In Greece, Russia Sympathies Die Hard Despite Ukraine War
March 12, 2022
Agence France-Presse

A Ukrainian refugee holds her dog following her arrival by

 bus at Promachonas Greece-Bulgarian border post, northern 

Greece, on March 11, 2022.

ATHENS, GREECE —

When Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis took the floor in a parliament debate on Ukraine this month, there was no doubt which side his government was taking in the conflict.

"There can be no equal distances. You are either with peace and international law, or against them," he told lawmakers, after announcing a shipment of medicine and lethal aid to Ukraine.

"We were always on the right side of history, and we are doing the same now," the PM said.

But for many Greeks, after centuries of existential, religious and cultural ties with Russia, the choice is not as evident.

"Greek public opinion has a Russophile dimension, friendly feelings linked to history, a common culture based on Orthodoxy and for some, mistrust towards the West," notes Nikos Marantzidis, professor of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies at the University of Macedonia.

A post-invasion poll in February showed 20% of Greeks are "closer" to Russia while 45% support Ukraine.

Just 8% said they would boycott Russian products, and 2% said they would avoid contact with Russians.

About 75% of respondents condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin's stance, but more than 60% were also critical of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Kappa Research poll showed.

Putin 'a great leader'

"There is a minority, not an insignificant one, that continues to view Putin positively," Marantzidis said.

"Whatever happens, a hard core of (about 10-15% of the electorate) will continue to see him as a great leader," he told AFP.

Greeks have fought alongside Russia since the 18th century, with the fellow Orthodox state historically seen as a protector and powerful counterweight to regional rival Turkey.

In 1827, Russia joined Britain and France in the decisive naval battle of Navarino that effectively decided Greece's independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Marantzidis also notes residual anti-Western feelings in Greece over a near-decade of austerity cuts imposed by Germany and other EU states in return for debt rescue bailouts.

And memories of NATO's bombing of fellow Orthodox Serbians in 1999 during the Kosovo war are still raw, he adds.

Russians are also a prized demographic for Greece's tourism industry, with hundreds of thousands visiting annually.

Just a year ago, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was among the guests of honor in Athens’ celebrations of the bicentenary of the Greek 1821 revolution.

Twelve months later, relations with Moscow are frosty and thousands of Greeks have joined anti-war protests alongside Ukrainians living in Greece.

'Threats and insults'

The Russian Embassy in Athens this week expressed concern about "threats and insults" towards its nationals in Greece and called on the police to investigate.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias was among the last heads of diplomacy to see Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov just days before the Feb. 24 invasion.

But the deaths of nearly a dozen ethnic Greeks in Ukraine, members of a historic community of over 100,000 dating back to the 18th century, dealt a blow to relations.

Athens blamed Russian air strikes for the killings, but Moscow denied its forces were responsible and blamed Ukraine.

On Feb. 27, the Russian Embassy in Athens said Greek politicians and media should "come to their senses" and should stop parroting "anti-Russian propaganda."

The Greek foreign ministry has condemned such language as undiplomatic, and government spokesperson Yiannis Economou fired back on Tuesday: "Nobody can sow dissent among us in any way."

"Greeks are not historically naive or forgetful to be swayed by external voices," Economou said.

On the Russian Embassy's Facebook page, pro-Russian Greeks and Ukraine supporters trade insults daily.

Most express shock towards the Russian onslaught and attacks against civilian targets and call for an end to hostilities. More than 7,000 Ukrainian refugees have so far fled to Greece.

"Your people resisted and beat the Nazis, now you are walking in their footsteps," said user Leila Rosaki.

But many remain defiantly pro-Putin.

"Putin will be remembered and go down in history as a great and worthy leader," writes Stelios Markou.

"Bravo, chase them all the way to Germany like before," applauded Ilias Karavitis.

"Zelenskyy is begging Europe and NATO to get involved, he is trying to start World War III. Pray that he shuts up," opined Nelli Ign.

"May God protect President Putin and all the Russians fighting for freedom," said Thiresia Sakel.

What is the Wagner Group, and is it in Ukraine?

Niamh Cavanagh
·Producer
Fri, March 11, 2022


Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has claimed that members of the Wagner Group — Russia’s shadowy private military — are taking up arms in the country, which is entering its third week of fighting Russian forces.

In a Facebook post this week, the Defense Ministry shared an image of a dog tag that allegedly belonged to a Wagner mercenary soldier. “Wagnerists are already dying on the territory of Ukraine,” the post read.

Reports of the private military in Ukraine have been backed up by the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense, which said Russia is “likely deploying” Wagner soldiers to help Kremlin-led forces. “The Russian state almost certainly maintains extensive links with Russian [private military companies], despite repeated denials,” a statement from the ministry said. A report from the British newspaper the Times on Feb. 28 claimed that more than 400 mercenaries from the group had been deployed to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine claims that as of March 9, Zelensky had survived at least 12 assassination attempts — two of which were allegedly orchestrated by the Wagner Group.

