London — Support appears to be growing in the West to fully seize hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of Russian assets that were frozen following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, amid speculation that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will try to seek a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv soon after he takes office next week.

Nations, including the United States, Canada, Britain, several European Union members states and Japan, froze about $300 billion of assets owned by Russia’s Central Bank after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Some $200 billion of the assets are held in the Euroclear facility in Brussels, with approximately $5 billion frozen in the United States.

U.S. media reported Tuesday that outgoing President Joe Biden is making a last-minute push for European allies to fully seize the assets so they can be used as leverage in any future peace negotiations.

Some European lawmakers are pushing for the assets to be given to Ukraine, however, to buy weapons and help to rebuild the country. Others fear that seizing the assets would deter investors and destabilize Western currencies.

Moscow has said that any seizure of its assets would be illegal and has pledged to retaliate.

Ukraine reconstruction

Ukraine’s reconstruction costs will reach at least $486 billion over the next decade, according to a February 2024 report by the Ukrainian government, the World Bank Group, the European Commission and the United Nations.

Britain holds about $22 billion worth of Russian assets. Lawmakers voted last week in favor of a nonbinding motion to seize the assets and give the money to Kyiv.

Member of Parliament Mike Martin, who brought the motion, cited uncertainty over future military aid for Kyiv under Trump.

“We do know that he feels differently about Ukraine. He feels differently about the security of Europe, and he feels differently about Russia. So, if we want to shift the dial on Ukraine, especially in the face of a drawdown or potential drawdown in U.S. support, we need to go further and faster, and we need to seize these $300 billions of frozen assets and send them to Ukraine,” Martin told lawmakers.

Geopolitical signals

“It is not just about actions that lead to practical outcomes. It is also about signals that we send to our geopolitical opponents. … Any potential small amount of financial instability that the G7 countries moving together will create will be miniscule as compared to the financial instability of Ukraine losing this war,” Martin said.

The Liberal Democrat MP was among the signatories to a letter to The Times of London newspaper earlier this month calling for concerted European action to seize the assets. It also was signed by senior lawmakers from Germany, Poland, the Baltic countries and Finland.

“Previous loans and emergency funding are not enough — and leave Western taxpayers on the hook. Only using the assets themselves ensures that Russia pays for its crimes,” the letter said.

G7 loans

G7 nations already are providing Ukraine with $50 billion in loans, using the Russian assets as collateral. Additionally, the interest earned on the frozen assets is being used to fund aid for Kyiv.

Any decision by the incoming Trump administration to cut U.S. aid for Kyiv could prompt Europe to seize the Russian assets, said Alexander Kolyandr of the Center for European Policy Analysis.

“We would have a fear of abandoning Ukraine to Putin’s war machine. And honestly, I suspect if it comes to that, the decision would be to give this money to Ukraine.”

US weapons

Kyiv could pledge to use the assets to purchase American weapons and secure Trump’s support, Kolyandr added.

“It fits nicely into the America First idea. It helps Ukraine to get the arms. It helps Trump to score some victories at home,” he told VOA.

There is some opposition in Europe, though, to seizing the assets.

European fears

“The reservations are mostly coming from the European Central Bank and the national governments,” Kolyandr said. “They are afraid that if they seize the Russian assets or practically nationalize them and give it to Ukraine, then it would thwart trust in the euro as a reserve currency — and foreign countries would be pretty afraid of investing their sovereign assets in European stocks, shares, bonds and currency.

“In my view, if a foreign country had any reservations about the safety of its sovereign assets, those reservations should have appeared … when the assets were frozen,” Kolyandr said.
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Support is growing in the West to seize hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of Russian assets that were frozen following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As Henry Ridgwell reports, European allies fear incoming U.S. President Donald Trump may slash military aid for Kyiv – and some say the Russian assets could make up the shortfall.
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As Russian President Vladimir Putin and his key ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, organize waves of illegal immigration into the EU as a tool of their hybrid war against the West, Poland has been building a wall on the border with Belarus, shielding itself from current and potentially future Russia’s hostile efforts.

