ZAGREB — Croatia’s left-leaning president, an outspoken critic of Western military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, is running for reelection in the Adriatic Sea state, but is unlikely to get an outright majority in the first round of voting Sunday.

President Zoran Milanović, who is often compared to Donald Trump for his combative style of communication with political opponents, faces seven other contenders, including Dragan Primorac, the candidate of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union.

The two are expected to face off in the second round on Jan. 12 if no contender gets more than 50% of the vote, according to pre-election polls.

The most popular politician in Croatia, 58-year-old Milanović had served as prime minister in the past. Populist in style, Milanovic has been a fierce critic of current Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and continuous sparring between the two has lately marked Croatia’s political scene.

“Since the election silence is still on, I just want to call on people to get out and vote. To support me,” Milanović said after he voted Sunday. He predicted there would be a second round in two weeks.

Plenković, the prime minister, has sought to portray the vote as one about Croatia’s future in the EU and NATO. He has labeled Milanović “pro-Russian” and a threat to Croatia’s international standing.

“The difference between him and Milanović is quite simple: Milanović is leading us East, Primorac is leading us West,” he said.

Though the presidency is largely ceremonial in Croatia, an elected president holds political authority and acts as the supreme commander of the military.

Milanović has criticized the NATO and European Union support for Ukraine and has often insisted that Croatia should not take sides. He has said Croatia should stay away from global disputes, though it is a member of both NATO and the EU.

Milanović has also blocked Croatia’s participation in a NATO-led training mission for Ukraine, declaring that “no Croatian soldier will take part in somebody else’s war.”

His main rival in the election, Primorac, has stated that “Croatia’s place is in the West, not the East.” His presidency bid, however, has been marred by a high-level corruption case that landed Croatia’s health minister in jail last month and which featured prominently in pre-election debates.

During the election campaign, Primorac has sought to portray himself as a unifier and Milanović as divisive.

“Today is an extremely important day,” Primorac said after casting his ballot. “Croatia is going forward into the future. Croatia needs unity, Croatia needs its global positioning, and above all Croatia needs peaceful life.”

Trailing a distant third in the pre-election polls is Marija Selak Raspudić, a conservative independent candidate. She has focused her election campaign on the economic troubles of ordinary citizens, corruption and issues such as population decline in the country of some 3.8 million.

Sunday’s presidential election is Croatia’s third vote this year, following a snap parliamentary election in April and the European Parliament balloting in June.
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Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said Sunday that the Azerbaijani airliner that crashed last week was shot down by Russia, albeit unintentionally, and criticized Moscow for trying to “hush up” the issue for days.

“We can say with complete clarity that the plane was shot down by Russia. […] We are not saying that it was done intentionally, but it was done,” he told Azerbaijani state television.

Aliyev said that the airliner, which crashed Wednesday in Kazakhstan, was hit by fire from the ground over Russia and “rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare.” Aliyev accused Russia of trying to “hush up” the issue for several days, saying he was “upset and surprised” by versions of events put forward by Russian officials.

“Unfortunately, for the first three days we heard nothing from Russia except delirious versions,” he said.

The crash killed 38 of 67 people on board. The Kremlin said that air defense systems were firing near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, where the plane attempted to land, to deflect a Ukrainian drone strike.

Aliyev said Azerbaijan made three demands to Russia in connection with the crash.

“First, the Russian side must apologize to Azerbaijan. Second, it must admit its guilt. Third, punish the guilty, bring them to criminal responsibility and pay compensation to the Azerbaijani state, the injured passengers and crew members,” he said.

Aliyev noted that the first demand was “already fulfilled” when Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to him on Saturday. Putin called the crash a “tragic incident” though stopped short of acknowledging Moscow’s responsibility.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media on Sunday that Putin had spoken to Aliyev over the phone again, but did not provide details of the conversation.

The Kremlin also said a joint investigation by Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan has begun at the crash site near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. The plane was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to Grozny when it turned toward Kazakhstan, hundreds of kilometers (miles) across the Caspian Sea from its intended destination, and crashed while making an attempt to land.

