VOA Russian’s correspondent reports from Georgia, where the first session of the new parliament is meeting after the election won by the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party was boycotted by the opposition and met with street protests outside the parliament building.

See the full story here.   
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AVIGNON, France — French prosecutors asked for the maximum 20-year prison sentence for Dominique Pelicot, who organized the repeated mass rape of his then-wife by knocking her unconscious with drugs and inviting dozens of strangers to abuse her in the family home. 

Pelicot, 71, has admitted the charges in a trial that attracted worldwide attention and turned into an examination of the pervasiveness of sexual violence in France and beyond. Fifty other men also stand trial for participating in the sex acts. 

The prosecutors, who will over the next two days say what sentences they seek against the co-accused, rejected the arguments made by many of the men that they did not realize they were raping Gisele Pelicot or had not intended to do it. 

Gisele Pelicot appeared motionless while the accused abused her in thousands of videos and pictures recorded by her then-husband and shown in court over the past weeks. 

“The accused are trying to shirk responsibility by saying they thought Gisele Pelicot consented,” public prosecutor Laure Chabaud told the court on Monday. 

“But it’s not possible, today, in 2024, to consider that,” Chabaud said, adding that video and pictures clearly showed Gisele Pelicot was unconscious and therefore unable to give her consent. 

As for Dominique Pelicot, “the maximum sentence is 20 years, which is a lot … but at the same time … too little in view of the seriousness of the acts that were committed and repeated,” Chabaud said. 

The prosecutors also said they were seeking a 17-year sentence for Jean-Pierre Marechal, 63, who has admitted to working with Dominique Pelicot to drug his own wife, Cilia, and for both men to rape her, after the men met on a now-shuttered website. 

The verdicts and sentences are expected around December 20. 

Gisele Pelicot, 71, could have demanded the trial be kept behind closed doors but instead asked for it be held in public, saying she hoped it would help other women speak up and show that victims have nothing to be ashamed of. 

The trial has triggered protest rallies in support of Gisele Pelicot and spurred soul searching, including a debate on whether to update France’s rape law. 

Unlike in some other European countries, French law makes no mention of a requirement that sex involve consent and requires prosecutors to prove a perpetrator’s intent to rape using “violence, coercion, threat or surprise.” 

Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro, told reporters it was not a surprise that prosecutors had sought the longest sentence possible.
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London — Hundreds of homeowners in England and Wales were battling floodwaters Monday morning after the second major storm of the winter brought widespread disruption to the United Kingdom. 

Several rail operators cancelled services as more than 180 flood warnings remained in place after Storm Bert lashed the country with heavy rains and wind gusts up to 129 kph over the weekend. As much as 130 millimeters of rain fell in some areas, causing some rivers to overflow their banks and turning roads into waterways. 

A severe flood warning, meaning there is danger to life, was issued early Monday for areas near the River Nene in Northampton as water levels continued to rise. 

Among the hardest hit areas were parts of Wales, where residents of Pontypridd tried to protect their homes by using buckets to bail water over a flood wall and back into the River Taff. Two severe flood warnings issued for the River Monnow in southeast Wales have been lowered to warnings. 

Because of climate change and warmer oceans, storms can pick up more energy, increasing wind speeds, while a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture. 

 
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BAKU, AZERBAIJAN — Anger and frustration from developing nations vulnerable to climate impacts are likely to linger following the conclusion of the climate change summit in Azerbaijan, COP29, as nations adopted a $300 billion global finance target to help poorer nations cope with climate change, a deal that many recipient nations slammed as severely insufficient.

Global North countries, often historic emitters responsible for global warming, agreed on Sunday to pledge $300 billion a year until 2035 for their developing counterparts to stave off the direst effects of climate change — less than a quarter of the acknowledged $1.3 trillion needed annually to reduce emissions and build resilience in vulnerable countries.

The $300 billion figure, also, is an increase by $200 billion each year, compared to the agreement in place since 2009, which is expiring.

Spirited disappointment and rage from Global South countries was expressed at the closing plenary, with some national representatives calling adoption of the new funding package “insulting.”

“We are extremely disappointed,” said Indian negotiator Chandni Raina, who called the figure “abysmal.”

Her Cuban counterpart, Pedro Luis Pedroso, described the deal as “environmental colonialism,” pointing out that, when factoring in today’s inflation, the pledged funding is lower than the $100 billion agreed to in 2009. Bolivia’s negotiator called the deal “insulting” to developing nations.

Some Western representatives were more upbeat.

“COP29 will be remembered as a new era of climate finance,” top EU climate negotiator Wopke Hoekstra said, calling the target amount “ambitious” and “achievable.”

Some experts told VOA that the structure and composition of the $300 billion deal was more important than the actual monetary figure. The final deal allows for both public and private sources of funds to be tapped to bolster climate preparation efforts in the developing world.

Negotiators for developing countries expressed concern that private sources of funding could come in the form of more loans, which could lead to challenging debt accumulation by poorer nations, rather than funding in the preferred form of grants.

Global South countries argued for a new target for green finance and have consistently called for such climate finance to come in the form of public grants. The tense and fraught negotiations of the past week dragged on for two extra days and included at least one episode of negotiators from small island nations and some of the poorest nations in the world walking out of a meeting room with wealthy nations in protest. They asserted that their voices and perspectives were not heard.

”This COP has been a disaster for the developing world,” said Mohammed Adow, director of Kenya-based climate and energy research group Power Shift Africa. ”It’s a betrayal of both people and planet, by wealthy countries, who claim to take climate change seriously.”

The adopted finance package also stated that a further roadmap is set to be discussed at the next conference – likely COP30, set for Belem, Brazil in late 2025 — on how to reach the trillion-dollar figure.

Independent South African climate consultant Gillian Hamilton called the $300 billion core funding target “insufficient,” particularly for building resilience against climate impacts — also known as climate adaptation.

“Developed nations should have shown more leadership and transparency,” Hamilton told VOA. “The biggest emitters need to rapidly decrease their emissions so that adaptation costs for developing countries don’t increase exponentially.”

Campaigners staged multiple environmental protests each day here during the past week-plus of meetings.

