World leaders on Monday are congratulating President Donald Trump on his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was among those who congratulated Trump.

“President Trump is always decisive, and the peace through strength policy he announced provides an opportunity to strengthen American leadership and achieve a long-term and just peace, which is a top priority,” Zelenskyy said.

The third anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war is approaching at the end of February.

Trump previously promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war in one day after becoming president, or even before his inauguration. More recently, Trump advisers have said resolving the conflict will now take months or even longer.

Trump has voiced skepticism of continued U.S. military support for Kyiv.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also congratulated President Trump.

“I believe that working together again will raise the U.S.-Israeli alliance to even greater heights,” Netanyahu said.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began Sunday, just one day before Trump assumed the presidency.

“I look forward to working with you to return the remaining hostages, to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and end its political rule in Gaza, and to ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu added.

Congratulations also rolled in from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as well as U.S. allies like Germany, Italy and Britain.

“The U.S. is our closest ally, and the aim of our policy is always a good transatlantic relationship,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pointed to the longtime relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.

“For centuries, the relationship between our two nations has been one of collaboration, cooperation and enduring partnership,” Starmer said. “With President Trump’s longstanding affection and historical ties to the United Kingdom, I know that depth of friendship will continue.”

And Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who attended the inauguration at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, said she is “certain that the friendship between our nations and the values that unite us will continue to strengthen the cooperation between Italy and the USA.”

But not all of the messages were congratulatory.

Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino rejected a portion of Trump’s inaugural address, in which Trump reaffirmed his desire to reassert U.S. control over the Panama Canal.

The United States fully ceded control of the strategically important canal to Panama in 1999.

“On behalf of the Republic of Panama and its people, I must fully reject the words outlined by President Donald Trump regarding Panama and its canal in his inaugural speech,” Mulino said in a statement.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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Ukraine’s military said Monday it shot down 93 of the 141 drones that Russian forces launched overnight in attacks targeting regions across the country.

The intercepts took place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy and Vinnytsia regions, Ukraine’s air force said.

Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram that Russian attacks, which also included artillery and missiles, damaged four high-rise buildings.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday it destroyed more than 30 Ukrainian aerial drones late Sunday and early Monday.

Kaluga Governor Vladislav Shapsha said on Telegram that falling debris from a destroyed drone sparked a fire at a business that was quickly extinguished.

In Belgorod, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a drone attack hit a car, injuring a woman. The Ukrainian assault also damaged six houses, Gladkov said.

Russian air defense also shot down drones over the Bryansk, Kursk, Ryazan, Oryol and Tatarstan regions.

Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Vatican City — Pope Francis called Sunday for a ceasefire in Gaza to be “immediately respected,” as he thanked mediators and urged a boost in humanitarian aid as well as the return of hostages.

“I express gratitude to all the mediators,” the Argentine pontiff said shortly after the start of a truce between Israel and Hamas began.

“Thanks to all the parties involved in this important outcome. I hope that, as agreed, it will be immediately respected by the parties and that all the hostages will finally be able to go home to hug their loved ones again,” he said.

“I pray so much for them, and their families. I also hope that humanitarian aid will even more quickly reach… the people of Gaza, who have so many urgent needs,” Francis said.

“Both Israelis and Palestinians need clear signs of hope. I hope that the political authorities of both, with the help of the international community, can reach the right two-state solution.

“May everyone say yes to dialogue, yes to reconciliation, yes to peace,” he added.

A total of 33 hostages taken by militants during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel are scheduled to be returned from Gaza during an initial 42-day truce.

Under the deal, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are to be released from Israeli jails.

The truce is intended to pave the way for an end to more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas’ attack, the deadliest in Israeli history.

It follows a deal struck by mediators Qatar, the United States and Egypt after months of negotiations, and takes effect on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president.
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At 23, American Army veteran Manus McCaffery volunteered to join the fight against Russian aggression in Ukraine. In 2022, a Russian shell left him partially blind, but despite his wounds he continues to fight for those on the front lines. Ivanna Pidborska met with McCaffery. Anna Rice narrates her story. VOA footage by Iurii Panin.
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PARIS — France’s President Emmanuel Macron has paid tribute to former French Resistance activist and author Genevieve Callerot, who has died at age 108.

Callerot, who was among the last survivors of the groups that fought the country’s World War II occupation by Nazi Germany, died Thursday in a care home in Saint-Aulaye-Puymangou, a town in the Dordogne region of southwestern France where she had lived since childhood, according to local media reports.

A statement from the presidential Elysee Palace said Macron offered “his heartfelt condolences to her loved ones, to all those who were illuminated by her solar presence, and finally to those whose lives she saved.”

Callerot “takes with her a little piece of France, a certain France that is tough on suffering and intimidation, tender toward the beauty of the world, as quick to raise its fist in the face of oppression as it is to extend its hand,” the statement said.

