Tag: europe

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 810 | Russia-Ukraine war News

As the war enters its 810th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Fighting

  • Russia has widened its ground assault on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, attacking new areas to try and expand the front and “stretch” Ukraine’s forces, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov. He said about 5,700 people had been evacuated from in and around Vovchansk and urged the town’s remaining residents, about 300 people, to leave. The DeepState Telegram channel, which is close to the Ukrainian army, said Russia had taken territory of about 100sq km (39sq miles).
  • Ukraine’s Security Council chief Oleksandr Lytvynenko told the AFP news agency that there was no imminent risk of a ground assault on Kharkiv, the country’s second-biggest city, despite the latest Russian offensive. Lytvynenko said there were “a lot” of Russians at the border and “more than 30,000” involved in the current attack, which began on Friday.
  • Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its army had improved its tactical position near four settlements in the Kharkiv region – Vesele, Neskuchne, Vovchansk and Lyptsi.
  • Russia said its air defence systems destroyed 16 missiles and 31 drones that Ukraine launched at Russian territory, including 12 missiles over the border region of Belgorod. Five houses were damaged in Belgorod, but there were no injuries, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Politics and diplomacy

  • Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic expressed support for Ukraine in its war against Russia after meeting visiting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, but stopped short of committing to sanctions against Moscow.
  • Ukraine said it thwarted a Russian plan to carry out bomb attacks on May 9 in the capital Kyiv and in the western city of Lviv. It said two Russian military agents had been detained on suspicion of involvement in the alleged plot, and 19 explosive devices had been seized.
  • A Russian-installed court on Ukraine’s annexed Crimean peninsula jailed five Ukrainian citizens for between 11 and 16 years after they were found guilty of sharing military intelligence with Kyiv. The men were charged with treason and espionage.

Weapons

  • US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States was doing “everything” possible to rush weapons to Ukraine, and that some weapons were already on the battlefield. A new arms package would be announced “in the coming days”, he added.
  • Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskii and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov had discussions with Sullivan, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Charles Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We spoke about the situation at the front, as well the assistance that Ukraine needs on the battlefield,” Syrskii wrote on Telegram.

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Fury’s father bloodied in clash with Usyk’s entourage | Boxing News

Tyson Fury’s and Oleksandr Usyk’s entourages clash at media event before Saturday’s boxing bout in Saudi Arabia.

Tyson Fury’s father appears to have head-butted a member of Oleksandr Usyk’s entourage in a bloody clash at a media day for Saturday’s undisputed world heavyweight title fight in Saudi Arabia.

John Fury, with a cut on his forehead and bloody streaks on his face, confirmed to Sky Sports television his involvement in an incident at the event on Monday in Riyadh attended by both fighters.

“[He] disrespected my son, the best heavyweight to ever wear a pair of boxing gloves,” he said.

“He was in my face, trying to be clever – coming into my space [with] ‘Usyk! Usyk!’” he added. “… I was only chanting my own son’s name. So then he went a step closer and a step closer. So at the end of it, I’m a warrior. That’s what we do. We’re fighting people.

“You come in the space, you’re going to get what’s coming.”

Sky reported Saudi authorities had decided to draw a line under the incident.

Ring of Fire set alight already

Billed as the “Ring of Fire”, the fight will unify Briton Fury’s WBC heavyweight championship with the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO belts held by Ukrainian Usyk. Both are undefeated professionally.

“I didn’t see anything,” Sky quoted Tyson Fury as saying. “I was in the room doing interviews. But I’m not here for all that. I’m here to get the job done and go home and rest.”

The fight originally was to have been held on December 23. It was then set for February 17 before being rescheduled when Fury suffered a cut in sparring.

Usyk’s manager, Alexander Krassyuk, hoped the elder Fury would apologise.

“It would be nice if we hear some apologies from John because this was his behaviour,” he told Sky.

“We are the example for the whole world. … A new generation of kids are taking us as an example. What will they see from this?”

