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As Orthodox Christians in Ukraine prepare to celebrate Easter on May 5th, Orthodox priests in Ukraine are finding themselves trying to serve their church and support their state, even when those two are at adds. VOA’s Anna Kosstutschenko reports.
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LYPIVKA, Ukraine — This Orthodox Easter season, an extraordinary new church is bringing spiritual comfort to war-weary residents of the Ukrainian village of Lypivka. Two years ago, it also provided physical refuge from the horrors outside.

Almost 100 residents sheltered in a basement chapel at the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary while Russian troops occupied the village in March 2022 as they closed in on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, 60 kilometers to the east.

“The fighting was right here,” the Rev. Hennadii Kharkivskyi said. He pointed to the churchyard, where a memorial stone commemorates six Ukrainian soldiers killed in the battle for Lypivka.

“They were injured and then the Russians came and shot each one, finished them off,” he said.

The two-week Russian occupation left the village shattered and the church itself — a modern replacement for an older structure — damaged while still under construction. It’s one of 129 war-damaged Ukrainian religious sites recorded by UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural organization.

“It’s solid concrete,” the priest said. “But it was pierced easily” by Russian shells, which blasted holes in the church and left a wall inside pockmarked with shrapnel scars. At the bottom of the basement staircase, a black scorch mark shows where a grenade was lobbed down.

But within weeks, workers were starting to repair the damage and work to finish the solid building topped by red domes that towers over the village, with its scarred and damaged buildings, blooming fruit trees and fields that the Russians left littered with land mines.

For many of those involved — including a tenacious priest, a wealthy philanthropist, a famous artist and a team of craftspeople — rebuilding this church plays a part in Ukraine’s struggle for culture, identity and its very existence. The building, a striking fusion of the ancient and the modern, reflects a country determined to express its soul even in wartime.

The building’s austere exterior masks a blaze of color inside. The vibrant red, blue, orange and gold panels decorating walls and ceiling are the work of Anatoliy Kryvolap, an artist whose bold, modernist images of saints and angels make this church unique in Ukraine.

The 77-year-old Kryvolap, whose abstract paintings sell for tens of thousands of dollars at auction, said that he wanted to eschew the severe-looking icons he’d seen in many Orthodox churches.

“It seems to me that going to church to meet God should be a celebration,” he said.

There has been a church on this site for more than 300 years. An earlier building was destroyed by shelling during World War II. The small wooden church that replaced it was put to more workaday uses in Soviet times, when religion was suppressed.

Kharkivskyi reopened the parish in 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and set about rebuilding the church, spiritually and physically, with funding from Bohdan Batrukh, a Ukrainian film producer and distributor.

Work stopped when Russian troops launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Moscow’s forces reached the fringes of Kyiv before being driven back. Lypivka was liberated by the start of April.

Since then, fighting has been concentrated in the east and south of Ukraine, though aerial attacks with rockets, missiles and drones are a constant threat across the country.

By May 2022, workers had resumed work on the church. It has been slow going. Millions of Ukrainians fled the country when war erupted, including builders and craftspeople. Hundreds of thousands of others have joined the military.

Inside the church, a tower of wooden scaffolding climbs up to the dome, where a red and gold image of Christ raises a hand in blessing.

For now, services take place in the smaller basement, where the priest, in white and gold robes, recently conducted a service for a couple of dozen parishioners as the smell of incense wafted through the candlelit room.

He is expecting a large crowd for Easter, which falls on Sunday. Eastern Orthodox Christians usually celebrate Easter later than Catholic and Protestant churches, because they use a different method of calculating the date for the holy day that marks Christ’s resurrection.

A majority of Ukrainians identify as Orthodox Christians, though the church is divided. Many belong to the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, with which the Lypivka church is affiliated. The rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church was loyal to the patriarch in Moscow until splitting from Russia after the 2022 invasion and is viewed with suspicion by many Ukrainians.

Kharkivskyi says the size of his congregation has remained stable even though the population of the village has shrunk dramatically since the war began. In tough times, he says, people turn to religion.

“Like people say: ‘Air raid alert — go see God,’” the priest said wryly.

Liudmyla Havryliuk, who has a summer home in Lypivka, found herself drawn back to the village and its church even before the fighting stopped. When Russia invaded, she drove to Poland with her daughters, then 16 and 18 years old. But within weeks she came back to the village she loves, still besieged by the Russians.

The family hunkered down in their home, cooking with firewood, drawing water from a well, sometimes under Russian fire. Havryliuk said that when they saw Russian helicopters, they held hands and prayed.