Though negotiators for developing nations repeatedly asked for climate finance in the form of grants instead of loans, in the final deal, developed countries stopped short of guaranteeing that could be done.

Adaptation finance

The deal adopted Sunday acknowledges that funding sources for adaptation finance should be public and transparent.

With 2024 going down as the hottest year in history, the world has experienced a slew of climate disasters, ranging from devastating floods in Nepal and Spain, to Hurricane Helene in the Americas, droughts in the Mediterranean and typhoons in the western Pacific region.

Despite the disasters and renewed calls to finance climate-resilient infrastructure across the Global South to guard against rising sea levels and wildfires, funding has been falling short for years, according to a November report from the U.N. Environment Program.

The so-called adaptation projects include developing more advanced disaster warning systems, reforestation, and building catchment mechanisms to ensure water security in regions most affected by climate change.

At COP29, Germany pledged $62 billion, to the adaptation fund; France highlighted its 2023 pledge of $2.9 billion, in adaptation; the U.S. said it pays $3 billion into it each year. A total of 14 Global North countries including Spain, Sweden, South Korea and Switzerland promised to provide $300 million this year, according to a separate negotiation text in the conference.

Despite pledges in recent years, countries didn’t completely deliver on promises. This year, for example, more than $122 million of pledged financial support to poor nations for adapting to climate risk is still up in the air, even though this assistance has been a stated priority at recent COP meetings.

What to expect in Belem?

Countries will be tasked at the Brazil meeting next November with ironing out the details of a global carbon trade system governed by a centralized U.N. regulatory body. They also will try to find a path for wealthy, developed countries to reach the target of $1.3 trillion to support efforts in the Global South to address the consequences of climate disasters. A major component will be reviewing national climate plans, which are due to be submitted in February. Britain, Brazil and the UAE are among the nations that this past week aimed to get ahead of the February deadline and shared some of the goals in their national climate preparation plans.

Harjeet Singh, global engagement director of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, said it is likely that ‘most’ nations will not meet the February deadline to submit their updated plans to address climate change.

The future participation of Argentina is unclear, after hardline President Javier Milei — who has called climate change a hoax — reportedly told his government delegates here to pack their bags and leave the negotiations on the third day of the summit.

Singh was asked by VOA whether wealthy nations would deliver on their promises to lead the effort toward $300 billion in climate finance support, and he responded that the key lies in their ‘willingness, as the money has always been there.’
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BUCHAREST — A Romanian hard-right NATO critic and leftist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu appeared in dead heat after the first round of presidential elections on Sunday, partial tallies showed, in a shock result threatening Romania’s staunchly pro-Ukraine stance. 

After nearly 93% of votes were counted, Calin Georgescu, 62, was at 22%, while Ciolacu had 21%, suggesting they will likely qualify to face each other in the second round, due on Dec. 8. 

A center-right contender, Elena Lasconi, was running second, behind Georgescu, among the hundreds of thousands of voters living outside Romania, with about 50% ballots cast there counted. But that margin might not be enough to win her a spot in the final race after all votes are tallied, observers said. 

Romania’s president has a semi-executive role that gives him or her control over defense spending — likely to be a difficult issue as Bucharest comes under pressure to uphold NATO spending goals during Donald Trump’s second term as U.S. president while trying to reduce a heavy fiscal deficit. 

Some opinion polls had Georgescu running at around 5% of the vote in the run-up to the election, after barely registering in earlier polls. 

Political commentator Radu Magdin said the difference between his single-digit popularity and Sunday’s result was without precedent since Romania shed communism in 1989. 

“Never in our 34 years of democracy have we seen such a surge compared to surveys,” Magdin said. 

Campaigning focused largely on the soaring cost of living, with Romania having the EU’s biggest share of people at risk of poverty. 

Ciolacu had courted voters with a promise of generous spending and no tax hikes, despite Romania running the European Union’s largest budget deficit at 8% of economic outlook, while offering a sense of security in policy stability at a time of a war next door. 

Formerly a prominent member of the hard-right Alliance for Uniting Romanians party, Georgescu has called NATO’s ballistic missile defense shield in the Romanian town of Deveselu a “shame of diplomacy.” 

He has said the North Atlantic alliance will not protect any of its members should they be attacked by Russia. 

“We are strong and brave, many of us voted, even more will do so in the second round,” Georgescu said standing alone on Sunday evening outside a residential building near capital Bucharest. 

Lasconi, a former journalist, joined the Save Romania Union (USR) in 2018 and became party head this year. She believes in raising defense spending and helping Ukraine, and surveys suggest she would beat Ciolacu in a runoff. 

Romania shares a 650-kilometer (400-mile) border with Ukraine and since Russia attacked Kyiv in 2022, it has enabled the export of millions of tons of grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta and provided military aid, including the donation of a Patriot air defense battery. 

Villages on the border with Ukraine have seen a barrage of drones breaching national airspace although no casualties have been reported. 

One political commentator said Russian meddling to give Georgescu an edge could not be ruled out in the election. 

“Based on Georgescu’s stance towards Ukraine and the discrepancy between opinion surveys and the actual result, we cannot rule (that) out,” said Sergiu Miscoiu, a political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University. 

Outgoing two-term president Klaus Iohannis, 65, had cemented Romania’s strong pro-Western stance but was accused of not doing enough to fight corruption. 

“It will be a tight run-off, with the Social Democrat leader more vulnerable to negative campaigning due to him being an incumbent PM,” Magdin said.
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is “incredibly concerned” about the escalating use of different types of weaponry in Russia’s nearly three-year war on Ukraine, his designated choice for national security adviser said Sunday.

Michael Waltz, now a Florida congressman, told “Fox News Sunday” that the decision by the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to use anti-personnel land mines to try to halt Russia’s battlefield ground troop advances has turned the fight in eastern Ukraine into something akin to “World War I trench warfare.”

Waltz said the decision “needs to be within a broader framework to end this conflict.”

“It is just an absolute meat grinder of people and personnel on that front,” he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week the United States is sending the anti-personnel mines to Ukraine because of the changing nature of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the main battlefield.

He said Russian ground troops, rather than forces more protected in armored carriers, are leading Moscow’s advance, so Ukraine has “a need for things that can help slow down that effort.”