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Energy summit seeks to curb cooking habits that kill millions every year | Arts and Culture News

Harmful cooking practices result in the deaths of 3.7 million people every year with children and women most at risk.

An energy summit that seeks to reduce millions of premature deaths around the world, most notably in Africa, is set to open in Paris and aims to raise billons of dollars to fund expanded access to clean cooking methods.

Representatives from 50 countries will meet in the French capital on Tuesday to discuss how to help billions of people improve kitchen habits, which can produce deadly pollutants and fuel global warming.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which is spearheading the summit, 2.3 billion people across 128 countries breathe in harmful smoke when they cook on basic stoves or over open fires.

In a recent report conducted with the African Development Bank (ADB), the IEA said those cooking practices result in the deaths every year of 3.7 million people, and children and women are most at risk.

The problem “touches on gender, it touches on forestry, it touches on climate change, it touches on energy, it touches on health”, the IEA’s sustainability and technology director Laura Cozzi told journalists.

A third of the world cooks with fuels that produce harmful fumes when burned, including wood, charcoal, coal, animal dung and agricultural waste.

They pollute indoor and outdoor air with fine particles that penetrate the lungs and cause multiple respiratory and cardiovascular problems, including cancer and strokes.

These cooking practices are the third highest cause of premature deaths in the world and the second highest in Africa. In children, they are a major cause of pneumonia.

‘More bang for the buck’

Switching to clean cooking methods, such as gas or electric cooking, would save 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year by 2030 – roughly the amount emitted by ships and planes last year, according to the IEA.

Changing old methods and practices, however, would cost billions of dollars.

The ADB is seeking to raise $4bn to provide clean cooking access for 250 million Africans by 2030.

That amount is only a “small fraction” of the $2.8 trillion invested globally in energy each year, the ADB said in a statement issued before the summit.

But even that small investment would go a long way in saving more in the long term.

According to the ADB, the annual economic cost of women’s and girls’ time searching for fuel wood is estimated at $800bn, and the health costs are as high as $1.4 trillion.

“Dollar for dollar, it’s hard to imagine a single intervention that could have more bang for its buck in terms of health emissions and development than this,” Dan Wetzel, an IEA expert, said.

Such financial support is essential because many households in Africa cannot afford a suitable cooker or fuel.

The IEA also recommends strong national leadership as well as grassroots efforts to change social norms.

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Extermination, expulsion ‘identifiable strategies’ of Israel’s war in Gaza | Israel War on Gaza News

A human rights group calls on the United Kingdom to stop arming Israel as its campaign in the strip continues.

London, United Kingdom – Mass extermination and mass expulsion are “identifiable strategies” of Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, a human rights group warns, as it calls on the United Kingdom to impose an arms embargo.

Restless Beings, which is based in the UK, decried Israel’s “policies of colonialist occupation” on Monday in a report that has won support from Afzal Khan, a member of the UK Parliament with the opposition Labour Party.

“Rather than meeting the stated intention of extracting hostages and dismantling Hamas, the most obvious findings in this report highlight destruction of places of refuge and accessibility of those who are displaced,” the seven authors of the study wrote, having reviewed the Israeli army’s actions in Gaza from early October until early February.

“In all of the 753 cases of civilian infrastructure attacks recorded in the report, civilian loss of life and the destruction of civilian society is clearly evidenced,” the report found.

 

The Israeli assault began on October 7, the day Hamas attacked southern Israel.

During the Palestinian group’s attacks, 1,139 people were killed and more than 200 were taken captive. Some hostages have since been released, others have died and dozens are still being held.

More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children.

Much of the Strip has been reduced to rubble, and the majority of Palestinians have been displaced, many of them multiple times.

Boys watch smoke billowing up from eastern Rafah during Israeli strikes [AFP]

Across 146 days monitored in the report, hospitals in Gaza were attacked on “65 percent” of those days, it found.

