Tensions between the generals have been growing over disagreements about how the RSF should be integrated in the army and who should oversee that process. The restructuring of the military was part of an effort to restore the country to civilian rule and end the political crisis sparked by the 2021 coup.

UN role

 

Despite the insecurity, the U.N. and its aid partners have been delivering assistance where they can. Between May 24 and 30, 100 aid trucks were deployed. The World Food Program has reached more than 782,000 people with food and nutrition support over the past four weeks, and the U.N. Population Fund has started to provide vital medicines and reproductive health supplies to the maternity hospital in Wad Medani in Al Jazirah state.  

The U.N. also has a political mission in Sudan, known as UNITAMS, which is mandated to assist with the transfer to a civilian-led government. A diplomat with knowledge of the council discussions told VOA that Guterres expressed his frustration over the lack of public support for the mission, which is up for renewal by Saturday.   

“It is up to the Security Council to decide whether the Security Council supports the continuation of the mission for another period or whether the Security Council decides that it is time to end it,” Guterres told reporters of the mission during brief remarks after the meeting. 

Council diplomats said a six-month technical rollover of the mission’s mandate is likely to be voted on later this week.   

Guterres also expressed his “full confidence” in his envoy, Volker Perthes. Last week, Burhan wrote to Guterres calling for Perthes to resign. 

The war has killed hundreds of civilians and left more than 1.2 million others internally displaced, with about 350,000 escaping to neighboring countries. Khartoum has been forced to endure frequent power cuts, with many areas without running water, and most of the hospitals out of service.  

 

Margaret Besheer at the United Nations contributed to this report. Some information came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. 

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