“Not prayer in strict order, like in the book,” she said. “It was from my heart, from my soul, about what should we do? How can I save myself and especially my daughters?”

She goes to Lypivka’s church regularly, saying it’s a “place you can shelter mentally, within yourself.”

As Ukraine marks its third Easter at war, the church is nearing completion. Only a few of Kryvolap’s interior panels remain to be installed. He said that the shell holes will be left unrepaired as a reminder to future generations.

“(It’s) so that they will know what kind of ‘brothers’ we have, that these are just fascists,” he said, referring to the Russians.

“We are Orthodox, just like them, but destroying churches is something inhumane.”
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Kyiv, Ukraine — Two people were killed on Friday in a Russian attack on the city of Kurakhove, located in the eastern Donetsk region, which is bearing the brunt of the fighting between Kyiv and Moscow.

“Various high-rise buildings were damaged. Two people were injured, two people died,” the head of the military administration Roman Padun said on social media.

Kurakhove is near the front lines in eastern Ukraine, 40 kilometers west of the Russia-occupied main city of Donetsk.

Outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian troops in the wider region are struggling against Russian forces who are pushing toward the key town of Chasiv Yar.

Ukrainian officials have said Russian forces aimed to seize the hilltop town before May 9, when Russia marks victory over Nazi Germany of World War II, to give President Vladimir Putin a symbolic win.

In an interview with Britain’s The Times, Ukraine’s Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Pavliuk described a dire situation around the key city.

“We are trying everything we can do to stop the Russian plan to capture Chasiv Yar before May 9,” Pavliuk was quoted as saying.

“But Russians have a 10-to-1 ratio of artillery superiority there, and total air superiority,” he said.

Ukrainian forces have been suffering from ammunition shortages, partly due to months-long delays in U.S. aid, which were approved by President Joe Biden last week after Congress finally passed the measure.

Biden vowed to ensure the aid shipments would reach Ukraine swiftly.
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Moscow has cracked down on Russian media outlets that offer independent reporting on the war in Ukraine, prompting hundreds of journalists to flee. While in exile, these media workers have found ways to keep the news flowing into the heavily censored country. For VOA News, Lisa Bryant has the story from Paris. VOA footage by Vahid Karami.
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Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukraine has an AI-generated spokesperson called Victoria who will make official statements on behalf of its foreign ministry.

The ministry said on Wednesday that it would “for the first time in history” use a digital spokesperson to read its statements, which will still be written by humans.

Dressed in a dark suit, the spokesperson introduced herself as Victoria Shi, a “digital person,” in a presentation posted on social media.

The figure gesticulates with her hands and moves her head as she speaks.

The foreign ministry’s press service told AFP that the statements given by Shi would not be generated by AI but “written and verified by real people.”

“It’s only the visual part that the AI helps us to generate,” it said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the new spokesperson was a “technological leap that no diplomatic service in the world has yet made.”

The main reason for creating her was “saving time and resources” for diplomats, he said.

Shi’s creators are a team called The Game Changers who have also made virtual reality content related to the war in Ukraine.

The spokesperson’s name is based on the word victory and the Ukrainian for artificial intelligence: shtuchniy intelekt.

Shi’s appearance and voice are modeled on a real person: Rosalie Nombre, a singer and former contestant on Ukraine’s version of The Bachelor reality show.

Nombre was born in the now Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

She has 54,000 followers on her Instagram account, which she uses to discuss stereotypes about mixed-race Ukrainians and those who grew up as Russian speakers.

The ministry said that Nombre took part free of charge.

It stressed that Shi and Nombre “are two different people” and that only the AI figure gives official statements.

To avoid fakes, these will be accompanied by a QR code linking them to text versions on the ministry’s website.

Shi will comment on consular services, currently a controversial topic.

Ukraine last week suspended such services for men of fighting age living abroad, making it necessary for them to return to their country for administrative procedures and potentially face the draft. 
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LONDON — British police arrested 45 people on Thursday after a violent protest in London against the transfer of asylum seekers form a hotel to a barge off southern England.

Dozens of protesters outside the hotel in Peckham, southeast London, attempted to stop a bus carrying the asylum seekers from leaving, reportedly deflating its tires and obstructing the vehicle by surrounding it, London’s Metropolitan Police said.

Tackling illegal migration is one of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s top priorities, and to bring down the high costs of accommodating migrants in hotels while their asylum claims are processed, the government has been trying to use barges and former military sites.

Critics, however, have called the Bibby Stockholm barge — which is docked at Portland Port in Dorset and can house up to 500 men — inhumane and compared it to a prison ship.

Several police officers were assaulted during the protest in Peckham, but none were seriously hurt, police said.