“The attacks on hospitals were systematic, moving north to south to render all health facilities non-operational by the middle of February, 2024. Roads around hospitals were attacked first to prevent patients from seeking medical assistance or evacuating,” it said.

“Just under half of Gaza’s hospitals and health facilities have been attacked multiple times by [the] Israeli army, either by air, sea, or ground attacks.”

Israel has long blockaded Gaza and imposed a total siege on October 9.

At the time, Yoav Gallant, Israel’s minister of defence, said: “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything is closed.”

In a comment that was widely condemned, he added: “We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”

A looming ‘death sentence’

Gaza’s Ministry of Health warned on Monday that without an influx of fuel deliveries, the few hospitals that are still operating could collapse within hours.

Junaid Sultan, a vascular surgeon who volunteered in the southern area of Rafah, told Al Jazeera that hospitals would run out of electricity and water without the deliveries.

“[If] that fuel does not come in, that will be a death sentence to not only hundreds, but thousands of patients,” Sultan said.

Restless Beings found that much of Gaza’s population is also at risk of “starvation, forced displacement to a third country and of further attacks” as it blamed international governments for not recognising “the Israeli strategy” in Gaza.

It found that the patterns of Israel’s military operation indicate that it has breached the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which classify attacks on civilian infrastructure as a “war crime”.

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Germany hopes to relive World Cup ‘fairytale’ with Euro 2024 | UEFA Euro 2024

As Germany prepares to host Euro 2024, the 2006 FIFA World Cup – the last major international football tournament on German soil – still plays a formative role in the nation’s collective consciousness.

Now widely known as the Summer Fairytale, the tournament is remembered as the moment a unified Germany shook off the shadows of its dark past and showed the world a new, modern face.

On the field, the German team coached by Jurgen Klinsmann overcame dire pretournament predictions to make it to the semifinals.

Despite losing in extra time to eventual champions Italy to finish third in the championship, Germany’s performance kick-started a decade of dominance that peaked with the 2014 World Cup triumph in Brazil.

Off the field, the tournament changed not only the way the world saw Germany but also the way they saw themselves.

Philipp Lahm, a key player in 2006 who captained Germany to World Cup glory eight years later, told the AFP news agency: “In 2006, we were able to experience the whole nation standing behind the team and giving us energy.

“The celebrations are good. That people come here to Germany and celebrate a big festival together.”

‘Where are all the Germans?’

German sports sociologist and philosopher Gunter Gebauer told AFP the tournament had a sudden and long-lasting effect.

“Before the tournament, the mood in Germany was very, very poor. The economy was not going well. The weather was bad and the football was atrocious.

“And then the World Cup started and during Germany’s first game against Costa Rica, Philipp Lahm scored and the sun burst through – it was almost like something from the Bible.”

Living in a middle-class Berlin suburb, Gebauer saw a neighbour unfurl a German flag from his balcony, previously considered a “taboo” due to the nation’s post-World War II reservations with nationalism.

“From there, we saw German flags and singing the anthem at Germany games – something which just didn’t exist before.”

The dissolving of internal reservations meant World Cup visitors saw a different side to the straight, rule-enforcing Germans familiar with national stereotypes.

“Foreigners who came to Germany were delighted with the German public.

“The English people asked, ‘Where are all the bloody Germans? We’ve only come across friendly people who are partying everywhere.’”

Wolfgang Maennig, a rower who won gold for Germany at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, is now a professor of sports economics at Hamburg University.

‘Feel-good effect’

In an interview with AFP, Maennig said while the economic benefits of large events were often negligible, “the feel-good effect was the essence of the 2006 World Cup”.

Before the World Cup, “Germans were not exactly considered world leaders when it comes to being welcoming”. But after 2006, “Germany has improved significantly in international perceptions”.

“I believe that foreigners see us completely differently, no longer as unenthusiastic, somewhat peculiar people, but as open and happy, which made us more comfortable with how we see ourselves.”