Passengers and crew who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media that they heard loud noises on the aircraft as it was circling over Grozny.

Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia, said Friday that as the plane was preparing to land in Grozny in deep fog, Ukrainian drones were targeting the city, prompting authorities to close the area to air traffic.

The crash is the second deadly civil aviation accident linked to fighting in Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed with a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard, as it flew over the area in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in 2014.

Russia has denied responsibility, but a Dutch court in 2022 convicted two Russians and a pro-Russia Ukrainian man for their role in downing the plane with an air defense system brought into Ukraine from a Russian military base.

 
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LONDON — The U.K. will end a tax exemption for private schools Wednesday, the center-left Labour government has announced, in a move set to raise over £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) for public education.

After years of worsening educational inequalities, from Jan. 1, private schools will have to pay 20% value added tax on tuition fees, which will be used to fund thousands of new teachers and improve standards in state schools.

“It’s time things are done differently,” finance minister Rachel Reeves said in a statement Sunday.

The funding will “go towards our state schools where 94% of this country’s children are educated,” she said.

The policy was promised by Labour in its election campaign and officially laid out in its inaugural budget in October.

It hopes the move will bring in $1.9 billion for the 2025-2026 school year and rise to $2.1 billion a year by 2029-30, which will be used to fund 6,500 new teachers in the public sector.

Tuition fees in private schools already average $22,600 a year, according to the Independent Schools Council, which represents private schools.

That figure is set to rise, with the government estimating that tuition fees will increase by around 10%, with schools taking on part of the additional cost.

“High and rising standards cannot just be for families who can afford them,” said education secretary Bridget Phillipson.

Opponents of the reform say state school enrolment will explode if the private sector is lost, increasing the cost to the government.

But studies contradict this.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies calculated that the number of children in state schools will actually fall by 2030 due to a projected population decline.

Several research centers also point out that the disparity between private and state schools widened sharply under the 14-year Conservative rule.

The Labour government won a landslide election in July promising to boost economic growth and improve public services.
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TALLINN, ESTONIA — Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko pardoned 20 more people that rights activists describe as political prisoners, a statement on the president’s website said Saturday. 

The announcement came amid persistent oppression in the run-up to presidential elections next month that are likely to extend Lukashenko’s decadeslong rule. 

Belarusian officials did not provide the names of those released, but the statement posted on the website of the president said that all of them had been convicted of “crimes of an extremist nature.” 

The statement said the group included 11 women and 14 of those pardoned suffered from chronic illnesses. 

“All of those released repented for their actions and appealed to the head of state to be pardoned,” the presidential administration said in a statement, using wording familiar from a series of previous group pardons in the past six months. 

Saturday’s announcement marks the eighth such pardon by Lukashenko since the summer of 2024. In all, 207 political prisoners have been freed, according to Belarus’ oldest and most established human rights group, Viasna. 

Most were jailed following mass anti-government protests in 2020, when Lukashenko secured his sixth term in a vote widely condemned as fraudulent. 

According to Viasna, over 1,250 political prisoners remain behind bars. No prominent opposition figures, many of whom have not been heard from for months on end, have been released. 

They include Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Viasna founder Ales Bialiatski; Siarhei Tsikhanouski, who planned to challenge Lukashenko at the ballot box in 2020 but was jailed before the vote; and Viktar Babaryka, who was also imprisoned after gaining popularity before the election. 

The mass pardons come amid a new wave of repression, said Viasna activist Pavel Sapelka, as Minsk prepares to hold new presidential elections in January 2025 that are likely to hand Lukashenko a seventh term in office. 

“Lukashenko is sending contradictory signals (to the West), pardoning some but jailing twice as many political prisoners in their place,” Sapelka said. “Repression is intensifying, and authorities are trying to root out any signs of dissent before the January elections.” 

Belarusian authorities engineer harsh conditions for political prisoners, denying them meetings with lawyers and relatives, and depriving them of medical care. At least seven political prisoners have died behind bars since 2020, according to Viasna. 