“We will always respect the right to peaceful protest, but when officers are assaulted and obstructed from their duty, then we can and will take decisive action,” Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said.

Arrests were made for offenses that included obstruction of the highway, obstructing police and assault on police.

“Housing migrants in hotels costs the British taxpayer millions of pounds every day,” Home Secretary James Cleverly said on social media platform X, alongside a video of the protest.

“We will not allow this small group of students, posing for social media, to deter us from doing what is right for the British public,” he said.
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BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbian lawmakers on Thursday voted into office a new government that reinstated two pro-Russia officials who are sanctioned by the United States, reflecting persistent close ties with Moscow despite the Balkan nation’s proclaimed bid to join the European Union. 

Prime Minister Milos Vucevic’s government got backing in a 152-61 vote in the 250-member parliament. The remaining 37 lawmakers were absent. 

The government includes former intelligence chief Aleksandar Vulin, who has made several visits to Russia in recent months, as one of several vice-premiers, along with Nenad Popovic, another Russia supporter who has faced U.S. sanctions. 

The foreign minister in the previous government, Ivica Dacic, also a pro-Russia politician, will be in charge of the Interior Ministry in the new Cabinet. 

The vote followed a heated two-day debate. President Aleksandar Vucic’s ruling nationalist conservative Serbian Progressive Party holds a comfortable majority after an election in December that fueled political tensions because of reports of widespread irregularities. 

The increasingly authoritarian Vucic has refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, though Serbia has condemned the aggression. 

Vucevic, the new prime minister, reiterated that Belgrade doesn’t intend to impose sanctions on Russia and “cannot and will not give up” the friendship with Russia. Integration into the EU remains a “strategic goal,” Vucevic said. 

“Best possible” relations with the U.S. also are in Serbia’s interest, Vucevic added. “I firmly believe that our relations can once again be on a high level.” 

Security analyst and a Belgrade university professor Filip Ejdus described the new government’s composition as a “spin” designed to send a message both to the West and Russia, and to voters at home. 

“It sends a message to the EU that they should not push Belgrade too much over democracy, rule of law, or Kosovo if they want to keep Serbia in its orbit,” Ejdus said. “At the same time, it signals to Moscow a readiness to strengthen the strategic partnership with Russia.” 

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Vulin in July, accusing him of involvement in illegal arms shipments, drug trafficking and misuse of public office. 

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said that Vulin used his public authority to help a U.S.-sanctioned Serbian arms dealer move illegal arms shipments across Serbia’s borders. Vulin is also accused of involvement in a drug-trafficking ring, according to U.S. authorities. 

Vulin, who in the past had served as both the army and police chief, has recently received two medals of honor from Russia, one from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, and the other awarded to him by Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Popovic, a businessman and a former government minister, has “used his Russia-based businesses to enrich himself and gain close connections with Kremlin senior leaders,” the U.S. Treasury said last November in a statement. 

The U.S. sanctions against individuals and companies in the Balkans are designed to counter attempts to undermine peace and stability in the volatile region and Russia’s “malign” influence. 

The West has stepped up efforts to lure the troubled region into its fold, fearing that Russia could stir unrest to avert attention from the war in Ukraine. The Balkans went through multiple wars in the 1990s, and tensions still persist. 

Serbia’s falling democracy record has pushed the country away from EU integration, explained Ejdus. Reports of election fraud at the December 17 vote triggered street protests and clashes. 

“Vucic is still pretending to be on the EU path because it’s beneficial for Serbia’s economy, and the EU tolerates his authoritarian tendencies out of fear of instability that could be caused in its backyard if Belgrade was lost to Russia and China,” Ejdus said. 
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Beirut — EU chief Ursula von der Leyen announced $1 billion in aid to Lebanon on Thursday to help tackle illegal migration, as rights groups warned against forced returns to Syria.

The European Union has already agreed deals with Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritania and others aimed at helping stem flows of irregular migrants.

“I can announce a financial package of $1 billion for Lebanon that would be available from this year until 2027,” the European Commission chief said, adding that “we want to contribute to Lebanon’s socio-economic stability.”

She said the aid was designed to strengthen basic services such as education and health amid a severe economic crisis.

Europe will also support Lebanon’s army, with the aid “mainly focused on providing equipment and training for border management.”

$1 billion in aid

The EU Commission’s spokesman said in Brussels the aid will be disbursed “in grants,” with 736 million euros ($788 million) earmarked to support Lebanon “in response to the Syrian crisis.”

He said, “264 million euros will be for bilateral cooperation,” notably to support the security services, including with border management.

