As the war enters its 747th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Monday, March 11, 2024.
Fighting
Three people were killed in Russian shelling and drone attacks on towns in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, while at least a dozen people were injured in a Russian missile attack in the early hours of Sunday morning on the town of Myrnohrad, about 40km (25 miles) from the front line in Donetsk.
Kyiv said Russia launched 39 Iranian-made Shahed attack drones across central and southern regions, including the Kyiv region. The Air Force said 35 were shot down over 10 regions. It did not say whether there was any damage.
St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport was closed briefly after a Ukrainian drone was detected in the neighbouring Leningrad region. The Russian Defence Ministry said the drone was shot down. There were no reports of damage or casualties.
Politics and diplomacy
Ukraine rejected Pope Francis’s call to “raise the white flag” and hold negotiations with Russia saying that Kyiv will “never” surrender. “Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on social media.
Ukraine’s chief prosecutor Andriy Kostin told the AFP news agency that his office had logged about 123,000 alleged war crimes by Russia since it began its invasion in February 2022, and identified 511 suspects. Kostin said Russia must answer the accusations in court. “Russia must be defeated on the battlefield and in the courtroom,” he said.
A Moscow court sentenced a Moscow State University student to 10 days in prison after he renamed his WiFi network “Slava Ukraini” (Glory to Ukraine). The court found him guilty of a “public demonstration of Nazi symbolics… or symbols of extremist organisations,” Ria-Novosti reported.
Weapons
European states imported almost double the amount of arms in 2019 to 2023 compared with 2014 to 2018, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a leading conflict think tank, as Ukraine emerged as Europe’s largest arms importer. SPRI said European imports grew by 94 percent between 2019 and 2023 compared with 2014 to 2018, while Ukraine became the fourth largest importer in the world between 2019 to 2023.
Ko Naing* is just the sort of young man Myanmar’s military is looking for.
Hoping to make up for recruitment shortfalls and battlefield losses against armed groups fighting to reverse its 2021 coup, Myanmar’s military last month announced plans to enforce a years-old conscription law.
Starting in April, the military says, all men aged 18 to 35 years and women from 18 to 27 years must serve at least two years in the armed forces.
Doctors and other professionals in especially short supply in the military’s ranks may be drafted until they are 45 years old. The country’s military rulers hope to call up approximately 60,000 recruits by the end of the year.
As a doctor, and at a healthy 33 years old, Ko Naing fits the bill for conscription.
Like many of Myanmar’s young men and women, Ko Naing said he had no intention of answering the call and would instead do whatever it takes to avoid the draft.
“The one sure thing is I won’t serve. If I’m drafted by the military, I will try to move to the remote areas or to another country,” Ko Naing told Al Jazeera from Myanmar.
“Not only me, I think everyone in Myanmar is not willing to serve in the military under the conscription law,” he said. “The people believe it is not legal because the people believe the military is not their government.”
The 2021 coup that removed the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi has plunged Myanmar into a brutal civil war pitting the military against a patchwork of deep-rooted, well-armed ethnic minority armies and a new crop of local armed groups set up to remove the military regime from power.
Having already stretched the military thin across the country, these ethnic armies have forced the military to retreat from dozens of towns and bases since October, mainly in the east. The six-month-old campaign, dubbed Operation 1027, has handed the ruling generals their worst string of defeats of the war.
“The timing of the activation of the conscription law indicates its desperation,” said Ye Myo Hein, an adviser to the US Institute of Peace and fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC.
“Following Operation 1027, the junta has faced continuous and significant military losses, resulting in a substantial depletion of its human resources and a serious shortage of manpower. In response to this situation, the military has opted to activate the conscription law to replenish its declining manpower,” Ye Myo Hein said.
He also doubts the draft will do the military much good. The intake of recruits may help boost the morale of commanders on the front lines running short of soldiers, Ye Myo Hein said, but is unlikely to stem the military’s losses.
“The new recruits may not be effective fighters in the short term. If deployed on the battlefronts, they could end up as cannon fodder,” he said.