Born in 1916, Callerot was 24 when France surrendered to Adolf Hitler’s invasion forces in June 1940, an event “which forever marked her life and revealed her to herself,” the statement said.

It said she and her family joined a Resistance network that smuggled people across the demarcation line that separated Nazi-occupied areas that included Paris, northern France and the country’s Atlantic seaboard and the so-called free zone governed by the French Vichy administration that collaborated with the Nazi occupiers.

She participated in the escape of 200 men and women, including Jews and American and British war-wounded, “whose lives she saved with anonymous heroism, and who often never knew what they owed” her, Macron’s office said. It said German forces took her into custody three times — twice releasing her for lack of evidence and holding her in prison for several weeks the third time.

She and her husband worked as farmers after the war.

When she was 67, she published her first novel — Les cinq filles du Grand-Barrail, or The Five Girls of Grand-Barrail — about a family of sharecroppers. 
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WARSAW, POLAND — Hundreds of Swedish troops arrived in Latvia on Saturday to join a Canadian-led multinational brigade along NATO’s eastern flank, a mission Sweden is calling its most significant operation so far as a member of the Western defense alliance.

A ship carrying parts of a mechanized infantry battalion arrived early Saturday in the port of Riga, the Latvian capital, escorted by the Swedish air force and units from the Swedish and Latvian navies, the Swedish armed forces said in a statement.

Latvia borders Russia to its east and Russia ally Belarus to its southeast. Tensions are high across Central Europe due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sweden’s armed forces said that the mission of 550 troops will contribute to the alliance’s deterrence and defense efforts and ensure stability in the region, and that it “marks Sweden’s largest commitment yet since joining NATO” last year.

Commander Lieutenant Colonel Henrik Rosdahl of the 71st Battalion said he felt great pride in contributing to the alliance’s collective defense.

“It’s a historic day, but at the same time, it’s our new normal,” he said.

The Swedish troops join one of eight NATO brigades along the alliance’s eastern flank. The battalion is stationed outside the town of Adazi, near Riga.

Sweden formally joined NATO in March as the 32nd member of the trans-Atlantic military alliance, ending decades of post-World War II neutrality and centuries of broader nonalignment with major powers as security concerns in Europe spiked following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Finland also abandoned its longstanding military neutrality to join NATO in April 2023.
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PRAGUE — “Are you going to ask why I brought you here?” asked Alexey Levchenko as he arrived in Prague’s Smichov neighborhood.

It was a brisk October morning, and the editor of the Russian outlet The Insider had suggested the meeting place: a small park with a Baroque fountain featuring the Roman god Neptune held aloft by bears.

The neighborhood’s architecture, Levchenko said, reminds him of Russia’s second-biggest city, St. Petersburg. 

“It’s difficult to know that I can’t come back to St. Petersburg,” said Levchenko, who often visited the city from his home in Moscow. “It’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and one of my favorites.”

Levchenko left Russia in 2021, a few months before the war began in Ukraine. He made his way to Prague, which has a history as a hub for dissident writers.

Although the Czech capital was once subject to Soviet rule, it’s different from Russia, Levchenko said. But for a fleeting moment, when he visits the Smichov neighborhood, the similarities can make him feel as if his life hasn’t been upended.

Watchdogs estimate about 1,500 journalists fled Russia after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and escalated its repression of dissent and independent media. Some journalists went to Berlin, Riga and Tbilisi. Others, like Levchenko, found refuge in Prague.

And while they enjoy a degree of safety to continue reporting, the journalists must also contend with the emotional turmoil that comes with being forced to leave your family and friends, your home and culture, for an unfamiliar place.

The journalists also maintain a fractured relationship with their homeland, characterized by nostalgia and homesickness as well as hope and a commitment to the work that forced them into exile in the first place.

Some, like Levchenko, look for comfort in their new surroundings. Others turn to the experiences of exiles who came before them.

After Alesya Marokhovskaya left Moscow in 2022, she began reading the memoirs of other Russian exiles. The editor-in-chief of the investigative outlet IStories says she found some solace and camaraderie in their writing.

She read the works of writers such as Boris Zaitsev, Vladimir Veidle and Marina Tsvetaeva, the latter of whom lived in exile during the 1920s and 1930s, including in Prague.

Marokhovskaya hoped their experiences would offer some guidance or wisdom. But what struck her most was that their writing often centered around a deep longing to return to Russia.

“They just lived for this goal, and they forgot to live in real life,” Marokhovskaya said when we met outside a cafe in Prague.

Unlike those exiles, Marokhovskaya decided she couldn’t cling to what was likely a false hope. She accepts that she may never return home. “I will try to create my life where I am,” she said.