What is the Wagner Group?

According to researchers, no single business is registered as Wagner, so it is most likely a network of businesses and groups of mercenaries that are linked through ownership. “From a legal perspective, Wagner doesn’t exist,” Sorcha MacLeod, who runs the United Nations’ working group on the use of mercenaries, told the Economist.

However, Candace Rondeaux, a senior fellow at the Center on the Future of War, explained to Foreign Policy magazine that referring to the mercenaries as the Wagner Group is “extremely problematic,” as it “makes them sound like these ghostly operators that cannot be traced, and that’s just not the case.” The company is said to have at least 6,000 employees and is reportedly registered in Argentina, with offices in Hong Kong and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images; Wikicommons

Kremlin links

The private soldiers are arguably the world’s most effective mercenary army, with strong connections to the Kremlin. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, Wagner’s “management and operations are deeply intertwined with the Russian military and its intelligence community.”

Wagner has been accused of acting as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invisible hand in countries around the world, allowing the Kremlin to engage in plausible deniability. The group has reportedly been found operating in Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, Venezuela and the Central African Republic. Wagner has been accused of committing war crimes as well as creating troll farms that have tampered with electoral processes and Western democracy.

According to a European Union regulation that was issued in December 2021 to implement sanctions against people linked to the Wagner Group, the private militia was founded by the elusive Dmitry Utkin. The former Russian military intelligence officer, who served in both Chechen wars, reportedly named the group after Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer, Richard Wagner. Another theory from the CSIS says the company was named after Utkin’s call sign (a name given as a unique identifier for military communications), “Vagner.”

Although it cannot be verified that Utkin created Wagner, he has participated in Russian operations in Ukraine since 2014, the CSIS said. His close connection to the Kremlin was publicized when an image of him, allegedly at a reception in Moscow, was shared on Twitter in 2016. Reports claim that Utkin attended the ceremony, where he was given the Order for Courage for his alleged service in Ukraine. The group was born out of the conflict in Ukraine during the annexation of Crimea. For years Wagner has been accused of fighting in the two disputed parts of eastern Ukraine, Luhansk and Donetsk, pro-Russian regions that declared their independence in 2014.

The group is believed to be owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, oligarch and close friend to the Russian president, also known as “Putin’s chef.” Prigozhin is wanted by the FBI for his alleged involvement in the notorious troll farm that targeted and interfered in the 2016 U.S. election. Prigozhin has been placed on both U.S. and EU sanctions lists for running disinformation campaigns to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He has previously denied any connection to Wagner.

Yevgeny Prigozhin serves food to Vladimir Putin, then Russia's prime minister, at Prigozhin’s restaurant outside Moscow in 2011.

 (Misha Japaridze/Pool via AP)

Reported war crimes

The mercenaries, who are known for their heinous acts, have reportedly fought in many conflicts across continents, including the war in Syria. In March 2021, a lawsuit was filed against the Wagner Group by a Syrian man who claimed the group had committed war crimes. The complaint is based on a video posted online in 2017 that reportedly showed an unarmed man being interrogated by Russian-speaking men in military uniforms. In 2019, another video purportedly showed the same man being beaten, tortured and beheaded, and his body being burned.

Last year, U.N. experts said Wagner had committed human rights abuses in the Central African Republic while fighting alongside government forces. The alleged violations included mass executions and torture during interrogation. A report from February 2021 stated that over 276,000 civilians had also been forcibly displaced since December 2020.

The EU then imposed sanctions against eight people connected to the group, including Utkin, as well as three energy companies linked to the group in Syria. “Wagner Group has recruited, trained and sent private military operatives to conflict zones around the world to fuel violence, loot natural resources and intimidate civilians in violation of international law, including international human rights law,” the EU stated.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MERCENARIES 

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=KOSOVO

Seeing the Forest for the Trees
Thesis on The Kosovo Crisis and the Crisis of Global Capitalism
(originally written May 1999, Bill Clinton set the stage for George W. to invade Afghanistan and Iraq for humanitarian purposes.)
http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005/01/war-whats-it-good-for-profit.html

Eastern Europe embraces Ukraine refugees as workforce



About 20,000 Ukrainians are currently in Bulgaria -- the EU's poorest member

 (AFP/Nikolay DOYCHINOV)

Vessela SERGUEVA with Julia ZAPPEI in Vienna
Fri, March 11, 2022

Eastern European countries are embracing the millions of Ukrainians fleeing Russia's invasion as a potential workforce but analysts warn it be challenging to integrate them all.

Some 2.5 million people have already fled Ukraine, according to the United Nations, which calls it Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II.