Waltz said Trump, who takes office January 20, is concerned about the carnage but said that in the broad picture, the question that must be preeminent is, “How do we restore deterrence and how do we bring peace?”

“We need to, we need to bring this to a responsible end,” he added.

Trump has often claimed that he would end the Russia-Ukraine war even before he is inaugurated as the 47th U.S. president. Trump has never said how and refused to say during a campaign debate in September that he wants Ukraine to win.

Biden gave Ukraine authority to launch Washington-supplied missiles with a 300-kilometer range deep into Russia in response to North Korea’s dispatch of 10,000 troops to fight alongside Moscow’s forces. Within two days, Kyiv targeted weapons warehouses in Russia’s Bryansk region with the missiles.

Then, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a new experimental rocket, targeting Dnipro in Ukraine’s eastern region.

“This is a clear escalation,” Waltz said. “Where is this escalation going? How do we get both sides to the table” for peace negotiations?

Waltz, whose appointment does not require Senate confirmation, said he has been meeting with Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser. Waltz said that any U.S. adversary “is wrong” if it thinks it can “play one side off against the other” with the switch in power in Washington from Biden, a Democrat, and his long-time political foe, Trump, a Republican.

Waltz said he is “confident” Trump will restore peace “in pretty short order” in the multiple conflicts in the Middle East involving Israel fighting Iran-funded militants — Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

But months of cease-fire talks on the conflict in Gaza are stalemated and talks to reach a halt in the Hezbollah-Israel fighting have yet to produce a deal.
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KYIV — Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law granting debt forgiveness to new army recruits who enlist to fight in Ukraine.

The measure, whose final version appeared on a government website Saturday, underscores Russia’s needs for military personnel in the nearly 3-year war, even as it fired last week a new intermediate-range ballistic missile.

According to Russian state news agency Interfax, the new legislation allows those signing up for a one-year contract to write off bad debts of up to 10 million rubles ($96,000). The law applies to debts for which a court order for collection was issued and enforcement proceedings had commenced before Dec. 1, 2024. It also applies to the spouses of new recruits.

Russia has ramped up military recruitment by offering increasing financial incentives, in some cases several times the average salary, to those willing to fight in Ukraine.

The strategy has allowed the military to boost its ranks in the conflict zone while avoiding another mobilization order. A “partial mobilization” in September 2022 sparked an exodus of tens of thousands of Russian men, who fled the country to avoid enlistment.

The intense and drawn-out war has strained Russian resources. Putin in September called for the military to increase its troops by 180,000.

The U.S., South Korea and Ukraine say North Korea sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia in October, some of whom have recently begun engaging in combat on the front lines, piling more pressure on Ukraine’s also weary and overstretched army.

AP sees wreckage of Russia’s new experimental missile

The push for recruits coincides with the firing of a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine on Thursday. Putin said it was in response to Kyiv’s use of American and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russia.

Ukraine’s Security Service showed The Associated Press on Sunday wreckage of the new experimental ballistic missile, which struck a factory in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

The fragments of the missile called Oreshnik -– Russian for hazel tree, and which the Pentagon said is based on Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile -– have not been analyzed yet, according to security officials on site in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. The AP and other media were able to see the fragments before they were taken by investigators.

Charred, mangled wires and an ashy airframe the size of a large snow tire was all that remained of the weapon, which can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads.

“It should be noted that this is the first time that the remains of such a missile have been discovered on the territory of Ukraine,” said an expert with Ukraine’s Security Service, who identified himself only by his first name Oleh because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the issue with the media.

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said the missile was fired from the 4th Missile Test Range, Kapustin Yar, in Russia’s Astrakhan region and flew for 15 minutes before striking Dnipro. The missile had six warheads, each carrying six submunitions. The peak speed was 11 Mach.

U.S. needs to “get ahead” of escalation, says incoming national security adviser

In light of the missile strike, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said Sunday that the incoming administration wants “to get both sides to the table” and is concerned about escalation.

Waltz made clear on “Fox News Sunday” that he has met with Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, to discuss U.S. policy and options in Ukraine, and the Florida congressman assured that those conversations will continue.

“For our adversaries out there that think this is a time of opportunity, that they can play one administration off the other, they’re wrong,” Waltz said. “We are hand in glove. We are one team with the United States in this transition.”

Waltz seemed to endorsed Biden’s decision to send antipersonnel mines for Ukraine forces to use in the conflict. “It is a step towards somewhat solidifying the lines, and we also needed to stop Russian gains,” Waltz said.

The congressman also emphasized Trump’s desire for the conflict to end quickly. Trump, who has praised Putin over the years, avoided throughout the campaign setting conditions for an end to the conflict, suggesting he would be open to considerable annexations of Ukraine. Waltz avoided discussing any terms Trump might pursue once he takes office.

“The president-elect has been very concerned about the escalation and where it’s all going,” Waltz said. “We need to bring this to a responsible end. We need to restore deterrence, restore peace and get ahead of this escalation ladder, rather than responding to it.”

In other developments:

— Moscow sent 73 drones into Ukraine overnight into Sunday. According to Ukraine’s air force, 50 drones were destroyed and four lost, likely having been electronically jammed.

— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russian forces over the past week had struck Ukraine with more than 800 guided aerial bombs, about 460 attack drones and more than 20 missiles.

— In Russia, the Defense Ministry said that 34 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight into Sunday in four regions of western Russia, including Kursk, Lipetsk, Belgorod and one over the Oryol region.
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paris — When Jean-Charles de Castelbajac watched as Notre Dame cathedral burned in April 2019, he felt compelled to act. 

Returning home, the French fashion designer began sketching ideas, imagining the monument’s reconstruction. 

So, when the Paris Archbishop’s emissary approached him to design the liturgical garments for the cathedral’s reopening next month, Castelbajac — a believer with personal roots with the church — felt the moment transcended mere coincidence. 

“It’s bigger than a job. It’s a bit mysterious … mysterious,” Castelbajac said, his eyes brimming with wonder as he previewed some of the 2,000 colorful pieces for 700 celebrants at his Paris home. “It’s a calling. To be called like that is synchronicity.” 

