After three years of relentless war, Ukraine is facing a mental health crisis, with hospitals overwhelmed by soldiers suffering from anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Doctors say the hidden wounds could linger for decades. Yan Boechat reports from Lviv in western Ukraine.
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The Church of England will seek to bring disciplinary proceedings against 10 clerics including former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, it said on Tuesday, implementing recommendations from an abuse report last year. 

The CoE, central to 85 million Anglicans worldwide, has been in crisis over safeguarding the vulnerable since the November report, which said ex-leader Justin Welby had taken insufficient action to stop one of the church’s most prolific serial abusers. Welby eventually stepped down over the findings. 

Eight priests and a former bishop were also listed among those potentially facing disciplinary action in the CoE statement as the CoE concluded its own independent review into all clergy criticized in last year’s report. 

That report found that the late John Smyth, a British lawyer who volunteered at Christian summer camps, subjected more than 100 boys and young men to “brutal and horrific” physical and sexual abuse over a 40-year period. 

The potential outcomes of the CoE’s disciplinary process, which is at its first stage, could result in various penalties ranging from a permanent ban from ministry to resignation by consent. 

“We must not forget that at the heart of this case are the survivors and victims who have endured the lifelong effects of the appalling abuse by John Smyth. We are truly sorry,” Alexander Kubeyinje, the CoE’s National Director of Safeguarding, said in the statement. 

“The Church is committed to taking very seriously its response to the findings of the review as well as responding to its recommendations.” 

 
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Multiple regions of Ukraine came under aerial attack from Russian forces overnight, with officials in Kyiv and Sumy saying Tuesday there were injuries and damage to buildings.

Mykola Kalashnyk, governor of the Kyiv region, said a 44-year-old woman was hospitalized as a result of the attacks, which also damaged several houses.

Officials in Sumy said Ukrainian air defenses shot down seven drones, but that the attacks injured two people and damaged two apartment buildings.

Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said Tuesday on Telegram that the military destroyed 20 drones over his region. Taburets said there were no reports of injuries or damage.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhiy Lysak said air defenses destroyed three Russian drones, while Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said the military shot down seven drones in his region.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it shot down 20 Ukrainian drones overnight, mostly over the Bryansk region that is located along the Russia-Ukraine border.

Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram there were no injuries from the Ukrainian attack.

Other intercepts took place over the Kursk and Kaluga regions, the Defense Ministry said.

Some information for this story was provided by Reuters
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President Donald Trump says he’s nearing a deal with Ukraine and Russia to end the war in Ukraine, after a packed day of meetings at the White House with France’s leader, Emmanuel Macron, where he urged Europe to take a bigger role, and Paris pushed for more assurances from Moscow. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
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STATE DEPARTMENT — Three years into Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, China is closely monitoring U.S. President Donald Trump’s strategy to end the war, as Beijing calculates its moves to position itself as a strategic partner for Ukraine while maintaining a no‐limits partnership with Russia, according to experts and former officials. 

This week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are set to hold in-person meetings in Washington, following the Feb. 18 direct talks between senior U.S. and Russian officials in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. 

Macron met with Trump Monday morning at the White House for a meeting that lasted nearly two hours. Both leaders participated in a videoconference with other G7 leaders about Ukraine.  

Earlier on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who updated Xi on the Riyadh talks and reaffirmed the “comprehensive strategic partnership” between Russia and China. A Chinese readout said, “China welcomes the positive efforts made by Russia and relevant parties to resolve the crisis.” 

‘Crisis’ but not war 

For three years, Chinese officials have said Beijing will “play a constructive role” in the “political settlement of the crisis,” refraining from using the term “Ukraine war” to describe Russia’s aggression since Feb. 24, 2022. 

Beijing also commended the recent U.S.-Russia talks, during which Ukraine was not present. 

China and Ukraine “established a strategic partnership in 2011. … In recent years, China has been Ukraine’s largest trading partner,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Feb. 15 on the margins of the Munich Security Conference. 

“Regarding the Ukrainian crisis … China has always worked for peace and promoted talks,” Wang said. Notably, the Chinese readout of the meeting made no mention of Ukraine’s sovereignty or territorial integrity. 

On Feb. 20, two days after the U.S.-Russia talks, Wang held in-person discussions with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the G20 ministerial meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, where Lavrov briefed him on the Riyadh talks. Wang reaffirmed China’s “comprehensive strategic partnership” with Russia. 

Wang said China “supports” all efforts dedicated to peace, including “the recent consensus reached between the United States and Russia” in Riyadh. 

Talks, not negotiations 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Riyadh talks — the first between Washington and Moscow in years — were not negotiations aimed at striking any deal on Ukraine, despite concerns from Ukraine and European countries that they were being sidelined.  

He said the talks were intended to determine whether the Russians were serious about ending the war.  

In a measured tone, Rubio characterized the talks — which lasted for more than four hours — as steps toward establishing “lines of communication” on bilateral issues between the United States and Russia. Among these efforts is the goal of achieving “some normalcy in our missions and their ability to function.” 