Ye Myo Hein said the draft could also backfire on the military by filling its ranks with resentful soldiers who could pose a threat from within, and by driving more young people into the arms of the resistance.
Members of the People’s Defence Forces, who became rebel fighters after protests against the military coup in Myanmar were met with extreme violence [File: Reuters]
‘No one … is safe’
The military says the draft will start next month with an initial batch of 5,000 conscripts. Unofficially, though, it may have started already.
In a recent statement, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, relayed reports of young men being effectively “kidnapped” off the streets by the military and forced to the front lines.
The New Myanmar Foundation, a charity based in Thailand helping those fleeing the war, says it has also heard of soldiers and police raiding teashops across the country in recent weeks in search of young men and women to press them into service.
“They are now losing, so they need the youth to fight for them,” the foundation’s executive director, Sann Aung, told Al Jazeera from the Thai border town of Mae Sot.
A camp for internally displaced people in Myanmar as seen across the Moei River from Mae Sot in western Thailand [Jintamas Saksornchai/AP Photo]
Activists, journalists and others in the military’s crosshairs have been fleeing the country – many of them by irregular means – amid a crackdown on critics and dissidents since the coup in February 2021. Now it is feared that the new conscription drive will turn a stream of political migrants into a flood.
In his statement, UN rapporteur Andrews warned that the numbers leaving Myanmar would “surely skyrocket” because of the draft.
Ye Myo Hein also warned of a “mass exodus”.
“People living in urban areas have been attempting to normalise their lives amidst the post-coup abnormality to some extent. However, the conscription law unequivocally gives the signal that no one, even those outside conflict zones, is exempt from the repercussions of the military coup and is safe,” he said.
Sann Aung said he has already seen the numbers fleeing to the Thai border swell and echoed the forecasts of a growing surge.
He said many travel to the relative safety of Myanmar’s rugged and remote borderlands, where some of the country’s strongest ethnic armies have over the decades carved out enclaves largely independent of the central government. Some go to join the fight against the military, others just to hide.
“This is the cheapest and the most convenient way for them,” Sann Aung said. “But some people who [may] have more … money and cash, they move to the neighbouring areas, neighbouring countries, including Thailand and India and maybe China.”
He and other close observers say that most of those fleeing are heading to Thailand, drawn by a large diaspora from Myanmar from before the coup, as well as better job prospects and a government in Bangkok that has kept Myanmar’s military at a distance — at least compared with China and India, which have been arming the generals.
Phoe Thingyan of the Overseas Irrawaddy Association, another charity for the displaced based in Mae Sot on the Thai border, said since news of the conscription plan emerged, the numbers arriving at the border or crossing over have been “increasing every day”.
‘Legally or illegally’
Overwhelmed by a recent surge of visa applicants at its embassy in Myanmar, Thailand has capped the number of people allowed to apply for an entry visa per day at 400. Even after doubling that daily limit to 800, application places have filled up for weeks ahead.
Newly desperate to get travel documents to leave the country, hundreds of people swarmed a passport office in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, on February 19, and accidentally killed two queue tokens vendors in the crush.
People wait in line to enter the Thai embassy visa application section in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, last month [AP Photo]
Phoe Thingyan and Sann Aung say those crowded out of the visa and passport process will probably leave anyway, however they can.
Thura*, 33, is one of those making plans to escape should he need to flee.
A human rights worker, Thura said he hopes he can avoid the draft as the sole caregiver to elderly parents, one of a handful of exemptions in the conscription law.
“But if the military still tries to force me to serve, I will try to move to Thailand,” he said, “legally or illegally”.
Thura says the current rate for a covert trip from Mandalay to the Thailand border is 2.5 million kyats (about $1,200), including border smuggler’s fees.
Wary of a new wave of people fleeing from Myanmar, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has warned that anyone caught crossing the border illegally will face “legal action”.
Undeterred by the potential repercussions, Thura is resolved not to fight for a military widely accused of waging an indiscriminate war that has killed thousands of civilians, displaced millions and tipped Myanmar into chaos.