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for more than 30 years, is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, allowing Russia to use his country’s territory to send troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and to deploy some of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. 
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ROME — Efforts to release Italian journalist Cecilia Sala from prison in Iran are “complicated,” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Saturday. 

Sala was detained on December 19 by police in Tehran and is being held in the city’s notorious Evin prison, according to her employer. 

“We are trying to resolve a complicated issue and to ensure in the meantime that Cecilia Sala is detained in the best possible conditions,” Tajani said. 

Asked when she might be released, he said “I hope shortly, but it does not depend on us.” 

“She is obviously detained, which is not ideal, but she is fed and in a single cell,” he said. 

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said she was “following the complex affair” closely, and Rome was pursuing “all possible avenues of dialogue” to bring Sala home “as soon as possible.” 

Chora Media, an Italian podcast publisher for which Sala worked, said she had traveled from Rome to Iran on December 12 on a journalist visa, and was due to return on December 20. 

But she went quiet on December 19 and then did not board her flight. Shortly afterwards she called her mother to say she had been arrested, it said. 

“She was taken to Evin prison, where dissidents are held, and the reason for her arrest has not yet been formalized,” Chora Media said in a statement Friday. 

Sala also worked for Italian newspaper Il Foglio, which said she had been in Iran “to report on a country she knows and loves.” 

“Journalism is not a crime, even in countries that repress all freedoms, including those of the press. Bring her home,” it said. 

Sala, reported to be 29 years old, last posted on X on December 17, with a link to a podcast entitled “A conversation on patriarchy in Tehran.” 

She had previously reported from Ukraine. 
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LONDON — Olivia Hussey, the actor who starred as a teenage Juliet in the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” has died, her family said on social media Saturday. She was 73. 

Hussey died on Friday, “peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones,” a statement posted to her Instagram account said. 

Hussey was 15 when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her in his adaptation of the William Shakespeare tragedy after spotting her onstage in the play “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” which also starred Vanessa Redgrave. 

“Romeo and Juliet” won two Oscars and Hussey won a Golden Globe for best new actress for her part as Juliet, opposite British actor Leonard Whiting, who was 16 at the time. 

Decades later, Hussey and Whiting brought a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud over nude scenes in the film. 

They alleged that they were initially told they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in a bedroom scene, but on the day of the shoot Zeffirelli told the pair they would wear only body makeup, and that the camera would be positioned in a way that would not show nudity. They alleged they were filmed in the nude without their knowledge. 

The case was dismissed by a Los Angeles County judge in 2023, who found their depiction could not be considered child pornography and the pair filed their claim too late. 

Whiting was among those paying tribute to Hussey on Saturday. “Rest now my beautiful Juliet no injustices can hurt you now. And the world will remember your beauty inside and out forever,” he wrote. 

Hussey was born on April 17, 1951, in Bueno Aires, Argentina, and moved to London as a child. She studied at the Italia Conti Academy drama school. 

She also starred as Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the 1977 television series “Jesus of Nazareth,” as well as in the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile” and horror movies “Black Christmas” and “Psycho IV: The Beginning.” 

She is survived by her husband, David Glen Eisley, her three children and a grandson. 
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KYIV, UKRAINE — Five months after their shock offensive into Russia, Ukrainian troops are bloodied and demoralized by the rising risk of defeat in Kursk, a region some want to hold at all costs while others question the value of having gone in at all. 

Battles are so intense that some Ukrainian commanders can’t evacuate the dead. Communication lags and poorly timed tactics have cost lives, and troops have little way to counterattack, seven frontline soldiers and commanders told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity so they could discuss sensitive operations. 

Since being caught unaware by the lightning Ukrainian incursion, Russia has amassed more than 50,000 troops in the region, including some from its ally North Korea. Precise numbers are hard to obtain, but Moscow’s counterattack has killed and wounded thousands and the overstretched Ukrainians have lost more than 40% of the 984 square kilometers of Kursk they seized in August. 