More than half are now in Poland but tens of thousands are also staying in Moldova and Bulgaria, which have some of the fastest shrinking populations.

"Those who are now arriving in the territory of the EU are well-qualified and meet the demand for labour," said Sieglinde Rosenberger of the University of Vienna, though she warned the welcoming attitude could change.

Other experts asked how eastern European countries, which have a lower GDP than their western counterparts, can handle a huge influx.

Acutely aware of the burden, some countries have already called for more assistance.

- 'Intelligent, educated' -

In a letter to the government, the association of Bulgarian employers' organisations said they could employ up to 200,000 Ukrainians.

They said those who were of Bulgarian origin and able to speak the language would be particularly welcome.

Meanwhile, IT, textile, construction and tourism sector representatives also said they were keen to hire tens of thousands of people.

Bulgaria's population has dwindled from almost nine million at the fall of communism to 6.5 million now, owing in part to emigration.

The welcome comes from the highest levels.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov described Ukrainian refugees as "intelligent, educated... highly qualified."

"These are people who are Europeans, so we and all other countries are ready to accept them," he said.

Some 20,000 Ukrainians are currently in Bulgaria -- the EU's poorest member -- though their numbers are expected to rise if Russia seizes Odessa on the Black Sea.

Hungary -- which touts its restrictive migration policy but also struggles with a labour shortage -- has also welcomed Ukrainians.

"We are able to spot the difference: who is a migrant, they are coming from the South... and who is a refugee," nationalist premier Viktor Orban said.

"Refugees can get all the help," he said last week.

Whether Ukrainians will stay is another question as many arriving move on to elsewhere in Europe where they may have relatives or better prospects.

- Integration issues -

But countries where a large number of refugees end up staying, such as Poland, could become overburdened since many are children and elderly -- thus unable to work.

"How will these large numbers be integrated across Europe? This is going to be a problem," Brad Blitz of the University College London told AFP.

The "breaking point" was yet to come, he added.

Moldova, wedged between Ukraine and Romania with a population of 2.6 million people, has called for urgent help with about 100,000 refugees.

"We will need assistance to deal with this influx, and we need this quickly," Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita told visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last weekend.

Gerald Knaus of the think tank European Stability Initiative said the EU should prepare now to move hundreds of thousands of people within the bloc.

"It will not work with strict quotas. It will rely on bottom up political support and political leaders saying, 'We step forward,'" he told AFP.

He said the crisis, however, could turn "into one of the great moments of bringing Europeans together around a humanitarian cause".

The University of Vienna's Rosenberger said governments that sought to restrict migration had now quickly changed their stance in the face of public sympathy with Ukraine.

But that welcome might not last forever when "in a few months, poorer and less qualified people are expected to come," she said.

burs-jza/raz/rlp

Chinese artist unveils painting for Ukraine, 'which has already won'

Chinese artist Huang Rui poses with his artwork 'Absence of Black Moon' at the Polish embassy in Beijing (AFP/Patrick BAERT) (Patrick BAERT)Sat, March 12, 2022

China has so far refused to condemn its ally Russia's war, but Chinese painter Huang Rui is convinced that Ukraine has already won.

The artist told AFP he paused his other projects to dedicate himself to a work about Ukraine after hearing the news of its invasion on February 24.

"Absence of Black Moon" was finished three days later and presented at an event organised by the Ukrainian and Polish embassies in Beijing on Friday.

The event, called "Together for Peace", was attended by multiple diplomats in a country where the authorities refuse to use the word "invasion" to describe the events in Ukraine.

Huang was one of the pioneers of the Chinese avant-garde movement in the 1980s and a member of the same loose collective as artist Ai Weiwei.

His latest work depicts the yellow and blue Ukrainian flag sliced into quarters by lines of red and white, meant to represent Russia. At the canvas' centre is a dark circle, a reference to the "I Ching" or Book of Changes -- an ancient Chinese text.

Huang said he had applied the principles of the "I Ching" to the military situation and concluded that victory for Kyiv was inevitable.

"It's black, but in fact there's already hope. When one sees it, they know that even at the most sombre moment, Ukraine has already won," the artist told AFP.

"At the moment, Ukraine is in the depths of night. But it is on its own soil; it can work, think, dream."

Many Western embassies in Beijing have displayed Ukrainian colours over the past few weeks in a gesture of solidarity.

But a poster outside the Canadian embassy with the country's flag and a message of support on it was vandalised with anti-NATO slogans.

China has repeatedly blamed NATO's "eastward expansion" for worsening tensions between Russia and Ukraine, echoing the Kremlin's prime security grievance, while refusing to criticise Moscow's decision to send troops across the border.

President Xi Jinping urged "maximum restraint" to avoid a "humanitarian crisis" during a Tuesday video summit with France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Olaf Scholz.

