AMERIKA

‘A National Disgrace’: 19 States to Raise Minimum Wage But Federal Rate Stuck at $7.25

One Fair Wage noted that “tipped workers can still legally be paid as little as $2.13 an hour, a system advocates describe as a direct legacy of slavery.”

Labor unionists rally for a higher minimum wage outside New York City Hall on April 10, 2023.

(Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Image

Brett Wilkins
Dec 31, 2025

COMMON DREAMS

Over a third of US states are set to raise their minimum hourly wage in 2026, but worker advocates including Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday decried a federal minimum wage that’s remained at $7.25 since 2009—and just $2.13 an hour for tipped workers for over three decades.

Minimum wage hikes are set to go into effect in 19 states on Thursday: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

Increases range from 28 cents in Minnesota to $2 in Hawaii, with an average hike of 67 cents across all 19 states. More than 8.3 million workers will benefit from the increases, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The mean minimum wage in those 19 states will rise to $14.57 in 2026, up from $13.90 this year.

Three more states—Alaska, Florida, and Oregon—plus Washington, DC are scheduled to raise their minimum wages later in 2026.

In addition to the state hikes, nearly 50 counties and municipalities plan to raise their minimum wages in the coming year, according to the National Employment Law Project (NELP). These include San Diego, California—where the minimum wage for hospitality workers is set to rise to $25 an hour by 2030—and Portland, Maine, where all workers will earn at least $19 by 2028.

However, the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25, and the subminimum rate for tipped workers is $2.13, where it’s been since 1991—and has lost more than half its purchasing power since then.

“Tipped workers can still legally be paid as little as $2.13 an hour, a system advocates describe as a direct legacy of slavery,” the advocacy group One Fair Wage (OFW) said in a statement Tuesday.

Sanders (I-Vt.) said on social media on the eve of the hikes: “Congratulations to the 19 states raising the minimum wage in 2026. But let’s be clear: A $7.25 federal minimum wage is a national disgrace. No one who works full time should live in poverty. We must keep fighting to guarantee all workers a living wage—not starvation wages.”

Yannet Lathrop, NELP’s senior researcher and policy analyst, said earlier this month that “the upcoming minimum wage increases are incremental and won’t magically turn severely underpaid jobs into living-wage jobs, but they do offer a bit of relief at a time when every dollar matters for people.”

“The bigger picture is that raising the minimum wage is just one piece of a much larger fight for a good jobs economy rooted in living wages and good benefits for every working person,” Lathrop added. “That’s where we need to get to.”

Numerous experts note that neither $7.25, nor even $15 an hour, is a livable wage anywhere in the United States.

“The gap between wages and real living costs is stark,” OFW said. “According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, there is no county in the United States where a worker can afford to meet basic needs on less than $25 an hour. Even in the nation’s least expensive counties, a worker with one child would need at least $33 an hour to cover essentials like rent, food, childcare, and transportation.”

“Advocates argue that policies like President [Donald] Trump’s ‘no tax on tips’ proposal fail to address the underlying problem of poverty wages,” OFW continued. “While the policy has drawn attention, they say it is a headline rather than a solution, particularly since nearly two-thirds of tipped workers do not earn enough to owe federal income taxes.”

Frustrated by the long-unchanged $7.25 federal minimum wage, numerous states in recent years have let voters give themselves raises via ballot initiatives. Such measures have been successful even in some red states, including Missouri and Nebraska.

Rising minimum wages are a legacy of the union-backed #FightFor15 movement that began among striking fast-food workers in 2012. At least 20 states now have minimum wages of $15 or higher.

However, back then, “the buying power of a $15 minimum wage was substantially higher than it is today,” EPI noted. “In 2025, a $15 minimum wage does not achieve economic security for working people in most of the country. This is particularly true in the highest cost-of-living cities.”

In April, US senators voted down an amendment that would have raised the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour. Every Democratic and Independent upper chamber lawmaker voted in favor of the measure, while all Republicans except Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) rejected it.

As Trump administration and Republican policies and practices—such as passing healthcare legislation that does not include an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, which are set to expire on Wednesday and send premiums soaring—coupled with persistently high living costs squeeze workers, advocates say a living wage is more important than ever.

The issue is underscored by glaring income and wealth inequality in the US, as well as a roughly 285:1 CEO to worker pay gap among S&P 500 companies last year.

“Minimum wage doesn’t cover the cost of living,” Janae van De Kerk, an organizer with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Airport Workers union and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport employee, said in a video posted Tuesday on social media.

“Many of my co-workers have to choose between food on the table or health insurance, or the choice between having food and paying the electric bill,” van De Kerk—who advocates a $25 hourly minimum wage—continued.

“We shouldn’t have to worry about those things,” she added. “We shouldn’t have to stress about those things. We’re willing to work and we wanna work, and we should be paid for our work.”

Rubio's shocking decision makes RFK Jr.'s cuts look like child's play

Will Humble, 

Arizona Mirror
December 31, 2025 


Donald Trump attends a cabinet meeting. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

For much of 2025, public-health debates in the United States have focused on the damage being caused by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with his reckless vaccine policy decisions, deep funding cuts, the wholesale firing of experienced public health professionals across Health and Human Services agencies, and the loss of trust in public health institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

His actions weakened domestic health protections and further eroded trust in science, evidence based decision making and the scientific method itself.

But even accounting for all of Kennedy’s harm, the most destructive public health decision of 2025 didn’t come from his agency. It came from the Secretary of State Marco Rubio via elimination of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

That decision will cost more lives, undermine more health systems and increase global health risk more than any other public health policy choice made this year. It also delivered a severe blow to America’s ability to lead through diplomacy.

USAID provided key global public health infrastructure

For decades, USAID was one of the most important public-health institutions on the planet, arguably more consequential than the World Health Organization or the Gates Foundation. It served as a core pillar of global disease prevention and health-system stability. Today, it’s gone.

USAID funded (and held partners accountable for) infectious disease surveillance, HIV treatment, tuberculosis and malaria prevention, maternal and child health services, clean water and sanitation systems, nutrition programs for mothers and infants, vaccine delivery infrastructure and health workforce training in developing nations.

USAID’s work stopped outbreaks before they became pandemics. It reduced mass displacement. It stabilized regions where collapsing health systems fuel hunger, conflict and migration. It improved women’s health, helped families plan their futures and helped entire populations escape poverty.

