П’ятий президент України та народний депутат від «Європейської солідарності» Петро Порошенко в ефірі «5 каналу» відреагував на інформацію про «путч», який він нібито готує на грудень.
«Саме так і буде. Наш речник із цього приводу… Звати її Ліза, я прізвище не пам’ятаю (народний депутат від «Слуги народу» Єлізавета Богуцька – ред.). Вона наш речник, вона заздалегідь повідомить, коли буде путч. Єдине що, зараз збирається петиція – я з подивом це побачив на сайті Офісу президента – що є необхідність пересунути путч з грудня на жовтень», – сказав Порошенко.
У відповідь на питання про мету путчу він сказав: «Прошу, не відбирайте хліб у пані Богуцької».
Відкинувши жарти, п’ятий президент України нагадав про російську агресію.
«В умовах війни Україна може не пережити майдан. Я є державник і я буду робити все можливе, щоб зберегти державу. І ось державі на сьогоднішній день майдан точно не потрібне», – підкреслив Порошенко.
29 серпня в перший день роботи Верховної Ради дев’ятого скликання журналісти зафіксували, як народний депутат від «Слуги народу» Єлізавета Богуцька у листуванні з контактом на ім’я «Леночка» пояснила рішення залишити Арсена Авакова на посаді міністра внутрішніх справ нібито підготовкою Петра Порошенка до путчу в грудні.
Сама Богуцька в коментарі Радіо Свобода згодом пояснила, що «путч – це сарказм, звичайно».
your ad hereA senior Danish official says his country hopes to set an example for the world with an ambitious scheme to cut carbon emissions by 70% in little more than a decade, but it has no illusions that it can have a meaningful impact on global warming by itself.
“To be honest, for the climate, even if we just close down our country tomorrow, it wouldn’t help much,” Dan Jørgensen, Denmark’s top climate and energy official, told VOA during a visit to Washington this week. “I guess you can argue: Does it really matter what you do?”
Jørgensen said Denmark accounts for just 0.1% of the world’s carbon emissions, a drop in the bucket compared with emissions from the largest polluters such as China, the United States and India. But he said, “The reason we do these things anyway is that if we succeed in doing that, then hopefully we’ll inspire others.”
Jørgensen, who will be in New York next week to promote his country’s climate agenda at the United Nations, said his country hopes to demonstrate that it can carry out a green transformation and still be competitive in the global marketplace. In the process, it expects to develop new technologies that “other countries can also use.” Stages of debate
According to Jørgensen, the climate debate in Denmark has gone through several stages since the issue started to enter the public’s consciousness about 15 or 20 years ago.
At that time, he said, some in Denmark still questioned how real climate change was and whether humans had anything to do with it. That was followed by a period in which the public by and large understood that climate change was real, but some remained reluctant to devote resources to the problem, concerned that efforts by Denmark alone would be futile. People hold placards during the Global Climate Strike at Raadhuspladsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, Sept. 20, 2019.Now, he said, most people agree on the nature of the problem. Looking out the window, “they see droughts, they see flooding, they see extreme weather phenomena,” he said. “We are also a nation that’s closely connected to Greenland,” one of the places where climate change is most evident in the form of melting glaciers.
With that consensus, the debate has shifted to an energetic discussion about the best policy instruments to address the problem.
The issue so dominated Danish general elections in June that the campaign has been described as the country’s “first climate election,” with the question of how to achieve a green transformation topping the agenda in debates among the candidates for prime minister and other posts.
Looking beyond Denmark, Jørgensen said Denmark and its partners in the European Union were sad to see the United States withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and hope it will reconsider. “There’s nothing I would hope more than the U.S. taking leadership on the global stage also on green issues,” he said. Join the battle
Meanwhile, Jørgensen said, all countries and especially the “big growing economies” must join in the battle to prevent climate change “from becoming irreversible and having the most catastrophic consequences.”
But he acknowledges the frustration of newly developing countries, which are only now acquiring energy-intensive amenities that the developed nations have long enjoyed.
“It’s not up to us who’ve been polluting and emitting greenhouse gases for more than 100 years — when I say us, I mean the West, the United States, Europe — it’s not up to us to tell them, ‘No, you cannot drive a car, you cannot buy a fridge or an air conditioner, no, you can’t start to eat meat a few times a week because you can afford it all of a sudden because you’ve come out of poverty.’ ”
Rather, he said, it is up to Denmark and the other developed countries to say, “Can we help you in any way to make that growth green?”
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Збройні сили України «йдуть шляхом професіоналізації», повідомив в інтерв’ю Радіо Свобода міністр оборони України Андрій Загороднюк, розповідаючи про майбутнє призову до армії.
«Взагалі генеральна позиція Міноборони, ЗСУ – ми йдемо шляхом професіоналізації. Тобто наше завдання у перспективі – це все ж таки максимально фокусуватися на професійних військовослужбовцях, тих, які підписали контракт. Тому що зараз військова служба – це в першу чергу досвід та знання», – сказав Загороднюк.
Він додав, що «люди, які накопичують ті знання», мають залишатися.