Its full-scale invasion three years ago left Russia holding a fifth of Ukraine, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hinted that he hopes controlling Kursk will help force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war. But five Ukrainian and Western officials in Kyiv who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss sensitive military matters said they fear gambling on Kursk will weaken the whole 1,000-kilometer front line, and Ukraine is losing precious ground in the east. 

“We have, as they say, hit a hornet’s nest. We have stirred up another hot spot,” said Stepan Lutsiv, a major in the 95th Airborne Assault Brigade. 

Border raid turned occupation 

Army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has said that Ukraine launched the operation because officials thought Russia was about to launch a new attack on northeast Ukraine. 

It began on August 5 with an order to leave Ukraine’s Sumy region for what they thought would be a nine-day raid to stun the enemy. It became an occupation that Ukrainians welcomed as their smaller country gained leverage and embarrassed Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Gathering his men, one company commander told them: “We’re making history; the whole world will know about us because this hasn’t been done since World War II. 

Privately, he was less certain. 

“It seemed crazy,” he said. “I didn’t understand why.” 

Shocked by the success achieved largely because the Russians were caught by surprise, the Ukrainians were ordered to advance beyond the original mission to the town of Korenevo, 25 kilometers into Russia. That was one of the first places where Russian troops counterattacked. 

By early November the Russians began regaining territory rapidly. Once in awe of what they accomplished, troops’ opinions are now shifting as they come to terms with losses. The company commander said half of his troops were dead or wounded. 

Some frontline commanders said conditions are tough, morale is low, and troops are questioning command decisions, even the very purpose of occupying Kursk. 

Another commander said that some orders his men have received don’t reflect reality because of delays in communication. Delays occur especially when territory is lost to Russian troops, he said. 

“They don’t understand where our side is, where the enemy is, what’s under our control, and what isn’t,” he said. “They don’t understand the operational situation, we so act at our own discretion.” 

One platoon commander said higher-ups have repeatedly turned down his requests to change his unit’s defensive position because he knows his men can’t hold the line. 

“Those people who stand until the end are ending up MIA,” he said. He said he also knows of at least 20 Ukrainian soldiers whose bodies had been abandoned over the last four months because the battles were too intense to evacuate them without more casualties. 

Russia doubles down 

 

Ukrainian soldiers said they were not prepared for the aggressive Russian response in Kursk, and cannot counterattack or pull back. 

“There’s no other option. We’ll fight here because if we just pull back to our borders, they won’t stop; they’ll keep advancing,” said one drone unit commander. 

Ukraine’s General Staff told The Associated Press in a written response to questions that Ukrainian combat units are inflicting losses to Russian personnel and military equipment on a daily basis, and they are provided with “everything necessary” to carry out combat duties. 

“Troops are managed in accordance to situational awareness and operational information, taking into the account the operational situation in areas where tasks are performed,” the response said. 

American longer-range weapons have slowed the Russian advance and North Korean soldiers who joined the fighting last month are easy targets for drones and artillery because they lack combat discipline and often move in large groups in the open, Ukrainian troops said. 

On Monday, Zelenskyy said 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed and wounded. But they appear to be learning from their mistakes, soldiers added, by becoming more adept at camouflaging near forested lines. 

One clash took place last week near Vorontsovo tract, a forested area between the settlements of Kremenne and Vorontsovo. 

Until last week, the area was under Ukraine’s control. This week part of it has been lost to Russian forces and Ukrainian troops fear they will reach a crucial logistics route. 

Eyeing frontline losses in the eastern region known as the Donbas — where Russia is closing on a crucial supply hub — some soldiers are more vocal about whether Kursk has been worth it. 

“All the military can think about now is that Donbas has simply been sold,” the platoon commander said. “At what price?”
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As Russia’s war against Ukraine enters its third year, centers focused on soldiers’ rehabilitation and mental health are appearing across Ukraine. An active serviceman started one such place in his native village in the Carpathian Mountains. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story. Videographer and video editor: Yuriy Dankevych
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ISTANBUL — A delegation from Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish DEM party is due on Saturday to visit jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence on a prison island off Istanbul, a party source said.