USAID focused on upstream prevention on a global scale. It was also one of our most effective tools for building diplomatic influence.

Hard power, soft power: why USAID mattered

In international affairs, countries project power in two ways. Hard power relies on forces like military strength, sanctions and the threat of punishment. Soft power relies on trust, humanitarian aid, scientific cooperation and being seen as a reliable partner acting in good faith.

USAID was a cornerstone of American soft power. When the U.S. helped countries prevent disease, strengthen health systems, and keep children alive and families out of poverty, it built credibility. We earned cooperation and trust. It made American leadership legitimate rather than coercive.

Eliminating USAID didn’t just dismantle public health infrastructure; it dramatically weakened our soft power. It broadcasts that the U.S. is transactional, unreliable and disinterested in shared global responsibility.

That erosion of trust will make cooperation during future emergencies far more difficult not only for this administration, but for future ones that may want to restore America’s role as a force for good.

Damage is under way

Thanks to Secretary Rubio disease surveillance is collapsing, meaning outbreaks are detected later or not at all. Interruptions in HIV and tuberculosis treatment are fueling drug resistance, which will inevitably reach us as well.

Gaps in maternal and child health services are translating into preventable deaths. Weakening vaccine infrastructure invites the return of diseases that were on the decline.

Responsibility for this decision is clear. As Secretary of State, Rubio presided over, defended, and even trumpeted the dismantling of USAID. President Donald Trump supported it. Elon Musk helped drive the ideological and operational wrecking ball that made it possible.

Together, they reframed global public health as expendable “foreign aid” rather than what it is: A frontline defense against disease, instability, humanitarian catastrophe and a key source of American soft power.

What history will remember

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done real damage to public health in 2025. But history will judge the elimination of USAID as something even worse: an abdication of public health responsibility trading several decades of disease prevention and diplomacy for personal ambition and professional survival.

History will remember Rubio’s decision as an abandonment of global public health and soft power, not dollars “saved.”

Will Humble is a long-time public health enthusiast and is currently the Executive Director for the Arizona Public Health Association (AzPHA). His 40 years in public health include more than 2 decades at the Arizona Department of Health Services, where he served in various roles including as the Director from 2009 to 2015. He continues to be involved in health policy in his role as the Executive Director for the Arizona Public Health Association.

Chaos at DC golf courses as Trump axes key lease: report

Matthew Chapman
December 31, 2025 
RAW STORY

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a golf ball at Trump Turnberry resort in Turnberry, Scotland, Britain, July 27, 2025. REUTERS/Phil Noble

President Donald Trump's administration has moved to terminate the lease of a nonprofit that has run the Washington, D.C. golf courses for years, putting the future of these courses in uncertainty and raising the possibility Trump could move to put his own influence on them.

According to The Washington Post, "The Interior Department issued the termination letter Tuesday, formally severing ties with the nonprofit National Links Trust, which has managed Langston Golf Course, Rock Creek Park Golf and East Potomac Golf Links — all public courses on federal land — under a lease agreement since 2020. In the letter, Interior officials said the decision was based on what they described as National Links Trust’s failure to complete required capital improvements and to provide a satisfactory plan to cure alleged defaults under the lease."

National Links Trust responded with a statement that they were "devastated" by the revocation, and added that they are “fundamentally in disagreement with the administration’s characterization” of how they managed the courses. They also vowed to remain operating the courses for the time being to avoid a disruption that would cost people their jobs.

Trump's move against D.C.'s golf courses "marks an extraordinary federal intervention into the management of District recreational assets and reflects a broader push by President Donald Trump to remake high-profile civic spaces in the nation’s capital, including the Kennedy Center and White House grounds, while expanding the federal government’s role in policing the city," noted the report.

Trump, an avid golfer himself who is known for taking routine golfing breaks from the presidency at inopportune moments, has made a number of other moves to radically transform D.C.

Earlier this week, a new report revealed Trump wants to demolish 13 historic D.C. buildings, setting up a fight between himself and local preservationists.

WIDE ANGLE : CINEMA TO LIVE

It’s A Wonderful Life is not a feel-good Christmas film — but it is incredibly therapeutic

Alexander Sergeant 

Published December 28, 2025
THE CONVERSATION



A Wonderful Life | Pictorial Press Ltd



Despite the reputation of It’s A Wonderful Life as a heartwarming Christmas classic, both its fans and detractors like to remind audiences that it’s no feel-good film. For at least two-thirds of its running time, it is essentially the story of a man’s suicide attempt.

We watch as kind-hearted George Bailey has his dreams quashed, his ambitions curtailed and his business ruined. Then it gets even worse. At about two hours in, we watch this poor, despairing man standing on a bridge outside his idyllic small town, crippled by anxiety, overwork, debt and depression, wishing that he had never been born.

The fact that It’s A Wonderful Life remains such a popular Christmas film despite this potentially upsetting subject matter highlights something worth remembering both at Christmas and any time of the year.

We live in an age where suicide remains the number one preventable cause of death for men under 50. Anxiety levels are rocketing among young people. The World Health Organisation recently declared rising loneliness a global health threat. For increasing numbers of people, it is most certainly not feeling like a wonderful life.


It’s A Wonderful Life is not a feel-good Christmas film — but it is incredibly therapeutic

Understandably, we want to do everything we can to help our fellow George Baileys. We try to think of ways to provide respite from suffering and distress, usually through some pleasant form of distraction. A well-meaning boss might organise a mindfulness class on company time for their employees. A friend might take another friend to a wellness retreat.

All of this might work, temporarily at least. Finding space to relax and escape your worries is important, and cinema has provided that to so many people throughout its history. Yet, as many mental health experts will attest, distraction is not a long-term strategy for true well-being.

The more effective solution to suffering is to find a way of seeing the world differently. Replacing a negative narrative formed about life with a more positive one is not easily done, but it is possible. We might seek the advice of experts, consult privately with our friends or family, or read self-help books to assist us in this exercise. Or, we can go to the movies.

Alongside helping us to temporarily forget, cinema can help us to live. It’s A Wonderful Life is a great example of that.

As the film enters its final act, its most famous moment occurs. Just at the height of his despair, George is saved from jumping off the bridge by the arrival of a guardian angel named Clarence. At first, the angel distracts George, cracking a few jokes and forcing him to think about something other than his own perilous state. But then Clarence does something miraculous, showing George a vision of what the world would be like if he had never been born.