Moscow has long targeted independent journalists with lawsuits, arrests and killings, say watchdogs. But repression reached new heights after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022.

A law that prohibits spreading what Moscow deems “false information” about the war has made it all but impossible for Russian journalists to report accurately on the conflict. The penalty is 15 years in prison.

The severe risks forced many journalists to make a difficult decision. Anna Ryzhkova, who works with the Russian outlet Verstka, left her family and friends for exile in Tbilisi and later Prague. But if she had stayed in Russia, she says, she would have needed to stop her work to stay safe. That would have been the ultimate sacrifice.

“If I stayed in Moscow, and I saw my colleagues working and me staying silent, I think that would be sacrificing,” Ryzhkova said.

Like Marokhovskaya, Ryzhkova has resigned herself to the reality that returning home is a far-off prospect. “I will need to build something new here,” she said.

More than 1,500 kilometers now lie between her and Russia, but Ryzhkova and the other exiles I spoke with said their homeland consumes a large part of their daily lives. It’s a jarring tension that leaves some feeling as if they left part of themselves behind in Russia.

“I’m working in Russia in my mind,” Marokhovskaya said. “It’s really not easy. Sometimes I’m falling asleep, and I’m still there, still in Russia, not here.”

It’s common for exiles to feel caught between different places and never truly at home, according to Lyndsey Stonebridge, a professor at the University of Birmingham who writes about exile. “You’re always existing in two places at once,” she said.

Toward the end of World War II, the concept of “inner emigration” emerged to describe people who stayed in Nazi Germany but whose minds moved elsewhere as a form of resistance. Exiled Russian journalists appear to have flipped that concept, Stonebridge said, because they physically left Russia, but their minds remain at home.

Outside the cafe in Prague, as trams rumble past every few minutes, Marokhovskaya said she counts the city of Moscow among the things she misses the most. Gazing into her half-drunk cappuccino, she said, “The main problem is I miss a Moscow that doesn’t exist anymore because the city has changed.”

Moscow is now filled with banners and advertisements for people to join the army. Pro-war “Z” posters and symbols are everywhere. The mood is different, she said.

Being in exile often brings mixed feelings, including homesickness and grief, Stonebridge said. “You must be in mourning for the country you’ve left, but also the country that you think you could still live in,” she said.

That longing can also reflect optimism for the future, Stonebridge said. “It’s not just nostalgia, but nostalgia’s twin, which is hope,” she said.

That phenomenon is underscored in the mindset of many of the journalists who say they are committed to reporting on Russia because they are committed to improving their country.

“It’s really easy to hate the government and love the country,” Marokhovskaya said. “I’m a patriot for my country, and the Russian government — they’re not.”

In his 1984 essay on exile in the literary magazine Granta, the Palestinian American academic Edward Said warned against romanticizing exile.

“Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place,” wrote Said, who was exiled himself.

For Ryzhkova, the homesickness is constant. ”It is something that I feel in the air at any time,” she said. “It’s not that it really hurts much, but it is still with you every moment.”

The journalist speaks with her family every day, but she finds it upsetting to know that she can’t help as much as if she had stayed. When her grandmother broke her leg recently, Ryzhkova said, all she could do was call to check on her. “That is really painful for me,” she said.

Ryzhkova, like the other journalists I spoke with, is grateful to the Czech government for providing a haven. But feeling out of place is inevitable.

Still, brief moments offer a respite — like a concert by the Russian singer Zemfira, who has lived in exile herself since the start of the war. Everyone at the concert spoke Russian, Ryzhkova said. “That’s a nice feeling,” she said.

Back in Smichov on the tour of what reminds Levchenko of home, he proclaimed that “nostalgia is not only buildings.”

It is found in other things, too, like a Russian supermarket that offers a taste of home. Across the Vltava River, the store is where Levchenko comes when he and his Russian friends have parties. Here, he can purchase Russian pickles and cabbage, caviar and vodka.

The store also sells colognes that Levchenko said were popular during the Soviet years, and wool caps that are worn when visiting Russian saunas known as banya. Not all saunas are created equal, Levchenko said, but Czech saunas are an adequate replacement for the banya that Levchenko frequented in Moscow.

His tour ended at Pelmenarna, a restaurant specializing in Russian dumplings called pelmeni and vareniky. Levchenko ordered the ones filled with beef and pork.

“Many people want to reconstruct their life” through the different elements of Russian culture found and created in exile, Levchenko said. 

Does Levchenko try to reconstruct his former life? “Sometimes, yes,” Levchenko said.

The journalist explained that nostalgia can also come from unexpected places — even Starbucks. One branch in Prague has a similar interior to one he used to frequent in Moscow.

“It’s funny that Starbucks can remind you of home,” Levchenko said. He sipped his vodka and shrugged.
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