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U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths will travel to the Jordanian capital Amman on Wednesday for talks on the possibility of opening the Kerem Shalom crossing to allow for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza from Israel.

Located at the intersection of Israel, the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the Kerem Shalom crossing was used to carry more than 60% of the truckloads going into Gaza before the current conflict.

Aid currently being allowed into Gaza comes through the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border, which was designed for pedestrian crossings and not trucks.

“We have said from start we need more than one crossing,” Griffiths told a briefing of member states at the United Nations in Geneva on Tuesday.

“The opportunity to use Kerem Shalom should be explored, and that will be topic in Amman. It would hugely add scope (to the response).”

A Western diplomat said there was no prospect of opening the Kerem Shalom crossing for the moment. The diplomat said that Israel does not want to open the crossing because their troops are located in the area.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Since a fragile truce came into force last week, some 200 trucks have carried aid into Gaza on a daily basis, but the amount of aid is nowhere near enough to meet the needs of its population.

“We know that more humanitarian aid should be delivered in Gaza. We know how we could increase it, but there are constraints beyond our control,” Griffiths said.

“We know that the people of Gaza need much more from us.”

Since the truce, the United Nations has scaled up the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza and sent aid to some northern areas that had been largely cut off for weeks due to Israeli bombing.

“We need to have reliable and scalable aid delivery mechanisms, that include all humanitarian partners – including NGOs,” Griffiths said.

“We are refining prioritisation, advocating for more entry points and the resumption of (the) private sector.”

The wife of Ukraine’s military spy chief has been poisoned with heavy metals and is undergoing treatment in a hospital, a spokesperson for the agency said on Tuesday.

Marianna Budanova is the wife of Kyrylo Budanov, who heads Ukrainian military intelligence agency GUR, which has been prominently involved in clandestine operations against Russian forces since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“Yes, I can confirm the information, unfortunately, it is true,” GUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov told Reuters, without clarifying when the poisoning took place.

The BBC’s Ukrainian service cited Yusov as saying that several GUR officials had also experienced milder symptoms of poisoning.

Budanov’s public profile has risen in Ukraine and the West, where he is portrayed as a behind-the-scenes mastermind of operations to strike back at Russia. In Russian media he is a hate figure.

The 37-year-old has himself been the target of several attempts on his life, including a botched car bombing.

If confirmed as deliberate, the purported poisoning of his wife would represent the most serious targeting of a high-profile Ukrainian leadership figure’s family member during the 21-month-long war.

The poisoning was first reported by Ukrainian media outlets.

One publication, Babel, cited an unidentified source who said Budanova had been in hospital, and was finishing a course of treatment for the effects of the poisoning.

Another outlet, Ukrainska Pravda, cited an unidentified source who said the poison was likely administered through food.

Moscow has previously blamed Ukrainian secret services for the murders of a pro-war Russian blogger and a pro-war journalist on Russian soil. Ukraine denies involvement in those deaths.

Separately, Russian media has reported that a court in Moscow had arrested Budanov in absentia in April on terrorism charges.

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U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden on Tuesday offered to testify publicly in the House Republican impeachment inquiry of his father’s Democratic administration, while a leading lawmaker stuck to his demand of testimony behind closed doors.

Escalating a months-long investigation across three congressional committees, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden in September, which focuses on Hunter Biden’s business dealings.

House Republicans allege Biden and his family improperly traded access to Biden’s office as vice president in President Barack Obama’s administration. The White House denies wrongdoing.

As part of the inquiry, the House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Hunter Biden, 53, to appear before the panel in a closed-door interview on Dec. 13. The panel also subpoenaed the president’s brother, his late son’s widow and Hunter Biden’s business associates, among others.

The House Oversight Committee has held one public hearing as part of the probe, instead conducting most of their interviews in private.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer on Tuesday blasted the panel’s probe as “a fishing expedition” and an “empty investigation,” telling the panel chairman a public hearing was the only way to prevent “your cloaked, one-sided process.”

“We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public. We therefore propose opening the door,” attorney Abbe Lowell wrote committee chairman James Comer.

Hunter Biden would appear for a public hearing on Dec. 13 or any other date in December that they could arrange, his lawyer said.

Comer said in a statement that the subpoena required Hunter Biden to appear for a deposition on Dec. 13, but added that he should also have a chance to testify publicly at another time.

“Hunter Biden is trying to play by his own rules instead of following the rules required of everyone else. That won’t stand with House Republicans,” Comer said.