This duty, as he calls it, led to a collection of work crafted in collaboration with the esteemed artisans of 19M studio. The garments, often in thick off-white Scottish wool gabardine, blend his signature eye-popping pop-art aesthetic with a reverence for the cathedral’s centuries-old legacy with medieval touches.

The unorthodox designs are fun, modern — and perhaps shockingly minimalist. 

They undoubtedly break with the richly embellished styles associated with the cathedral’s near-900-year-old liturgical garb. At their center is a large gold cross, accented by debris fragments of vivid color-blocked red, blue, yellow, and green velvet. 

“It’s something that is exploded that reconstructs itself,” Castelbajac said, likening the dissipated shards coming together to the cathedral’s own rebirth. 

The commission was not subject to an open call. Instead, Castelbajac was handpicked by the Catholic leadership, due to his history of designing for the church. 

In 1997, he created the rainbow-colored robes worn by Pope John Paul II for World Youth Day in Paris, garments later enshrined in Notre Dame’s treasury as a relic. That connection carried a special weight during the fire. 

“As I watched the fire, I was thinking, ‘Are the relics burning? Are the relics safe?’ So my link was not just material. It’s really a strong spiritual link,” he said. 

For Castelbajac, 74, the memory of those two hours in 2019 spent watching the fire with his wife amid people praying on their knees still evokes both grief and determination. 

“It was not Notre Dame burning. It was hope burning. It was spirituality burning. It was such an intense moment … I was thinking, what can I do?” he said. 

The vestments, which will be worn in liturgies permanently — forever, as Castelbajac put it — carry a sense of continuity with his past work. The designs are a variation on the pontiff’s robes, infused with Castelbajac’s signature aesthetic: bright, almost childlike hues that evoke optimism. 

Color defines career

Castelbajac’s fascination with color began as a child in a military boarding school in Normandy, an experience he recalled as stifling and gray. “It was the absolute loneliness. It was colorless,” he said. 

For the young boy, color became a lifeline. 

“Color was like my teddy bear, my transitional element in a world of conflict. Each morning, there was the stained glass in the church and the coats of arms in the refectory that filled my world with primary colors,” he explained. 

This obsession would define his career, earning him a reputation as a provocateur in the fashion world. 

Castelbajac’s creations have dressed pop culture royalty for decades: Madonna in her teddy bear coat, Beyonce in sequins, Rihanna in a Donald Duck costume. Collaborating with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, he fused art and fashion into a playground of exuberance. 

Cathedral’s vestments reflect hope

While his designs have graced runways and music icons, Castelbajac’s work for Notre Dame strikes a different, more personal chord. 

The playful vestments might raise eyebrows among traditional Catholics, but he has no doubt about the faith Notre Dame’s leadership placed in him. “Maybe I have the trust of the archbishop,” he mused, reflecting on the “carte blanche” he said he received for his designs. 

This combination produced a modern-looking body of work that reflects the unity, hope, and rebirth symbolized by Notre Dame itself—just like the phoenix-like rooster gleaming like fire atop the newly constructed spire. 

When the cathedral reopens on the weekend of December 7-8, Castelbajac hopes the vestments will be viewed by the world as a testament to renewal and the “power of color” to heal and inspire. 
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DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Iran said on Sunday that it would hold nuclear talks in the coming days with the three European countries that initiated a censure resolution against it adopted by the U.N.’s atomic watchdog. 

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the meeting of the deputy foreign ministers of Iran, France, Germany and the United Kingdom would take place on Friday, without specifying a venue. 

“A range of regional and international issues and topics, including the issues of Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the nuclear issue, will be discussed,” the spokesman said in a foreign ministry statement. 

Baghaei described the coming meeting as a continuation of talks held with the countries in September on the sidelines of the annual session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. 

On Thursday, the 35-nation board of governors of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution denouncing Iran for what it called a lack of cooperation. 

The move came as tensions ran high over Iran’s atomic program, which critics fear is aimed at developing a nuclear weapon — something Tehran has repeatedly denied. 

It also came after IAEA head Rafael Grossi returned from a trip to Tehran, where he appeared to have made headway.  

During the visit, Iran agreed to an IAEA demand to cap its sensitive stock of near weapons-grade uranium enriched up to 60 percent purity. 

In response to the resolution, Iran announced it was launching a “series of new and advanced centrifuges.” 

Centrifuges enrich uranium transformed into gas by rotating it at very high speed, increasing the proportion of fissile isotope material (U-235). 

“We will substantially increase the enrichment capacity with the utilization of different types of advanced machines,” Behrouz Kamalvandi, Iran’s atomic energy organization spokesman, told state TV. 

The country, however, also said it planned to continue its “technical and safeguards cooperation with the IAEA.”  

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in power since July and a supporter of dialogue with Western countries, has said he wants to remove “doubts and ambiguities” about his country’s nuclear program.  

In 2015, Iran and world powers reached an agreement that saw the easing of international sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. 

But the United States unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump and reimposed biting economic sanctions, which prompted Iran to begin rolling back on its own commitments. 

Tehran has since 2021 decreased its cooperation with the IAEA by deactivating surveillance devices monitoring the nuclear program and barring U.N. inspectors.  

At the same time, it has increased its stockpiles of enriched uranium and the level of enrichment to 60 percent.  

That level is close, according to the IAEA, to the 90 percent-plus threshold required for a nuclear warhead, and substantially higher than the 3.67 percent limit it agreed to in 2015. 

 
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BUCHAREST — Romanians vote on Sunday in the first round of a presidential election that may give a shot at victory to hard-right politician George Simion, who opposes military aid to Ukraine, admires Donald Trump and wants to emulate Giorgia Meloni’s Italy.

Outgoing two-term president Klaus Iohannis, 65, had cemented Romania’s strong pro-western stance but was accused of not doing enough to fight corruption.

Voting starts at 0500 GMT and ends at 1900 GMT with exit polls to follow immediately. The second round is scheduled for December 8 while a parliamentary election is also due next Sunday.

Voting by Romanians abroad, who can influence the result and where Simion is popular, began on Friday. Simion voted in Rome.

Opinion surveys show leftist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, 56, leader of Romania’s largest party, the Social Democrats, will make it into the run-off vote with Simion, 38, of the Alliance for Uniting Romanians the likely runner-up.