“The delegation left in the morning,” the source told AFP, without elaborating how they would travel to the island for security reasons.

The visit would be the party’s first in almost 10 years.

DEM’s predecessor, the HDP party, last met Ocalan in April 2015.

On Friday, the government approved DEM’s request to visit Ocalan, who founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, nearly half a century ago and has languished in solitary confinement since 1999.

The PKK is regarded as a terror organization by Turkey and most of its Western allies, including the United States and European Union.

The DEM party delegation is made up of two lawmakers — Sirri Sureyya Onder and Pervin Buldan. They are not expected to make a statement after the visit, the same source told AFP.

Detained 25 years ago in a Hollywood-style operation by Turkish security forces in Kenya after years on the run, Ocalan was sentenced to death.

He escaped the gallows when Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2004 and is spending his remaining years in an isolation cell on the Imrali prison island south of Istanbul.

Saturday’s rare visit became possible after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist ally Devlet Bahceli invited Ocalan to come to parliament to renounce “terror” and to disband the militant group.

Bahceli, who heads the ultra-nationalist MHP party, is fiercely hostile to the PKK.

Erdogan backed the unprecedented appeal as a “historic window of opportunity.”

“My dear Kurdish brothers, we expect you to firmly grasp [Bahceli’s] sincerely outstretched hand,” he said in October, urging them to join in efforts to build what he called the “century of Turkey.”

Soon after Bahceli’s call, Ocalan was allowed his first family visit since March 2020, prompting DEM to make its own request to the Justice Ministry to visit the 75-year-old militant.

PKK militants subsequently claimed responsibility for an attack in October on a Turkish defense firm that killed five. That delayed the government approval of DEM’s request.

For several years up to 2015, Ocalan was engaged in talks with authorities, when then-Prime Minister Erdogan called for a solution for what is often called Turkey’s “Kurdish problem.”

The peace process and a truce collapsed in 2015, sparking the resumption of violence, especially in the Kurdish-majority southeast.

The government’s surprise olive branch to the Kurds comes after rebels in neighboring Syria overthrew strongman president Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8.

Turkey routinely targets Kurdish fighters in northern Syria and Iraq.
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Ukraine said on Saturday it had struck a storage and maintenance depot for long-range Shahed drones in Russia’s Oryol region, adding that this had “significantly reduced” Russia’s ability to launch mass drone attacks on Ukraine.

Ukraine military’s general staff said in a statement on Telegram the attack took place on Thursday and was conducted by Ukraine’s air force.

“As a result of the strike, a depot for storage, maintenance and repair of Shahed kamikaze drones, made of several protected concrete structures, was destroyed,” it said.

“This military operation has significantly reduced the enemy’s potential in terms of conducting air raids of strike drones on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.”

Moscow has not made any comment on the attack. Russia has regularly launched missile and drone attacks on Ukraine throughout its 34-month invasion.

For the past several months, Moscow has launched near-daily barrages of dozens of drones at Ukraine, hoping to damage its infrastructure and wear down air defenses leaving them less able to shoot down missiles.

Ukraine’s air force said earlier on Saturday it had downed 15 out of 16 drones launched by Russia overnight, with the other one disappearing from radar.
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VOA Russian speaks to aviation expert Konstantin Kryvolap, who takes apart Moscow’s official versions of the crash of the Russia-bound Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan and says a Russian missile was the only viable cause. Kryvolap says as soon as the first photos and videos from the crash site started to trickle in, this became obvious, taking into account the shrapnel damage on the plane fuselage.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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VOA Russian spoke with U.S. officials, politicians and experts to see how U.S. relations with China and Russia could change under the incoming Donald Trump administration. Experts say Beijing may be worried about Trump’s plans for the swift end of the war in Ukraine, while North Korea’s involvement in the war could become a lightning rod in China-Russia relations.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on the founder of Georgia’s ruling political party, which has steered the country away from a pro-Western stance and toward Russia, U.S. officials said Friday.