On Friday, Zhanna Leshchynska, charge d'affaires at the Ukrainian embassy in Beijing, was defiant.

"The Ukrainian people won't give up. The whole nation is united in love for our country," she said.

"Together we will win."

bar/sbr/ybl/reb/dva/cwl

Putin's inner circle: Who has the Russian president's ear on the war in Ukraine?

The Russian president's consultations at long tables and endless video link meetings air on a loop on state TV. But behind closed doors, Vladimir Putin may have few confidants when it comes to the war in Ukraine

Putin appears to be single-handedly running the show in this war

This week, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba went into talks with his Russian counterpart hoping for a cease-fire. But he came out of his meeting with Sergey Lavrov empty-handed and frustrated, implying that even Russia's foreign minister didn't have "the mandate to negotiate." 

"It seems that there are other decision-makers for this matter in Russia," he said.

Indeed, many Russian political analysts agree that President Vladimir Putin is single-handedly running the show in this war, leaving little room for even his key ministers.

"Putin's role in making decisions has changed. From being something like the chair of the board and CEO of 'Russia Inc.' and listening to other shareholders, he has started to behave like a czar," said Nikolai Petrov, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, whose current research focuses on the often secretive decision-making process in the Kremlin.

"More and more often Putin was making decisions by himself without taking care of reaching a compromise with other important players," he said.

Putin seemed to show off his power and show up the members of his

 Security Council before declaring Donbas' independence

In the dark about the invasion

Who might still have Putin's ear? To answer this question, it's worth going back to the early hours of February 24. Who actually knew the invasion was about to begin?

At that point, Putin had already publicly declared the independence of the breakaway separatist regions in Donbas in eastern Ukraine. But media observers have pointed out that even the Kremlin elites in charge of Russian state media were taken by surprise by news of the invasion, including those outlets associated directly with the presidential administration.

Russian state TV has been repeating Putin's line on the war, calling it a 'special operation'

"Usually our propaganda machine is well-prepared for all big events," said Roman Dobrokhotov, the founder of the renowned investigative media outlet The Insider. "Every week on Thursdays, the directors of our state TV channels and other big state media outlets gather in the Kremlin, and they get instructions about how to report about this and that. But no one explained to them that there will be war in Ukraine. Everybody thought that it was only about accepting Donbas as an independent state."

He pointed out that the state media line had been that the Russian troops stationed on the Ukrainian border would return home soon, and talk of a possible war was all "fake Western hysteria."

"It was Vladimir Putin with the minister of defense and the security services. Only they knew," Dobrokhotov told DW. 

Valery Gerasimov (left), the army's chief of staff, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu 

cut solemn figures at a recent meeting

The Kremlin's strongmen

Political analyst Nikolai Petrov agrees. He believes that among those who definitely did know about the war are the so-called "siloviki," members of Russia's law enforcement agencies, who are said to have gained increasing influence in the country in recent years.

That group includes Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the chief of staff of the Russian Armed Forces. Both are probably now running some of the day-to-day operations of the invasion. In late September, Shoigu went on a trekking holiday with Putin in the Siberian taiga. There are media reports that the trip may be when Putin informed his defense minister of his plans to take Kyiv.

Putin recently went on a Siberian trekking holiday with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu

Russia's spy chiefs Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), and Sergei Naryshkin, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), would also likely have known that a full-scale invasion of Ukraine was on the table, according to analyst Petrov. Putin himself is a former KGB foreign intelligence officer and both men have worked with him since the 1970s. But Petrov argued that Bortnikov and Naryshkin "do not look like thinkers who developed any kind of strategy" when it comes to the invasion.

Petrov pointed instead to another man who worked with Putin in the KGB in Soviet times: Nikolai Patrushev, known for his anti-Western views. He is the secretary of the Security Council, a body run by Putin himself. He "communicates with Putin pretty often because there are weekly Security Council meetings," said Petrov. Patrushev was a leading figure behind Russia's updated security strategy, published in May 2021. It states that Russia may use "forceful methods" to respond to unfriendly actions by foreign countries.

Nikolai Patrushev has worked with Putin for years and is known for his anti-Western views

Increasing isolation

If the circle of people Putin consults with is small, then the number of people who speak to the Russian leader in person is even smaller. Putin is known to have taken extreme measures to protect himself from COVID-19. Since the pandemic, he usually appears on television from his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo in the Moscow region. This has been fitted with a special disinfection tunnel for visitors. Jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny has taken to mockingly referring to Putin as the "old man in the bunker." Everyone who wants to meet Putin in person must reportedly isolate beforehand for 14 days — or sit at a very long table far away from him.

Petrov said that as a result of these precautionary measures, most of those involved in active government business speak to him via video link, because they don't have the time to quarantine so frequently. Replacing in-person-meetings with video calls could make it harder "to feel what exactly the person you are speaking with thinks about an issue," he told DW.