«Тобто це вибудовування професійного підходу як до сержантів, солдатів, офіцерів і так далі. І це абсолютний пріоритет в нас», – заявив Загороднюк.
У 2013 році тодішній президент України Віктор Янукович скасував призов до Збройних сил України. У 2014 році призов відновили після анексії Росією Криму та початку збройного конфлікту на Донбасі.
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U.S. President Donald Trump is denying he said anything “wrong” in a telephone conversation with the new president of Ukraine during which Trump allegedly urged him to investigate the son of former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden.Democrats meanwhile stepped up their criticism of the president for what they characterized as an attempt to engage a foreign leader in a scheme to damage the candidacy of Trump’s leading rival in the 2020 campaign.Trump tweeted Saturday morning he had a “perfectly fine and routine conversation” on July 25 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and that, “Nothing was said that was in any way wrong.”Trump accused Democrats and the news media of ignoring allegations against the Bidens and creating a false story about him.”The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat (sic) Party, want to stay as far away as possible from the Joe Biden demand that the Ukrainian Government fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son, or they won’t get a very large amount of U.S. money, so they fabricate … a story about me …”The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, want to stay as far away as possible from the Joe Biden demand that the Ukrainian Government fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son, or they won’t get a very large amount of U.S. money, so they fabricate a…..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – Rudy Giuliani speaks at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council in Washington, Nov. 14, 2016.Trump and Giuliani have pushed for an investigation of the Bidens for weeks, following news reports this year that explored whether a Ukrainian energy company tried to secure influence in the U.S. by employing Biden’s younger son, Hunter.Democrats are condemning what they perceive as a concerted effort to damage Biden, who has been thrust into the middle of an unidentified whistleblower’s complaint against Trump. Biden is currently the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.The Trump administration has blocked procedures under which the whistleblower complaint would have normally been forwarded by the U.S. intelligence community to members of the Democrat-controlled Congress, keeping its contents secret.FILE – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, left, gestures next to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, during a bilateral meeting in Warsaw, Poland, Sept. 1, 2019.However a series of leaks have indicated the complaint is based on multiple events, including the July telephone conversation between Trump and Zelenskiy, two people familiar with the matter said. The sources were granted anonymity in order to discuss the issue.
One person briefed on the call said said Trump urged Zelenskiy to investigate Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. The controversy unfolded amid a White House-ordered delay in the delivery of lethal military assistance to Ukraine, but the unnamed source was quoted saying Trump did not mention U.S. aid in his conversation with Zelenskiy.Biden said late Friday that if the reports are accurate, “then there is truly no bottom to President Trump’s willingness to abuse his power and abase our country.” Biden also called on Trump to disclose the transcript of his conversation with Zelenskiy so “the American people can judge for themselves.”The intelligence community inspector general has described the whistleblower’s August 12 complaint as “serious” and “urgent,” conditions that would normally require him to forward the complaint to Congress. Trump has characterized the complaint as “just another political hack job.”The standoff raises new questions about the extent to which Trump’s appointees, including the acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire, are protecting the Republican president from congressional oversight.House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat, speaks to reporters after the panel met behind closed doors about a whistleblower complaint, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 19, 2019.Democrats maintain the administration is legally required to give Congress access to the complaint. House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said any attempt by Trump to urge a foreign country to “dig up dirt” on a political foe while withholding aid is inappropriate.”No explicit quid pro quo is necessary to betray your country,” Schiff tweeted Friday.House Democrats are also battling the administration for access to witnesses and documents in ongoing impeachment investigations.The whistleblower case has lawmakers investigating whether Giuliani traveled to Ukraine to pressure the government to help Trump’s reelection chances by investigating Hunter Biden and whether his father intervened in the country’s politics to help his son’s business.Late in the administration of then-President Barack Obama in 2016, Joe Biden was sent to Kyiv armed with a threat to withhold billions of dollars in government loan guarantees unless the country cracked down on corruption. Biden’s primary demand was to fire the chief prosecutor at the time, Viktor Shokin, for ineffectiveness. Shokin was fired shortly thereafter.But before the vice president arrived in Kyiv, Shokin had already opened an investigation into Burisma Holdings, a natural gas company on which Hunter was a board member receiving $50,000 per month. Burisma is owned by Mykola Zlochevsky, a Ukrainian businessman and politician.While Republicans are suggesting the senior Biden used the loan money as leverage force an end to the Bursima investigation, Bloomberg News, citing a former Ukrainian official and Ukrainian documents, reported that the probe had been dormant since 2015, long before Biden’s trip to Kyiv.Giuliani had meetings this year in New York with Shokin’s successor, Yuriy Lutsenko. Around the same time, Ukraine revived the case against Burisma. The New York Times reported Lutsenko relaunched the probe to “curry favor from the Trump administration for his boss and ally.”The reported timeline appears to be more consistent with Biden’s contention that he was pushing for the ouster of a prosecutor who was failing to rein in rampant corruption, instead of seeking the firing of a prosecutor threatening a company linked to his son.During a CNN interview Thursday, Giuliani initially said “No” when asked if he had asked Ukraine to investigate Biden, but said seconds later, “of course I did.”