His reasons are personal as well as political. Thura tells how friends who joined armed groups fighting the military have been killed in battle, and that another who was arrested for simply protesting against the military coup has been sentenced to death.
“If I’m forced to serve in the military, I will try to move to another place or another country,” he said.
“But if I fail and I’m caught and forced to serve, I will try to escape and run away. I cannot shoot at my friends.”
*Some names have been changed to shield the identities of individuals worried about their safety.
Kedah, Malaysia – Until six months ago, none of the inhabitants of the village of Bukit Choras, set amid rice fields near the steep and lush hill of the same name in northwestern Malaysia, had any idea they had been living next to an archaeological wonder all their lives.
It was only after a team of 11 researchers cleared the thick bushes and secondary jungle from the top of the hill, and gently scraped away at the soil that a missing piece of Southeast Asian history was revealed.
The 1,200-year-old Buddhist stupa of Bukit Choras was discovered last August in Malaysia’s Bujang Valley – a river basin scattered with several clusters of protohistoric sites in the country’s northwestern Kedah state.
The stupa is the best preserved in the country and experts say it could hold the key to Malaysia’s long history of multiculturalism.
“This site is an anomaly because it stands all by itself,” Nasha Rodziadi Khaw told Al Jazeera. Nasha is the chief researcher of the team from the University of Science Malaysia’s Global Archaeology Research Centre (CGAR) in the northwestern island of Penang, who supervised the excavation between August 28 and September 12 last year.
Bukit Choras is situated near the small town of Yan on Kedah’s southern coast about 370km north of the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Nasha Rodziadi Khaw led the team of scientists who unearthed Bukit Choras’s stupa [Kit Yeng Chan/Al Jazeera]
Unlike the 184 archaeological sites previously identified in the Bujang Valley, which lie to the south, the stupa is isolated on the northern side of Mount Jerai, which was once a cape and a pivotal navigation point for seafaring traders who ventured to this part of the world from as far as the Arabian peninsula.
“We are still not sure of Bukit Choras’s function. It may have been a military garrison or coastal trade outpost, but we need to do further excavation [to assess]. Based on our preliminary findings, it shows plenty of similarities with other sites found in Java and Sumatra, Indonesia,” said Nasha, whose team will continue to work at the site throughout the first half of 2024.
A forlorn discovery
According to Nasha, Bukit Choras was first reported in 1850 by a British officer looking for treasures, and then, in 1937, briefly studied by another British scholar, HG Quaritch Wales. Wales undertook some minor excavations, but only reported finding a squarish Buddhist stupa, taking note of its measurements. He never provided any illustration or plate for the site.
Nearly 50 years later, in 1984, the then-director of the Bujang Valley Archaeological Museum returned to Bukit Choras to do some site cleaning and documentation, but the site remained largely undisturbed.
“I realised that nobody had done proper investigation [since then] and managed to get a fund to survey the site in 2017,” Nasha told Al Jazeera.
“We used electronic waves to do physical detection of what was hidden underground and found there were some big structures underneath.”
Nasha received more funding from Malaysia’s Ministry of Higher Education to conduct proper excavations in 2022, and his team was stunned to discover how well-preserved the site was compared with those unearthed in the Bujang Valley between the 1930s and 1950s – some of which had deteriorated because of erosion, human activities and even accidental destruction.
“At first we only excavated 40 percent of the whole Bukit Choras site, finding a stupa about nine metres long,” said Nasha. “But the most important discovery was two stucco statues of Buddha in good condition that have never been found in the area before.”
Stucco, Nasha explained, was thought to only be found in Java and Sumatra in neighbouring Indonesia, as well as in India, at the time.
Ancient ties
Placed in two niches together with an inscription in Pallava (the language of the Pallava Dynasty that ruled in South India between the 3rd and 8th century CE), Bukit Choras’s two Buddha statues have architectural features resembling those of other ancient artefacts from the Srivijaya kingdom that prospered between the 7th and 11th centuries CE, in an area from southern Thailand, through the Malay peninsula and into Java. The statues are now being studied and restored at CGAR on Penang island.