Even army chiefs Shoigu and Gerasimov are kept well away from Putin

Purges ahead?

Over two weeks into the war, Western security services have been publicly stating that the pace of the Russian army's advance invasion is seemingly slowing.

If that's true, it could mean those in Putin's inner circle could eventually become the target of his anger, according to Abbas Gallyamov, a political analyst and former speechwriter for the Russian president. "Whom he wants to purge is definitely the leaders of the Ministry of Defense, maybe the FSB. The people who didn't warn him that this will be a long, bloody war, not an easy 'blitzkrieg'," Gallaymov told DW. 

"But he will not do it right now, because he is at war. And punishing, for example, the Minister of Defense or the [Army's] Chief of the General Staff, would mean admitting that you failed."

Kherson, Ukraine: Life under Russian occupation

Towns and villages in the Kherson region, under occupation by Russian troops since the first days of the war, have been completely isolated. The behavior of the Russian soldiers has left many citizens puzzled.

Despite the occupation, people across the Kherson region have been coming out to protest the presence of Russian troops

"We are not giving up, we are part of Ukraine!"

This defiant phrase rings out daily in the streets of towns and villages of the Kherson region. The area in southern Ukraine has effectively been under Russian occupation since the first days of the war against Ukraine. But people in the city of Kherson, and in Nova Kakhovka, Kakhovka, Hola Prystan, Skadovsk, Oleshky, Henichesk, Novotroitske and Chaplynka, have been peacefully protesting against the presence of Russian troops, saying they weren't invited and should just leave.

"We had another rally yesterday. More than 5,000 people came, all carrying blue and yellow flags," said Yevhen Ryshchuk, the mayor of Oleshky. "People sang the anthem and signed appeals to the US president and European heads of state, asking them to close the airspace over Ukraine."

Isolated from rest of the country

The situation is similar in all these towns and villages. They've been encircled by Russian troops who, for the most part, control the roads in and out but stay outside. The only exception is Nova Kakhovka, which stretches along both banks of the Dnieper River and is home to a hydroelectric power plant. There, Russian troops can be seen on the streets of the city center.

The Ukrainian flag continues to fly in every municipality, where the authorities are still taking care of local concerns.

"We have electricity, gas, water, the communal services are working," said Oleksandr Yakovlev, mayor of Skadovsk. "People and volunteers have organized themselves into associations to prevent looting. We can only contact the central state power authorities by phone. But how can they help us now?".

"There are big problems with logistics. People can't pick up their pensions at the post office, because no money has been delivered."

Skadovsk is located some 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) from the administrative border with Russian-occupied Crimea, and 100 kilometers from Kherson. Unlike other parts of the country, Skadovsk hasn't really seen any fighting. It was besieged in the first hours after the initial attack on February 24 by Russian troops, who immediately set up checkpoints everywhere, said Yakovlev.

"People are being let through, but their cars and identity papers are checked. Civilian vehicles have also come under fire, and there have been victims. Yesterday, they shot at an ambulance, but there were no casualties," said the mayor. On the morning of March 9, Russian armored vehicles drove directly into the city and positioned themselves in front of the city hall, but did nothing else.
'There is no one to talk to'

Both mayors said they hadn't been contacted by the Russian military, which had not made any demands. They suspected that the soldiers themselves did not know what to do with the occupied territories. In any case, said the mayors, the Russian troops had not been received with flowers by the locals, as Russia's top leaders had expected.

Volodymyr Kovalenko, the mayor of Nova Kakhovka, has set up a temporary office in a municipal utility building because the town hall has been occupied by the Russians, who are using it as their headquarters. Kovalenko said they had appointed an administrator, and imposed a curfew.

"The town is under the control of the Russian army. I make sure that life goes on somehow," said Kovalenko. He said he only makes contact with the occupiers through his deputy — and only when he needs help with a problem he can't solve himself, such as making a trip along the road over the power plant dam, which is also under Russian control. He added he was trying to get food delivered to residential districts.

Other mayors have no contact at all with the Russians, including Mayor Ryshchuk in Oleshky. He said there were more than 100 bodies lying on a bridge over the Dnieper River, which connects his town with the city of Kherson. No one has been allowed to go recover the bodies of the civilians and Ukrainian soldiers killed in the fierce fighting, not even priests or volunteers.

"There is no one to talk to," said Ryshchuk. "People are constantly changing at the checkpoints. Who is there to negotiate with?"

Enough supplies to last another 10 days

Agriculture is one of the region's industries, meaning the locals still have access to food staples. Farmers from the surrounding areas have brought vegetables and meat into the cities. Defunct mills are being repaired so that they can supply bakeries with flour and oil.