Analysts expect Ciolacu to win the second round against Simion, appealing to moderates and touting his experience running Romania during a war next door, but do not rule out a switch-up amid frustration with the high cost of living.

They also say the prospects of a Ciolacu-Simion run-off vote could mobilize center-right voters in favor of Elena Lasconi, leader of center-right opposition Save Romania Union.

Simion has cast the election as a choice between an entrenched political class beholden to foreign interests in Brussels and himself, an outsider who will defend Romania’s economy and sovereignty. Romania has the EU’s largest share of people at risk of poverty.

“We take as a model the right-wing government formed in Italy,” Simion told foreign media earlier this week.

Since Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, Romania has enabled the export of millions of tons of grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta and provided military aid, including the donation of a Patriot air defense battery.

“Romania has been for Ukraine unconditionally and it will remain so,” Ciolacu told television channel Antena3.

Senate speaker Nicolae Ciuca, leader of the Liberal Party that is currently in a strained ruling coalition with Ciolacu’s party was trailing behind Lasconi, surveys showed.

“The outcome is still very difficult to predict due to the high concentration of candidates and the splitting of the center-right vote,” said Sergiu Miscoiu, a political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University.

Most candidates, he said, have campaigned on conservative messages such as protecting family values.

“Mainstream party candidates have a very catch-all message, on the one hand the nation, the army, religion and so on. On the other hand, we see a commitment to Europe, although it is seen more as a revenue source than an inspiration for values.”

Romania’s president, limited to two five-year terms, has a semi-executive role which includes heading the armed forces and chairing the supreme defense council that decides on military aid.

The president represents the country at EU and NATO summits and appoints the prime minister, chief judges, prosecutors and secret service heads. 
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NEW YORK — The brooding waltz was carefully composed on a sheet of music roughly the size of an index card. The brief, moody number also bore an intriguing name, written at the top in cursive: “Chopin.”

A previously unknown work of music penned by the European master Frederic Chopin appears to have been found at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan.

The untitled and unsigned piece is on display this month at the opulently appointed institution, which had once been the private library of financier J. P. Morgan.

Robinson McClellan, the museum curator who uncovered the manuscript, said it’s the first new work associated with the Romantic era composer to be discovered in nearly a century.

But McClellan concedes that it may never be known whether it is an original Chopin work or merely one written in his hand.

The piece, set in the key of A minor, stands out for its “very stormy, brooding opening section” before transitioning to a melancholy melody more characteristic of Chopin, McClellan explained.

“This is his style. This is his essence,” he said during a recent visit to the museum. “It really feels like him.”

Curator finds composition in collection

McClellan said he came across the work in May as he was going through a collection from the late Arthur Satz, a former president of the New York School of Interior Design. Satz had acquired it from A. Sherrill Whiton Jr., an avid autograph collector who had been director of the school.

McClellan then worked with experts to verify its authenticity.

The paper was found to be consistent with what Chopin favored for manuscripts, and the ink matched a kind typical in the early 19th century when Chopin lived, according to the museum. But a handwriting analysis determined the name “Chopin” written at the top of the sheet was penned by someone else.

Born in Poland, Chopin was considered a musical genius from an early age. He lived in Warsaw and Vienna before settling in Paris, where he died in 1849 at the age of 39, likely of tuberculosis.

He’s buried among a pantheon of artists at the city’s famed Pere Lachaise Cemetery, but his heart, pickled in a jar of alcohol, is housed in a church in Warsaw, in keeping with his deathbed wish for the organ to return to his homeland.

Artur Szklener, director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, the Polish capital city where the composer grew up, agreed that the document is consistent with the kinds of ink and paper Chopin used during his early years in Paris.

Chopin expert calls piece ‘little gem’

Musically, the piece evokes the “brilliant style” that made Chopin a luminary in his time, but it also has features unusual for his compositions, Szklener said.

“First of all, it is not a complete work, but rather a certain musical gesture, a theme laced with rather simple piano tricks alluding to a virtuoso style,” Szklener explained in a lengthy statement released after the document was revealed last month.

He and other experts conjecture the piece could have been a work in progress. It may have also been a copy of another’s work, or even co-written with someone else, perhaps a student for a musical exercise.

Jeffrey Kallberg, a University of Pennsylvania music professor and Chopin expert who helped authenticate the document, called the piece a “little gem” that Chopin likely intended as a gift for a friend or wealthy acquaintance.

“Many of the pieces that he gave as gifts were short – kind of like ‘appetizers’ to a full-blown work,” Kallberg said in an email. “And we don’t know for sure whether he intended the piece to see the light of day because he often wrote out the same waltz more than once as a gift.”

David Ludwig, dean of music at The Juilliard School, a performing arts conservatory in Manhattan, agreed the piece has many of the hallmarks of the composer’s style.

“It has the Chopin character of something very lyrical and it has a little bit of darkness as well,” said Ludwig, who was not involved in authenticating the document.

But Ludwig noted that, if it’s authentic, the tightly composed score would be one of Chopin’s shortest known pieces. The waltz clocks in at under a minute long when played on piano, as many of Chopin’s works were intended.

“In terms of the authenticity of it, in a way it doesn’t matter because it sparks our imaginations,” Ludwig said. “A discovery like this highlights the fact that classical music is very much a living art form.”

The Chopin reveal comes after the Leipzig Municipal Libraries in Germany announced in September that it had uncovered a previously unknown piece likely composed by a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in its collections.
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BAKU, AZERBAIJAN — Wealthy countries raised their offer of climate finance to $300 billion a year at COP29 on Saturday, raising hopes of a deal with developing nations that had dismissed an earlier proposal as insufficient to address the impacts of global warming. 

The United Nations climate summit had been scheduled to finish on Friday but ran into an extra day as negotiators from nearly 200 countries — who must adopt the deal by consensus — tried to reach agreement on the contentious funding plan for the next decade. 

The two-week conference cut to the heart of the global debate over the financial responsibility of rich industrialized countries, whose historical use of fossil fuels caused the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions, to compensate for the damage wrought by climate change. 

Negotiators from several developing countries and island nations aired frustration over a U.N. process they said was not rising to the challenge of global warming and temporarily walked out of talks on Saturday afternoon. 