“The discovery of two still intact, human size statues and the inscription is very significant for further studies,” Mohd Azmi, the commissioner of Malaysia’s National Heritage Department, told Al Jazeera. “This shows that the site has not been disturbed and has the potential to give new evidence on Ancient Kedah’s history.”
Excavation trenches at the Sungai Batu Archaeological Complex [Kit Yeng Chan/Al Jazeera]
The discoveries in the Bujang Valley testify to an ancient civilisation that archaeologists refer to as the “Ancient Kedah Kingdom”. It prospered between the 2nd and the 14th century CE, stretching across the northwestern coast of the Malay peninsula and into Thailand predating the arrival of Islam in the region.
Ancient Kedah grew rich on international trade as well as the production of iron and glass beads, prospering as a multiethnic and multireligious ancient Southeast Asian polity where residents and foreign traders lived together.
Nasha points out that findings in the area suggest that for centuries, traders from China, India and even the Middle East came to the area to do business – and were often forced to spend long spells in Kedah when the harsh monsoon seasons made sailing back home impossible.
Temples and artefacts were built by local labourers mixing foreign architectural motifs and knowledge with two main influences.
“First is Buddhism, classified in areas such as Sungai Mas, Kuala Muda, and Sungai Batu in Semeling, plus the most recent being the temple site at Bukit Choras,” explained Asyaari Muhamad, a senior archaeologist and the director of the Institute of the Malay World & Civilisation at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, referring to some of the Bujang Valley sites.
“The rest, such as the archaeological site in the Pengkalan Bujang complex [near the village of] Merbok, received Hindu influences. This classification is [based on] the discovery of artefacts and temple structures symbolising the religious beliefs or influences at that time,” he said.
All of Ancient Kedah’s temples functioned as places of worship mostly for the mixed population of migrant traders and workers.
“In [the area of] Sungai Bujang, for example, most of the temples are clustered together near the main trading area and used to cater for the religious needs of the traders, while in Sungai Muda, they catered to the traders and workers of the local glass bead and pottery-making sites,” said Nasha.
Tuyeres, or air conduits, for the ancient iron smelting sites whose remains were found at Sungai Batu Archaeological Complex [Kit Yeng Chan/Al Jazeera]
“We believe it was the same in Sungai Batu, the main site for Ancient Kedah’s iron smelting furnaces, where we found evidence of a community and its temples. But in Bukit Choras, proof of economic activities or industry has not yet been found,” he said.
Archaeological discoveries suggest that while Ancient Kedah thrived for centuries, it went into decline when climate transformed the large maritime bay and accessible riverways leading to the iron smelting site of Sungai Batu into mangrove and tidal swamps that were impassable to ships.
“Multiculturalism is not new in the Malay peninsula and Ancient Kedah,” added Nasha. “It started with trade in the 2nd century, when there was an increase of connectivity between China, India and Southeast Asia, and continued well into the Melaka kingdom, which we know was also a multicultural society, and continues today.”
The Malaysia of the 21st century is also a multiethnic and multireligious Southeast Asian nation made up of a majority of Malay Muslims, followed by Chinese, Indians and more than 50 other ethnic groups living across the peninsula and the northern half of the island of Borneo in the states of Sarawak and Sabah.
Asyaari said it was important for researchers to collaborate and reach a better understanding of the origins of civilisations in and beyond the Malay peninsula.
“Any statements about new or previous findings need to be carefully examined so that […] a theory, discovery, and the results of a study do not become an issue and controversial in nature,” he said.
This year’s observance, for many, is marred by Israel’s war on Gaza.
Saudi officials have spotted the crescent moon and declared the the holy fasting month of Ramadan for many of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims.
The officials saw the moon Sunday night, making Monday the first day of the fasting month, Saudi state television reported.
The month consists of Muslims abstaining from food and water from sunrise to sunset as they reflect more deeply on their faith and hold family gatherings. This year’s observance, for many, is marred by Israel’s war on Gaza.
After officials in Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia spotted the moon, many Gulf Arab nations, as well as Iraq, Syria and Egypt, followed the announcement to confirm they as well would start fasting on Monday.