Jan Haut, a sports sociologist at Goethe University, told AFP, “The German people became a bit less stiff. They were more comfortable and confident celebrating victories of the national team.”

“What was rather new was that Germans themselves became more aware that in other countries the picture of Germany isn’t as bad as the Germans had thought,” he added.

While 18 years have passed and Germany and the world have changed, many parallels remain.

Germany is again racked by economic uncertainty, infrastructure concerns and fears of poor on-field performances.

Haut said the world’s attention would again shine a light on Germany, for bad and for good.

“In the worst case, there might be some surprises – maybe that people become aware that things don’t work so well in Germany currently, like public transport,” he said.

After the humiliation of two successive World Cup exits in the group stage, Germany have shown signs of life under coach Julian Nagelsmann.

They won just three of 11 games in 2023 but rebounded with strong wins over France and the Netherlands in March.

Whatever the team’s results in the tournament, Maennig said Germany could bank on the unifying effect of the national sport.

“As a rower, I say this with a bit of sorrow in my voice, but only football can bring people together like this. The cafes and restaurants show the games on monitors and you can sit and watch in a friendly atmosphere.

“It’s really quite enchanting.”

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‘The goal is not peace’: What’s behind Putin’s wartime Russia reshuffle? | Russia-Ukraine war News

In a major reshuffle of his cabinet, President Vladimir Putin is set to relieve Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister of 12 years, of his post and appoint him as secretary of the Security Council, a position previously held by Nikolai Patrushev since 2008.

The move has prompted speculation among Kremlin watchers, intrigued by what could have led to the surprise move, and what it means for Shoigu, Patrushev and Andrei Belousov, the deputy prime minister and economist set to become Russia’s new defence minister.

Shoigu is known as a Putin loyalist, the pair having been photographed on many a manly fishing expedition through the depths of Siberia together, and has led the Russian armed forces throughout their invasion of Ukraine.

Belousov’s appointment is expected to be confirmed by the Federation Council this week.

“Today, the winner on the battlefield is the one who is more open to innovation, more open to implementation as quickly as possible,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the press. “It is natural that at the current stage the president decided that the Ministry of Defence should be headed by a civilian.”

Observers said the reshuffle is a signal that Russia has no plans to end its war on Ukraine, now in its third year.

“This indicates that the Kremlin is not seeking an exit from Ukraine, but once to extend their ability to endure the conflict as long as possible,” said Jeff Hawn, a doctoral candidate and guest teacher at the London School of Economics’s international history department. “Russia is very limited [on] how much they can increase scale, due to economic deficiencies. However, they can maintain a certain level of attritional warfare. And are likely hoping to do that longer than Ukraine can.”

Shoigu will soon hold the deputy president role of the Military-Industrial Commission. He will also head the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSVTS), which is responsible for military hardware dealings with other countries.

“With an economist taking over the Defence Ministry, and the old minister taking up a policy and advisory role, the technocrats are in the ascendant. The goal though is not peace, but a more efficient war,” Mark Galeotti, the author of several books on Putin and Russia, wrote in The Spectator. “As Putin digs in for the long term, with the ‘special military operation’ now being the central organising principle of his regime, he knows he needs technocrats to keep his war machine going.”

Putin’s decree also removes the FSVTS from the Ministry of Defence, leaving Shoigu only answerable to the president himself.

“In just over two years of the special military operation [in Ukraine], Sergei Shoigu has nevertheless outgrown the level of the minister of defence in terms of his professional level,” Alexander Mikhailov of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, a Russian defence think tank, told the state-run TASS news agency, noting Shoigu’s level of international expertise and experience abroad.

Military expert Rob Lee wrote on X, “This doesn’t appear to be designed as a demotion for Shoigu, who not only received an important position as Secretary of the Security Council but also will retain oversight of domestic and foreign defence issues.”