The wall, more than 5 meters high, stretches for more than 136 kilometers. However, illegal migrants bused to the border by Russian and Belarusian authorities increasingly use garden ladders to scale the wall and get into Poland.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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The Russian army is strengthening its positions in villages around the key eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk in an attempt to encircle it and lay siege to a vital transport hub linking embattled Donbas with the rest of Ukraine. Ukrainian forces have been repelling the Russian attacks so far, but the battle is continuing for every remaining house in the villages surrounding Pokrovsk.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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The White House says it has finalized rules that crack down on Chinese and Russian automobile technology effectively banning all personal smart cars from the two countries from entering the U.S. market.

In a White House fact sheet detailing the decision, the Biden administration Tuesday said that while connected vehicles offer advantages, the involvement of foreign adversaries such as China and Russia in their supply chains presents serious risks granting “malign actors unfettered access to these connected systems and the data they collect.”

“The Department of Commerce has issued a final rule that will prohibit the sale and import of connected vehicle hardware and software systems, as well as completed connected vehicles, from the PRC and Russia,” the fact sheet said.

PRC is the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

Connected vehicles are smart cars that are designed to be convenient for consumers and provide safety for drivers, passengers, and pedestrians through the use of many connected parts such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, and satellite connectivity.

“Cars today aren’t just steel on wheels; they’re computers,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo when speaking on the rule.

“This is a targeted approach to ensure we keep PRC- and Russian-manufactured technologies off American roads,” said Raimondo.

The new rule is the “culmination of a year-long examination” of potential risks posed by connected vehicles and will “help the United States defend against the PRC’s cyber espionage and intrusion operations, which continue to pose a significant threat to U.S. critical infrastructure and public safety.”

The crackdown on cars follows Washington’s announcement earlier this month that the U.S. consider new rules aimed at addressing risks posed by drones that utilize technology from China and Russia.

The U.S. has repeatedly emphasized the need to balance technological progress with the protection of national security interests.
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PARIS — France’s new prime minister, Francois Bayrou, announced Tuesday the renegotiation of a contested plan raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, in a crucial move to seek more stability for his minority government. 

In his first address to lawmakers at the National Assembly, Bayrou said: “I’m choosing to put this subject back on the agenda, with the social partners, for a short time and under transparent conditions.” 

Bayrou vowed to seek “a new path of reform, without any totems or taboos, not even the retirement age,” as long as the financing for the changes is guaranteed. 

President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 unleashed months of mass protests from January to June 2023 that damaged his leadership. 

Bayrou also outlined other top priorities, including key budget decisions, one month after he was appointed by Macron. 

What is Bayrou proposing? 

Bayrou urgently needs to pass a budget bill for 2025. Following the collapse of the previous government, an emergency law has been approved to enable the state to levy taxes from Jan. 1, pay basic expenses and avoid a shutdown. 

But only a proper budget would help reduce France’s deficit and allow key expenses such as defense measures needed amid the war in Ukraine or aid promised to angry farmers. 

Financial markets, ratings agencies and the European Commission are pushing France to comply with EU rules limiting debt and keep France’s borrowing costs from spiraling. That would threaten the prosperity of eurozone countries. 

France’s deficit is estimated to reach 6% of its gross domestic product in 2024. Bayrou on Tuesday said the government was aiming for a deficit of 5.4% this year, with the goal to reduce it to 3% — in line with EU rules — by 2029. 

Can the government be toppled again? 

Bayrou’s Cabinet relies on a fragile deal between Macron’s centrist allies and conservatives of The Republicans party who even together have no parliamentary majority. 

The previous government was in place for only three months before being brought down by opposition lawmakers from both the left and the far right amid a budget dispute. 

To avoid a repetition of that scenario, Bayrou seeks to secure a nonaggression pact with the Socialists so that they wouldn’t support any future move to topple the new government. 

The Socialists said they are open to talks on the condition that they would include negotiations on the pension reform. 

However, the possibility of another no-confidence vote is still looming. 

The hard-left France Unbowed party refused to enter into talks with the government and already announced it would file a no-confidence motion. 

A vote later this week would have little chance of succeeding as the far right appears unwilling to support such a move in the immediate term. 

Yet the question could be raised again during the future budget debate at parliament, with more uncertainty on the result. 

Why are pension reform talks key? 