It was unclear if they would ultimately accept the proposed figure of $300 billion a year by 2035. 

Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad said he was optimistic. “When it comes to money it’s always controversial, but we are expecting a deal tonight,” he told Reuters. 

COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev asked country delegations to overcome their differences: “I ask you to now step up your engagement with one another to bridge the remaining divide,” he said in a plenary speech. 

Developing countries had dismissed as insufficient a previous proposal, drafted by the Azerbaijan host on Friday, that would have seen the United States, Europe and other developed countries lead $250 billion in annual funding. 

Past failures to meet climate finance obligations have also made developing countries mistrustful of new promises. 

Five sources with knowledge of the closed-door discussions said the EU had agreed it could accept the higher number of $300 billion a year. Two of the sources said the United States, Australia and Britain also were on board. 

A European Commission spokesperson and an Australian government spokesperson both declined to comment on the negotiations. The U.S. delegation and the UK energy ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

The new goal is intended to replace developed countries’ previous commitment to provide $100 billion in climate finance for poorer nations per year by 2020. That goal was met two years late, in 2022, and expires in 2025. 

Representatives from the least developed countries and small island nations blocs walked out of a negotiating room in frustration at one point on Saturday afternoon, but said they remained committed to finding a deal. 

“We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be inclusive,” the Alliance of Small Island States said in a statement. 

In a sign of some progress, countries agreed Saturday evening on rules for a global market to buy and sell carbon credits that proponents say will mobilize billions of dollars into new projects to help fight global warming.  

Push for $390 billion

Marina Silva, Brazil’s minister of the environment and climate change, has said that the Amazon rainforest nation — which is set to host next year’s summit — was pushing for $390 billion annually from developed countries by 2035. 

“After the difficult experience that we’re having here in Baku, we need to reach some result, some outcome which is minimally acceptable in line with the emergency we are facing,” she said on Saturday in a speech to the summit. 

Negotiators have worked throughout the two-week summit to address other critical questions on the finance target, including who is asked to contribute and how much of the funding is on a grant basis, rather than provided as loans. 

The roster of countries required to contribute — about two dozen industrialized countries, including the U.S., European nations and Canada — dates back to a list decided during U.N. climate talks in 1992. 

European governments have demanded others join them in paying in, including China, the world’s second-biggest economy, and oil-rich Gulf states. 

Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential election victory this month cast a cloud over the Baku talks. Trump, who takes office in January, has promised to again remove the U.S. from international climate cooperation, so negotiators from other wealthy nations expect that under his administration the world’s largest economy will not pay into the climate finance goal. 

A broader goal of raising $1.3 trillion in climate finance annually by 2035 — which would include funding from all public and private sources and which economists say matches the sum needed — was included in the draft deal published on Friday. 
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Business owners in the Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi wanted to find a way to say thank you to the thousands of members of the military who have spent years fighting Russia’s invasion. Over 60 businesses joined to start the “Khmelnytskyi Grateful” platform. Tetiana Kukurika has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Sergiy Rybchynski
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VIENNA — The United Nations atomic watchdog’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution on Thursday again ordering Iran to urgently improve cooperation with the agency and requesting a “comprehensive” report aimed at pressuring Iran into fresh nuclear talks. 

Britain, France, Germany and the United States, which proposed the resolution, dismissed as insufficient and insincere a last-minute Iranian move to cap its stock of uranium that is close to weapons-grade. Diplomats said Iran’s move was conditional on scrapping the resolution. 

Iran tends to bristle at such resolutions and has said it would respond in kind to this one. After previous criticism at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board, it has stepped up its nuclear activities and reduced IAEA oversight. 

China, Russia and Burkina Faso voted against the text, diplomats in the meeting said. Nineteen countries voted in favor and 12 abstained. 

Standoffs

The IAEA and Iran have long been locked in standoffs on a range of issues, including Tehran’s failure to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites, its barring last year of most of the agency’s top uranium-enrichment experts on the Iran inspection team, and its refusal to expand IAEA monitoring. 

The resolution seen by Reuters repeated wording from a November 2022 resolution that it was “essential and urgent” for Iran to explain the uranium traces and let the IAEA take samples as necessary. The resolution in June of this year did the same. 

The new text asked the IAEA to issue “a comprehensive and updated assessment on the possible presence or use of undeclared nuclear material in connection with past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear program, including a full account of Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA on these issues.” 

Western powers hope that report, due by spring 2025, will pressure Iran into negotiations on fresh restrictions on its nuclear activities, albeit less far-reaching ones than in a 2015 deal with major powers that unraveled after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from it in 2018. 

With Trump set to return to office in January and Iran having taken its uranium enrichment far beyond the deal’s limits, it is far from clear whether Trump would back negotiations aimed at setting new limits before those of the 2015 deal are lifted on “termination day” in October of next year. 

If no new limits are agreed before then, the report could be used to strengthen the case for so-called “snapback,” a process under the 2015 deal where the issue is sent to the U.N. Security Council and sanctions lifted under the deal can be re-imposed.  

Iranian reaction

Last week IAEA chief Rafael Grossi visited Tehran, hoping to persuade new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is seen as relatively moderate, to improve Iran’s cooperation with the agency.

Grossi formally reported to member states on Tuesday that “the possibility of Iran not further expanding its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60% U-235 was discussed” in his meetings with Iranian officials, and that the IAEA had verified Iran had “begun implementation of preparatory measures.” 

Iran already has enough material enriched to that level — close to the roughly 90% purity that is weapons grade — for four nuclear weapons if enriched further, according to an IAEA yardstick. It has enough material enriched to lower levels for more bombs, but Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons. 

Grossi said on Wednesday he had asked Iran to cap that stock of 60% material and Iran had accepted his request.  

He said at a news conference that day that it was “a concrete step in the right direction,” suggesting that he felt a resolution could undermine that progress. 

With the resolution passed, Iran is likely to respond. 

Moments after the vote, Iranian state media cited a joint statement by the foreign ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran saying Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami has issued orders for measures like activating various new and advanced centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium. 