Some Asia-Pacific countries, however, like Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, said they will begin Ramadan on Tuesday after failing to see the crescent moon.
Oman, on the easternmost edge of the Arabian Peninsula, similarly announced Ramadan would begin on Tuesday. Jordan will also begin Ramadan on Tuesday.
Ramadan works on a lunar calendar. and moon-sighting methodologies often vary between countries, meaning some nations declare the start of the month earlier or later.
Saudi King Salman specifically made reference to the war in Gaza in comments following the Ramadan announcement.
“As it pains us that the month of Ramadan falls this year, in light of the attacks our brothers in Palestine are suffering from, we stress the need for the international community to assume its responsibilities, to stop these brutal crimes, and provide safe humanitarian and relief corridors,” the king said.
Saudi Arabia had been urging its public to watch the skies from Sunday night in preparation for the sighting of the crescent moon.
In Iran, which views itself as the worldwide leader of Shia Muslims, authorities typically begin Ramadan a day after Sunnis start. The office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced Ramadan will start on Tuesday there, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Palestinian women in Gaza are seen volunteering to prepare food to distribute to families who fled Israeli attacks and took refuge in Rafah city, March 10, 2024 [Jehad Alshrafi/Anadolu Agency]
During Ramadan, those observing have a pre-dawn meal, or “suhoor,” to sustain themselves during the daylight hours, and later break their fast with “iftar,” often a large meal.
During the month, Muslims try to avoid conflict and focus on acts of charity. However, Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip is looming large for many Muslims. There were hopes that a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas could be reached before Ramadan began.
More than 31,000 people have been killed in the Israeli assault on Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities in the besieged territory, and aid agencies have warned of a looming famine in parts of the Gaza Strip.
Hassuna Tabib Hassnan, a dentist displaced from Gaza City in the north of the besieged Gaza Strip, told the AFP news agency: “We had hoped that for Ramadan [we] would be in our homes, but unfortunately it is clear that we will live in displacement, pain and oppression.”
Meanwhile, Israeli restrictions on Muslims praying at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, may further also ramp up tensions in the region.
Palestinians walk past stalls set up in a street in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on March 10, 2024, as Muslims prepare for the holy fasting month of Ramadan [Mohammed Abed/AFP]
Portugal’s centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) is poised to win the most votes in the country’s parliamentary election, but fall well short of an outright majority, three exit polls showed.
The polls published after voting closed at 8pm (20:00 GMT) on Sunday by the three main television channels SIC, RTP and TVI showed the AD party in the 27.6 percent-33 percent range, just ahead of the incumbent Socialists.
The polls projected that all right-wing parties combined, including the far-right Chega, were likely to secure an outright majority.
Chega was likely to win 14 percent -21.6 percent, a large jump from its 7.2 percent in the last election in January 2022.
However, the AD has so far ruled out any agreement with Chega, which could make for an unstable government.
The polls put the Socialist Party in the 24.2 percent to 29.5 percent range.
Far right political party Chega leader Andre Ventura gestures as he queues at a polling station during the general election in Lisbon, Portugal, March 10, 2024 [Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters]
Far-right could help form a coalition
The issues that have dominated the election campaign have included a crippling housing crisis, low wages, sagging healthcare and corruption.
The Social Democrats and Socialists have alternated in power for decades but have never faced such a strong challenge from a far-right party.
Social Democrat leader Luis Montenegro, who likely would become prime minister if his alliance wins, ruled out the possibility of teaming up with Chega during campaigning.
But if Montenegro is unable to assemble a majority government, his hand could be forced, leaving Chega as a kingmaker.
Luis Montenegro, leader of the center-right Democratic Alliance coalition, casts his ballot at a poling station in Espinho, northern Portugal, Sunday, March 10, 2024 [Luis Vieira/AP Photo]
Far-right party could drop controversial proposals
Chega leader Andre Ventura, a former law professor and television football pundit, has said he is prepared to drop some of his party’s most controversial proposals – including chemical castration for some sex offenders and the introduction of life prison sentences – if that enables his party to be included in a possible governing alliance with other right-of-centre parties.