The pension reform, which was enacted into law in April 2023 despite mass protests, has gradually started being implemented. It also requires people to work 43 years to receive a full pension. 

The Socialists urged Bayrou to announce a “suspension” of the reform with the aim of backtracking on the age of 64 and introducing specific measures for those who have long careers and certain professions considered to be hard work. 

Bayrou on Tuesday stopped short of announcing such a move, yet his proposal to renegotiate it appears as a hand stretched out towards the left. 

He suggested the age of 64, which was the most criticized change, could possibly be decreased depending on the outcome of the negotiations. 

“We cannot deteriorate the financial balance” of the pension system, Bayrou insisted. 

On the other side of the political spectrum, the conservatives had warned against any suspension of the pension changes. 

“If we were to repeal the pension reform, the cost would be 3.4 billion euros ($3.47 billion) in 2025 and almost 16 billion ($16.3 billion) in 2032,” said the president of the Senate, Gerard Larcher, a conservative. 

Does the far right still have leverage? 

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen — Macron’s fiercest rival — was instrumental in ousting the previous government. 

Bayrou consulted her when forming the new government, and Le Pen remains a powerful force. Her National Rally party has the largest single group in the National Assembly, France’s powerful lower house of parliament. 

In recent days, Bayrou’s government sought to sideline Le Pen by negotiating instead with the Socialists, the Greens and the Communists on budget issues. 

The president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, criticized those talks and warned Monday that his party would oppose any budget that would raise the cost of medication, provide more health care for migrants staying illegally in the country and impose new taxes on businesses. Such measures would justify a no-confidence vote, he said. 

But Le Pen faces her own headaches in the months to come — a March court ruling over alleged illegal party financing could see her barred from running for office.
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GENEVA — U.S. President Donald Trump will take part virtually in the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos just days after his inauguration, the forum president said Tuesday. 

Borge Brende, a former Norwegian foreign minister who heads the Geneva-based organization, noted that Trump had twice attended the elite gathering of business, government and other leaders in person during his first term. 

“On Thursday afternoon, he will join us digitally, online, live in a dialogue with our participants,” Brende told reporters Tuesday as he presented the five-day program that will start Monday — the day of Trump’s inauguration. 

“We think that will be a very special moment,” he added, notably to help learn the administration’s “policy priorities.” 

Brende said he didn’t know whether Elon Musk, the multibillionaire who is poised to co-lead Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, would attend, but said the forum expects “additional, high-level representation” from the administration once confirmation processes for Trump’s nominees get underway in the U.S. Senate as early as Monday. 

Forum organizers say a record of around 900 business leaders, including from important emerging markets, will take part in the annual meeting this year, which is expected to draw nearly 3,000 participants from over 130 countries. 

With climate change, war, global tensions, economic uncertainty and other issues in mind, Brende acknowledged that the 55th annual meeting of the forum will take place “against the most complicated geopolitical backdrop in generations.” 

“But still in that fragmented and partly polarized world, there are still areas where we can collaborate and … we have big opportunities and responsibilities to find those areas where there is a possibility to improve the state of the world,” he said. The theme of this year’s edition is “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age” — a nod to the growing importance of technology in the world. 

The WEF has long been derided as a gathering of world elites who plot the future at a cushy, snow-bound powwow in the Swiss Alps. Critics often argue the developing world gets less attention than global powers and big business in the West or Gulf states. 

Forum managing director Mirek Dusek insisted that the number of businesses from developing countries in the “Global South” was growing, and the attendance of their leaders was “on parity” with the participation of leaders in the developed world. 

Ursula Von Der Leyen, president of the European Union’s executive commission, plans to attend the opening day of meetings on Tuesday, after an introductory gala the night before. Other top envoys include President Javier Milei of Argentina, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, and Chinese Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang. 

The vast array of topics will include the future of Syria — its new foreign minister is expected to attend — after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad last month; the fight against climate change; the threats and promise of artificial intelligence; global trade and economic growth; and wars in places like Ukraine, Sudan and beyond. 

“We are ready to roll up our sleeves to make the best out of a situation where we are faced with many, many challenges,” Brende said.
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LONDON — Britain’s antitrust regulator said on Tuesday it would investigate Google’s search services using its new powers to see how they impact consumers and businesses, including advertisers, news publishers and rival search engines.