The State and Treasury departments said they hit Georgian Dream party founder and honorary chair Bidzina Ivanishvili with penalties “for undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation,” according to a statement.

The designation of Ivanishvili is the latest in a series of sanctions the United States has slapped on Georgian politicians, lawmakers and others this year. The sanctions include freezes on assets and properties that those targeted may have in U.S. jurisdictions or that might enter U.S. jurisdictions as well as travel bans on the targets and members of their families.

“We strongly condemn Georgian Dream’s actions under Ivanishvili’s leadership, including its ongoing and violent repression of Georgian citizens, protestors, members of the media, human rights activists, and opposition figures,” the State Department said in a statement. “The United States is committed to promoting accountability for those undermining democracy and human rights in Georgia.”

Ivanishvili is a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia and served briefly as Georgia’s prime minister. In 2012, he founded Georgian Dream, the longtime ruling party.

Critics have accused Georgian Dream of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow. The party recently pushed through laws like those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights, prompting the European Union to suspend Georgia’s membership application process indefinitely.

In October, Georgian Dream won another term in a divisive parliamentary election that has led to more mass protests. Last month, the country’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, announced a four-year suspension of talks on Georgia’s bid to join the European Union, fueling further public outrage.
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BAMAKO, MALI — Nearly 70 migrants died when their boat sank as they tried to reach Spain earlier this month, Mali’s Minister for Malians Living Abroad said.

In a press release Thursday, Mossa Ag Attaher announced that a migrant boat bound for Spain sank on Dec. 19. The migrants in this boat “numbered 80 at the start, with only 11 survivors,” according to the Ministry. The Malian authorities have identified nine Malians among the survivors, and “25 young Malians have unfortunately been formally identified among the victims,” the minister added.

The Atlantic route for migrants from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the deadliest in the world. Located nearer to Africa than mainland Spain, the archipelago is seen by most as a step toward continental Europe. Many of those making the journey come from Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, and other West African countries, seeking better job opportunities abroad or fleeing violence and political instability.

Several of the Malian victims are from the Kayes region in the west of the country, according to Doulaye Keita, adviser to the ministry, in a statement to the AP on Friday.

“Among the 25 Malians dead, there are 8 Malians from my commune,” Mamadou Siby, the mayor of the commune of Marena in the Kayes region, told The Associated Press.

“These dead young men left my commune seven months ago to work in the construction industry in Mauritania. Unfortunately, they were in contact with their friends in Europe and America, who encouraged them to come to these countries, and in most cases, they took the perilous journey without even informing their families back home.”
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Brussels — NATO will bolster its military presence in the Baltic Sea after the suspected sabotage of an undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia this week, the Western military alliance’s chief Mark Rutte said on Friday.

On Christmas Day, the Estlink 2 submarine cable that carries electricity from Finland to Estonia was disconnected from the grid, just over a month after two telecommunications cables were severed in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic.

Finnish authorities on Thursday said they were investigating the oil tanker, Eagle S, that sailed from a Russian port, as part of a probe for “aggravated sabotage.”

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on Friday: “We’ve got the situation under control, and we have to continue to work together vigilantly to make sure that our critical infrastructure is not damaged by outsiders.”

Officials suspect the tanker is part of the Russian “shadow fleet”, which refers to ships that transport Russian crude and oil products embargoed due to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Eagle S vessel, which flies under the flag of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, was en route to Port Said in Egypt. Police suspect that the oil tanker’s anchor might have damaged the power cable.

Rutte said he spoke to President Stubb about Finland’s probe, adding in a post on X: “I expressed my full solidarity and support. NATO will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea.”

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur earlier on Friday said on X that the country began naval patrols to protect the undersea cable supplying electricity from Finland.

In a separate statement he said Tallinn wanted to send a clear message it was ready to protect its power connections with Finland with military and non-military means.

Rutte on Thursday promised NATO support to Estonia and Finland, and condemned attacks on critical infrastructure after speaking to Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal.