George is ultimately saved by this profound act of therapy. By showing a world without him, Clarence gives George not a magical solution to his problems, but an opportunity to see the events of his life differently.

Crucially, George gains three things as a result. He learns gratitude. By taking away his accomplishments and privileges, George is able to be reminded of them. He learns purpose. He sees that his life has not been a series of failings, but a series of actions that have helped to shape the world around him.

And he learns about the profound and meaningful connection he has with others around him. As the film’s climax emerges, we see those connections play out, and learn that life is troubling, messy, challenging, unfair, hard and unreliable. It is also utterly wonderful, exactly for that reason.

I’ve never liked “feel-good” films. I’m glad E.T. went home. I think Andy Dufresne shouldn’t have escaped from Shawshank prison. I don’t like it when Bill Murray stops reliving Groundhog Day. But I love It’s A Wonderful Life, not despite its heartwarming capabilities but because of them.

For me, the film is not a distraction. It isn’t designed to make us feel better by distancing us from the hardship of life. Instead, it’s a profoundly therapeutic film about the hardship of life, one that, remarkably, finds a positive message that chimes with a lot of what we are finally beginning to learn about the basic principles that grounds human well-being.

Gratitude. Purpose. A sense of conn­ection. These are things that will sustain us, at Christmas and throughout the years that follow. Cinema that profound isn’t just “feel-good”. It could be life-saving.

The writer is Lecturer in Digital Media Production at the University of Westminster in the UK

Republished from The Conversation

Published in Dawn, ICON, December 28th, 2025

PHILOSOPHY: THE EXISTENTIAL ELK THEORY

Suhaib Ayaz

Published December 28, 2025

DAWN/EOS




A 1928 painting of the Irish elk by Charles R. Knight | Field Museum of Natural History

You might want to sit down for this one.

About 100 years ago, a Norwegian philosopher named Peter Zapffe wrote what’s now considered one of the darkest, most unsettling philosophies in history. He called it The Last Messiah, but people often refer to it through an image he used — the existential elk.

Zapffe compared humanity to a species of giant elk that once actually existed — magnificent creatures whose antlers grew so large and heavy that they eventually doomed them. Their beauty became their curse. Their own biological evolution led to their extinction.

He believed that we are that elk. That human consciousness — our capacity for reflection, abstraction, self-awareness — evolved too far. We became so smart that we broke the game. We realised that we’re going to die, that the universe is absurd and that existence itself has no inherent meaning. We became animals cursed with godlike awareness.

In Zapffe’s view, human intelligence reached a point where we could finally “do the math” — weigh the costs and benefits of existence — and realise that maybe non-being is preferable to being.


Can a species become too self-aware to survive? Philosopher Peter Zapffe thought so. His dark vision argues consciousness is a curse we manage through elaborate self-deception…

So, if that’s the case, why haven’t we gone extinct like the elk?

Zapffe said it’s because we’ve learned to saw off our own antlers. We’ve developed defence mechanisms to dull our awareness, to keep ourselves from staring too long into the void. He outlined four main ways we do this — four grand strategies of self-deception.

1. Isolation

We suppress or repress any thoughts that disturb us. We just don’t talk about death, absurdity or the meaninglessness of existence. Bring that up at a dinner party and people will shift in their chairs. Society trains us not to look at the abyss directly.

2. Anchoring

We attach ourselves to stable structures — religion, family, career, ideology — and let them give us artificial meaning. We create routines and rituals to stay busy. We check things off our to-do lists as if the box-ticking itself makes existence justified.

3. Distraction

We flood our senses so we never have to think. A screen for every hand, a playlist for every silence, a thousand notifications to make sure no genuine thought ever slips through. The modern human condition is just noise — so much stimulation that introspection becomes impossible.

4. Sublimation

The rarest one. It’s when we transform our anguish into creation — art, philosophy, science. We take the absurdity and shape it into something beautiful. It’s what every great artist and thinker has done: turned despair into a monument.

But even this, Zapffe said, is still a kind of self-deception. A prettier way of cutting down your antlers. Because in every case — isolation, anchoring, distraction and sublimation — you’re limiting your full self-awareness, diluting the terrifying honesty of what it means to be human.

So then comes the question: what if I’m the elk that refuses to cut down my antlers?

What if I can’t unsee the absurdity anymore?

That’s when Zapffe introduces the last messiah — a figure who chooses to live without self-deception. Someone who faces the full horror of consciousness without reaching for false comfort.

When religions promise salvation and philosophies promise understanding, the last messiah sees only biological overreach — a species that evolved too far for its own good. Where past messiahs called humanity to repentance or revelation, this one calls us to stop reproducing. To end the project.

He is “the last” because, once his insight is accepted, no further messiahs are needed. Humanity’s story would end not with war or apocalypse, but with a quiet, voluntary extinction — a conscious decision to stop perpetuating the curse of awareness.

This wasn’t a call for self-annihilation, like the German Philip Mainländer’s nihilism. Zapffe didn’t advocate suicide — that only solves the individual problem. He called for self-limitation, the refusal to bring new life into a world of absurdity. To live fully human, fully awake, fully tragic — but to end the cycle with yourself.

And he lived it.

Zapffe never had children. He climbed mountains, wrote philosophical essays and darkly humorous stories. He was a mountaineer who found solitude in absurd heroism — climbing peaks no one cared about, laughing at the void and living out his philosophy in full awareness. He turned anguish into art and humour — sublimation, yes, but done with eyes wide open. A life without illusions.

He became, in his own way, that absurd hero — like Camus’ Sisyphus or, in pop culture terms, Rust Cohle from the series True Detective — a character directly inspired by Zapffe’s philosophy. Rust, too, is a man who sees too much, who knows that “time is a flat circle”, and who carries the burden of awareness, like antlers too heavy for his skull.

The writer is a banker based
in Lahore. X: @suhaibayaz

Published in Dawn, EOS, December 28th, 2025

COP30 unpacked

Jamil Ahmad 

Published December 31, 2025

DAWN

The writer is director of intergovernmental affairs, United Nations Environment 


COP30 in Brazil last month was a high mark of multilateralism in 2025. In the background of geopolitical tensions, it held its ground and deliberated a spectrum of critical issues, produced positive outcomes, and launched several new initiatives for stronger climate action under the Belém Package. The meeting was also viewed with disappointment by some as its proposals for much-needed climate finance could have been stronger and its plans for decarbonisation more clearly defined.