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У ніч на 21 вересня на дев’яти метеостанціях Білорусі оновилися температурної антирекорди, а у Василевичах, що в прикордонній з Україною Гомельській області, був повторений антирекорд 117-річної давнини, повідомляє білоруська служба Радіо Свобода.
Найхолодніше було в районі метеостанції «Поліська» на сході іншої прикордонної з Україною Брестської – 3 градуси морозу (антирекорд ночі тут складав мінус 2,6 градуса в 2007 році).
Водночас антирекорд для всієї території сусідньої країни встояв. У 1996 році 21 вересня на одній із метеостанцій була зафіксована температура мінус 4,1 градуса.
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Стратегія державного концерну «Укроборонпром» продовжує розроблятися, заявив міністр оборони України Андрій Загороднюк в інтерв’ю Радіо Свобода.
«Є напрацювання цієї стратегії. Я вже не працюю в «Укроборонпромі». Тобто я був членом наглядової ради якийсь період часу, але я знаю, що вона розробляється і йде дуже активна робота з цього», – сказав міністр оборони в етері програми «Суботнє інтерв’ю».
Крім того, він зазначив, що питання підпорядкування концерну наразі не вирішене. За його словами, це компетенція керівництва держави.
«Це питання керівництва держави, Кабміну, президента, РНБО. Наразі ця політика напрацьовується», – сказав Загороднюк.
Водночас взаємовідносини «Укроборонпрому» і Міністерства оборони він означив як співпрацю «постачальника» і «замовника».
«Є питання Міноборони як замовника. Вони чітко визначені. Тобто ми є замовником – ми платимо гроші і отримуємо продукцію. Ці відносини такими й залишаться. Тобто ми, звичайно, є стратегічним замовником, а вони є нашим стратегічним постачальником. І ми, звичайно, будемо ці відносини структурувати таким чином, щоб вони були ефективні», – зазначив Загороднюк.
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Секретар Ради національної безпеки і оборони Олександр Данилюк розповів в інтерв’ю Радіо Свобода, заявив, що функцію акціонера підприємства буде виконувати Міністерство оборони України.
Утім, голова державного концерну «Укроборонпром» Айварас Абромавичус виступив проти цього.
Державний концерн «Укроборонпром» об’єднує понад 100 підприємств-учасників у галузі оборонної промисловості, зокрема, розробки й виготовлення озброєння та техніки, наукової діяльності й експортно-імпортних операцій.
У лютому концерн опинився у центрі скандалу після того, як журналісти антикорупційного проекту «Bihus.info» опублікували розслідування про суми «відкатів» і схеми розкрадання мільйонів в оборонній сфері. Незабаром після оприлюднення розслідування були затримані кілька чинних і колишніх посадовців ДП «Спецтехноекспорт», що входить до складу «Укроборонпрому». Їх вважають причетними до розтрати коштів держпідприємства оборонної галузі на суму 55,5 мільйонів гривень.
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Over a hundred demonstrators were arrested at yellow vest protests in Paris on Saturday as about 7,500 police were deployed to quell any violence by the movement and its radical, anarchist “black blocs.”There were also fears that the demonstrators could try to infiltrate a march against climate change in the French capital.The yellow vest movement erupted 10 months ago and blindsided President Emmanuel Macron, whom protesters accused of being out of touch with the needs of ordinary French people.”What are we doing? We are assembling just to say that we can’t make ends meet. [The protest] is not only against the president, it’s against the system,” said a woman protestor who did not give her name. The weekly demonstrations — Saturday was the 45th — prompted Macron to loosen the state’s purse strings to the tune of nearly 17 billion euros ($18.8 billion) in wage boosts and tax cuts for low earners, but tapered off over the summer.However, it remains to be seen whether the movement will regain the momentum of the winter and early spring, when the protests often descended into violent clashes with security forces, especially in Paris.By 1.00 p.m. (11 GMT) police had arrested 106 demonstrators, police headquarters said, adding that some had been found to carry hammers or petrol canisters.”We are being treated like criminals,” said a woman, who identified herself as Brigitte.The authorities had banned demonstrations in some areas of the city, including tourism hotspot Champs-Elysees, but some protesters violated the ban, leading to a tense standoff with police who used teargas and batons to scatter them.Macron on Friday called for “calm”, saying that while “it’s good that people express themselves”, they should not disrupt a climate protest and cultural events also due to go ahead on Saturday.The number of police deployed for Saturday’s rallies are on a par with the peak of the yellow vest protests in December and March.’Black blocs’ Key yellow-vest figure Jerome Rodrigues has billed Saturday’s protest as “a revelatory demonstration”, claiming “many people are going to come to Paris.”But officials have again outlawed protests on the Champs-Elysees and other areas in the heart of the capital, where previously protesters had ransacked and set fire to luxury shops and restaurants.Some demonstrators in January even used a forklift truck to break down the doors of a government ministry.The police have also been criticized for being heavy-handed in clashes with hardcore anti-capitalist “black bloc” groups blamed for much of the violence that has accompanied the demonstrations.Saturday coincides with the annual European Heritage Days weekend, when public and private buildings normally off-limits to the public are open to visitors.After attracting 282,000 people nationwide on the first day of protests last November, yellow-vest protest participation had fallen sharply by the spring, and only sporadic protests were seen over the summer.Macron said in an interview with Time magazine published Thursday that the movement had been “very good for me” as it had made him listen and communicate better.”My challenge is to listen to people much better than I did at the very beginning,” the president said.