The White House has called the investigation a “smear campaign” that “has turned up zero evidence.”

Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has cheered on the impeachment probe. During his four years in the Oval Office, he became the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice. He was acquitted both times by the Senate.

Hunter Biden in October pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied about his drug use while buying a handgun, in the first-ever criminal prosecution of a sitting U.S. president’s child.

Special Counsel David Weiss brought those charges against Hunter Biden after an earlier proposed plea deal unraveled under questioning from a judge. Weiss is still investigating whether the younger Biden can be charged for tax law violations.

The younger Biden earlier this month sought a federal court’s permission to subpoena documents from Trump and top Justice Department officials in his administration as part of his defense against federal gun charges.

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The conservative U.S. political network led by billionaire Charles Koch on Tuesday endorsed Nikki Haley for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, giving the former South Carolina governor a boost among party rivals struggling to make a dent against frontrunner Donald Trump.

The influential group, which pushes for tax cuts and less government regulation, has made clear that beating former president Trump in the primaries is a top priority, as they think he would lose the November 2024 election to President Joe Biden. Biden beat incumbent Trump in the 2020 White House race.

“We would support a candidate capable of turning the page on Washington’s toxic culture – and a candidate who can win. And last night, we concluded that analysis,” the Koch group, Americans for Prosperity Action, said in a statement.

“That candidate is Nikki Haley.”

The group said its internal polling confirms anecdotal reports from activists on the ground on what they are hearing from voters in states with early presidential nominating contests.

They show Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, is in the best position to defeat Trump in the Republican primary, it said. Internal polling also “consistently shows” that Haley is the strongest candidate by far to beat Biden in a general election, it said.

Public opinion polls show Haley battling with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for a distant second place behind Trump.

The super-PAC has raised over $70 million to spend on political races, an official with the group said in July.

“In sharp contrast to recent elections that were dominated by the negative baggage of Donald Trump and in which good candidates lost races that should have been won, Nikki Haley, at the top of the ticket, would boost candidates up and down the ballot, winning the key independent and moderate voters that Trump has no chance to win,” it said.

The group promised Haley “the full weight and scope of AFP Action’s unmatched grassroots army and resources” in her bid to become the next U.S. president.

Indian rescuers on Tuesday pulled out the first of 41 construction workers trapped inside a collapsed tunnel in the Himalayas for 17 days, hours after drilling through the debris of rock, concrete and earth to reach them, officials said.

The evacuation of the men to safety began more than six hours after rescuers broke through to end an ordeal that began early on Nov. 12 when the tunnel caved in.

“The first one is out,” a rescue official told reporters outside the 4.5 km (3 mile) tunnel in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

Ambulances with their lights flashing lined up at the mouth of the tunnel to transport the workers to a hospital about 30 km away.

The men have been getting food, water, light, oxygen and medicines through a pipe but efforts to dig a tunnel to rescue them with high-powered drilling machines were frustrated by a series of snags.

The tunnel is part of the $1.5 billion Char Dham highway, one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most ambitious projects, aimed at connecting four Hindu pilgrimage sites through an 890- km network of roads.

Authorities have not said what caused the cave-in but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.

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Before 24 February 2022, it was a common view amongst Russia experts in the West that Putin’s autocratic regime was some kind of curiously ‘postmodernist’ phenomenon, exercising state power less through direct coercion and more through propaganda and deployment of behind-the-scenes political technology. But by now, this narrative’s credibility has been dented. Russian elites have taken to using rhetoric of open genocidal incitement, and Russia’s criminal war of aggression against Ukraine has revealed its essential brutality in a way that harks back to the worst excesses of the USSR. There is not much space left for postmodernism after all.

Estonia … should not be surprised at the recent mass bomb threats against its schools and kindergartens, and the sabotage of its underwater infrastructure.

The ‘hybridity’ of Russian military doctrine, another much talked-about topic, also rings largely hollow today. The idea that Russia would rather use non-kinetic capabilities – from cyber-attacks to weaponisation of migrants – and prefers low-intensity grey zone conflicts to all-out war, might be true, but it is not the whole truth. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has by now lasted for more than 600 days, is for the most part a conventional land war with attrition battles: precisely what various theorists of “future war” had already consigned to the dustbin of history.