Here is a quick look at some major outcomes of the Belém Package.

National climate plans: The 2015 Paris accord reflects a shared desire for global action with a well-crafted time-bound roa­dmap. Since then, successive COPs have taken decisions to support governments in the implementation of their five-year climate plans known as Nationally Deter­mined Contributions. As COP30 coincided with the five-year cycle, 122 countries accounting for almost 74 per cent of global carbon emissions submitted their new NDCs — expected to be more ambitious by including a wide range of policy options and measures for supporting economic shifts necessary for a just transition.

To complement national climate plans, COP30 launched two new initiatives: the Global Implementation Accelerator ,which will support countries in implementing their NDCs, and the ‘Belém Mission to 1.5’ — billed as an action-oriented platform to bridge the NDCs gap and enhance international cooperation across mitigation, adaptation and investment. Both initiatives are voluntary and will be led by the current and next COP presidencies.

Climate finance: The Achilles heel of climate action was at the centre of the discussions. COP30 agreed to triple adaptation finance by 2035, building on a previous pledge to double adaptation funds by 2025. It decided to scale up climate finance from both public and private sources for developing countries to at least $1.3 trillion annually by 2035, and established a two-year work programme to follow up the implementation of this pledge and mobilisation of $300 billion by developed countries for adaptation.


A resolve to work collectively was evident.

Another outcome is the establishment of the Global Climate Finance Accountability Framework to bring coherence to fragmented pledges and ensure transparency and credibility in financial disbursement. From the perspective of developing countries, the decision calls for enhancing the role of concessional and grant-based finance as well as debt-for-climate swaps.

Global goal on adaptation: This is apart of the Paris accord. It aims to scale up adaptation, strengthen resilience, and reduce vulnerability to climate change. However, its implementation was very slow until an overarching framework was agreed two years ago that identified key areas for action, including water, health, and food in which countries needed to build resilience. To move things further, COP30 adopted a set of indicators to measure progress and monitor implementation of pledges on finance and technology support — a decision that will boost efforts towards realising global adaptation goals. This is good news for developing countries.

Trade policies: These and their links with climate action are well recognised, but are a sensitive issue at COPs. Developing countries seek assurances against ‘unilateral economic measures’, which they fear could translate into economic restrictions disguised as import regulations. COP30 launched a new dialogue on climate and trade to discuss the issues in detail. UNCTAD, WTO, and the International Trade Centre have been invited to join the dialogue.

Fossil fuels: These were again under the spotlight. Eyes were fixated on an expected outcome that would provide clarity on a formal approach to transition away from fossil fuels — a decision taken at COP28. Unfortunately, this did not happen. COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago acknowledged that expectations on this count were not met. As a compromise, he announced plans to design a voluntary roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels “in a just, orderly and equitable manner”. The proposed roadmap to be developed with input from scientists and industry will be sent back to the COP process.

A just transition: Global climate goals cannot be attained without a level playing field. To ensure a just transition to low-carbon and environmentally sustainable economies that safeguards the rights of poor nations and vulnerable communities, COP30 established a ‘just transition mechanism’ to be operationalised at the next COP.

The outcome of COP30 might not have satisfied all, but it did reflect an international resolve to combat climate change collectively. This resolve must be matched by implementing the Belém Package, fulfilling climate finance pledges, and meeting all other commitments.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2025

Syria needs democracy, not war

Most of Syria is not in the mindset of HTS. To the extent that the forces that want freedom and democracy come together and organize, the way for the democratization of Syria will be opened. Foreign intervention and the neutralization of the invaders are ensured.

ZEKİ BEDRAN

ANF
NEWS CENTER

Wednesday, December 31, 2025 


There were demonstrations in Syria upon the calls of Alawite leaders. HTS's response to unarmed, peaceful demonstrations was again to use weapons. As it is known, Alevis were subjected to massacres in March. Alevis were also completely unorganized, they did not know what to do. They were generally writhing in fear, uncertainty and anxiety. HTS, on the other hand, did not have a mentality of recognizing and covering the different colors of Syria. He preferred to digest and take allegiance.

Weapons, oppression and disinformation do not solve social problems. It may have a tactical function, but it is not possible to achieve a healthy result. These are the ways and methods that have been widely used in Turkey, Syria and the region. For a century, Turkey has been saying, "There are no Kurds, everyone is Turkish." Those who said they were Kurds were declared separatists and traitors. There was incalculable suffering and destruction. But in the end, this strategy of denial and lies did not yield the desired result. The Baath regime did not follow a different path. He used oppression and denial to the fullest. It engaged in social engineering and implemented the "Arab Belt" policy to dilute the Kurdish population. It did not allow the Syrian people to breathe. He established a one-party coercive regime. Eventually, the Baath regimes in Iraq and Syria collapsed.

There has been a regime change in Syria, but unfortunately there has been no change in mentality. HTS, which has a more reactionary mentality than the Baath, was brought to power. An overly centralized and authoritarian, more rigid ideological structure is being tried to dominate by adding religion to Arab nationalism. HTS could have formed a transitional government that included Kurds, Alawites, Druze, Christians and Arabs who want democracy. There was a need for a government of national accord that would lead Syria to elections. Peace and unity cannot be achieved in Syria with a management approach and model that concentrates all power in its hands and excludes other powers. As a matter of fact, it cannot be achieved. The Druze were also massacred and had to take refuge in Israel to protect themselves.

Can subjugation and allegiance be a model of government in this age? In recent days, Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo have been attacked again. What problem will Syria solve by crushing the Kurds, who have settled there for many years and have become a texture and color of the region? Moreover, there were negotiations for that place, and an agreement and compromise was reached that would be a model of living together. But there is no commitment to the law of coexistence and no such desire or sensitivity.

Of course, Turkey has a negative role in this. But explaining everything with Turkey does not solve the problem. There are provocations by armed groups affiliated with the Turkish army there. There are also plans to cleanse those neighborhoods of Kurds. But the Damascus government is either a partner or indifferent to them.