But fuel and medicine, especially for cancer patients, is scarce. "The food in our warehouses will last for another 10 days. But we have no extra supplies of medicine, fuel and lubricants. What we have will only last for one or two more days," said Kovalenko.

In Kherson and other towns in the regions, volunteers have been providing food for locals

The mayors set aside fuel reserves for municipal vehicles and ambulances. But when these run out, life in these towns and villages will likely be completely paralyzed — and no one knows what will happen next.

'People here are very pro-Ukraine'

Parts of the region no longer have mobile phone coverage. But people still have access to Ukrainian television broadcasts, even though the transmitter tower in Kherson has been occupied by Russian troops. Many people also have satellite dishes, and others are able to get information via the internet.

"People here are very pro-Ukraine. This staged show, with Russian humanitarian aid being distributed in front of Russian TV cameras, doesn't work with the people here," said Anton*, an activist from Henichesk, adding that pro-Ukraine rallies with thousands of participants would show the Russians that they're not welcome.

Locals have said Russia staged a delivery of humanitarian aid in front of Russian TV cameras

"The Russian soldiers told us they had not come as conquerors. But in the meantime, they have threatened us by saying if they're provoked, they'll raze the town to the ground," said Anton. He said many residents wondered why such a large part of Kherson region had gone to the Russian army without a fight. But they hoped Ukraine would soon regain control over its territory.

Meanwhile, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, units of the Russian National Guard have been deployed to the region, and more than 400 Ukrainian citizens were arrested in the region on Wednesday.

This article was originally published in Ukrainian

*DW has changed the activist's name to protect his identity

UKRAINIAN SPORTS STARS WHO HAVE TAKEN UP ARMS

Dmytro Pidruchnyi (Biathlon)

After his return from the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Dmytro Pidruchnyi enrolled in the Ukrainian National Guard to fight after Russia’s invasion of his country. The 30-year-old is a former European champion biathlete and has been to two Olympic Games.

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FORGIVE THE DEBT

Argentina lawmakers approve deal with IMF to repay vast debt


Argentina's debt has led to protests 

(AFP/ALEJANDRO PAGNI) 

Fri, March 11, 2022

Lawmakers in Argentina on Friday approved a deal with the International Monetary Fund to restructure a ruinous $45 billion debt ahead of a vote in the upper house.

With 204 votes in favor, 37 against and 11 abstentions, the package obtained "an affirmative result and will be communicated to the honorable Senate," chamber president Sergio Massa said.

The details of the deal were ironed out between Argentine officials and IMF staff after an in-principle agreement in January.

"This is the best refinancing agreement that could be achieved," lawmaker Carlos Heller from the pro-government Frente de Todos (Everyone's Front) said.

A rejection of the package "would lead us into serious problems that we must avoid at all costs," he added ahead of the session that lasted until early Friday morning.

In 2018, under the government of conservative President Mauricio Macri, the IMF approved its biggest-ever loan of $57 billion to Argentina. The country received $44 billion of that amount.

Macri's successor Alberto Fernandez refused to accept the rest, seeking also to renegotiate repayment terms. Payments of $19 billion and $20 billion were due this year -- a timeline the government considered impossible.

Argentina is just emerging from three years of economic recession and battling rising inflation and a high poverty rate.

Under the new deal, repayments will be made from 2026 to 2034 after a grace period.

- Protests and violence -

As well as going through the Senate, the package must also be ratified by the IMF board of directors before it comes into force.

Despite reluctance from a sector of Frente de Todos and the opposition coalition Juntos por el Cambio (Together for Change), the lawmakers passed the refinancing deal, but many have questioned the economic program that will accompany it.

"This is not the time for opportunism," said Juntos por el Cambio MP Facundo Manes.

"The opposition must give (the government) the chance to restructure the debt, but we cannot take responsibility for the program that the government negotiated with the IMF."

As expected, minority figures on the left and on the libertarian right were opposed to the agreement.

Pro-government MP German Martinez said the deal gave "time that allows us to consolidate, boost a process of economic recovery".

"That will allow us to be in better shape in four-and-a-half years to start facing the payments, and we are going to make them without adjustment," he said.

Argentina hopes to reduce its fiscal deficit from 3.0 percent of GDP today to 0.9 percent by 2024.

There were protests against the deal outside parliament, with some demonstrators burning rubbish and throwing stones towards the building entrance.

A police officer was hit by a Molotov cocktail and some windows were hit with stones, including those at the offices of the Senate president and Vice President Cristina Kirchner.

nn/es/je/leg

NASA opens sample taken from the Moon 50 years on

A sample of moon rock collected during the Apollo 17 mission is opened by NASA 50 years on (AFP/Robert MARKOWITZ) (Robert MARKOWITZ)


Thu, March 10, 2022

The Apollo missions to the Moon brought a total of 2,196 rock samples to Earth. But NASA has only just started opening one of the last ones, collected 50 years ago.