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У центрі Запоріжжя на майдані Героїв революції 21 вересня урочисто зустріли звільненого з російського ув’язнення Євгена Панова. Привітати його прийшли ветерани війни на Донбасі, представники облдержадміністрації, обласного військового комісаріату та журналісти. Бійці вручили Панову прапор 37-го батальйону, в якому він служив, та вітали його словами «Слава Україні», «Ти вдома, брате».
Наразі Євгена Панов у супроводі дружини Катерини повертається додому в Енергодар після медичного обстеження і отримання першої допомоги у Феофанії. Спілкуючись із журналістами, він зазначив, що поки не готовий говорити про найближчі плани на майбутнє.
«Ще поки не знаю… Планів багато. На роботу, а далі…Дуже вдячний. Велика подяка за підтримку, за те, що не забули», – сказав Євген Панов.
Євгена Панов повернувся до України 7 вересня в рамках обміну в Україну. Усього того дня повернулися 35 утримуваних Росією українців, у Росію передали 35 російських і українських громадян, яких в Україні судили за різні кримінальні злочини.
ФСБ Росії в серпні 2016 року оголосила про затримання в анексованому Криму групи «українських диверсантів», які нібито готували теракти на півострові. Затриманих деякий час тримали в московському СІЗО в Лефортово, пізніше – повернули до Криму.
Російські спецслужби заявляють, що затримані у цій справі Євген Панов і Андрій Захтей планували здійснити теракти на об’єктах туристичної та соціальної інфраструктури півострова.
13 липня 2018 року підконтрольний Кремлю Верховний суд Криму засудив Панова до 8 років колонії суворого режиму. Він відмовився від угоди зі слідством.
Влада України заперечує російські звинувачення на адресу українців і називає ці звинувачення провокацією російських спецслужб.
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The head of Ukraine’s state-owned oil company says Kyiv will remain able to supply Europe with natural gas from its subterranean storage units even if European Union-mediated talks don’t pan out.“We are fully confident that Ukraine can maintain gas supply … at least during the first quarter of 2020,” Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev said Friday at a public event in Brussels.On Thursday, Russia and Ukraine held their third round of ministerial-level talks in Brussels about the transit of Russian natural gas to Europe, where all parties hoped to negotiate EU Commissioner for Energy Maros Sefcovic attends a news conference after gas talks between the European Union, Russia and Ukraine at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Sept. 19, 2019.According to Sefcovic, all parties agreed that a future contract would be based on EU law, and that the unbundling of Ukraine’s Naftogaz gas transport operations should be completed, which would create a separate entity to handle the transit of gas through Ukraine.He also said all parties agreed to resume ministerial-level talks before the end of October, and those representatives from companies involved in the contract development would continue negotiating the details of Thursday’s general agreement.On Friday, however, CEO Kobolyev said that even if talks fail, Naftogaz’s 19.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas currently held in underground storage will remain in play, and that Ukraine has signed at least one deal for reverse flows from Europe.It was also reported Friday that Naftogaz is already seeking to recover any losses from maintaining the transit network if the deadline arrives without a deal.“We are looking for full recovery of all relevant costs, including recovery of residual value of Ukraine’s gas transmission system,” Kobolyev was quoted as saying by Reuters on Friday.“We are not disclosing a number here. But the number is quite high.”Nord Stream 2, TurkStream, and litigationThis week’s talks follow a Sept. 10 decision by the top European Union court in Luxembourg to reimpose limits on gas flows via the Opal pipeline, a spur that connects Germany with the Nord Stream pipeline system operated by Russia’s state-owned Gazprom.FILE – The Nord Stream 2 pipe-laying vessel Audacia is pictured off Ruegen island, Germany, Nov. 7, 2018.Gazprom is pushing to complete the Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream pipeline projects in 2020, after which it would no longer depend upon Ukraine’s pipelines for transit. Ukraine’s loss of roughly $3 billion gas-transit fees — about 3% of national GDP — would be a substantial blow to the Ukrainian economy.Naftogaz announced in July 2018 that it had submitted a claim to the Stockholm arbitration court demanding compensation of up to $14 billion for the loss of gas-transit system value if Gazprom refuses to sign a contract by the deadline.Ukraine, however, is ready to recall this claim if Russia signs a contract agreeing to continue transporting gas through its territory after January 1.In February 2018, the Stockholm arbitration tribunal awarded $4.63 billion in compensation to Naftogaz; Gazprom still owes Naftogaz $2.56 billion plus interest on this amount.In recent months, however, Russian President Vladimir Putin adopted a conciliatory tone, saying Russia was ready to keep up transit via Ukraine if Naftogaz is willing to recall the legal claims.Edward Chow, senior associate in the Energy and National Security Program at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the