More EU sanctions

The European Union has also threatened further sanctions against Russia’s shadow fleet after this week’s incident.

The bloc’s 27 member states agreed earlier this month to blacklist around 50 more oil tankers from Russia’s shadow fleet used to circumvent Western sanctions, taking the number targeted to around 80.

Ukraine’s international backers have looked to curb funds going to the Kremlin’s war machine by imposing a price cap and restrictions on Russia’s key oil exports.

To skirt the measures, Russia has resorted to using a so-called “shadow fleet” of often ageing vessels that operate under dubious ownership or without proper insurance.

Tensions have mounted around the Baltic since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In September 2022, a series of underwater blasts ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines that carried Russian gas to Europe, the cause of which has yet to be determined.

In October 2023, an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down after it was damaged by the anchor of a Chinese cargo ship.

On November 17 and 18 this year, sections of two telecom cables were cut in Swedish territorial waters. Suspicions have been directed at the Yi Peng 3, which according to ship tracking sites had sailed over the cables around the time they were cut.
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FRANKFURT, Germany — German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday ordered parliament dissolved and set new elections for Feb. 23 in the wake of the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition.  

Scholz lost a confidence vote on Dec. 16 and leads a minority government after his unpopular and notoriously rancorous three-party coalition collapsed on Nov. 6 when he fired his finance minister in a dispute over how to revitalize Germany’s stagnant economy.  

Leaders of several major parties then agreed that a parliamentary election should be held on Feb. 23, seven months earlier than originally planned. 

Since the post-World War II constitution doesn’t allow the Bundestag to dissolve itself, it was up to Steinmeier to decide whether to dissolve parliament and call an election. He had 21 days to make that decision. Once parliament is dissolved, the election must be held within 60 days. 

In practice, the campaign is already well underway. Polls show Scholz’s party trailing the conservative opposition Union bloc led by Friedrich Merz. Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck of the environmentalist Greens, the remaining partner in Scholz’s government, is also bidding for the top job — though his party is further back. If recent polls hold up, the likely next government would be led by Merz as chancellor in coalition with at least one other party.  

Key issues include immigration, how to get the sluggish economy going, and how best to aid Ukraine in its struggle against Russia.  

The populist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which is polling strongly, has nominated Alice Weidel as its candidate for chancellor but has no chance of taking the job because other parties refuse to work with it.  

Germany’s electoral system traditionally produces coalitions, and polls show no party anywhere near an absolute majority on its own. The election is expected to be followed by weeks of negotiations to form a new government. 

It’s only the fourth time that the Bundestag has been dissolved ahead of schedule under Germany’s post-World War II constitution. It happened under Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1972, Helmut Kohl in 1982 and Gerhard Schroeder in 2005. Schroeder used the confidence vote to engineer an early election narrowly won by center-right challenger Angela Merkel.  
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CHISINAU, MOLDOVA — The parliament in ex-Soviet Moldova, controlled by pro-Western lawmakers, approved a 10-year defense strategy on Thursday calling for increased military spending as part of a plan to join the European Union.

The chamber’s pro-Russian opposition ridiculed the document as pointlessly directed against Moscow in view of Moldova’s small land mass and armed forces.

The document, presented by Defense Minister Anatolie Nosatii, aims to boost military spending by 2030 to 1% of gross domestic product, with figures showing increases already being put into place.

“The first step to implementing this was taken after the war in Ukraine started, by increasing budget resources for defense to 0.39% in 2022 and 0.55% in 2023,” the document said.

One of Europe’s poorest countries, lying between Ukraine and EU member Romania, Moldova is a candidate to join the EU, with a membership date set for 2030. It is not considering joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as the country’s neutral status is set down in its constitution.

The document says Moldova’s neutral status requires it to boost partnerships with different countries and international organizations to strengthen its national defense. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has jolted Moldova as drone fragments land on its territory and missiles aimed at Ukrainian targets pass through its airspace.

Pro-Western President Maia Sandu, reelected to a second term last month, though by a smaller margin than anticipated, has accused Russia of trying to unseat her government.