“The big loser in this shuffle appears to be Patrushev, who was also one of the key decisionmakers behind the invasion of Ukraine.”

It is yet unclear where Patrushev’s new assignment will be.

However, Shoigu’s new placements may not be the promotions they seem.

The reshuffle comes less than a month after Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov was arrested on bribery charges.

“The Security Council is becoming a reservoir for Putin’s ‘former’ key figures – who cannot be let go, but there is no place to house them,” political analyst and founder of R.Politik, Tatiana Stanovaya, wrote on Telegram, referring to the recent turbulence in Shoigu’s career.

Ivanov enjoyed a reputation for an opulent lifestyle and has been accused of pocketing funds meant for the reconstruction of the battle-ravaged Ukrainian city, Mariupol. Stanovaya also pointed to recent disputes with Rostec, the state-owned arms manufacturer Shoigu accused of slow work, and the fallout from last year’s Wagner mutiny.

“Putin thereby makes it clear that the connection with the previous position will remain, that continuity is important – quite in his spirit,” Stanovaya continued. “But all this is more reminiscent of a desire to take Shoigu out of the game so as not to offend, with maximum honours. Not because he is a friend, but because it is safer for Putin himself. Just like it happened with Medvedev in January 2020. Apparently, this is how the Security Council justifies its own name: to ensure security from former heavyweights who have nowhere else to settle and cannot be thrown out.”

Who is Andrei Belousov?

Like Shoigu, Belousov is also known as a Putin loyalist and keen proponent of government spending, thought to have been behind the controversial Value Added Tax (VAT) increase in 2019.

“One of Putin’s most extravagant appointments is the Keynesian economist Belousov as defence minister,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It is now important for Putin to make sure that the enormous sums of money spent on war are not stolen.”

“Belousov is not just a performer [of tasks], he has his own vision in his head of how the Russian economy should function, and he brings it to life as best he can,” a source close to the Kremlin told independent Russian news outlet The Bell.

Another added that, in 2014, he was the only economist close to Putin at that time who supported the annexation of Crimea.

“I have known Andrei Belousov, the new Russian defence minister, for many years,” said economist Konstantin Sonin in a lengthy post on X, adding that they do not enjoy a relationship now. “The new changes – Belousov instead of Shoigu at Defence [Ministry], Shoigu instead of Patrushev in Security Council – is a perfect illustration of our ‘degenerate autocracy’ theory.

“Things are not going according to Putin’s plan, but he will endlessly rotate the same small group of loyalists. Putin has always feared to bring new people to the positions of authority – even in the best of times, they must have been nobodies with no own perspectives. Towards the end of his rule, even more so.”

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Court confirms German intelligence surveillance of ‘extremist’ AfD | News

Court finds ‘sufficient evidence’ to justify the classification of the far-right party as a threat to democracy.

A German court has ruled that domestic security services can continue to treat the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a potentially “extremist” party.

The ruling, delivered on Monday, means that intelligence services retain the right to keep the party under surveillance. The AfD, which is running second in polls and hopes to secure a significant number of seats in upcoming regional and European Union elections, has said it will appeal.

“The court finds there is sufficient evidence that the AfD pursues goals that run against the human dignity of certain groups and against democracy,” Judges at the higher administrative court in Muenster said.

“There are grounds to suspect at least part of the party wants to accord second-rank status to German citizens with a migration background.”

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency charged with protecting the democratic order from extremist threats, classified the AfD as potentially extreme in 2021.

In 2022, a court in Cologne found that the designation was proportionate and did not violate the constitution or European or domestic civil law.

The court in Muenster upheld the lower court’s findings, confirming that German intelligence can keep the AfD under surveillance, including the use of wiretaps and the recruitment of internal informants.

“This ruling shows that our democracy can defend itself,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in a statement. “It has tools that protect it from internal threats.”

‘Aberrations’

The AfD is polling strongly ahead of key regional and EU elections, with discontent with centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition government high on the back of economic and social issues.