Ukrainian delegation should resist forfeiting their legal wins to reach the deal.Litigation and contract negotiations, he said, “should be kept as separate as possible” and that “whenever the final judgment comes, Gazprom should honor that judgment.”Gas warsIn 2006 and 2009, disagreements between the two nations cut natural gas supplies to Western Europe in the middle of winter, leaving many without heat.FILE – A general view shows the headquarters of Gazprom, with a board of Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Gazprom seen in the foreground, in Moscow.Some analysts say an interruption in gas flows to Europe this winter “might damage the reputation of Gazprom permanently.””Europe is already going through an examination of what role fossil fuels should play in the energy future. The gas seemed like a good bridging fuel between carbon-emitting fossil fuels and renewables,” Chow said. “However, it does not have to be that way. So, if Gazprom wants to maintain market share in Europe, it should not want a supply interruption.”Margarita Assenova, an energy expert with the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, says although Ukraine has substantial natural gas reserves, other countries would be especially vulnerable to an interruption.”The most vulnerable countries to gas interruptions from Russia are Bulgaria, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina,” she told VOA. “They don’t have sufficient gas storage facilities, and they don’t have alternative suppliers.”Russia depends on sales to Europe more than Europe depends on buying Russian gas,” she added, explaining that this fact gives Ukraine an upper hand in ongoing negotiations.”Russia supplies about one-third of the gas that Europe consumes, but Russia sells 99% of its gas to Europe,” she said. “So, who is going to lose more if Europe turns to other sources?”After Thursday’s talks in Brussels, the energy ministers of Russia and Ukraine, Aleksandr Novak and Oleksiy Orzhe, said both sides had agreed to meet again by the end of October.This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service.
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«Якщо повідомлення у ЗМІ правдиві, то справді немає меж у бажанні Трампа зловживати владою та принижувати нашу країну» – Джо Байден
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Заборонений опозиційний рух «Демократичний вибір Казахстану» організував 21 вересня акцію протесту, вимагаючи звільнити затриманих раніше активістів.
Мітинги відбулися в столиці Нур-Султаня та в Алмати, найбільшому місті Казахстану. Під час акції відбулися нові затримання, у відділках поліції опинилися понад 50 людей.
Генеральна прокуратура Казахстану 20 вересня застерегла від участі в акціях, заявивши, що правоохоронці вдадуться до «жорстких заходів для запобігання незаконним мітингам».
Алматинська правозахисна група «Коаліція громадських ініціатив» 20 вересня заявила, що близько 50 активістів за останні п’ять днів у Нур-Султані, Алмати та кількох інших містах були оштрафовані або засуджені до ув’язнення за звинуваченнями в організації або участі в несанкціонованих акціях раніше цього місяця.
Опозиційний рух «Демократичний вибір Казахстану» очолює Мухтар Аблязов, який проживає у вигнанні у Франції. Його розшукують Казахстан, Росія та Україна за підозрою в розкраданні близько 5 мільярдів доларів.
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Голова комітету Верховної Ради з питань зовнішньої політики Богдан Яременко (фракція «Слуга народу») повідомив 21 вересня, що українська делегація не братиме участі в сесії Парламентської асамблеї Ради Європи, яка відбудеться з 30 вересня до 4 жовтня.
«Не маючи іншої нагоди реагування на порушення цією організацією власних принципів, і зіштовхнувшись з достатньо відвертим ігноруванням її інтересів, Україна наразі утримається від відрядження своєї делегації на найближчу сесію ПАРЄ», – повідомив депутат у фейсбуці.
«Натомість зосередимось на підготовці нашої делегації та проведенні консультацій з іншими державами членами РЄ з метою вироблення плану повернення довіри до ПАРЄ. Цей підхід підтримала більшість фракцій українського парламенту», – наголосив Яременко.
Минулого тижня тодішній голова делегації України в ПАРЄ Володимир Ар’єв повідомив, що затвердження проєкту резолюції Парламентської асамблеї Ради Європи (ПАРЄ) про становище кримських татар перенесли на наступне засідання комітету з питань рівності і недискримінації. За його словами, причиною перенесення стала ініціатива внести низку правок до проєкту.
17 вересня Рада сформувала новий склад української делегації в ПАРЄ, 20 вересня делегацію України в цій очолила представниця владної фракції Єлизавета Ясько.
Парламентська асамблея Ради Європи 26 червня погодилася повернути делегацію Росії без санкцій. У відповідь на це делегації Естонії, Грузії, Латвії, Литви, Польщі, Словаччини та України в ПАРЄ покинули зал засідань.
У Кремлі після рішення ПАРЄ про відновлення права голосу російської делегації заявили, що мають намір «послідовно і терпляче роз’яснювати» Заходу «ситуацію з Кримом».
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Президент США Дональд Трамп надав дозвіл на «помірне» посилення американських військових підрозділів у Саудівській Аравії та Об’єднаних Арабських Еміратах. Це сталося після нападу на саудівську нафтову інфраструктуру, відповідальним за який Вашингтон вважає Іран.