Members of the pro-Moscow Socialist Party dismissed the document as meaningless.

“If, God forbid, we are subject to an attack from the direction of the Russian Federation, how long do you think Moldova will resist such aggression?” Socialist member Adrian Albu asked the minister.

The document cites risks of the Ukraine conflict spreading, particularly around the Black Sea port of Odesa close to Moldova’s border.
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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korea’s spy agency said Friday it had confirmed that a North Korean soldier sent to back Russia’s war against Ukraine had been captured by Ukrainian forces.

Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to reinforce Russian troops, including in the Kursk border region where Ukraine mounted a shock border incursion in August.

“Through real-time information sharing with an allied country’s intelligence agency, it has been confirmed that one injured North Korean soldier has been captured,” South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said in a statement.

The soldier was captured by the Ukrainian army, an intelligence source told AFP, adding that the location where he was seized was unknown.

The first confirmation of the capture of a North Korean soldier came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or wounded” so far.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff also said Monday that more than 1,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded.

The JCS had also said that Pyongyang is reportedly “preparing for the rotation or additional deployment of soldiers” and supplying “240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery” to the Russian army.

Seoul’s military believes that North Korea was seeking to modernize its conventional warfare capabilities through combat experience gained in the Russia-Ukraine war.

North Korean state media said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a New Year’s message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying “the bilateral ties between our two countries have been elevated after our talks in June in Pyongyang.”

A landmark defense pact went into effect in December after the two sides exchanged ratification documents.

Putin hailed the deal in June as a “breakthrough document.”
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The Kremlin completed preparations to isolate the Russian segment of the internet from the rest of the World Wide Web, experts told VOA Russian. The Kremlin may implement severe internet restrictions in 2025, mirroring Iran’s experience of blocking undesirable web traffic. Experts note that YouTube speeds in Russia are 20% of the pre-war speeds, meaning that YouTube is essentially blocked in Russia.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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Both Russia and Ukraine expanded the use of drones in 2024 as a relatively cheap means of warfare that requires an opponent to use a much more expensive air defense system. Moscow and Kyiv acquired 1.5 million drones between them in the past year, with Ukraine hitting thousands of targets inside Russia in recent months.

Click here for the full story in Russian.

 
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FRANKFURT, GERMANY — Finnish authorities have detained a Russia-linked ship as they investigate whether it damaged a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables, according to police and news media reports, in the latest incident involving disruption of key infrastructure.

Finnish police and border guards boarded the vessel, the Eagle S, just past midnight Thursday and took over the command bridge, Helsinki Police Chief Jari Liukku said at a news conference. The vessel was intercepted in Finland’s exclusive economic zone and taken to Finnish territorial waters, police said.

The Eagle S is flagged in the Cook Islands but was described by Finnish customs officials as a suspected part of Russia’s shadow fleet of fuel tankers, Yle television reported. Those are aging vessels with obscure ownership, acquired to evade Western sanctions over the war against Ukraine and operating without Western-regulated insurance.

The Eagle S’s anchor is suspected of causing damage to the cable, Yle reported, relying on police statements.

The Estlink-2 power cable, which brings electricity from Finland to Estonia across the Baltic Sea, went down just after noon on Wednesday. The incident follows damage to two data cables and the Nord Stream gas pipelines, both of which have been termed sabotage.

The Estonian government was holding a meeting on the issue Thursday, Prime Minister Kristen Michal said on X.

Two data cables — one running between Finland and Germany and the other between Lithuania and Sweden — were severed in November. Germany’s defense minister said officials had to assume the incident was “sabotage,” but he did not provide evidence or say who might have been responsible. The remark came during a speech in which he discussed hybrid warfare threats from Russia.

The Nord Stream pipelines that once brought natural gas from Russia to Germany were damaged by underwater explosions in September 2022. Authorities have said the cause was sabotage and launched criminal probes.

Estonian network operator Elering says there was enough spare capacity to meet power needs on the Estonian side, public broadcaster ERR said on its website.
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