However, his insistence on national sovereignty instead of closer European Union integration and his plan to grant police the right to strike are other issues that could thwart his ambitions to enter a government coalition.
The Chega party has looked to capitalise on corruption allegations that have dogged the two main parties.
The general elections were triggered by Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s sudden resignation amid a corruption investigation.
That episode appeared to have hurt the Socialists at the ballot box.
Low wages and a high cost of living – worsened last year by surges in inflation and interest rates – coupled with a housing crisis and failings in public health care have further contributed to public disgruntlement.
The discontent has been further stirred up by Chega, which potentially could gain the most from the current public mood.
Famine looms in parts of Gaza as Israel’s war on the beseiged territory enters its sixth month.
As many Palestinians in Gaza face starvation from Israel’s war and siege, the United States and European Union have revealed plans to send aid supplies.
The US and some EU members have also supplied weapons to Israel.
Will their new initiatives help Gaza?
Or are they just a PR exercise for US President Joe Biden and his European allies?
Presenter: Hashem Ahelbarra
Guests:
Mansour Shouman – Aid activist who was in Gaza from October until February
Dr Mads Gilbert – Professor of emergency medicine at the University of Tromso, with extensive experience of working in Gaza
Marwan Bishara – Al Jazeera senior political analyst
The US operation comes amid gang violence that threatens to bring down the government and has led thousands to flee their homes.
The US military says it has carried out an operation in Haiti to airlift non-essential embassy personnel from the Caribbean country amid a state of emergency.
It also brought in additional personnel to boost security at the compound in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince.
“This airlift of personnel into and out of the embassy is consistent with our standard practice for embassy security augmentation worldwide, and no Haitians were on board the military aircraft,” the US military’s Southern Command said in a statement on Sunday.
The US embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti [File: Matias Delacroix/AP Photo]
Haiti is spiralling deeper into gang violence, which threatens to bring down the government and has led thousands to flee their homes.
The escalation began a week ago after Haiti’s embattled Prime Minister Ariel Henry agreed to hold general elections in mid-2025 while attending a meeting of Caribbean leaders in Guyana.
Henry has faced a crisis of legitimacy since he took up his post less than two weeks after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
In the past week, Henry flew from Guyana to Kenya – and gangs in Haiti set fire to police stations, attacked the main international airport, which remains closed, and raided the country’s two largest prisons, where they freed more than 4,000 inmates.
During that time, Henry was in Nairobi, seeking a deal for the long-delayed United Nations-backed mission to help tackle gang violence.
Kenya announced last year that it would lead the force, but months of domestic legal wrangling have effectively put the mission on hold.
Henry is currently in Puerto Rico, where he was forced to land after armed groups laid siege to the airport and the neighbouring Dominican Republic barred him from entering after officials there closed the country’s airspace to flights to and from Haiti.
Earlier in the week, the head of the powerful G9 Haitian gang alliance, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, warned, “If Ariel Henry doesn’t resign, if the international community continues to support him, we’ll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide.”
Jimmy Chérizier holds a press conference in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, March 5, 2024 [Odelyn Joseph/AP Photo]
On Saturday, the US State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto about the Haiti crisis.
The two men underscored their commitment to a multinational security mission to restore order.
The US Southern Command’s statement said Washington remained committed to those goals.
“Our embassy remains focused on advancing US government efforts to support the Haitian people, including mobilizing support for the Haitian National Police, expediting the deployment of the United Nations-authorized Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission and accelerating a peaceful transition of power via free and fair elections,” it said.
The Catholic leader, 87, told a Swiss broadcaster that Ukraine should negotiate with Russia and raised the idea of surrender.
Ukraine has rejected Pope Francis’s call to hold negotiations with Russia more than two years into its invasion, saying that Kyiv will “never” surrender.
“Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on social media Sunday, a day after the pope said Kyiv should “have the courage to raise the white flag”.