Пентагон 20 вересня повідомив, що ще не ухвалив рішення щодо конкретних підрозділів, які будуть надіслані до регіону, а також не згадував про будь-які потенційні військові дії проти Ірану. Міністр оборони Марк Еспер заявив, що рішення США є відповіддю на запити Саудівської Аравії та ОАЕ. щоб поліпшити їхню протиповітряну та протиракетну оборону. За його словами, місія матиме «оборонний характер».
«Щоб запобігти подальшій ескалації, Саудівська Аравія попросила про міжнародну підтримку для захисту критичної інфраструктури королівства. Об’єднані Арабські Емірати також попросили про таку допомогу», – сказав очільник військового відомства США.
У липні США заявили, що надсилають близько 500 військовослужбовців до Саудівської Аравії, це сталося після серії атак на нафтові танкери в Оманській затоці. У цих атаках Вашингтон звинувачував Іран або підконтрольні йому гібридні сили.
Напруга в регіоні Близького Сходу знову зросла після того , як 14 вересня безпілотники атакували найбільший у світі нафтопереробний завод у Саудівській Аравії.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday renewed threats to dump captured Islamic State fighters on Europe’s doorstep if countries there continue to refuse to take back all their foreign fighters.
Trump said he was continuing with plans to draw down forces in Syria, saying the U.S. had done the world a big favor by eliminating the terror group’s self-declared caliphate and that it was time for other countries to step up.
“We’re asking them to take back these prisoners of war,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the Oval Office at the White House.
“They’ve refused,” he added. “And at some point I’m going to have to say, ‘I’m sorry, but you’re either taking them back or we’re going to let them go at your border.’ ”
This is not the first time Trump has chastised Washington’s European allies over the issue of IS foreign fighters.
In February, after tweeting that the IS caliphate was “ready to fall,” the president took allies to task over their reluctance to repatriate the captured fighters:The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them……..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2019According to the latest U.S. estimates, the coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are still holding more than 2,000 foreign fighters in makeshift prisons in northeastern Syria, along with thousands other IS fighters from Syria and Iraq.
U.S. and SDF officials have warned that attempted jailbreaks have become common, as many of the facilities, designed to serve as temporary prisons, have been pushed to their limits.
“This is not sustainable,” Chris Maier, director of the Pentagon’s Defeat IS Task Force, told reporters Wednesday at the Pentagon. “There are not prisons controlled by forces in northeast Syria that can house 10,000 ISIS fighters.”
But despite repeated calls by the U.S. and by the political wing of the SDF for countries to repatriate citizens and residents who left to fight for the terror group, the number of prisoners has remained fairly steady.
“We ask for their countries to get them back. Nobody responds,” Sinam Mohammed, the U.S. representative of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), said last week.
Cuban facilitySome U.S. officials and lawmakers have floated the idea that some of the IS fighters could be moved to a facility like the one in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, built after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to hold terrorists and fighters aligned with al-Qaida.
But Trump on Friday rejected the idea.
“The United States is not going to have thousands and thousands of people that we have captured stationed at Guantanamo Bay, held captive at Guantanamo Bay, for the next 50 years, and us spending billions and billions of dollars,” he said.
“They can try them, do whatever they want,” the president said of the European countries. “If they don’t take them back, we’ll probably put them at the border and then they’ll have to capture them again.”
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Сполучені Штати запровадили новий етап санкцій проти Ірану, в тому числі проти його центрального банку та фонду національного добробуту, у зв’язку з нападами на нафтову інфраструктуру Саудівської Аравії, в яких Ріяд та Вашингтон звинувачують Тегеран.
Президент США Дональд Трамп, розповідаючи про санкції журналістам 20 вересня, назвав їх «санкціями найвищого рівня, коли-небудь запровадженими проти будь-якої країни».
Згідно з повідомленням Казначейства США, санкції спрямовані на Центральний банк Ірану, Національний фонд розвитку Ірану, а також компанію Etemad Tejarate Pars, що базується в цій країні.
У Казначействі назвали установи, проти яких запровадили нові санкції, основними джерелами фінансування «маріонеток і терористичних відгалужень», до яких віднесли зокрема організацію «Корпус вартових ісламської революції», її військовий підрозділ «Кудс» та збройний рух «Хезболла», який діє в Лівані.
Читайте також: Помпео: США прагнуть «мирного вирішення» кризи з Іраном
Казначейство застерегло інші країни від порушення накладених на Іран санкцій.
Причиною санкцій Вашингтона стали атаки безпілотників на нафтопереробні заводи концерну Saudi Aramco в Саудівській Аравії.
14 вересня безпілотники обстріляли два нафтопереробні заводи. Відповідальність взяли на себе єменські повстанці-хусити, пов’язані з Іраном. У Держдепартаменті США в нападі звинуватили Тегеран. Іран звинувачення відкидає.
Саудівська Аравія, яка вважається найбільшим експортером нафти в світі, удвічі знизила добовий видобуток. Ціни на сировину різко зросли. Вартість нафти марки Brent збільшилася майже на 14% – до 70 доларів за барель.