We had told that "Turkey is darkening the future of Syria". The problem is not limited to Kurdish hostility and genocide. The strategy of the Turkish state is to oppress the Kurds in Syria, to leave them without status and to put them under the control of a strict regime. When a strict regime is established in Syria, the future of the entire Syrian people will be darkened. If all peoples, beliefs and thoughts are free in Syria and a democratic regime is established, this will be a gain for both the Middle East and Turkey. The devastated and oppressed Syrian people will also breathe a sigh of relief and have the opportunity to live together in peace. Differences will add color to life as richness that will no longer be a reason for separation and conflict.

The Damascus administration and the SDF-Autonomous Administration reconciled and signed the March 10 Agreement. There is an article here that accepts a ceasefire throughout Syria. But somehow the ceasefire in Syria does not really come to life. Other articles were never put into practice. Meetings are not held regularly between the designated negotiating teams. More precisely, if it were up to HTS, there would be no meetings or dialogue. However, some meetings can be held with the mediation of coalition forces.

The talks insisted on the integration of the SDF. Impositions were made to make it a priority issue. The SDF delegation accepted this as well. It was agreed that SDF forces would join the Syrian army in the form of divisions. But the Turkish state continues to block the process and impose war. HTS said "yes", but the Turkish state says "no". "The SDF will be disbanded, they will be able to join the army as individuals," he imposes. By highlighting their own security concerns, they continue to darken and endanger the future of Syria.

Turkey supported the Alevi and Druze massacres. He did not condemn or criticize. He declares that he will support the Damascus government under all circumstances. This negatively affects HTS's flexibility and search for ways for internal peace. HTS is being provoked against the Kurds and forced to fight.

Alevis finally saw that fear and panic would not bring them any benefit. They came to the point of organizing and revealing their reactions. Most of Syria is not in the mindset of HTS. To the extent that the forces that want freedom and democracy come together and organize, the way for the democratization of Syria will be opened. Foreign intervention and the neutralization of the invaders are ensured.

Women in 2025 resisted in the shadow of right-wingism, war and crisis

The rise of right-wing governments, endless wars and deepening economic crises have made women's lives more precarious around the world in 2025; However, this picture was not enough to stop women's resistance against the usurpation of their rights.

ANF
NEWS CENTER
Sunday, December 28, 2025 

The year 2025 was not a global progress for women, but on the contrary, a year in which their rights were scythed and women defended against it. The rise to power of right-wing and authoritarian governments around the world, ongoing wars and deepening economic crises have directly targeted women's rights to both legal and daily life. The global assessment report published by the United Nations Entity for Women (UN Women) at the beginning of 2025 reveals that there is a decline in women's rights in one out of every four countries, emphasizing that this decline is especially linked to right-wing populist administrations, conflict zones and austerity policies.

INSTITUTIONAL ELIMINATION OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN THE AMERICAS

The right-wing wave stretching from Latin America to North America created a new political climate that coded women's rights as "ideological deviation". The steps taken after the Javier Milei government took office in Argentina were one of the most striking examples of this transformation. According to reports from international trade unions and women's organizations, with the closure of the "Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity" in Argentina throughout 2025, budgets for programs to combat violence against women have been cut, social policies supporting care work have been suspended, and the right to abortion has been effectively turned into a service that is difficult to access. UNI Global Union defines this process as "the institutional dismantling of women's rights".

A similar ideological line also manifested itself in the USA; While restrictions on the right to abortion have deepened, especially in conservative states, gender equality policies have been targeted with the discourse of "family values". A 2025 analysis published by the Carnegie Endowment calls this global trend the "institutionalization of the anti-gender movement" and points out that women's rights are directly turning into a political front.

HEAVY PICTURE OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE

However, the oppression faced by women in 2025 was not limited to the results of the ballot box. Wars and conflicts have meant multi-layered destruction for women. The war in Ukraine, now in its third year, has dramatically worsened women's living conditions. According to the 2025 report published by the UN Office for Ukraine, 6.7 million women and girls in the country are in need of humanitarian aid; Gender-based violence increased by more than 30 percent compared to the pre-war period. The same report reveals that women's participation in the workforce has decreased, while the burden of care is concentrated on women's shoulders. While war excludes women from economic life, it also pushes them into precarious and invisible labor areas.

WAR IN PALESTINE IS REPRODUCED THROUGH WOMEN'S BODIES AND LIVES

In Palestine, the picture is even more severe. Under the ongoing attacks and blockade conditions in Gaza, women are deprived of the most basic rights, from the right to life to health care. A field report published in 2025 by the Sweden-based Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation documents that pregnant women and those who have just given birth are at risk due to the collapse of the health system, and that displacement leaves women with sexual violence and poverty. According to the report, Palestinian women are not only experiencing the side effects of war; The war itself is reproduced through women's bodies and lives. Despite this, it is pointed out that women's voices are systematically excluded during the peace and ceasefire processes.

IF IT GOES ON LIKE THIS, MORE THAN 350 MILLION WOMEN WILL BE EXTREMELY IMPOVERISHED IN 2030

Economic crises intertwined with wars mean permanent impoverishment for women. The 2025 Global Gender Equality report by UN Women and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) predicts that more than 350 million women will continue to live in extreme poverty conditions by 2030 if the current trajectory continues. The report emphasizes that the weakening of social state mechanisms, especially in times of war and crisis, focuses unpaid care work on women and pushes women into informal and precarious jobs. The OECD's economic analysis of Ukraine and conflict zones similarly reveals that the impact of austerity policies on women is much more devastating than on men.

VIOLATIONS AGAINST WOMEN CONTINUE IN SYRIA

In the global panorama of 2025, the rights violations experienced by women in many countries of the Middle East and Africa emerged as the most intense and tragic reflection of inequality trends around the world. The effects of more than a decade of war in Syria are not limited to physical destruction; The data of human rights organizations concretely reveal the dimensions of violence and discrimination that women are exposed to. The latest report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights documents the murder of at least 29,358 women and girls from March 2011 to November 2025; It is also stated that tens of thousands of women are still in custody, missing or forcibly disappeared. These data show that the cost of war on women has reached the level of a direct violation of the right to life, not just economic or social.

After Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) expanded its de facto power in Syria by the end of 2024, serious findings emerged that violations against Alawite women in particular increased. Amnesty International's report, published in mid-2025, documents numerous cases of abductions, forcible detention, and threats of Alawite women and girls around Latakia, Tartus, Hama, and Homs, revealing that these abuses are part of a climate of sectarian and gender-based oppression rather than isolated crimes. According to the report, women's participation in daily life is severely restricted, and families have come to avoid sending their girls to school or women being in public alone; The ineffectiveness of the security forces and impunity deepen this climate of fear. The fact that the female body and freedom of movement have become a tool of sectarian control shows that under HTS rule, women are not only the target of war but also of ideological and sectarian domination.