Von der Leyen said the EU was committed to maintaining “legal pathways open to Europe” and resettling refugees, but “at the same time, we count on your good cooperation to prevent illegal migration and combat migrant smuggling.”

Lebanon’s economy collapsed in late 2019, turning it into a launchpad for migrants, with Lebanese joining Syrians and Palestinian refugees making perilous Europe-bound voyages.

Lebanon says it currently hosts around 2 million people from neighboring Syria — the world’s highest number of refugees per capita — with almost 785,000 registered with the United Nations.

“We understand the challenges that Lebanon faces with hosting Syrian refugees and other displaced persons,” said von der Leyen, adding that the EU had supported Lebanon with 2.6 billion euros to host them.

The Syria war erupted in 2011 after the government repressed peaceful pro-democracy protests and has killed more than half a million people and displaced around half of the prewar population.

Eight rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, warned before von der Leyen’s Beirut visit that Syria was not safe for returns.

EU assistance “geared to enabling or incentivizing returns to Syria risks resulting in forced returns of refugees,” a statement said.

EU aid bolstering Lebanese security agencies so they can curb migration to Europe “could result in Syrians resorting to even longer and more dangerous routes,” they added.

Lebanon has also faced nearly seven months of border clashes between its powerful, Iran-backed Shiite movement Hezbollah and Israel that flared after the Israel-Hamas war began in October.

Lebanon remains essentially leaderless, without a president and headed by a caretaker government with limited powers amid deadlock between entrenched political barons.

Cyprus also watching

Von der Leyen was accompanied by Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides.

Cyprus, the EU’s easternmost member, is less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Lebanon and Syria, and it wants to curb migrant boat departures from Lebanon toward its shores.

Nicosia says the Israel-Hamas war has weakened Beirut’s efforts to monitor its territorial waters.

“I am very confident that this package announced today will enhance the capacity of Lebanese authority to handle various challenges, including controlling land and maritime borders, ensuring the safety of its citizens, fight against people smuggling and continue their fight against terrorism,” Christodoulides said.

Some Lebanese politicians have blamed Syrians for their country’s worsening troubles, and pressure often mounts ahead of an annual conference on Syria in Brussels, with ministers meeting this year on May 27.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said: “We reiterate our request to the European Union … to help displaced people in their own countries to encourage them to return voluntarily, and thus guarantee them a decent life in their country of origin.

“If we insist on this issue, it is to warn against Lebanon becoming a transit country from Syria to Europe, and the problems at the Cypriot border are just one example of what could happen if this issue is not radically resolved.”
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STAVANGER, Norway — A convicted sex offender is asking the Norwegian Supreme Court to declare social media access is a human right.

The case before the court Thursday involves a man who molested a minor and used the Snapchat messaging app to connect with young boys.

The unnamed offender was sentenced last year to 13 months in prison and banned from using Snapchat for two years.

His lawyers argue that depriving him of his account is unlawful under the European Convention on Human Rights.

The case turns on how vital social media has become for freedom of expression, even though the court must decide the case through laws that predate such sites.

“The case raises important questions about the extent to which the state can restrict access to social media platforms, which are significant tools for exercising the right to freedom of expression and maintaining social connections,” defense lawyer John Christian Elden said.

A November 2023 appeal against the ban failed with the state successfully arguing the ban was “proportionately measured against the fact that the defendant has used Snapchat to exploit children sexually.” The Appeal Court added that he still had the right to use other social media. If the Supreme Court also upholds the decision, the offender could attempt to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

The European convention has been used before to test the limits on Norwegian justice. Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right extremist who murdered 77 people in 2011, lost a court challenge in February that argued being held in isolation while serving his prison sentence amounted to inhumane punishment under the convention.

Signatories to the ECHR agree to abide by 18 articles guaranteeing citizens rights including life, liberty and freedom of expression. Norway was the second country to ratify the convention in 1952, after the United Kingdom.

Snapchat, run by Snap Inc., allows users to send and receive messages that disappear once they are read. Users also can physically locate other users who opt in to location tracking.

Snap prohibits child sexual exploitation on the app but allows accounts to be create anonymously. In an email it said, “when we disable accounts for sexual exploitation and grooming behavior, we also take steps to block the associated device and other accounts connected to the user from creating another Snapchat account.”

Snap disabled 343,865 accounts connected with child sexual exploitation in the second half of 2023. It sanctioned 879 accounts in Norway though it is not clear how many of these were permanently disabled.

The Norwegian court will issue its ruling in the coming weeks.
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Istanbul, Turkey & Washington — Activists from an international flotilla carrying humanitarian aid are applying for new maritime flags to sail to Gaza from Turkey after the flags of two of their ships were removed by Guinea-Bissau authorities last week.