Президент США Дональд Трамп розпорядився при необхідності використовувати нафтові резерви країни для стабілізації ситуації.
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Google is planning to invest 3 billion euros to expand its data centers across Europe in the next two years.The tech giant’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, says it will bring the company’s total investments in the continent’s internet infrastructure to 15 billion euros since 2007.Pichai met with Finnish Prime Minister Antii Rinne on Friday in Helsinki and said that the investments “will generate economic activities to the region” and support 13,000 full-time jobs in the European Union every year.He said that Google is “taking another big step by making the biggest corporate purchase of renewable energy in history” – a 1,600-megawatt package of agreements that includes 18 new energy deals. Ten of these will be in Europe.
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Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, along with their infant son, Archie, are making their first official tour as a family, starting Monday in a troubled South Africa whose president says women and children are “under siege” by shocking violence.South Africa is still shaken by the rape and murder of a university student, carried out in a post office that sparked protests by thousands of women tired of abuse and impunity in a country where more than 100 rapes are reported every day. This is “one of the most unsafe places in the world to be a woman,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said Wednesday.Empowering women is one of the issues Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, will address on a 10-day, multi-country visit, along with wildlife protection, entrepreneurship, mental health and mine clearance, a topic given global attention by Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana, when she walked through an active mine field during an Africa visit years ago.Some in South Africa said they are happy to see the arrival of Meghan, who has been vocal about women’s rights and is likely to speak out again. One of her first events is a visit to a workshop that gives self-defense classes to young girls.“I think the Duchess of Sussex’ visit is perfectly timed. She’s coming to South Africa at an incredibly turbulent time,” said Lara Rosmarin, who leads a local tech incubator that will be part of the royal visit. “People are anxious, people are scared, people are worried … She’s coming at a time when she can instill some hope and some promise and perhaps highlight the struggles of women in South Africa.”The high-profile visit by the royal family is expected to contrast with the breathtaking series of stories in local media in recent weeks about the reported abuse of women and children – “even babies,” the president reminded Parliament this week.
The scope is now well known. More than 2,700 women were murdered last year and more than 1,000 children, the government says. One in five women over age 18 has faced physical violence from a partner.“The conviction rate for rape is a shameful 5%,” the leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance, Mmusi Maimane, said Wednesday. The state should oppose bail for suspects, deny parole to those found guilty and ensure that a life sentence means life in prison, South Africa’s president now says.Some women want more, saying South Africa should bring back the death penalty for rapists. Capital punishment was abolished in the country in 1995.Despite the recent unrest, the royal family likely will focus on the positive. Planned events in their first public stop, Cape Town, include a visit to a non-governmental group that trains surfers to provide young people with mental health services.“She is a very influential person and just for her to be here and to some way influence the girls on our program is a big part of why we’re excited to have her here,” said Courtney Barnes, a surfing coach with Waves For Change.Harry and Meghan also will visit the oldest mosque in South Africa and meet with Nobel Peace Prize winner and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A “rare privilege and honor,” Tutu and his wife, Leah, said Thursday.The prince later will break away for visits to Botswana, Angola and Malawi with a special focus on wildlife protection.
In Angola, Harry will walk in the footsteps of his mother, whose walk across a mine field in 1997 helped to inspire an international ban on anti-personnel mines later that year. That field in Huambo is now a busy street, and Angola’s government, now years past a grinding civil war, hopes to be free of land mines by 2025.
“He will revisit the area his mother visited, and I think that will be a very poignant moment of coming full circle,” said Ralph Legg, country director for the mine-clearing organization The HALO Trust, adding that local people remember Diana fondly for taking notice of their plight. “It will be very striking once people compare those images from the two visits to see how far Angola has come.”Huambo province is one mine field away from being declared mine-free, Legg said, adding that Angola could achieve its goal of being mine-free by 2025 with enough support from the international community.
While Harry is traveling, Meghan will remain in South Africa with events including a Johannesburg visit to a charity that helps to raise awareness of sexual violence in schools.The royal family’s Africa visit ends on Oct. 2.