The Competition and Markets Authority, which has gained new powers to examine big tech, said search was vital for economic growth and it was critical that competition was working well.

“Millions of people and businesses relied on Google’s search and advertising services – with 90% of searches happening on their platform and more than 200,000 UK businesses advertising there,” CMA boss Sarah Cardell said in a statement.

“It’s our job to ensure people get the full benefit of choice and innovation in search services and get a fair deal.”

The CMA’s move comes after U.S. prosecutors in November argued to a judge that Google must sell its Chrome browser, share data, and search results with rivals, and take a range of other measures to end its monopoly on online search.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
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HELSINKI — European nations must be prepared to face further incidents in the Baltic Sea following the recent damage to undersea infrastructure, leaders of NATO countries in the region said on Tuesday ahead of a security meeting in Helsinki.

Baltic Sea nations are on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and are discussing an increased NATO presence.

Some 2,000 ships are crossing the Baltic Sea every day, making it difficult to monitor it all, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said.

“Let’s face it, we can’t ensure 100% protection but if we are sending a bold signal then I think that such incidents are going to decrease or even to stop,” Rinkevics told reporters.

Finnish police last month seized a tanker carrying Russian oil and said they suspected the vessel had damaged the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and four telecoms cables by dragging its anchor across the seabed.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that this and other recent incidents in the Baltic Sea must be assumed to be part of a hybrid strategy that is threatening European countries.

“It is important that we come together here now and talk about how we can work together to ensure greater security in the Baltic Sea region,” Scholz said.
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CHISINAU, MOLDOVA — The prime minister of Moldova’s separatist Transniestria region said Monday that the abrupt curtailment of Russian gas supplies that plunged the region into an energy crisis has also shattered both its exports and imports.

The cutoff, prompted by Ukraine’s refusal to renew an agreement allowing Russian gas to transit through Ukraine, has led to daily blackouts in the pro-Russian region of some 350,000 people and disruptions in heating and water supplies.

Prime Minister Alexander Rozenberg told local media that the New Year cutoff had triggered a 43% decline in imports and a 60% plunge in exports in the region, which split from Moldova in the final days of Soviet rule.

“The steepest drop in the volume of export operations … has been registered in the metals sector, in manufacture of machines and in the chemical industry,” he said. “Exports of cement have been completely stopped.”

Transniestria depends heavily on assistance from Moscow and its leaders acknowledge that the Russian gas it has long received was provided free of charge as “humanitarian assistance.”

The gas cutoff affects operations at a thermal plant that provides electricity both for Transniestria and much of the area controlled by the central Moldovan government. Its operations have been switched to coal, and Ukraine, Moldova’s eastern neighbor, has offered to provide supplies.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu, who has spearheaded the country’s drive to join the EU, called a meeting of Moldova’s Supreme Security Council on Tuesday to discuss energy. Both Moldova and Transniestria have proclaimed states of emergency.

Much of Transniestria’s industry has been forced to close or obliged to operate at night, when there is less strain on the power grid.

Among the factories closed are a cement plant and a steel mill in the town of Rybnita, with the latter accounting for 35% of the region’s budget revenue.

The region’s separatist authorities last week said energy savings had enabled them to reduce rolling blackouts from eight hours a day to three by the weekend. But a blackout of five hours had been announced for Monday.

Moldova, which denounces Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, says Moscow fomented the crisis and has suggested shipping gas on a route through Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania.

Russian gas giant Gazprom said it will provide no supplies until Moldova settles arrears it estimates at $709 million, a figure disputed by Moldovan authorities.

Transniestria’s leaders say Moldova has done nothing to ease the crisis and reject any notion that Moldova’s government has offered to help purchase power from Western Europe.

More than 30 years after Transniestria waged a brief war against the newly independent Moldovan state, the region continues to exist alongside Moldova with little turmoil. But 1,500 Russian “peacekeepers” remain in the territory and efforts to resolve the separatist dispute have made little headway.
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Pro-Kremlin Russian media lost millions of readers and viewers in 2024, with some state propaganda outlets having their audiences slashed by up to a third. The main propaganda TV channel, Channel One, has lost a quarter of its viewers since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Experts who spoke to VOA Russian note this has become a steady trend that the Kremlin has so far been unable to reverse, even with larger injections of cash into state-owned media outlets. 