“We will take flags of different countries. We will also apply to Turkey. We will also try to get Turkey’s flag,” Behesti Ismail Songur, head of the Mavi Marmara Association, a group that is part of the international flotilla, told VOA.

“So, this will be a litmus test for all states. We will see who will be brave enough to flag the freedom fleet,” Songur said.

The flotilla is organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which consists of several Turkish and international groups, including the Turkish Islamist Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) and the Mavi Marmara Association.

Inspection

The flotilla has three ships, named Vicdan (conscience in Turkish), Anadolu (Anatolia), and Akdeniz (the Mediterranean).

Anadolu, docked at Turkey’s Iskenderun port in the Mediterranean, was set to transport 5,000 tons of humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, the activists were planning to sail to Gaza on the Akdeniz, a ferry, from Istanbul’s Tuzla shipyard. Vicdan, recently acquired by the group, was not part of the planned sailing.

Anadolu and Akdeniz carried Guinea-Bissau flags until last week when the Guinea-Bissau International Ships Registry (GBISR) inspected them and decided to remove the flags.

Flotilla organizers said the GBISR referred to their planned mission to Gaza while informing them about the removal of the flags.

GBISR did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.

The flotilla organizers believe that Guinea-Bissau authorities withdrew their flags because of pressure from Israel, which objects to the refusal of the organizers to allow the ships to be inspected for contraband or weapons. But Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo dismissed these allegations Monday. 

Embalo told the Portuguese LUSA News Agency that he never spoke to his Israeli counterpart “about the flagging of ships,” noting that it is not a matter that he would deal with.

“I do not usually talk to the prime minister of Israel; I talk to the president of Israel, a friend I met many years ago. That’s who I have been talking to, but about the war in the Gaza Strip,” Embalo said, adding that he talked with Israeli President Isaac Herzog Sunday.

Mavi Marmara

On April 22 Israel’s Channel 12 television reported that Shayetet 13, the Israeli army’s elite special forces unit, had been preparing to intercept the flotilla, citing the Israel Defense Forces. 

Shayetet 13 was also involved in 2010 when the Mavi Marmara, carrying pro-Palestinian activists including Turkish Islamist IHH, attempted to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza with a flotilla. Israel views the IHH as a terrorist group.

Israeli units boarded the Mavi Marmara with helicopters in international waters, killing nine activists. At least seven Israeli soldiers were injured as activists attacked them with clubs, knives and pipes. 

According to a report by the Spanish daily El Pais on April 25, the activists, who were set to sail on the Anadolu and the Akdeniz, took basic training in Istanbul in case of an Israeli attack on the flotilla. The training was conducted by Lisa Fithian, an American expert who teaches “peaceful resistance.”

At least 500 international activists were set to sail in the flotilla, including Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, the grandson of late South African President Nelson Mandela; Ada Colau, former mayor of Barcelona; and Ann Wright, a former U.S. Army colonel and diplomat who resigned from the State Department in opposition to the 2003 U.S.-led military invasion into Iraq. 

Wright, who also participated in the Mavi Marmara voyage in 2010, accused the U.S. of pressuring the current flotilla to prevent it from sailing.

“The U.S. is very complicit in trying to stop the Gaza flotilla,” Wright said, referring to a letter to U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken signed by 20 members of Congress last week.

In the letter, members of the U.S. House of Representatives said they were “gravely concerned by the reported ‘Freedom Flotilla Coalition,’ which plans to breach the established security perimeter with an unknown number of ships to deliver aid to Gaza.”

“The flotilla, led in part by the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) — which has close ties with the Turkish government and has previously raised funds for Hamas — intends to bypass established aid channels and refuse to allow Israeli inspection of their cargo, casting doubt on the nature of the mission,” the letter stated.

The House members also called on Blinken “to engage directly with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish government to prevent or delay the flotilla’s departure and ensure that all shipments to Gaza are vetted and in compliance with international standards for humanitarian assistance.”

Wright hopes Erdogan will support the flotilla. Erdogan and Turkish government officials have not commented publicly on the flotilla.

Erdogan hosted Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul last month, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced on Wednesday that Ankara has decided to join South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service with contributions by Portuguese Service.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Months of relentless Russian artillery pounding have devastated a strategic city in eastern Ukraine, new drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows, with barely a building left intact, homes and municipal offices charred, and a town that once had a population of 12,000 now all but deserted. 

The footage shows Chasiv Yar — set amid green fields and woodland — pounded into an apocalyptic vista. The destruction is reminiscent of the cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, which Ukraine yielded after months of bombardment and huge losses for both sides. 