Some analysts said Beijing is nervous over a reset of U.S.-Russia ties.   

“While a complete rapprochement might not be in the cards, they’re nervous because if Trump lifts sanctions on Russia, then Moscow’s dependency on China decreases,” Dennis Wilder, who was a top White House China adviser to former U.S. President George W. Bush, told RFE/RL.  

But others warned that the U.S. risked bolstering China’s global information campaign, which portrays Washington as an unreliable ally. 

Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, a defense analyst at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), said, “We immediately gave away what leverage we had” and “misattributed who the aggressor was” while rushing into talks with the Russians. 

China, “stumbling into this good news,” certainly gets the benefit, Montgomery said in a recent webinar hosted by FDD.  

“I have no doubt that diplomats from China are whispering in ears around the world about the unreliability of Americans, and unfortunately, this administration is giving them some talking points,” Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the FDD, said during the webinar. 

Experts skeptical 

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson declined to comment on whether China would consider sending peacekeeping forces to Ukraine after the conflict ends.

Xi and Putin are scheduled to exchange visits to Moscow and Beijing later this year. The two held a virtual meeting on Jan. 21. Additionally, Xi took a phone call from Putin on the afternoon of Feb. 24. 

Some former U.S. officials are skeptical about the extent to which the Chinese government is genuinely willing to act to stop Russia’s war on Ukraine. They believe China may use the issue as leverage in its dealings with Trump. 

“I think the Chinese will look at the Ukraine issue, and they will offer some help to Trump. They probably won’t do very much, and then they will claim success,” Evan Medeiros, director of Georgetown University’s Asian Studies program, said during a recent podcast with the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program. Medeiros served on the White House National Security Council from 2009 to 2015. 

“Anything that is in their direct material interests, like helping to rebuild Ukraine, they will embrace. But of course, that doesn’t have to do with encouraging Russia to reach a peace deal. That’s about ensuring that Chinese infrastructure companies get lots of big fat contracts,” Medeiros added.   
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Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has ruled the republic since 2007, said he wants to remain in power for life.

VOA Russian spoke to regional experts who believe that despite this being illegal according to Russian laws, Kadyrov will resist stepping down in 2026 when his term ends.

Oleg Orlov from the Nobel Prize-winning Memorial group draws parallels between Kadyrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin, both relying on repression to continue their rule.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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VOA Russian spoke to independent analyst Jakub Janovsky who documents Russian military equipment losses in the war with Ukraine. He noted that Russia has lost 136 military planes and 151 helicopters in three years of the war, reducing its aviation fleet so Moscow now relies more on long-range missiles and drones.

Janovsky also said Russia has noticeably reduced the use of the heavy military equipment, such as tanks and armored fighting vehicles, on the frontline in Ukraine in the past several months, though the reasons for that are unknown.

Click here for the full story in Russian.

 
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ROME — Pope Francis was resting Monday morning after a quiet night, on the 10th day of his hospitalization for a complex lung infection that has provoked the early stages of kidney failure, the Vatican said.

The one-line statement didn’t say if Francis, 88, had woken up. “The night passed well, the pope slept and is resting,” it said.

Late Sunday, doctors reported that blood tests showed early kidney failure that was nevertheless under control. They said Francis remained in critical condition but that he hadn’t experienced any further respiratory crises since Saturday.

He was receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen and, on Sunday, was alert, responsive and attended Mass. They said his prognosis was guarded.

Doctors have said Francis’ condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease. They have warned that the main threat facing Francis is sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia.

To date there has been no reference to any onset of sepsis in the medical updates provided by the Vatican, including on Sunday.

Monday marks Francis’ 10th day in the hospital, making this equal to the longest hospitalization of his papacy. He spent 10 days at Rome’s Gemelli hospital in 2021 after he had 33 centimeters of his colon removed.

In New York on Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan acknowledged what church leaders in Rome weren’t saying publicly: that the Catholic faithful were united “at the bedside of a dying father.”

“As our Holy Father Pope Francis is in very, very fragile health, and probably close to death,” Dolan said in his homily from the pulpit of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, though he later told reporters he hoped and prayed that Francis would “bounce back.”

Doctors have said Francis’ condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease. His condition has revived speculation about what might happen if he becomes unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, and whether he might resign.
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MARSEILLE, France — Two projectiles were thrown at the perimeter wall of Russia’s consulate in the southern French port city of Marseille on Monday, one of which exploded, a French security source said.

It was not immediately clear if the projectiles cleared the wall. BFM TV said the projectiles were Molotov cocktails and that they landed in the consulate’s garden.

Russia demanded a full French investigation and said the incident looked like an act of terrorism, state news agency TASS reported.

No one was injured, the security source said. Consulate staff were kept indoors and police set up a security perimeter around the consulate.

The incident in the southern French city took place on the third anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war.

“The explosions on the territory of the Russian Consulate General in Marseille have all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack,” TASS quoted Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.
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