VIOLATIONS CONTINUE IN IRAN, SO-CALLED FRAMEWORKS ARE NOT APPLIED IN IRAQ

Iran, on the other hand, stands out as one of the countries with the harshest rights violations in the world in 2025. According to Amnesty International, women's rights defenders in Iran have been threatened with arbitrary arrests, corporal punishment and even the death penalty throughout 2025. When women raised their voices against compulsory veiling laws and discriminatory practices, the state's repressive apparatus used unlawful detentions and violence to suppress these protests. This reveals that the oppression of women's bodies and rights has become systematic, not only individual, but also state policy.

The picture in Iraq may be less severe, but it contains a similar situation in terms of structure. According to United Nations statements, although the Iraqi government has announced strategies to increase women's political and economic participation, these so-called frameworks fail to hide in practice the fact that many women still lack equal opportunities in security, work and public life. Although national strategies in Iraq seem to be aimed at providing women with guarantees of political representation, in practice, social norms and security concerns continue to create inequality in women's daily lives.

WOMEN IN AFRICA ARE IN THE GRIP OF WAR AND CONFLICT

In many regions of the African continent, women's hardships have been intertwined with both conflict and economic collapse. In the ongoing civil war in Sudan, UN Women and other international reports highlight that sexual violence against women and girls has become systematic; As a result of attacks by paramilitary groups and armed elements, women are not only subjected to violence and rape, but also risk their lives when they are separated from their families, trying to protect their children or trying to access basic health services. According to UN agencies, millions of women and girls in Sudan have faced acute food insecurity, and harsh conflict has made it impossible to access vital services, especially for pregnant women.

In Ethiopia and other parts of the Horn of Africa, the vacuum created by war and political conflicts has led to an increase in sexual violence against women, which is a war crime. One of the remarkable examples; According to The Guardian, cases of mass rape, forced pregnancy and sexual slavery reported as part of the Tigray war; These attacks stand as proof that both physical and psychological trauma can last for generations.

In Africa in general, a manifestation of systematic discrimination is emerging, not only in conflict zones, but combined with social norms and economic crises. Amnesty International's regional reports show that gender-based violence, economic inequality and barriers to access to education and health care are common in everyday life; it documents that this weakens women's economic independence.

WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN THE EU ARE LIMITED TO RHETORIC

In 2025, the European Union faced serious structural and societal obstacles while trying to develop policies that promise progress in the field of gender equality; While the European Commission adopted its "Roadmap on Women's Rights" in March 2025 and highlighted eight basic principles aimed at women's economic freedom, equal representation and protection against violence, these efforts were criticized as an insufficient commitment to stop the existing decline in rights.

Although the roadmap promises steps in areas such as combating violence, equal employment, access to health care and political participation, current reports reveal that physical and sexual violence against women is still widespread in Europe and that the vast majority of victims do not report it to the police. For example, it is stated that approximately 50 million women in the EU have experienced this type of violence and this rate has remained almost unchanged in ten years. This shows that years of women's rights policies continue to be limited to rhetoric rather than concrete results.

While some EU member states have shown tendencies to weaken gender-sensitive legal frameworks, such as the Latvia Parliament's decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention in the fall of 2025, symbolizing a tendency to step back on international standards in combating violence against women, a step met with widespread protests. Meanwhile, a joint report by UN Women and UNESCO shows that digital violence and online harassment are targeting women human rights defenders in Europe; This new generation of oppression threatens to remove many women from public and civil spheres and directly undermines women's freedom of expression. While Europe's relatively strong institutional frameworks have made significant gains in gender equality over 60 years, reports suggest that in the reality of 2025, these gains are rapidly becoming fragile, deepening inequalities in the daily lives of many women. This shows that the EU has to transform its policy discourse into concrete practices.

WOMEN RESIST DESPITE ALL THE PRESSURES

Despite all these usurpations of rights, wars and a wave of authoritarianism, 2025 was a year in which women around the world were on the stage not only with victimization but also with persistent resistance and political subjectivation. The 2025 assessments of UN Women and CIVICUS reveal that even in countries where oppressive regimes are gaining power, women carry out a multi-layered struggle from unions to local councils, from street protests to digital campaigns. The ongoing civil disobedience against the compulsory veil in Iran, feminist strikes against the austerity and misogynistic policies of the Milei government in Argentina, Palestinian women's establishment of survival networks under both war and occupation, women's persistent demands for participation in peace processes in Africa, and mass mobilizations led by women against the far right in Europe stood out as parts of this resistance. International Labour Organization (ILO) data shows that there has been a global increase in the number of unionized women workers in 2025; It shows that women have become more visible in strike and collective bargaining processes, especially in the fields of care work, health and education. Feminist movements not only defended their rights against the backward steps of states and international institutions, but also produced a counter-politics that questioned the economic and political order itself, saying that "women will not pay the price of crises". This picture shows that 2025 is not only a year of losses for women, but also a year of collective political will that sprouts again as it is tried to be suppressed.

The clearest truth left by 2025 is this: Right-wing policies, war and economic crises are not by chance, but by feeding each other, narrowing women's living spaces. For this reason, the struggle for women's rights is not only a "women's issue"; continues to be at the center of the struggle for democracy, peace and social justice.

'Whenever peace is talked about in the Middle East, time slows down and feet are dragged down'

Journalist Ramazan Öztürk, who witnessed wars in 107 countries of the world, said, "When peace in the Middle East comes to the fore, time slows down and drags its feet. When those who do not want peace prevail, everything will be broken very easily."

ANF
ISTANBUL
Wednesday, December 31, 2025 


The process, which started on February 27 with the call of Leader Apo, is about to complete its first year. Despite the Turkish government's slowing down and insisting on steps, the hope for peace was welcomed by the peoples of Turkey and Kurdistan. The insistence of the government and its supporters on war is finding less and less support.

He followed the wars both in the Middle East and in many parts of the world; Journalist and photojournalist Ramazan Öztürk, who is known to the world with his photographs of the Halabja Massacre and who makes documentary news by watching wars and post-war events in 107 countries, describes the developments with the words "Wherever the possibility of peace develops, time slows down".