The strategically important city has been under attack by Russian forces for months. Capturing it would give Russia control of a hilltop from which it can attack other cities that form the backbone of Ukraine’s eastern defenses. 

That would set the stage for a potentially broader Russian offensive that Ukrainian officials say could come as early as this month. 

Russia launched waves of assaults on foot and in armored vehicles at Chasiv Yar’s outnumbered Ukrainian troops, who have run desperately short of ammunition while waiting for the U.S. and other allies to send fresh supplies. 

Rows of mid-rise apartment blocks in Chasiv Yar have been blackened by blasts, punched through with holes or reduced to piles of timber and masonry. Houses and civic buildings are heavily damaged. The golden dome of a church remains intact but the building appears badly damaged. 

No soldiers or civilians were seen in the footage shot Monday and exclusively obtained by the AP, apart from a lone man walking down the middle of a road between wrecked structures. 

Regional Governor Vadym Filashkin said Wednesday on Ukrainian TV that 682 residents have held on in Chasiv Yar, living in “very difficult conditions.” The city had a pre-war population of more than 12,500. Filashkin said that those remaining have lacked running water and power for over a year, and that it is “ever more difficult” for humanitarian aid to reach them. 

The destruction underscores Russia’s scorched-earth tactics throughout more than two years of war, as its troops have killed and displaced thousands of civilians. 

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged Monday that the delayed delivery of allies’ military aid to Ukraine had left the country at the mercy of the Kremlin’s bigger and better-equipped forces. 

Ukraine and its Western partners are racing to deploy critical new military aid that can help check the slow but steady Russian advance as well as thwart drone and missile attacks. 
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A Japanese diplomat’s act of defiance during World War II saved thousands of lives. It’s also the focus of an ongoing effort by an American musician to pay tribute to the “Japanese Schindler.” VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more from Skokie, Illinois.
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GENEVA — More than 800 mine action leaders attending a U.N.-sponsored conference in Geneva this week are warning of the ongoing dangers from unexploded ordnance and landmines in countries affected by conflict.

A focus of the conference is on the war in Gaza, which the United Nations Mine Action Service, or UNMAS, says “has resulted in explosive ordnance contamination on a scale unprecedented for Gaza.”

The agency has been working in Gaza for over a decade providing services to lessen the threat of explosive ordnance to civilians and enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid.

“After October 7, the program has undergone a rapid evolution. We have become an enabler of the humanitarian response into Gaza,” said Charles Mungo Birch, chief of the UNMAS mine action program in the Palestinian territories.

He told journalists Wednesday, “We support humanitarian convoys going north and do explosive hazard assessments of humanitarian sites which allow humanitarian work to continue.”

For example, he said that in December, UNMAS Explosive Ordnance Disposal officers accompanied a World Health Organization convoy along a dangerous route to Shifa hospital.

“That convoy evacuated over 30 premature babies, which we returned to southern Gaza, and only one of them died,” he said.

UNMAS estimates there are 37 million tons of rubble in Gaza, amounting to 300 kilos (660 pounds) per square meter of surface. This, it says, is more rubble than in Ukraine.

“To put this in perspective, the Ukrainian frontline is 600 miles long and Gaza is 25 miles long,” Birch said.

“This rubble is likely heavily contaminated with UXO [unexploded ordnance].  Clearance of this will be further complicated by other hazards in the rubble,” he said, noting that about 800,000 tons of asbestos is estimated to be in the rubble.

Paul Heslop, program manager for mine action, UNDP Ukraine, said a significant amount of contamination from UXO is found on both sides of the frontline of that conflict — however, mine clearance experts are unable to access Russian-occupied areas.

“So, we have not had any work on that side of the conflict zone,” he said. “There has been an extensive use of all types of munitions by both sides in this conflict. We are seeing a level of contamination that we have not seen in Europe since the Second World War.”

UNMAS reports 60 million people around the world are affected by the threat of land mines, leftover ammunition and explosive devices every day. It says the legacy of contamination from these weapons continues decades after a conflict ends, killing and maiming thousands of people.

The agency cites Syria, Yemen, West Africa and the Sahel region, including Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, among the most-contaminated countries in the world.

“Most of the problem in the Sahel is the IUDs, improvised unexploded devices that are homemade, similar to what we have seen in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia,” said Heslop, who was involved in projects in the Sahel for the past 10 years.

“Obviously, they are very low-cost and fairly easy to make.  So, I think the scourge of the Sahel is the use of IUDs in a fairly indiscriminate way,” he said.