However, the AfD has recently faced scrutiny over racist remarks by members and allegations that it harbours spies and agents for Russia and China.

In January, revelations regarding a meeting at which senior AfD members discussed deportations of nonethnic German citizens prompted large street protests against the rise of the far-right.

The AfD’s lawyers claimed that statements made by its members, which have been collected by the BfV as evidence to support their arguments, were “the aberrations of individuals” and should not be attributed to the party as a whole, which has some 45,000 members.

The AfD has claimed its designation as a potentially extremist party is driven by politics. However, the court said there was no indication that the intelligence agency had acted out of improper political motives.

AfD Vice Chairman Peter Boehringer complained that the court hadn’t taken up “hundreds” of requests for evidence, which was “the main reason for the appeal”.

Regardless, AfD federal board member Roman Reusch said in a statement that the party would “of course appeal to the next instance”.

There is no appeal allowed on the high court’s judgement. However, the AfD could lodge an appeal with the Federal Administrative Court.

Some German media have suggested that the court ruling could clear the way for security services to take a further step against the AfD, labelling it a “confirmed right-wing extremist group”.

That would give authorities further powers to monitor the party. Several of the party’s local branches have already received such a classification.

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Lithuania’s Nauseda wins first round of presidential election | Elections News

Incumbent president will now go into a run-off against rival Ingrida Simonyte on May 26, in repeat of 2019.

Incumbent Gitanas Nauseda has won the first round of voting in Lithuania’s presidential election, putting him on track for a second and final term in office.

With nearly all of the votes counted, former banker Nauseda was on 46 percent, just short of the overall majority needed for a first-round victory.

Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte was second with 16 percent and the two will now go head-to-head in a run-off on May 26 in a repeat of the last election in 2019.

Eight candidates were on the ballot this time around, with campaigns largely focused on security issues and the threat posed by neighbouring Russia following its February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. All the main candidates agreed the country, once part of the Soviet Union and now a member of NATO and the European Union, should boost defence spending to counter the perceived threat on its borders.

Nauseda, 59, said he was confident of victory in the second round and would require “no strategy” to campaign against Simonyte.

Both Nauseda and Simonyte support increasing defence spending to at least 3 percent of Lithuania’s gross domestic product (GDP), from the 2.75 percent planned for this year. The increase in spending would pay for the modernisation of Lithuania’s army and infrastructure ahead of the deployment of a brigade of German troops in Lithuania who are expected to be combat-ready from 2027.

Some eight candidates were vying for Lithuanians’ vote on Sunday [Petras Malukas/AFP]

General election looms

While agreeing on Russia policy, the two candidates differ on other issues such as same-sex civil partnerships, a contentious policy in the predominantly Catholic country with a population of 2.8 million people.

While Nauseda opposes such partnerships, Simonyte, a 49-year-old fiscal conservative, is supportive.

Lithuania’s president has a semi-executive role, which includes heading the armed forces and chairing the supreme defence and national security policy body. The president also represents the country at the EU and NATO summits.

In tandem with the government, the president sets foreign and security policy, can veto laws and has a say in the appointment of key officials such as judges, the chief prosecutor, the chief of defence and head of the central bank.

In 2019, Simonyte narrowly defeated Nauseda in the first round of the presidential election before Nauseda went on to win the run-off with 66 percent of the vote.

Simonyte is also facing a tough test in a general election this October, as her coalition of centre-right parties trails in the polls.

Nauseda posed for cameras on election night surrounded by the leadership of the Social Democrats, the likely main challengers for Simonyte at the general election.

“I think it will be easy for us to find common ground,” he said about the possibility of the Social Democrats winning.

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Thousands of Georgians defy warnings to join protest against ‘Russia’ bill | Politics News

Protesters are angry at government efforts to pass a law against ‘foreign agents’ which mirrors repressive Russian legislation.