Click here for the full story in Russian. 
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KYIV, UKRAINE — Russian forces are bypassing a key stronghold in eastern Ukraine that they have fought for months to capture and are focusing instead on cutting supply lines to it, a Ukrainian official said Monday.

Russian troops are going around the vital logistics hub of Pokrovsk, where a steadfast Ukrainian defense has kept them at bay, and are taking aim at a highway that leads from there to the central Ukraine city of Dnipro, Major Viktor Trehubov, a local Ukrainian army spokesperson, told The Associated Press.

That route is crucial for supplies feeding Ukrainian forces in the entire region. Cutting the highway traffic would also severely weaken Pokrovsk.

“So far, they have not achieved their goal and [Ukrainian forces] are working to ensure that they do not achieve it in the future — just as they have not been successful in other attempts to bypass the city,” Trehubov said in a WhatsApp message.

Ukraine’s army is under severe strain along parts of the approximately 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, especially in the eastern Donetsk region where Pokrovsk is located.

After almost three years of war, Ukrainian units are depleted and are outnumbered by Russian forces. Though its battlefield progress has been slow and costly, momentum in the war is in Russia’s favor and its onslaught has gradually swallowed up towns and villages, especially in Donetsk. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Monday its forces had seized the village of Pishchane.

In his daily video address to the nation late Sunday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said fighting around Pokrovsk was “the most intense” in recent days.

In separate comments to local media, Trehubov, the army spokesperson, speculated that Russia’s heavy losses of troops and armor in the Donetsk operation had prompted it to alter its strategy.

“Now they are acting more cautiously,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is pressing his advantage ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House next week. Trump says he wants to bring a swift end to the war, though he hasn’t publicized details of his plans.

In 2022, Moscow illegally annexed the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions, which make up the economically important Donbas industrial area, together with the southeastern provinces of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. But Russian forces don’t fully control any of them.
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Washington — Outgoing President Joe Biden sought to burnish his foreign policy record Monday and said U.S. adversaries are weaker than when he took office four years ago despite global crises that remain unresolved. 

A week before handing over to President-elect Donald Trump, Biden in a rare State Department speech touted his administration’s backing for Ukraine against Russia’s 2022 invasion and for Israel’s wars in the Middle East. 

Biden said the United States was “winning the worldwide competition” and would not be surpassed economically by China as had been predicted, while Russia and Iran have been weakened by wars without direct U.S. involvement. 

“Compared to four years ago, America is stronger, our alliances are stronger, our adversaries and competitors are weaker,” Biden said. “We have not gone to war to make these things happen.” 

While wars continue to rage in Ukraine and the Middle East, officials hope a deal between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas can be reached before Biden departs the White House on Jan. 20. 

Biden said negotiators were close to reaching a deal that would free hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and halt the fighting in the Palestinian enclave to allow a surge of humanitarian aid. 

“So many innocent people have been killed, so many communities have been destroyed. Palestinian people deserve peace,” he said. 

Biden has faced criticism for providing Israel with weapons and diplomatic support during its assault on Gaza after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. 

Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and most of its population displaced. 

Protesters shouting “war criminal” greeted Biden outside the State Department on Monday, some with signs and some throwing red liquid intended to look like blood. 

Biden said he had helped Israel defeat adversaries like Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both backed by Iran. The U.S. president also hailed Washington’s support for Israel during two Iranian attacks in 2024. 

“All told, Iran is weaker than it’s been in decades,” he added, noting the collapse of the Syrian Assad government. “There’s no question that our actions contributed significantly.” 
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BERLIN — Germany, Poland, Britain, France and Italy will implement as swiftly as possible new NATO targets for weapons and troop numbers which the alliance is about to agree upon, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius pledged on Monday.

The chief of NATO’s Military Committee, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, told Reuters earlier that the alliance aims to bring forward the decision on new targets for weapons and troop numbers to this summer.