UNMAS officials said a mine clearance program the agency ran for many years in Sudan “was incredibly successful.” Therefore, they said, it is “very distressing” to see Sudan once again being contaminated by these lethal weapons, many of which now are in urban areas where the current war is raging.

Last year, UNMAS recorded 1,500 victims of explosive ordnance in the Tigray and Afar regions in northern Ethiopia, with men and young boys accounting for 80% of the victims.

Francesca Chiaudani, chief of the UNMAS mine action program in Ethiopia, said casualties are likely to remain high because the agency has received only 2% of the $10 million needed for mine clearance activities.

Another problem, she said, is difficulty in getting accreditation for nongovernmental organizations to conduct surveys and clearance activities in conflict-affected areas.

“At the moment, some limited or clearance activity has been conducted by the Ethiopian national defense forces. But there is no humanitarian clearance happening in the county because of not having authorization for organizations to do so,” she said.

However, she said, “Accreditation for international NGOs is currently in process, and we are very hopeful that at least four will be accredited in the next month.”
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washington — The United States on Wednesday accused Russia of violating the international chemical weapons ban by deploying the choking agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops and using riot control agents “as a method of warfare” in Ukraine.

“The use of such chemicals is not an isolated incident and is probably driven by Russian forces’ desire to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield,” the State Department said in a statement.

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chloropicrin is listed as a banned choking agent by the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which was created to implement and monitor compliance with the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

German forces fired the gas against Allied troops during World War I in one of the first uses of a chemical weapon.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported the Ukrainian military as saying Russia has stepped up its illegal of use riot control agents as it presses its biggest advances in eastern Ukraine in more than two years.

In addition to chloropicrin, Russian forces have used grenades loaded with CS and CN gases, the Ukrainian military says. It says at least 500 Ukrainian soldiers have been treated for exposure to toxic substances and one was killed by suffocating on tear gas.

While civilians usually can escape riot control gases during protests, soldiers stuck in trenches without gas masks must either flee under enemy fire or risk suffocating.

The State Department said it was delivering to Congress its determination that Russia’s use of chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops violated the CWC.

Moscow’s use of the gas “comes from the same playbook as its operations to poison” the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny in 2020 and Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in 2018 with the Novichok nerve agent, the statement said.

Russia denied involvement in both cases.

The department also determined that Russia has breached the CWC’s prohibition on the use of riot control agents as a method of warfare, the statement said.

It said it was sanctioning three Russian state entities linked to Moscow’s chemical and biological weapons programs, including a specialized military unit that facilitated the use of chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops.

Four Russian companies that support the three entities were also sanctioned, it said.

The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets belonging to the targeted entities and generally prohibit Americans from doing business with them.

Separately, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on three entities and two individuals involved in purchasing items for Russian military institutes involved in the country’s chemical and biological weapons programs.

The sanctions were among new measures announced by the United States on Wednesday targeting Russia over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The CWC bans the production and use of chemical weapons. It also requires the 193 countries that have ratified the convention, which include Russia and the U.S., to destroy any stocks of banned chemicals.

The State Department was expected to convey its determination that Russia has violated the CWC to the OPCW.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of breaching the treaty in OPCW meetings. But the organization says it has not been formally asked to open an investigation into the use of prohibited substances in Ukraine.

Reuters has not been able to independently verify the use of banned chemical substances by either side.
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LONDON — The Scottish government survived a vote of no confidence on Wednesday, giving the Scottish National Party a chance to pick a new leader to replace outgoing First Minister Humza Yousaf. 

Yousaf’s decision to step down as first minister and SNP leader on Monday has thrown the party into chaos and boosted hopes in Britain’s opposition Labour Party that it can regain Scottish seats to win a national election later this year. 

Polls show that Labour is ahead of or level with the SNP in Scotland for the first time in a decade. 

Yousaf said he would resign after he ended a coalition with the Green Party. It means the SNP is seeking a third leader in little over a year, undermining what had once seemed like its iron grip on power in the devolved Scottish government. 

While the Greens made Yousaf’s position untenable by withdrawing their confidence in him personally, they voted with the SNP against Wednesday’s vote of no confidence in the Scottish government. 

The no confidence motion was defeated, 70-58.  

Defeat for the government would have led to the resignation of all ministers and most likely triggered a Scottish election. 

With that outcome averted, Yousaf will remain in office until the SNP chooses a new leader. Former SNP party leader John Swinney and Yousaf’s old leadership rival Kate Forbes have said they are considering running. 

Yousaf took over the party in March last year, after the resignation of longtime leader Nicola Sturgeon, who faced splits in the party over the best route to independence for Scotland and proposed transgender recognition legislation. 