Öztürk evaluated what he saw in his journalism life, which he started in 1975, the power of photography and the recent developments in Kurdistan to ANF.

'PHOTOGRAPHY IS A MIRROR, IT REFLECTS WHAT IT SEES'

Defining himself as a news photographer and emphasizing that he both takes photos and writes news, Öztürk stated that photography is a mirror and continued his words as follows: "I am a news photographer. I am a journalist, but I both take the photo and write the news. It has been like this since the first day I started my profession. For me, photography is a mirror; it reflects what it sees. Of course, I separate those who manipulate. I think a single frame of photograph can tell an event that you cannot tell in books.

Photography is actually the common language of humanity and at the same time a pure expression of humanity. In this respect, the photograph can carry the frozen moment to years later without changing it, if there is no intervention. Photography is a mirror for me that does not create doubts such as 'is it so' or 'is it really like this'."

Stating that he has witnessed many wars or post-war life in 107 countries of the world and that the world is at many breaking points, Öztürk said, "I have been to almost all the wars in the last 30-35 years. I went back to the Iran-Iraq War for years and filmed the post-war period in both Iran and Iraq. The Halabja Massacre, the First and Second Gulf Wars, the Bosnian War, the Kosovo War, the uprising in Albania, the Chechnya-Russia War, the coup against Yeltsin in Russia...

There is also the war in our own country; For example, the civil war in Kurdistan. The war never ended there, it continued continuously. I watched the conflicts in Afghanistan; I also went and made documentaries about wars after the war periods.

I shot 107 news documentaries in 107 countries of the world that are experiencing breaking points. I went back to the aftermath of the Vietnam War and made a documentary about the bad traces that war left on human life for generations. I documented the effects of the poisonous gas used there and the people affected by it. I have prepared documentaries about the effects of the Pol-Pot regime in Cambodia and the aftermath of the civil war in Mozambique."

'A PHOTO WAR CAN START OR END'

Pointing out that a photograph has the power to start or end a war, Öztürk emphasized that the photographs of the Halabja Massacre are proof that the Saddam Hussein regime used chemical weapons and continued his words as follows:

"A photograph is so effective that it can cause a war to start or end. As an example of the end of a war, we can give the photograph showing the moment when a Vietcong guerrilla was killed with a gun resting on his head in Vietnam. This shot revealed the Vietnam War to the eyes of the world.

For example, the photo of the 'silent witness' in the Halabja Massacre revealed that Saddam Hussein used poison gas both during the Iran-Iraq War and against his own citizens. Rafsanjani, who ruled Iran at that time, thanked me. He told me, 'We tried to explain to us at the UN that chemical gas was used for eight and a half years, but we could not convince anyone; because everyone supported Saddam. But you, as a journalist, proved this and caused the end of the war.'

Think of a mass genocide by a cruel dictatorial regime in a country against a race or a faith group; Consider a photograph documenting this. The Halabja Massacre became evidence against Saddam in Iraq. In fact, Bush said, 'We will come to avenge this baby.'"

'MY JOB IS TO TAKE PHOTOS AND LET THE PUBLIC HEAR AND INTERVENE'

Emphasizing that the main job of a photographer is to take photographs, Öztürk stated that the power and effect of photography should be well understood and continued his words as follows:

"I was not in between whether I should take photos in the war zone or not, but there were photos I did not publish, but they were not from conflict zones. On the contrary, I should take photos in conflict zones so that the world public opinion knows what is happening. Both conscientiously and if an intervention is necessary, so that this intervention can take place. Let the public know what happened there.

An example of this is a photograph taken in Africa; There is a vulture waiting for a child who is dying of hunger. Our people are exaggerating it. I am a human being first, then a journalist. Should the child be saved or should a photo be taken? I don't save the child, I take photos. I raise the world with the photo I take. Because that child will die anyway; Who will know? Millions of children will die. But when I take that photo, I actually save the child.

I do not intervene when they shoot someone in a war environment; Because they can shoot me too. If they are already shooting one, they are shooting thousands. That's why I take a picture of it. Just like in the case of Vietnam."

Stating that he did not hesitate to take photos but did not publish some photos, Öztürk explained the following about this situation:

"There is a very interesting photo that I took but did not publish. I am interviewing Rafsanjani in Iran. No one thought he would make an appointment. There was a cameraman with me during the meeting; I asked him if he could take pictures of me.

I multiplied the Halabja photos while I was leaving; I also took copies of Sabah newspapers where Halabja photographs were published. In the past, when they went to Iran, they would paint if there was something like a newspaper or magazine with them and there was a woman with her head uncovered. But they did not touch my newspapers because I was informed in advance that I would go. I took five or six issues of Sabah newspaper with me.

I went in, I sat down. I have Turkey's Ambassador to Ankara with me. I got up with my good intentions and bought the Sabah newspaper; I will show you photos of Halabja. It was on the first page, but I wanted to show the rest. I went to the bedside and opened the newspaper. When I opened the inner page, I saw the beautiful photo of the second page. Rafsanjani did not give up, but the ambassador and the Consul General in Istanbul were discolored. I photographed Rafsanjani looking at the beauty of the second page of Sabah newspaper.

Wherever I gave it, it would be a cover, but I said: 'I won't do this.' This was a humanitarian situation. This man did not look consciously, and I did not show it consciously. I said I would not publish it. I still haven't published it."

'THE MARAŞ MASSACRE IS A SMALL HALABJA MASSACRE'

Öztürk, who took the most well-known photographs of the Maraş Massacre, one of the biggest massacres in the history of Turkey and Kurdistan, emphasized that the Maraş Massacre was almost a small Halabja Massacre and said the following about what he saw there:

"The Maraş Massacre, due to my age and as far as I have read, is an event that people have difficulty understanding in recent history. There have been bigger massacres and bigger wars than that; But I say this by comparing it with the events in my own country, where I am old, and which I have seen and known to have happened.

Do you know what impressed me the most? We were wandering the streets; The bodies were full. A soldier was collecting the bodies, both crying and collecting them. We entered a street, the houses were old. A very old woman was sitting in front of the house. He was looking at the street with frozen eyes. There was a cross on the house next to it.

I said: 'Auntie, do you live in this house?' He said, 'Yes'. I said, 'Are these people on the side also your neighbors?' 'Yes, my son, I have been in this house since I came; We are neighbors with them.'