The Western military and political alliance has been under pressure not only in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine but also internally, with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump calling on its members to spend much more on defense.

A NATO summit in The Hague at the end of June will also discuss hiking NATO’s existing military spending target of 2% of national GDP, with 3% being floated by some experts as one potential new target. Trump, who returns to the White House on Jan. 20, recently urged a 5% goal.

Speaking after a meeting with his four counterparts in the Polish village of Nowa Wies, Pistorius welcomed NATO’s decision to fix the alliance’s new capability targets in June instead of October as originally planned, a move he said was triggered by a German request.

“This buys us a lot of time and we can much earlier kick off the implementation,” Pistorius told reporters.

At the same time, he rejected Trump’s push to have members raise defense spending to 5% of GDP, arguing this would equal more than 40% of Germany’s total budget.

“The crucial question for me is: How fast do we … every single ally, manage to meet NATO’s new capability targets? … How quickly are we fully capable of defending ourselves when we need to be?” Pistorius said.

France’s defense minister, Sebastien Lecornu, said military budgets would continue to increase but did not specify a figure for a new NATO target.

“The situation is worse than it was during the Cold War. … We can be defeated without being invaded,” he said, referring to cyberattacks.

Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said the next meeting of the Group of Five in Paris would discuss how to finance the organization and the development of the arms industry in Europe.

“We will coordinate all defense-related activities between our countries. This is a priority. Europe must show its strength. Europe can again be a beacon for the whole world, it just needs to say clearly: Security is number one,” he said.
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Around 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 2,700 others injured in Russia’s war in Ukraine, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers in a closed briefing Monday.

The National Intelligence Service said it had participated in the interrogation of several North Korean troops who were captured by Ukrainian forces.

The briefing came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the capture of two North Korean soldiers during fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched a surprise offensive in August.

Zelenskyy said late Sunday he would send captured North Koreans back to their country if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un organizes a swap for Ukrainian soldiers being held in Russia.

The Ukrainian leader said it is “only a matter of time” before Ukraine captures more North Korean soldiers, and that Russia’s military “is dependent on military assistance from North Korea.”

Drone attacks

Ukraine’s military said Monday it destroyed 78 of the 110 drones that Russian forces launched in overnight attacks targeting regions across the country.

The intercepts took place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr regions, the Ukrainian air force said.

Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram that falling drone fragments damaged several houses, but did not hurt anyone. Russian shelling in his region injured one person, Kim said Monday.

In Sumy, officials said Russian attacks caused a fire at a residential building and injured one person.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday it destroyed six Ukrainian drones over the Voronezh region, as well as one drone over Belgorod and another drone over Bryansk.

The ministry also said Monday that a Ukrainian drone attack Saturday targeted the TurkStream gas pipeline that is used to send Russian gas to Turkey and Europe.

Russian air defenses shot down all of the drones involved in the attack, and there were no casualties, the ministry said.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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PARIS — A Frenchman held in Iran since October 2022 on Monday revealed his identity in an audio message broadcast on a French radio station, saying he was becoming increasingly exhausted over his ordeal.

Olivier Grondeau, 34, had previously only been identified by his first name and French authorities had not released details of his case. 

In an audio message aired on France Inter on Monday, Grondeau fully identified himself and warned that he and the other two French detainees held in Iran were “exhausted.”

The other two French nationals currently held in Iran are teacher Cecile Kohler and her partner, Jacques Paris, who were detained in May 2022. They are accused of seeking to stir up labor protests, accusations their families have vehemently denied.

“You, who have the power to influence this matter, hear this truth,” he said in the audio message, apparently addressing the French authorities.

“Cecile’s strength, Jacques’ strength, Olivier’s strength — it is all running out,” he said. “Your responsibility is called upon to ensure the survival of three human beings,” he said.

Grondeau was arrested in Shiraz, in southern Iran, in October 2022, and sentenced to five years in prison for “conspiracy against the Islamic republic,” his mother Therese Grondeau told France Inter.

His family rejects the charges, describing Grondeau as a passionate fan of Persian poetry who was traveling to Iran on a tourist visa as part of a world tour.

On Friday, France summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest Tehran’s holding of the trio, describing them as “state hostages.”