“If there is a resolution, it [Iran] will either increase its activities or reduce the agency’s access,” a senior diplomat said before the vote. 
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VIENNA, AUSTRIA — Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s next foreign policy chief, is already sending signals that she will take a tough stance on Russia and China and be an advocate for a strong alliance between Europe and America.

Kallas spoke to the European Parliament for the first time in her new role at a hearing on November 12, where she stressed that the EU will be steadfast in its commitment to support Ukraine against Russian aggression.

She begins her five-year term as the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on December 1.

The former Estonian prime minister warned that Russia, Iran, North Korea and — more covertly — China want to change the rules-based world order. She called on the EU to respond to this threat alongside its closest allies and partners “without losing an inch of who we are.”

Elze Pinelyte, an expert at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) with a focus on Sino-EU relations, told VOA Mandarin that Kallas’ policies “remain firmly supporting Ukraine’s victory.”

In response to worries that the incoming Trump administration may reduce U.S. support for Ukraine, Kallas stressed that the United States’ strategic interests in China are inseparable from the outcome of the war on Ukraine.

“If the U.S. is worried about China and other actors, they should also be worried about how we respond to Russia against Ukraine,” Kallas said during the November 12 hearing.

Ivan U. Kłyszcz, a researcher at the Estonian International Defense and Security Center, told VOA Mandarin, that Kallas “reflects the view that Europe needs to do more for its own defense and security, and this is not inconsistent with NATO and the European and American alliance.”

As for whether the second Trump administration will change Brussels’ considerations, he said, “there are still too many unknowns.”

Tougher policy toward China

Kallas’ tough stance toward China was first seen during her tenure as prime minister of Estonia, when her government advocated that Estonia’s China policy should be promoted within the framework of EU-China relations.

In 2022, Estonia announced its withdrawal from the Beijing-led “Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries,” the so-called “16+1” mechanism.

After the European Parliament elections this year, Kallas was nominated as the candidate for new foreign policy chief. She then resigned as prime minister of Estonia.

Some experts say Kallas will take a tougher policy toward China than her predecessor Josep Borrell.

Pinelyte agreed and added that Kallas likely will “seek support to limit China’s ability to fight Russia’s war.”

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU has condemned Beijing’s support for Moscow. Kallas said that without China’s support, “Russia cannot maintain the war with the same intensity.”

China should face “a higher cost” for supporting Russia in the war against Ukraine, Kallas said, hinting at more deterrent sanctions.

In October, Kallas wrote to the European Parliament that during her tenure as EU high representative on foreign policy, she would be committed to countering Russia’s “imperialist dream” and China’s “unfair competition.”

A trade dispute between the EU and China over products such as electric vehicles has lasted for more than a year, and negotiations are still ongoing. The EU said China’s large subsidies for electric vehicles constitute unfair competition.

Unpredictable alliance

It is not clear whether the Trump administration will continue to provide security guarantees and support to Ukraine, and whether it will impose higher tariffs on the European Union.

Given the United States’ greater focus on the Indo-Pacific region and its strategic competition with China, many European leaders are calling on the EU to reduce its security dependence on the United States.

Pinelyte at EESC said “Kallas seems to have taken office at a time when the idea of an alliance with the United States is outdated.”

Abigael Vasselier, director of policy and European affairs at the German Mercator Institute for China Studies, told VOA that the EU needs to avoid the state of panic it fell into with the first Trump administration.

Instead, she said, it must seek to coordinate with the second Trump administration, including “making recommendations” on China issues.

“The EU needs to be prepared because the Trump and Biden administrations will have completely different approaches to China,” she said.
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Washington — Several of Beijing’s leading trading partners are urging Chinese President Xi Jinping to do more to pressure North Korea to stop or reverse its deployment of troops to Russia, where more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers have joined the front lines in the war against Ukraine. 

The appeals at the past week’s twin summits in Brazil and Peru reflect the awkward position in which the Chinese leader finds himself as he attempts a delicate balancing act between Russia and the West.  

At a joint press conference with Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia on Thursday, Xi called for bringing together “more voices of peace” in Ukraine. He pushed for a six-point consensus on Ukraine first put forward by China and Brazil in May that stresses dialogue and negotiations leading to a political settlement.  

Before his bilateral meeting in the Brazilian capital, Xi was told by world leaders on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro and the APEC summit in Lima, Peru, that Beijing needs to persuade North Korea to stop sending more troops to fight for Russia.  

German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz warned Xi on Tuesday at the G20 that the deployment of North Korea troops to fight against Ukraine amounted to an escalation of the war. 

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol asked Xi last week at APEC to play a “constructive” role on North Korea’s deepening ties with Russia. Yoon used the global gatherings as an opportunity to consolidate the West’s condemnation of Pyongyang-Moscow military ties. 

U.S. President Joe Biden also told Xi at APEC that Beijing has influence and capacity to prevent the conflict in Ukraine from expanding through the presence of more North Korean troops, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said at a press briefing Sunday. 

Biden pointed out China’s position calling for the de-escalation of the conflict and said the presence of North Korean troops runs counter to that stance.  

Balancing act 

China has been reluctant to call out North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for providing troops and munitions to help Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war efforts.  

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Tuesday that North Korea could deploy up to 100,000 soldiers, and the U.S. estimates that about 11,000 North Korean troops have been mobilized in the Russian border region of Kursk. 

“Beijing currently finds itself in a tricky situation,” said Patricia Kim, a fellow at Brookings Institution where she leads the Global China Project.  

“It is uncomfortable with North Korea’s growing military cooperation with Russia that has extended into the Ukrainian battlefield. Putin is now indebted to Kim, and this may embolden Pyongyang to engage in risky behavior at home that can have blowback effects on China,” she told VOA. 

“At the same time, Beijing believes it cannot afford to alienate Pyongyang or Moscow, especially as the potential for a U.S.-China confrontation grows with [President-elect Donald Trump’s] return to office,” she said. 

Despite the discomfort, it is unlikely that Xi will confront Moscow or Pyongyang about sending more North Korean troops, said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. 

Glaser suggested that China is less concerned about the North Korean troops in Russia than about responses by the U.S., Japan and South Korea that could “negatively impact Chinese interests.” 

Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Wednesday that China’s position on both Ukraine and the Korean Peninsula remains “consistent,” and that Beijing has been “making efforts toward de-escalation of the situation” in Ukraine. 