For all that time, some tubes were kept sealed so that they could be studied years later, with the help of the latest technical breakthroughs.

NASA knew "science and technology would evolve and allow scientists to study the material in new ways to address new questions in the future," Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters, said in a statement.

Dubbed 73001, the sample in question was collected by astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in December 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission -- the last of the program.

The tube, 35 cm long and 4 cm (13.8 inches by 1.6 inches) wide, had been hammered into the ground of the Moon's Taurus-Littrow valley to collect the rocks.

Of the only two samples to have been vacuum sealed on the Moon, this is the first to be opened.

It could as such contain gases or volatile substances (water, carbon dioxide, etc.)

And the aim is to extract these gases, which are probably only present in very small quantities, to be able to analyze them using spectrometry techniques that have become extremely precise in recent years.

In early February, the outer protective tube was first removed.

It was not itself revealed to contain any lunar gas, indicating that the sample it contained remained sealed.

Then on February 23, scientists began a weeks-long process aimed at piercing the main tube and harvesting the gas contained inside.

In the spring, the rock will then be carefully extracted and broken up so that it can be studied by different scientific teams.

The extraction site of this sample is particularly interesting because it is the site of a landslide.

"Now we don't have rain on the Moon," said Juliane Gross, deputy Apollo curator. "And so we don't quite understand how landslides happen on the Moon."

Gross said researchers hope to study the sample to understand what causes landslides.

After 73001, there will be only three lunar samples still sealed. When will they in turn be opened?

"I doubt we'll wait another 50 years," said senior curator Ryan Zeigler.

"Particularly once they get Artemis samples back, it might be nice to do a direct comparison in real time between whatever's coming back from Artemis, and with one of these remaining unopened core, sealed cores," he said.

Artemis is NASA's next moon mission; the agency wants to send humans back to the Moon in 2025.

Large amounts of gas should then be collected, and the experiment currently being conducted helps to better prepare for it.

la-vgr/mdl/md

New giant tortoise species found in Ecuador after DNA study

A new species of giant tortoise has been discovered in the Galapagos after DNA testing found animals living on one island had not yet been recorded, Ecuador’s environment ministry said

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© Provided by The South African

AFP 

Researchers compared the genetic material of tortoises currently living on San Cristobal with bones and shells collected in 1906 from a cave in the island’s highlands and found them to be different.

ALSO READ: Critically endangered bat not seen in decades found in Rwanda

FOUND TORTOISE SPECIES IS ‘ALMOST CERTAINLY EXTINCT’

The 20th-century explorers never reached the lowlands northeast of the island, where the animals live today, and as a result, almost 8 000 tortoises correspond to a different lineage to what was previously thought.

“The species of giant tortoise that inhabits San Cristobal Island, until now known scientifically as Chelonoidis chathamensis, genetically matches a different species,” the ministry said Thursday on Twitter.

Galapagos Conservancy said in a newsletter that the Chelonoidis chathamensis species is “almost certainly extinct” and that the island had in fact been home to two different varieties of tortoise, one living in the highlands and another in the lowlands.

THERE WERE ORIGINALLY 15 SPECIES OF GIANT TORTOISE IN SAN CRISTOBAL

Located in the Pacific about 1 000 kilometres off the coast of Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands are a protected wildlife area and home to unique species of flora and fauna.

The archipelago was made famous by British geologist and naturalist Charles Darwin’s observations on evolution there.

There were originally 15 species of giant tortoise on the islands, three of which became extinct centuries ago, according to the Galapagos National Park.

A NEW NAME FOR TORTOISES LIVING ON SAN CRISTOBAL

In 2019, a specimen of Chelonoidis phantastica was found on Fernandina Island more than 100 years after the species was considered extinct.

The study by researchers from Newcastle University in Britain, Yale in the United States, the American NGO Galapagos Conservancy and other institutions was published in the scientific journal Heredity.

They will continue to recover more DNA from the bones and shells to determine whether the tortoises living on San Cristobal, which is 557 kilometres long, should be given a new name.

Four endangered American crocodiles are born in Peru

A 45 day-old American crocodile hatchling inside a plastic container is weighed at the 

Huachipa Zoo, Peru, on March 10, 2022.

A Lima zoo announced Thursday the birth in captivity of four American crocodiles, an endangered species, after a successful artificial incubation.

The crocodile hatchlings were born in mid-January after 78 days of incubation from the eggs of a pair of adult crocodiles that live in the Huachipa Zoological Park, east of Lima.

"We have now shown these crocodile pups that were just born 45 days ago at the zoo," Jose Flores, head of the zoo's reptile area, told AFP.

"Any birth of any species that is threatened and (in) danger of extinction must be considered an achievement," he stressed.