The 87-year-old Catholic leader said in an interview with Swiss broadcaster RTS that Ukraine should negotiate with Russia, which has seized large swathes of Ukrainian territory since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
In part of the interview released on Saturday, the Catholic leader raised the prospect of surrender.
“I believe that the strongest are those who see the situation, think about the people, and have the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate,” Pope Francis said in an interview that the Vatican said was conducted in early February.
Kuleba called on the pope to stand “on the side of good” and not put the opposing sides “on the same footing and call it ‘negotiations’”.
The strongest is the one who, in the battle between good and evil, stands on the side of good rather than attempting to put them on the same footing and call it “negotiations”.
At the same time, when it comes to the white flag, we know this Vatican’s strategy from the first half…
Kuleba also appeared to reference some Catholic church collaboration with Nazi forces during World War II when he said the following: “At the same time, when it comes to the white flag, we know this Vatican strategy from the first half of the 20th century.”
“I urge to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and to support Ukraine and its people in their just struggle for their lives,” Kuleba added.
He also thanked Pope Francis for his “constant prayers for peace” and said Kyiv hoped he would visit Ukraine.
“We continue to hope that after two years of devastating war in the heart of Europe, the Pontiff will find an opportunity to pay an Apostolic visit to Ukraine to support over a million Ukrainian Catholics, over five million Greek-Catholics and all Ukrainians,” Kuleba said.
The foreign minister of Poland, a vocal ally of Kyiv, also condemned the pope’s remarks.
“How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine? Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in a post on X.
How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine? Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations. https://t.co/gWNYSUt79u
— Radosław Sikorski 🇵🇱🇪🇺 (@sikorskiradek) March 10, 2024
In a separate post, Sikorski made parallels between those calling for negotiations while “denying [Ukraine] the means to defend itself” and European leaders’ “appeasement” of Adolf Hitler before World War II.
Andrii Yurash, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, compared the pope’s comments to calls for “talking with Hitler” while raising “a white flag to satisfy him”.
Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, also said Sunday that surrender is not on the minds of Ukrainians.
“Ukraine is wounded, but unconquered! Ukraine is exhausted, but it stands and will endure. Believe me, it never crosses anyone’s mind to surrender. Even where there is fighting today: listen to our people in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Kharkiv, Sumy,” he said.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni later clarified that the pope supported “a stop to hostilities [and] a truce achieved with the courage of negotiations”, rather than an outright Ukrainian surrender.
While Pope Francis has tried to maintain the Vatican’s traditional diplomatic neutrality, he has also expressed some sympathy with the Russian rationale for invading Ukraine, such as when he noted that NATO was “barking at Russia’s door” with its eastward expansion.
Ukraine has remained steadfast on not engaging directly with Russia on peace talks, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying multiple times that peace negotiations must come from the country that has been invaded.
Sudan general rejects truce after UNSC calls for cessation of hostilities during the Islamic holy month.
Senior Sudanese Armed Forces General Yasser al-Atta has said there will be no truce in Sudan during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan unless the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group leaves the homes and sites of civilians.
The statement follows an appeal by the United Nations Security Council for a truce during Ramadan, which begins this week. The RSF said it welcomed the truce call.
Al-Atta’s statement, issued on the army’s official Telegram channel on Sunday, cited recent military advances by the army in Omdurman, part of Sudan’s wider capital.
It said there could be no Ramadan truce unless the RSF complied with a commitment made in May last year at Saudi and US-mediated talks in Jeddah to withdraw from civilian homes and public facilities.
It also said Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the RSF leader commonly known as Hemedti, should not play a role in Sudan’s future politics or military.
The statement follows the UNSC’s appeal for a respite from the 11-month-old conflict during Ramadan, which is expected to begin on Monday or Tuesday, depending on the sighting of the crescent moon.
Fourteen countries on the 15-member council on Friday backed the resolution proposed by the United Kingdom, with only Russia abstaining from the vote.
The resolution called on “all parties to the conflict to seek a sustainable resolution to the conflict through dialogue”.
Fighting between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF erupted in mid-April 2023.