Thousands of Georgians have joined new protests in Tbilisi against a Russian-styled “foreign agents” bill, as the government insisted it would push ahead with the legislation even after some of the largest protests since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Protesters began gathering at about 10.00pm (18:00 GMT) on Sunday, with many promising to spend the night outside to prevent lawmakers from entering the building for the bill’s third reading on Monday.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said earlier he aimed to pass the bill this week and threatened protesters with prosecution.

The bill requires organisations receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence or face punitive fines.

Carrying European Union and Georgian flags, protesters poured onto Tbilisi’s main Rustaveli Avenue, as Georgia’s pro-EU President Salome Zurabishvili warned demonstrators to beware of “provocations”, days after some activists reported harassment and protesters were met with water cannon and tear gas.

The authorities warned they would arrest those who tried to block parliament.

But protesters appeared determined to stop the bill – which they fear will scupper Georgia’s long-held aim of joining the European Union and liken it to Russia’s 2012 “foreign agents” law, which has been used to hound critics of the government – from becoming law.

“We, as students, don’t see a future with this Russian law,” said 20-year-old Nadezhda Polyakova, who was born and raised in Georgia but is ethnically Russian.

“We stand with Europe,” she added.

“I am not going anywhere. It’s my 35th day of protesting and I will be here all night long,” said student Vakhtang Rukhaia. “I am so mad and angry.”

The protests have been dominated by Georgia’s younger generation, with many still at school or university.

“We are not scared. We are Gen Z and we are Georgian,” said 19-year-old Nino, who did not want to give her last name, worried about her mother’s job in the state sector.

The ruling Georgia Dream party initially tried to push through the law last year, but was forced to abandon the plan after a massive backlash.

Since then, the party’s billionaire founder and funder Bidzina Ivanishvili has declared NGOs the enemy within, accusing them of working for foreign governments and plotting a revolution.

The bill was revived with only one change in April. Under the latest version, NGOs, media and journalists have to register as an “organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power” instead of an “agent of foreign influence”.

Protesters accuse the government of bringing the ex-Soviet country back into the orbit of Moscow after a 2008 war in which Russia seized the Georgian region of Abkhazia.

Georgia, which has had traditionally warm relations with the West, was granted EU candidate status in December.

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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 809 | Russia-Ukraine war News

As the war enters its 809th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Monday, May 13, 2024.

Fighting

  • Ukraine’s military chief Oleksandr Syrskii said his forces were facing a “difficult situation” in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where thousands more people have fled their homes amid an advance by Russian forces.
  • Ukraine’s General Staff said fighting was raging around Vovchansk, a town about 4km (2.5 miles) from the border and 45km (28 miles) from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city and the capital of the Kharkiv region. The Ukrainian military said Russia had deployed “significant forces for its attack on the town” but “taking no account of their own losses”, with at least 100 soldiers reported dead.
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “defensive battles” were taking place along large sections of the border near Kharkiv and that fighting was “no less acute” in some areas of the Donetsk region further to the east. Zelenskyy said 30 armed clashes had occurred in the past 24 hours in the Pokrovsk sector, northwest of the Russian-held town of Avdiivka, and there was also fighting in sectors including Lyman, Kupiansk and Kramatorsk.
  • Ukrainian prosecutors said at least four civilians had been killed in the Kharkiv region since Russia began its ground offensive on Friday. Some 6,000 people have been evacuated as a result of the fighting.
  • At least 13 people were confirmed dead and 20 injured after an apartment building collapsed in the Russian border town of Belgorod. Russia said the building was struck by fragments from a Ukraine-launched Soviet-era missile that was shot down by air defence.

Politics and diplomacy

  • The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin planned to remove Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle and replace him with Andrei Belousov, a former deputy prime minister who specialises in economics.
  • Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda appeared on track to secure a second term in office after Sunday’s election, following a campaign dominated by security concerns about Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
  • Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba began a tour to Serbia – the first by a top Ukrainian delegation since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

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