The hatchlings live in a special fish tank, measure 26 centimeters (10.2 inches) and weigh between 70 and 90 grams (0.15 to 0.19 lbs) each.

They have the traditional olive green color of the species and protruding eyes. They feed on small pieces of chicken and fish.

In Peru, they are known as "Tumbes crocodiles" because their natural habitat is the mangroves of Tumbes, on the border with Ecuador.

"This species, in Peru, is in danger of extinction mainly due to the destruction of its natural habitat," explained Flores, 39.

The small reptiles belong to the Crocodylus Acutus species and are the only ones that survived from the 25 eggs that the mother incubated.

A 45-day-old American crocodile hatchling is measured during its periodic control at the 

Huachipa Zoo, Peru, on March 10, 2022. The zoo announced the birth in captivity of four

 American crocodiles, an endangered species, after a successful period of 78 days of 

artificial incubation from the eggs of a pair of adult crocodiles that live in the park.

At 195 kilograms (430 lbs), the father crocodile is five meters (yards) long while the mother is 2.5 meters long and weighs 85 kilos. They are both 20 years old.

This species is found in the southern United States, Mexico and Venezuela, but in countries such as Peru and Ecuador it is critically endangered.

Relentless hunting for their skins reduced numbers dramatically in the 1960s. There are now restrictions controlling the trade in crocodiles and their skins.

Rare crocodile eggs hatched at Cambodian conservation center

© 2022 AFP

UN holds biodiversity talks on deal to stave off mass extinction

by Laure Fillon

Experts fear Earth is facing an era of mass extinction.

Global efforts to cut plastic and agricultural pollution, protect a third of wild spaces, and ultimately live "in harmony with nature" will dominate UN biodiversity negotiations starting Monday, held in person after a two-year pandemic delay.

Almost 200 countries are due to adopt a global framework this year to safeguard nature by mid-century from the destruction wrought by humanity, with a key milestone of 30 percent protected by 2030.

The aim is also to safeguard the "services" nature supplies: the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil that yields the food we eat.

The meeting in Geneva will set the stage for a crucial UN biodiversity summit, initially due to be held in China in 2020 and postponed several times. It is now expected to take place at the end of August.

Geneva is a chance to strengthen a draft global biodiversity agreement "that many observers feel currently lacks the teeth needed to meaningfully address interconnected biodiversity and climate crises that cannot be solved in isolation", according to the Nature Conservancy.

Campaigners have for years called for a deal on halting biodiversity loss similar to what the Paris Agreement outlined for the climate.

Previous efforts to halt this devastation have fallen short, with countries failing, for example, to meet almost all the biodiversity targets set in 2010.

But despite often being overshadowed by the efforts to combat climate change, the plight of the natural world is no less catastrophic.

Intensive agriculture is depleting the soil and fouled waterways, oceans are overfished, plastics and other pollutants are invading ecosystems and threatening our health.

And now climate change is a growing threat that could compound all of these problems.

Last month, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that nine percent of all the world's species will likely be "at high risk" of extinction even if warming is capped at the ambitious Paris target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In 2019, a report by UN biodiversity experts said one million species could disappear in the coming decades, raising fears that the world is entering its sixth era of mass extinction in the last half-billion years.

"We only know of about 10 percent of the species that exist on Earth. Some disappear without even having been described, nor ever seen by any human being," Anne Larigauderie, executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), told AFP.

Ambition

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is aiming to reverse that trend with its global framework.

This round of negotiations began in Rome in February 2020 and was swiftly brought to a halt by the Covid-19 pandemic, though online sessions continued and a draft text was finished in 2021.

It is hoped the in-person meeting in Geneva will move the process closer to a global deal at the UN's COP15 summit in China.

"Will we be able to settle everything? That's the big question," Basile van Havre, one of the two co-chairs of the negotiations, told AFP.

The draft outlines some twenty targets for 2030, including the high-profile ambition to protect at least 30 percent of the Earth's land and water habitats.

It also outlines objectives on reducing the amount of fertilisers and pesticides discharged into the environment and cutting at least $500 billion per year of subsidies harmful to Nature and ecosystems.

But as it stands, Guido Broekhoven of WWF said, the text is "not ambitious and comprehensive enough to address the current biodiversity crisis".

Observers will judge whether the mechanisms put in place—such as monitoring and enforcement—correspond to the targets set, said Sebastien Treyer, director general of the IDDRI think tank.

There will also be significant attention on the "mobilisation of financial resources", which are of particular importance to the Global South, he said.

Even the goal of the so-called High Ambition Coalition to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030 might not be enough, observers said.

"If we do not tackle the indirect causes (of biodiversity loss), in particular production and consumption, there will always be strong erosion," said Juliette Landry, a researcher at IDDRI.More protected areas won't save biodiversity, warn experts

© 2022 AFP