Tens of thousands of people have since been killed, 8.3 million have been forcibly displaced, and the UN says nearly 25 million people – half of Sudan’s population – are in need of aid.
The army has been on the back foot militarily for much of the conflict. In the first days of fighting, the RSF occupied large parts of the capital, Khartoum.
Guterres backs Ramadan truce
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the warring sides for a truce following the adoption of the UK-drafted resolution by the UNSC on Friday. However, the mechanism for implementing the resolution remains unclear.
Sudan’s UN ambassador, Al-Harith Idriss al-Harith Mohamed, told the council on Thursday that the president of the country’s transitional council commended Guterres’s truce appeal. However, he said the leader is “wondering about how to do this”.
Welcoming the truce call, the RSF said in a statement on Saturday, “In embracing the proposed humanitarian ceasefire, we express our readiness to partake in discussions concerning the establishment of mutually agreed upon monitoring mechanisms.”
“These mechanisms are crucial for ensuring the effective implementation of the ceasefire and for achieving the humanitarian objectives intended by this resolution.”
Thousands of protesters demonstrate in Amsterdam against Israel’s war on Gaza.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has attended the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where his presence prompted protests over Israel’s war in Gaza.
The opening took place on Sunday as pro-Palestine demonstrators chanted “Never again is now” and “Ceasefire now” near a square close to the museum.
Thousands of protesters demonstrated against Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 31,000 people since October, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel launched the assault after Hamas, the Palestinian armed group that governs Gaza, led an attack on Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on official Israeli statistics.
Human rights group Amnesty International put up detour signs around the new museum to direct Herzog to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. In January, South Africa brought a case against Israel at the ICJ over allegations it was committing genocide in Gaza. A final ruling could take years, but the court ordered several provisional directions, including an order for Israel to prevent acts of genocide.
Nazi persecution
The Holocaust museum showcases the stories of the 102,000 Jews who were deported from the Netherlands and murdered in Nazi camps, as well as their persecution under German World War II occupation.
Three-quarters of Dutch Jews were among the six million Jews systematically murdered by the Nazis.
“This museum shows us what devastating consequences anti-Semitism can have,” said Dutch King Willem-Alexander at a gathering at a nearby synagogue.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander speaks at the opening ceremony of the National Holocaust Museum at the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, March 10, 2024 [Bart Maat/Pool via Reuters]
Dutch Jewish anti-Zionist organisation Erev Rave, which organised the demonstrations at the musuem’s opening with the Dutch Palestinian community and Socialist International, said that while it is important to honour the memory of Holocaust victims, it cannot stand by while the war in Gaza continues.
“For us Jews, these museums are part of our history, of our past,” said Joana Cavaco, an activist with Erev Rav, addressing the crowd before the museum’s opening ceremony. “How is it possible that such a sacred space is being used to normalise genocide today?”
A pro-Palestinian Dutch organisation, The Rights Forum, called Herzog‘s presence “a slap in the face of the Palestinians who can only helplessly watch how Israel murders their loved ones and destroys their land”.
In a statement before the museum’s opening, the Jewish Cultural Quarter that runs the museum said it is “profoundly concerned by the war and the consequences this conflict has had, first and foremost for the citizens of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank”.
It added that it is “all the more troubling that the National Holocaust Museum is opening while war continues to rage. It makes our mission all the more urgent.”
The museum told the media that it had invited Herzog before the events of October 7. It said in a statement that it recognised that Herzog’s attendance was controversial, but that he represents the country where Dutch Holocaust survivors migrated to.
A flyer with a picture of Israeli President Isaac Herzog lies on the site of a protest in front of the National Holocaust Museum [Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters]
Herzog’s remarks that not only armed groups but “an entire nation” was responsible for the October 7 attack and that Israel will fight “until we break their backbone” have been cited by South Africa in its ICJ lawsuit against Israel.
Herzog has said his comments were misrepresented, and only part of what he said was cited in order to build a case against Israel in the ICJ.
The Israeli leader said the museum sent “a clear and powerful statement: remember, remember the horrors born of hatred, anti-Semitism and racism and never again allow them to flourish”.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