While being silent on North Korean troops, China is accused of providing dual-use goods that Russia needs to produce weapons. The European Union has also warned Beijing that the attack drones that Russia is producing in China’s Xinjiang Province would have consequences. 

China has been trying to support Russia’s war in Ukraine without angering the West out of concern over any economic backlash it could trigger — including trade restrictions and sanctions that could further cripple its struggling economy, analysts said.  

“China is skilled at playing this role” of ambiguity, “given its history of nonalignment, while knowing its economy relies on good trade relations with the U.S. and the EU,” said Joseph DeTrani, who served as the special envoy for six-party denuclearization talks that included North Korea and China, from 2003 to 2006.  

“China appears reluctant to use its limited leverage with North Korea due, in part, to the tension in the U.S.-China relations,” he said.  

At the same time, DeTrani said, the Chinese president will not openly support Russia’s war for fear that would undermine his government’s credibility with the Global South, where Xi is trying “to prove that China’s system of governance is far superior to the liberal democracy in the U.S.” 

In October, the U.S. sanctioned Chinese companies for directly helping Russia build long-range attack drones. In response, China’s Foreign Ministry urged the U.S. to stop using the Ukraine issue to “smear or put pressure” on China.

Aligned against US 

Richard Weitz, senior fellow and director at the Center for Political-Military Analysis at the Hudson Institute, said China views its partnership with Russia as more important than any differences it has over North Korea.  

China does not “want to antagonize Russia” over North Korea,” he said. 

“Despite their differences on particular issues,” including North Korea, “they are fundamentally aligned globally against the U.S. and the Western order. So, they’re not going to let these specific differences over narrower issues interfere with that global alignment,” said Weitz. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil on Monday that Beijing is ready to cooperate closely with Russia within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, according to Russian news agency TASS. 

They also stressed the importance of strengthening foreign policy coordination between Moscow and Beijing at international venues, including the U.N., BRICS and the G20, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. 

“By failing to condemn Russian aggression, China threw away any claim to neutrality,” said John Erath, senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.  

“It is unlikely, however, that Beijing believes Russia-DPRK [North Korea] military cooperation to be in its interest. If China has objected to the partnership, it does not seem to have produced much of an effect on Putin or Kim,” said Erath.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned Russia’s use of a fast, powerful new missile to attack the city of Dnipro on Thursday, calling it a “nuclear adventure” and a stark escalation in the war.

The attack has ignited fears of a dangerous new phase in the war. In a nationwide address, Russian President Vladimir Putin later confirmed the use of a medium-range ballistic missile in the strike.

Zelenskyy pointed to the strike as a sign of Moscow’s broader strategy, stating, “It is obvious that Putin is using Ukraine as a testing ground for weapons that threaten the world.”

His remarks underscored the growing alarm in Kyiv over the deployment of advanced Russian missile systems against civilian targets.

In his address, Putin framed the use of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile as a routine test within the conflict.

“The Russian Federation tested a medium-range ballistic missile, known as Oreshnik, during its operation in Ukraine,” he said.

While he offered few technical details, analysts said the use of the missile and Putin’s acknowledgment appears intended to showcase Russia’s military capabilities to NATO and the United States.

Putin’s announcement marks the first time Russia has openly acknowledged using such a missile during the war.

In Washington, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said the missile used was based on Russia’s RS 26 rubes intercontinental ballistic missile model.” In terms of notifications to the United States, the United States was pre notified briefly before the launch through Nuclear Risk Reduction channels,” she said.

Strategic escalation

Valeriy Chaly, Ukraine’s former ambassador to the U.S., described the attack as a “new stage” in Russia’s aggression. Speaking to VOA, he emphasized that the strike was not just a challenge to Ukraine but also to its Western allies.

“This isn’t just about Ukraine,” Chaly said. “It’s a challenge to the European security system and the United States. Moscow is signaling its readiness to escalate dramatically to influence the West.”

He said that the response to the attack “must be clear, united, and decisive — anything less risks emboldening Russia and jeopardizing global security.”

Western leaders quickly condemned the strike. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer labeled it “reckless and dangerous,” while EU foreign affairs spokesperson Peter Stano described it as a “qualitative escalation” in Russia’s tactics.

Dnipro attack

The missile targeted industrial facilities in Dnipro, injuring two people and causing significant damage. Ukrainian officials initially suggested the use of an ICBM, or intercontinental ballistic missile, citing the weapon’s speed and trajectory. Some analysts, including those in the U.S., believed it was more likely a medium- or intermediate-range ballistic missile, consistent with Putin’s confirmation.

Dnipro residents, accustomed to regular air-raid sirens and missile attacks, reported that this strike felt uniquely different.

Oleksiy Poltorazky, a local resident, recounted: “We’ve learned to recognize the sounds of different missile types. This one was different — it hit almost immediately after the siren. Many here believe it was a ballistic missile because there was no usual warning sound.”

The speed and power of the strike left many shaken.

Poltorazky, however, remained resolute. “There’s no panic, no apocalypse as everyone says. We have to live through this, raise our kids, protect our families and work. We have to fight and do everything possible for our country,” he told VOA.

George Barros, an expert on the Russia team at the Institute for the Study of War, told VOA that Ukrainians should try not to overreact to the attack.

“It seems that the Russians targeted the city with an R-26 IRBM,” Barros said, referring to a Soviet-era intermediate-range missile. “The main thing is to not panic. There’s no reason to think that Putin’s likelihood to use a nuclear weapon or a weapon of mass destruction is any higher than at other points in the war.

“This is not the first time that Russia has used nuclear-capable weapon systems against Ukraine,” he said. “Russia regularly uses Iskander nuclear-capable weapons, and this appears to be a signaling effort designed to deter further Western support for Ukraine.”

Strategic ambiguity

While Putin confirmed the missile test, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov and Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova provided limited details about the strike. Zakharova was reportedly instructed not to address the attack at all during a Thursday press conference.

The calculated reticence deepens global unease, as Moscow oscillates between overt warnings and veiled threats, said some analysts, suggesting the ambiguity is part of a broader strategy to keep Western nations uncertain about Russia’s next moves.
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