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Hints of another exchange of prisoners, talk of a bilateral withdrawal of combat soldiers and heavy weaponry from the 450-kilometer frontline in Ukraine’s east, and rising signs that Moscow and Kyiv are close to a deal on a new Russian gas-transit contract — what’s happening?Five-and-a-half years after the start of Russia’s war in eastern Ukraine, “there is a sliver of hope that the fighting will stop,” the English-language Kyiv Post newspaper editorialized Friday. The editors fear, though, the peace will be built on discord.A day earlier, the top military commander of the Ukrainian forces deployed in the eastern region of the Donbas, Gen. Volodymyr Kravchenko, told U.N. envoys he’s currently laying down plans for a withdrawal from the frontline.“Such a task has been set by the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine [Ruslan Khomchak], the Minister of Defense [Andriy Zahorodniuk] and the Head of State [President Volodymyr Zelenskiy],” the general said at the September 18 meeting. “We are ready for this for the sake of making the lives of our citizens better,” he said.FILE – Ukrainian servicemen are seen standing on top of tanks during a drill in Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, Nov. 21, 2018.But he cautioned that separation of the skirmishing forces would depend on whether Moscow will order a reciprocal pullback of the forces it controls in Ukraine’s easternmost provinces, where Kyiv’s forces have been battling pro-Moscow separatists since 2014 in a conflict that’s claimed more than 13,000 lives.Since his surprise election earlier this year to the top job in Kyiv, Zelenskiy has been urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to join in a new round of peace talks involving U.S. President Donald Trump and other Western leaders. In a video statement released in July to coincide with a one-day EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv, the political novice and former television comic, who won a landslide election victory in April, appealed to Putin directly. “We need to talk? We do. Let’s do it,” he said, looking directly into the camera.Last month it was announced the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany would meet to discuss the Donbas conflict. Some seasoned diplomats remain skeptical of the outcome. In July, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker cautioned against optimism in an interview with VOA’s Ukrainian Service.FILE – A Ukrainian soldier takes his position near the frontline with Russia-backed separatists, in Shyrokyne, eastern Ukraine, Nov. 28, 2018.“Unfortunately, we’ve really not heard much news from Russia. They are still saying that everything is Ukraine’s responsibility … that Ukraine needs to negotiate with the two so-called ‘separatist people’s republics’ that they created in Ukraine,” he said, referring to the Kremlin-back self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.Skeptics argue Putin isn’t serious about ending a conflict of his own making and has every reason to nurture it as a way to disrupt Ukraine, halt its embrace of the West and to continue to punish Ukraine for the popular 2014 Maidan uprising, which forced out of power his ally Viktor Yanukovych.Until recently Zelenskiy didn’t appear to be getting anywhere with Moscow, according to some analysts. “Despite his more moderate line on Russia compared to his predecessor, Vladimir Putin has given him no room for maneuver, issuing Russian passports to residents of the occupied territories, instituting an oil blockade, celebrating ‘statehood’ for the occupied territories and continuing with violations of the cease-fire,” commented Chatham House analysts Mathieu Boulègue and Leo Litra earlier this year.FILE – U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker speaks during a press-conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 27, 2019.But a prisoner swap earlier this month has prompted some optimism. Speaking in Kyiv at a conference Sunday, Volker welcomed the prisoner exchange, noting there were new dynamics in play between Kyiv and Moscow, although he urged caution, too.Russian officials say they’re ready to participate in a four-way summit in Paris to try to kickstart the long-stalled peace process, but they say they have strict preconditions for such a meeting. It would be the first major sit-down between Moscow and Kyiv since 2016 when Ukraine and Russia signed a framework agreement on the mutual withdrawal of troops in Donbas. The warring parties were meant to withdraw at least one kilometer back and to dismantle the emplacements for heavy weaponry.That agreement envisaged a period of stable cease-fire and earmarked three demilitarized zones in frontline areas in Luhansk Oblast, including around the towns of Zolote, Petrivske and Stanytsya Luhanska.FILE – A member of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service signals for people to stop as they approach a checkpoint at the contact line between Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian troops, in Mayorsk, eastern Ukraine, July 3, 2019.Speaking at a conference earlier this week, Zelenskiy said troop withdrawals were “a priority” for him, and he laid out a path for elections in “parts of the Donbas occupied by separatists,” in accordance with the 2016 Minsk deal. In June, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe reported that both sides had effected a complete and mutual pullout from Stanytsya Luhanska.Zelenskiy’s embrace of the idea of elections is alarming former officials who served in the administration of his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, who was highly skeptical of elections, fearing voting in the Russian-controlled Donbas could easily be manipulated by Moscow.Russian officials say they have preconditions for the scheduled summit — including the troop withdrawals outlined in the Minsk deal and pre-agreed wording on the Donbas’ “special status” within Ukraine.For Zelenskiy, the risks are high. Miscalculation could wreck his presidency before it has got going. Some of his domestic critics say he’s entering a trap and that Moscow has no reason to be serious about talks. Ukrainian withdrawal amounts to a military retreat and a surrender of Ukraine’s vital interests, they say.FILE – Relatives hold portraits of Ukrainian soldiers killed by Russian artillery near the village of Ilovaysk in eastern Ukraine, during a protests in front of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, Aug.28, 2019.Ukrainian officials say they have no choice but to try to get a resolution to the conflict in the Donbas, noting there is “Ukraine fatigue” in western Europe. In an interview with Germany’s Die Welt newspaper, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said the sanctions the West imposed on Russia for its 2014 annexation of Crimea and other incursions are getting increasingly inconvenient for the West.He said time may be running out, and Ukraine needs to strike a deal. “Even if Western sanctions are not ideal, and it’s getting more and more difficult for our Western partners to maintain them, they still damage the Russian economy,” he said. “And this forces Russia to make steps in the right direction.”Pristayko said Zelenskiy “wants to achieve true progress within six months,” but added, “I don’t know what the Kremlin’s aspirations are. We will not surrender the territory of Ukraine and have notified the Russians about our red lines. For example, we oppose Russia’s attempts to strengthen its positions on parts of the Ukrainian territory,” he said. “We want to return our citizens back.”
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