Their “situation is intolerable, with undignified detention conditions that, for some, constitute torture under international law,” the French foreign ministry said.

The tensions have come after an Italian journalist, Cecilia Sala, arrested and jailed in Iran since December, was freed and returned to Rome earlier this month.

Her swift release — in contrast to the prolonged detention of the French nationals —  was the result of “intense work through diplomatic and intelligence channels” by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government, her office said. 

Foreign ministries whose nationals have been held by Iran are known to sometimes advise families to keep a low profile and not announce the arrest of their loved ones publicly, in the hope the situation can be resolved behind the scenes.               
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Niamey, Niger — An Austrian woman has been kidnapped by gunmen in Niger’s Agadez city, residents and the Austrian Foreign Ministry said Sunday. It is the first time a European citizen is known to have been kidnapped in the conflict-hit West African nation since a military junta took power in 2023.

The ministry said the Austrian Embassy in Algeria, which is also responsible for Niger, had been informed of the kidnapping of an Austrian woman in Agadez and was in contact with regional authorities on the ground.

Residents and local media identified the victim as Eva Gretzmacher and reported she is an aid worker who has lived in Agadez — hundreds of kilometers away from the capital city of Niamey — for more than 20 years.

“(She) is well known for her social commitment (and) created a skills center in 2010 that initiated various projects, notably in the fields of education, women’s empowerment, ecology, culture and art,” the online newspaper Air Info Agadez reported.

Gretzmacher also supported education programs through her development work and provided assistance to local nongovernment organizations in various sectors, local media said.

No group claimed responsibility for her abduction and authorities in Niger did not immediately comment on the incident.

Niger has for many years battled a jihadi insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, a security crisis that analysts say has worsened since the military toppled the country’s government in July 2023. Despite their promise to restore peace in hot spots, the junta’s capacity to improve Niger’s security has increasingly been questioned amid increasing attacks.

Niger was seen as one of the last democratic countries in Africa’s Sahel region that Western nations could partner with to beat back the jihadi insurgency in the vast expanse below the Sahara Desert. The country has severed decadeslong military ties with the West and turned to Russia as a new security partner.
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London — Hundreds of Londoners headed down to the Underground on Sunday afternoon, stripped down to their underwear and travelled around a bit, trying to look as though nothing unusual was going on.

As if.

This was the Official No Trousers Tube Ride, an annual event with no point other than injecting a little levity into the bleak midwinter. No deep meaning, no bigger motive. The only goal was to be silly, if but for one afternoon.

“There’s so much bad, so much not fun going on,” said ringleader Dave Selkirk, a 40-year-old personal trainer. “It’s nice to do something just for the sake of it.”

After gathering at the entrance to Chinatown, dozens of clothing anarchists trooped through the icy streets to the Piccadilly Circus Underground station in central London where they boarded their first train. The only hiccup was that the cars were so crowded some people couldn’t shed their trousers.

Selfies were taken. Grins were exchanged. The tourists looked puzzled.

The first stunt in this vein was held in New York in 2002, the brainchild of local comedian Charlie Todd. His idea was this: Wouldn’t it be funny if someone walked onto a subway train in the middle of winter wearing a hat, gloves, scarf — everything but pants? Or trousers as they’re known in London, pants being synonymous with underpants in Britain.

“It would be unusual in New York, although you can see anything on our subway system, but what would really be funny is if at the next stop, a couple of minutes later, when the doors open and additional persons got on, not wearing trousers as well,” Todd told the BBC. “And they act like they don’t know each other, and they act like … it’s no big deal and they just forgot their trousers.”

The idea took off, and no pants days have been held all over: in Berlin, Prague, Jerusalem, Warsaw and Washington, D.C., among other cities.

London hosted its first big reveal in 2009.

“You know, it’s meant to be a bit of harmless fun,” Todd said. “Certainly, we are living in a climate where, you know, people like to have culture war fights. My rule in New York was always the goal of this event is to amuse other people, to give people a laugh. It’s not to be provocative, it’s not to irritate someone. So hopefully the spirit of that continues.”