However, this does not mean that the propaganda theatre in Russian politics no longer merits scholars’ attention, or that the Russia’s hybrid war has gone away. The full-scale war against Ukraine was difficult for many to foresee and is taking up much of the bandwidth of both the Russian leadership and international observers. Yet Russia also continues its sub-Article 5 aggression against its other neighbouring countries, and the West in general. In fact, it is now even more dangerous than before, because Ukraine’s prospects for success are directly linked to the support it receives from its partners, and this is something that Russia hopes to undermine with its hybrid measures.

Estonia, which has experienced some level of Russian aggression near-constantly since the early 1990s and is now one of the staunchest supporters of Ukraine, should not be surprised at the recent mass bomb threats against its schools and kindergartens, and the sabotage of its underwater infrastructure. But what we are seeing now serves as a yet another reminder that Ukraine is fighting not only for its own freedom, but also that of ours, and that of other countries bordering Russia. Supporting Ukraine is not just a moral necessity, it is also essential for regional security as a whole.

As far as other countermeasures are concerned, they must not only be carefully considered; they must also be bold. The purpose of Russia’s probing is to find out how far it is possible to go, and what the likely reaction is going to be. If the reaction remains lukewarm, then escalation will follow: for example, a drone or missile that “accidentally” falls on Estonian territory. The Russian side will naturally deny having any knowledge about where it came from, but Estonia is once again presented with a fait accompli to which it must somehow respond. If the reaction is lukewarm again, the next experiment will soon be ready in the pipeline. In fact, this is currently the only possible way to communicate with Russia: in a caveman-like fashion through reciprocal demonstrations of force and resolve.

It is up to the Estonian state to make sure that, together with our allies, we will have the last word in this exchange.

The post Russia’s War against Ukraine and Its Hybrid War Against Estonia appeared first on The Northern European :: UpNorth.

• The Swedish government has decided to commission the Swedish Armed Forces to investigate the conditions for sending Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine.
• The government is particularly interested in learning how a handover would affect Sweden’s own defense capabilities, and how quickly Sweden could get new Gripen jets as compensation.
• Another important issue is the training of Ukrainian pilots and other ground personnel. The Swedish Armed Forces would need to provide this training, which would take time and resources.

The Swedish government is considering sending Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine, according to a report by Ekot, the Swedish public radio news program. The decision is likely to be made as early as Thursday, after a meeting of the defense committee.

Ukraine has requested a division of Gripen jets, or 16-18 aircraft. The Swedish Armed Forces will now be tasked with analyzing how this would affect Sweden’s own defense capabilities. There are currently around 90 usable Gripen jets in the Swedish inventory.

The government is also interested in learning how quickly a new Gripen jet could be ready to replace any aircraft that is sent to Ukraine. There are a number of finished hulls at Saab in Linköping, some of which are reportedly empty and others with equipment in them. The government wants to know how quickly these could be made ready for use and how much it would cost.

Another issue is the training of Ukrainian pilots, mechanics, and other ground personnel. The Swedish Armed Forces would need to provide this training, which would take time and resources.

Finally, Sweden would need to obtain permission from the United States, as a large part of the equipment in the Gripen comes from the US.

The Swedish Armed Forces is expected to submit its report on the feasibility of sending Gripen jets to Ukraine at the beginning of November. The government will then make a decision on whether to send the jets, and if so, how many.

It is important to note that there are a number of political factors that could affect the decision. For example, Turkey has blocked Sweden’s accession to NATO, and it is unlikely that Sweden would send Gripen jets to Ukraine without Turkey’s approval.

Overall, the decision of whether or not to send Gripen jets to Ukraine is a complex one with a number of factors to consider. The Swedish government will need to weigh the potential benefits of sending the jets against the potential risks and costs.

Source: https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/regeringen-vill-utreda-gripen-till-ukraina

 

The post Sweden Considering Sending 16-18 Gripen Fighter Jets to Ukraine appeared first on The Northern European :: UpNorth.

After giving a keynote speech at the “Necropolis of Communist Terror” international conference, held jointly by the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory and Memorial in Tallinn, British journalist and security expert Edward Lucas sat down for an interview with Jesse Seeberg-Gordon from the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory. The conference took place from February 8-11 and was hosted at the Estonian Film Museum.

The post Edward Lucas: Putin’s Belligerence Is Rooted in Russia’s Imperial Past appeared first on The Northern European :: UpNorth.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the war has unified Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian societies while Russian speakers in these countries remain divided.