Police have also probed the SNP’s finances, and Sturgeon’s husband has been charged with embezzling funds from the SNP. She has been arrested and questioned but not charged. Both deny wrongdoing. 
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SEOUL, South Korea — Workers, activists and others in Asian capitals and European cities took to the streets on Wednesday to mark May Day with protests over rising prices and government labor polices and calls for greater labor rights.

May Day, which falls on May 1, is observed in many countries to celebrate workers’ rights. May Day events have also given many an opportunity to air general economic grievances or political demands.

Police in Istanbul detained dozens of people who tried to reach the central Taksim Square in defiance of a government ban on marking Labor Day at the landmark location.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has long declared Taksim off-limits for rallies and demonstrations on security grounds, but some political parties and trade unions have vowed to march to the square, which holds symbolic value for labor unions.

In 1977, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a May Day celebration at Taksim, causing a stampede and killing 34 people.

Wednesday, police erected barricades and sealed off all routes leading to the central Istanbul square. Public transport in the area was also restricted. Only a small group of trade union representatives was permitted to enter the square to lay a wreath at a monument in memory of victims of the 1977 incident.

Riot police apprehended some 30 members of the left-wing People’s Liberation Party who tried to break through the barriers.

In Indonesia, workers voiced anger at a new law they said violates their rights and hurts their welfare, and demanded protections for migrant workers abroad and a minimum wage raise.

About 50,000 workers from Jakarta’s satellite cities of Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi were expected to join May Day marches in the capital, said Said Iqbal, the president of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions.

They gathered amid a tight police presence near the National Monument park, waving the colorful flags of labor groups and chanting slogans against the Job Creation Law and loosened outsourcing rules during a march to Jakarta’s main sports stadium, Gelora Bung Karno.

“With the enactment of this law, our future is uncertain because many problems arise in wages, severance pay and the contract system,” said Isbandi Anggono, a protester.

Indonesia’s parliament last year ratified a government regulation that replaces a controversial law on job creation, but critics said it still benefits businesses. The law was intended to cut bureaucracy as part of President Joko Widodo’s efforts to attract more investment to the country, which is Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

In Seoul, the South Korean capital, thousands of protesters sang, waved flags and shouted pro-labor slogans at the start of their rally on Wednesday. Organizers said their rally was primarily meant to step up their criticism of what they call anti-labor policies pursued by the conservative government led by President Yoon Suk Yeol.

“In the past two years under the Yoon Suk Yeol government, the lives of our laborers have plunged into despair,” Yang Kyung-soo, leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which organized the rally, said in a speech. “We can’t overlook the Yoon Suk Yeol government. We’ll bring them down from power for ourselves.”

KCTU union members decried Yoon’s December veto of a bill aimed at limiting companies’ rights to seek compensation for damages caused by strikes by labor unions. They also accuse Yoon’s government of handling the 2022 strikes by truckers too aggressively and insulting construction sector workers whom authorities believed were involved in alleged irregular activities.

Since taking office in 2022, Yoon has pushed for labor reforms to support economic growth and job creation. His government has vowed to sternly deal with illegal strikes and demand more transparent accounting records from labor unions.

“The remarkable growth of the Republic of Korea was thanks to the sweat and efforts of our workers. I thank our 28.4 million workers,” Yoon said in a May Day message posted on Facebook. “My government and I will protect the precious value of labor.”

Seoul rally participants later marched through downtown streets. Similar May Day rallies were held in more than 10 locations across South Korea on Wednesday. Police said they had mobilized thousands of officers to maintain order, but there were no immediate reports of violence.

In Japan, more than 10,000 people gathered at Yoyogi park in downtown Tokyo for a May Day event, demanding salary increases that they said could sufficiently set off price increases. During the rally, Masako Obata, the leader of the left-leaning National Confederation of Trade Unions, said that dwindling wages have put many workers in Japan under severe living conditions and widened income disparities.

“On this May Day, we unite with our fellow workers around the world standing up for their rights,” she said, shouting “banzai!” or long life, to all workers.

In the Philippine capital, Manila, hundreds of workers and left-wing activists marched and held a rally in the scorching summer heat to demand wage increases and job security amid soaring food and oil prices.

Riot police stopped the protesting workers from getting close to the presidential palace. Waving red flags and holding up posters that read: “We work to live, not to die” and “Lower prices, increase salaries,” the protesters rallied in the street, where they chanted and delivered speeches about the difficulties faced by Filipino laborers.

Poor drivers joined the protest and called to end a government modernization program they fear would eventually lead to the removal of their dilapidated jeepneys, a main mode of public transport, from Manila’s streets.
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