Basil Long, a lawyer, showed up at the meeting point in a down coat and hat on a freezing winter afternoon. But after his journey underground in the warm tunnels of the Tube, he had been transformed, wearing only a white shirt with bold rainbow stripes, pink underwear and Underground-themed socks.

“I just saw it online and I just thought, why not? It’s always a question, isn’t it?” he said. “When someone is asked why they climbed Everest, they were just like, why not?”

But Miriam Correa had a purpose. The 43-year-old chef wanted to come because she had seen pictures of previous no trouser rides that featured lots of thin, scantily clad women.

“I am a real woman,” she said, adding that there was no reason to be ashamed of her shape. “All bodies are perfect.”
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Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday Kyiv is ready to hand over North Korean soldiers to their leader Kim Jong Un if he can facilitate their exchange for Ukrainians held captive in Russia.

“In addition to the first captured soldiers from North Korea, there will undoubtedly be more. It’s only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture others,” Zelenskyy said on the social media platform X.

Zelenskyy said Saturday that Ukraine had captured two North Koreans in Russia’s Kursk region, the first time Ukraine has announced the capture of North Korean soldiers alive since their entry into the nearly three-year-old war last fall.

Ukrainian and Western assessments say that some 11,000 troops from Russia’s ally North Korea have been deployed in the Kursk region to support Moscow’s forces. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.

Zelenskyy has said Russian and North Korean forces had suffered heavy losses.

“Ukraine is ready to hand over Kim Jong Un’s soldiers to him if he can organize their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia,” Zelenskyy said.

He posted a short video showing the interrogation of two men who are presented as North Korean soldiers. One of them is lying on a bed with bandaged hands, the other is sitting with a bandage on his jaw.

One of the men said through an interpreter that he did not know he was fighting against Ukraine and had been told he was on a training exercise.

He said he hid in a shelter during the offensive and was found a couple of days later. He said that if he was ordered to return to North Korea, he would, but that he was ready to stay in Ukraine if given the chance.

Reuters could not verify the video.

“One of them (soldiers) expressed a desire to stay in Ukraine, the other to return to Korea,” Zelenskyy said in a televised statement.

Zelenskyy said that for North Korean soldiers who did not wish to return home, there may be other options available and “those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in the Korean (language) will be given that opportunity.”

Zelenskyy provided no specific details. 
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BUCHAREST — Tens of thousands protested in Romania’s capital on Sunday against a top court’s decision last month to annul the presidential election after an outsider candidate unexpectedly emerged as the frontrunner.

Many of the demonstrators in Bucharest honked horns and waved Romania’s blue, yellow, and red flags, while others brandished placards bearing slogans such as “Democracy is not optional” and “We want free elections.” Many also demanded the resumption of the presidential race from the second round.

The protest comes a month after the Constitutional Court made the unprecedented move to annul the election just two days before a Dec. 8 runoff. The far-right populist Calin Georgescu shocked many when he won the first round on Nov. 24, after which allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference emerged.

George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, said at the protest on Sunday, “We are protesting against the coup d’état that took place on Dec. 6.

“We are sorry to discover so late that we were living in a lie and that we were led by people who claimed to be democrats, but are not at all,” Simion, whose party organized the protest on Sunday, told reporters. “We demand a return to democracy through the resumption of elections, starting with the second round.”

The canceled presidential race last month plunged the European Union and NATO member country into turmoil and followed other controversies including a recount of first-round votes.

New dates have been set to rerun the vote with the first round scheduled for May 4. If no candidate obtains more than 50% of the ballot, a runoff would be held two weeks later on May 18. It is not yet clear whether Georgescu will be able to participate in the new election.

Georgescu has since challenged the court’s decision at a local appeals court and lodged a complaint at the European Court of Human Rights.

The Constitutional Court’s published decision to annul the elections cited the illegal use of digital technologies including artificial intelligence, as well as the use of “undeclared sources” of funding. Georgescu had declared zero campaign spending.

Many observers attributed Georgescu’s success to his TikTok account, which now has 7.2 million likes and 646,000 followers. Some experts suspected Georgescu’s online following was artificially inflated while Romania’s top security body alleged he was given preferential treatment by TikTok over other candidates.

On Friday, another protest in Bucharest was attended by thousands who also expressed anger over the canceled presidential race.
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