During the early months of the war, a survey conducted in the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania found that the Baltics generally perceived Russia as a threat as evidenced by 83.4% of ethnic Estonians, 72.1% of ethnic Latvians, and 66.3% of ethnic Lithuanians responding that the threat posed by Russia was somewhat high. In the same survey Russian speakers did not perceive the threat the same way though with only 32.1% of Estonian Russian speakers and 18.2% of Latvian Russian speakers agreeing that Russia poses a threat. [1]

Fast forward to the summer of 2022. Another survey conducted in June in Latvia found that, 40% of Russian speaking residents in Latvia condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Although this survey did not ask the same question as the first survey in March, this suggests the number of Russian speakers that disapprove of the war has increased. This number is, however, still surprisingly low given that local governments in all three Baltic nations have made attempts to limit access to Russian propaganda about the war and to try and persuade consumers with facts. This could mean that the limits and bans on Russian TV channels and print media sources in The Baltic States have been unsuccessful and that Vladimir Putin’s narratives and propaganda about the war in Ukraine are still getting through to them. There are plenty of tragic images of cities that have been destroyed and reports of Russia targeting civilian infrastructure. These acts are obviously outright illegal under international law. Nevertheless, this suggests some Russian speakers may still be receiving Kremlin propaganda narratives and are not receiving the facts or truth despite Baltic government efforts to limit and ban this kind of disinformation.

In the three Baltic nations, which were all illegally annexed, occupied, and colonized by the Soviet Union, many Russian speakers remained after the countries regained their independence in 1991. As a result, the Baltics today have significant Russian speaking minorities. Russian speaking minorities make up roughly 25% of Estonia’s population, 25% of Latvia’s population, and 5% of Lithuania’s population. Their presence has caused instances of internal tension ever since due to Baltic sensitivities based on their long, bloody and repressive historic experience under Russian and Soviet Russian rule.

Since regaining their independence though, the number on non-citizens in all three countries has diminished. Many older non-citizens have died over the past three decades, but the number of naturalized citizens has also increased. In Latvia today, only 26% of Russian speakers are non-citizens and in Estonia, they make up only 5.2% of the population. This means there are overall fewer non-citizen Russian speakers in the Baltic states.

Not surprisingly, most respondents who condemned Russia’s invasion in both surveys were younger Russian speakers (18 to 34 years old). Older Russian men supported the war. However, younger Russian speakers have grown up in a society free of Cold War communism and are less affected by Moscow’s persistent efforts of modern mind control. They are mostly EU citizens and have blended their cultures. It therefore makes sense that they would condemn Russia’s war.

Given that relations are generally strained right now between Russian speakers and ethnic Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians, the Baltic governments have occasionally been the targets of criticism from the Kremlin for their policies. One example of this is when Latvia began considering adopting a law that would limit bilingualism – meaning the use of Russian would be restricted in workplaces and public places. Another example, is an Estonian political party that is considering introducing increased fines for “those who fail to meet language proficiency criteria.” In all three countries, the parliaments have declared Russia a terrorist regime and Russian TV channels are largely banned and regular Russian tourists are unable to get visas to enter any of the Baltic nations. Most recently, in December 2022, Latvia cancelled the license of exiled Russian TV station TV Rain or Dozhd after it was deemed by the government to be a threat to Latvian national security. The station had been broadcasting from Latvia after being forced to shut its Moscow studio following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. All of these measures have added to tensions. While the governments of each country were sending clear messages to the Russian Federation that those who support Russia’s war in Ukraine are not welcome in the Baltic states, Russian speakers are feeling the repercussions of the Kremlin’s war, even if many of them do not support the war.

Even so, the number of Russian speakers in Latvia, for instance, that support the war dropped from 20% in the early days to 12% during the summer of 2022. Although there have not been any more recent surveys conducted in any of the Baltics since the summer, Russia’s actions and tactics continued in their ruthlessness and brutality, it is possible that this trend will continue with time and more Russian speakers will probably continue to disapprove of the war as they learn about the crimes being committed by the Russian Army. There are, however, still plenty of Russian speakers in all three countries who have remained silent throughout the war, neither supporting nor condemning the war publicly. Only time will tell if they too are persuaded to join the majority of the Baltic populations in condemning the war.

Putin’s illegal actions in Ukraine have been eye opening and should be condemned, but the question remains in the Baltic states, how can those governments shed light on the harsh realities of the war and improve relationships with their Russian speaking populations?

[1] There is a much smaller population of Russian speakers in Lithuania, so they were not polled there.

The post Russia’s War Against Ukraine: Russian speakers in the Baltics appeared first on The Northern European :: UpNorth.

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