I said, 'Well, auntie, what happened to people?' Oh, he suffered... They had been living together for centuries.

And what I can never forget is this: There was a 'liberated zone' on the streets. When I first went, there were no police, no gendarmerie. Not even 24 hours had passed since my first attempt. There was smoke, the fire brigade could not go everywhere.

I was working at Günaydın newspaper. I had friends from Tercüman and Hergün newspaper with me. They were not doing anything to them; idealists, MHP supporters. They were going to enter the forbidden zone. I said, 'Tell me that I am one of you, let me enter.' They accepted and we entered. Smoke was still coming out of the houses.

A person with a drooping mustache greeted us. He pointed to a house and said: 'When Ecevit said that we had the Maraş events under control in the evening, we burned this house.' A nine-ten-year-old boy on the street said, 'Brother, brother, there is a body here.' I turned and looked; They crushed the man's head with a stone, it was flattened. After the child told me this, the person who said 'we burned this place' turned around and kicked the child. 'How can you call it a corpse? He said, 'Slaughter, carrion.' I still have difficulty understanding this. Then, because of that mood, I quit, interrupted it.

I went, Interior Minister İrfan Özaydın was holding a press conference at the provincial building. He was saying, 'We took it under control like this'. I stood up in that mood and said: 'Mr. Minister, I come from a neighborhood where no one enters. A child was kicked there because he said, 'There is a body here.' You won't call him a 'corpse', they said 'kill him'.' He was at a loss for words.

The collected bodies were brought to the Maraş slaughterhouse. There were women and children piled on top of each other. Pregnant women, young girls whose bellies were cut with a rake... I saw these. I also saw some body robbers they caught. They brought someone. When they put their hands against the wall, they had bracelets on each arm for five or six watches.

The Maraş Massacre is, in my opinion, a small Halabja Massacre."

'WHENEVER THERE IS PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, TIME SLOWS DOWN'

Expressing his impressions and views on the process that has started recently, Ramazan Öztürk stated that whenever peace is talked about in the Middle East, time slows down and continued his words as follows:

"This process has been attempted several times before, but it has been disrupted. Because the intention was not to achieve peace; It was to obtain political rent, to get votes. When they saw that they could not get this, they disrupted the process. There is a fascist and racist vein in Turkey's structure. No matter who is alive, there is an imposition of one belief and one identity. There is a segment with this perception. Unfortunately, this segment, what we call the 'deep state', also exists in the background.

Whenever peace is on the agenda in the Middle East, time slows down and dragging feet. When those who do not want peace win in the end, it is very easy for the process to be disrupted. Everything is turned upside down with one or two provocations, which we have experienced.

Everyone is saying something about the peace process that has started now, and they are not wrong to say it. Because when you look at the lessons and conclusions learned from what happened in the past, you fall into a dilemma: There are some doubts such as whether it will be overturned, who is calculating what, what interests are at stake, and they are right here.

And I say: This time there are many accounts again, but is this account higher than the previous accounts? That's how it should be. Because this issue cannot be solved with a calculation that remains under it.

'PEACE WILL NOT COME TO THE MIDDLE EAST WITHOUT RESOLVING THE KURDISH ISSUE'

Why do I say that? Because Turkey's most radical and nationalist party is leading this process. He has not taken a single step back for a year. We know this party since its establishment.

There is a mind far above the past attempts. Would it be bad if it was solved this way? No, it would be good. If a truly democratic system is to be established, if everyone has constitutional rights and if everyone has the courage to face their own past, that would be very nice.

In fact, taking such a radical step would only be possible if a party like the MHP and its leader came to the fore. The AK Party could not have managed this alone, the CHP could not have succeeded. The CHP has a nationalist vein within itself; who looks at "everyone is Turkish" and this is a solid vein.

As for the conclusion, with the important developments in the world and in the Middle East, the bosses of the world have realized that peace cannot come to the Middle East without the solution of the Kurdish issue. As time passes, everyone suffers. As for my own final opinion, I would be skeptical of this process without legal signatures."

Putin Orders Expansion Of Ukraine Buffer Zone In 2026, Says Russian General

Russia’s military chief Valery Gerasimov says Moscow plans to widen a buffer zone in Ukraine’s Sumy and Kharkiv regions next year

Outlook News Desk
Curated by: Saher Hiba Khan
Updated on: 31 December 2025 

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, listens to Russian Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov during a meeting with senior military officers at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Summary of this article


Russia’s top general says Vladimir Putin has ordered expansion of a buffer zone inside Ukraine in 2026.


The planned expansion targets Ukraine’s northeastern regions of Sumy and Kharkiv near the Russian border.


Ukraine has rejected the buffer zone plan, calling it a justification for deeper Russian incursions.


Russia is moving ahead with plans to widen what it calls a buffer zone inside northeastern Ukraine, with President Vladimir Putin ordering its expansion in 2026, according to comments by the country’s top military officer reported on Wednesday.


Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said Russian forces were continuing to advance in northeastern Ukraine and that Putin had directed an expansion of the buffer zone next year in Ukraine’s Sumy and Kharkiv regions, close to the Russian border. According to Reuters, Gerasimov made the remarks while inspecting the “North” troop grouping, as reported by Russian state news agency RIA.



The “North” grouping, established in early 2024, has been operating in northeastern Ukraine with the stated aim of creating a buffer along the border and forcing Ukrainian units to retreat further back, allowing for additional advances. Reuters reported that Russian military officials describe the effort as part of a broader push to secure border areas.


Gerasimov’s comments came shortly after Russia vowed to retaliate over what it claimed, without providing evidence, was an attempted attack on Putin’s residence. Kyiv rejected the allegation, saying it was intended to derail peace efforts as the conflict approaches its fourth year, Reuters reported.

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There was no immediate response from Ukrainian authorities to Gerasimov’s statements.

Putin has repeatedly framed the buffer zone as a defensive measure designed to push Ukrainian forces and weapons farther away from Russia’s border. He has cited cross-border shelling and drone attacks on Russian regions including Belgorod and Kursk as justification.


Ukraine has dismissed the concept, saying Moscow is using the buffer zone narrative to legitimise deeper incursions into its territory. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described Russia’s plans for Sumy and Kharkiv as “mad” and said Ukrainian forces would resist any attempt to seize or hold ground there.


(With inputs from Reuters)