MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin had visited two frontline regions in Ukraine, prompting a strong rebuke from Kyiv which said he was viewing “the crimes of his minions.”
The Kremlin did not say when Putin visited the southern region of Kherson and the eastern region of Lugansk, which Putin claimed to have annexed last September without fully controlling them.
The Kremlin chief sent troops to Ukraine in February, 2022, triggering the largest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Ukrainian forces have said they are preparing for a spring counter-offensive.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, dismissed Putin’s trip as “a ‘special tour’ of the mass murders author... to enjoy the crimes of his minions for the last time.”
After Putin’s visit was made public on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had shelled the central market area of Kherson, injuring six people.
Last year, Russia was beaten back in northern and southern regions and Moscow’s forces have made only incremental gains in eastern Ukraine.
Much of the fighting is now concentrated around the eastern town of Bakhmut which has become the longest and bloodiest battle of the conflict.
During his trip to Ukraine, Putin met Russian military commanders and discussed the situation on several fronts of the pro-Western country, the Kremlin said.
Video footage released by the Kremlin showed Putin disembarking from a helicopter as he visited the headquarters of the Dnieper army group in the Kherson region.
He also visited national guard headquarters in Lugansk in eastern Ukraine.
“It’s important for me to hear your opinion on the situation, to listen to you and to exchange information,” Putin said in the video, surrounded by senior military commanders.
The Russian leader wished the troops a happy Easter, which Orthodox Christians marked last Sunday, and gifted them copies of old icons, the Kremlin said.
His trips to Kherson and Lugansk came after the Kremlin said in March that the Russian leader had made a surprise trip to the port city of Mariupol that Moscow captured after a long siege last spring.
British military intelligence said on Tuesday that “heavy fighting” continued along the Donbas front line.
“However, there is a realistic possibility that Russia has reduced troop numbers and is decreasing offensive action around Donetsk city, most likely to divert resources toward the Bakhmut sector,” it said in a statement on Twitter.
The statement said that in Bakhmut, Russia’s regular troops and forces from the Wagner mercenary outfit continued to make “creeping advances.”
“The front line in the town center largely follows the main railway line,” the statement said.
Ukraine, the statement said, wants “to free-up an offensive force while Russia likely aspires to regenerate an operational reserve.”
The commander of Ukrainian ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Russian troops were not abandoning their goal of taking control of Bakhmut “at any cost,” ramping up the use of heavy artillery and air strikes.
Kyrylo Budanov, chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence, for his part said that Russia currently had “no offensive potential for a strategic offensive operation.”
The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, meanwhile said he spoke with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
“We agreed on further coordination on the issue of providing aid in Ukraine and discussed further steps in this direction,” he said on Telegram.
Vladimir Putin makes rare visit to Ukraine frontline regions
https://arab.news/5da9q
Vladimir Putin makes rare visit to Ukraine frontline regions
- But Kremlin did not say when Putin visited the southern region of Kherson and the eastern region of Lugansk
UK counter terrorism police arrest seven over ‘PKK activity’
- British police said they were carrying out searches at eight premises across London, including the Kurdish Community Center in the north of the capital
LONDON: British police said they had arrested seven people and were searching a Kurdish community center in London as part of a counter terrorism investigation into suspected activity linked to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK.
Those arrested were five men and two women, aged between 23 and 62, police said, adding there was no imminent threat to the public.
“This activity has come about following a significant investigation and operation into activity we believe is linked to the terrorist group PKK,” said Acting Commander Helen Flanagan.
“These are targeted arrests of those we suspect of being involved in terrorist activity linked to the group.”
The PKK, a militant group founded in southeast Turkiye in 1978 with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state, was banned in Britain in 2001. The group has been involved in a 40-year conflict, leading to more than 40,000 deaths.
British police said they were carrying out searches at eight premises across London, including the Kurdish Community Center in the north of the capital, which is likely to be closed to the public for up to two weeks.
Flanagan said later on Wednesday that the police understood the arrests had caused concern among some local communities, especially those in the Kurdish community.
“I want to reassure the community that our activity is being carried out to keep everyone safe from potential harm, including those within the Kurdish community itself,” Flanagan said.
Trump selects longtime adviser Keith Kellogg as special envoy for Ukraine and Russia
- As special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Kellogg will have to navigate an increasingly untenable war between the two nations
- Trump has criticized the billions that the Biden administration has poured into Ukraine
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida: President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has chosen Keith Kellogg, a highly decorated retired three-star general, to serve as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
Kellogg, who is one of the architects of a staunchly conservative policy book that lays out an “America First” national security agenda for the incoming administration, will come into the role as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its third year in February.
Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social account, and said “He was with me right from the beginning! Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!”
Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, was chief of staff of the National Security Council and then stepped in as an acting security adviser for Trump after Michael Flynn resigned.
As special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Kellogg will have to navigate an increasingly untenable war between the two nations.
The Biden administration has begun urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of troops as young as 18.
The White House has pushed more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s February 2022 invasion and expects to send billions more to Kyiv before Biden leaves office in less than months.
Trump has criticized the billions that the Biden administration has poured into Ukraine. Washington has recently stepped up weapons shipments and has forgiven billions in loans provided to Kyiv. The incoming Republican president has said he could end the war in 24 hours, comments that appear to suggest he would press Ukraine to surrender territory that Russia now occupies.
As a co-chairman of the American First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security, Kellogg wrote several of the chapters in the group’s policy book. The book, like the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” is a move to lay out a Trump national security agenda and avoid the mistakes of 2016 when he entered the White House largely unprepared.
Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.”
Kellogg was a character in multiple Trump investigations dating to his first term. He was among the administration officials who listened in on the July 2019 call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump prodded his Ukrainian counterpart to pursue investigations into the Bidens.
The call, which Kellogg would later say did not raise any concerns on his end, was at the center of the first of two House impeachment cases against Trump, who was acquitted by the Senate both times.
On Jan. 6, 2021, hours before pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol, Kellogg, who was then Pence’s national security adviser, listened in on a heated call in which Trump told his vice president to object or delay the certification in Congress of President Joe Biden ‘s victory.
He later told House investigators that he recalled Trump saying to Pence words to the effect of: “You’re not tough enough to make the call.”
FBI says bomb threats made against Trump nominees
- “The FBI is aware of numerous bomb threats and swatting incidents targeting incoming administration nominees and appointees,” the agency said
- Elize Stefanik, a Trump loyalist congresswoman tapped to be UN ambassador, said her residence in New York was targeted in a bomb threat
WASHINGTON: Several members of Donald Trump’s incoming administration have received threats including bomb alerts, the FBI said Wednesday, with one nominee reporting a pipe-bomb scare sent with a pro-Palestinian message.
“The FBI is aware of numerous bomb threats and swatting incidents targeting incoming administration nominees and appointees, and we are working with our law enforcement partners,” the agency said in a statement.
Swatting refers to the practice in which police are summoned urgently to someone’s house under false pretenses. Such hoax calls are common in the United States and have seen numerous senior political figures targeted in recent years.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s transition team, earlier said that several appointees and nominees “were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them.”
Elize Stefanik, a Trump loyalist congresswoman tapped to be UN ambassador, said her residence in New York was targeted in a bomb threat.
She said in a statement that she, her husband, and small son were driving home from Washington for the Thanksgiving holiday when they learned of the threat.
Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, said his home was targeted with a pipe bomb threat sent with a “pro-Palestinian themed message.”
The former congressman from New York said he and his family were not home at the time.
Fox News Digital quoted unidentified sources saying that John Ratcliffe, Trump’s nominee to head the CIA, and Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary pick, were also targeted.
Ahead of his return to the House in January, Trump has already swiftly assembled a cabinet of loyalists, including several criticized for a severe lack of experience.
The Republican, who appears set to avoid trial on criminal prosecutions related to attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss, was wounded in the ear in July in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally. The shooter was killed in counter-fire.
In September, authorities arrested another man accused of planning to shoot at Trump while he played golf at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Biggest snowstorm in half century hits Seoul
- Around 300 flights were grounded, massive crowd at subways caused delays
SEOUL: The biggest November snowstorm to hit South Korea’s capital in more than a half century blanketed the capital on Wednesday, grounding hundreds of flights, disrupting commuter traffic and leaving at least two dead.
South Korea’s weather agency said 20 to 26 centimeters of snow fell in northern areas of Seoul and nearby areas. The agency said it was the heaviest snowstorm Seoul has experienced in November in 52 years. A storm on Nov. 28, 1972, dumped 12 centimeters.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said one person died and four others were injured in a five-vehicle accident in the eastern town of Hongcheon. The storm blanketed much of the country, with the central, eastern and southwestern regions recording about 10 to 28 centimeters of cover.
At least 317 flights were canceled or delayed at airports nationwide, while authorities ordered around 90 ferries to remain at port. They also shut down hundreds of hiking trails.
Icy road conditions slowed down the morning commute in Seoul and led to massive crowds at subways, causing delays. Emergency workers across the country responded to fallen trees, road signs and other safety risks.
Officials at the Safety Ministry said they couldn’t confirm any school closures as of Wednesday afternoon. Visitors dressed in traditional hanbok garb were busy taking photographs at Seoul’s snow-covered medieval palaces while snowmen popped up in playgrounds and schoolyards across the country.
The weather agency said snow will continue in most parts of the country until noon Thursday.
President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the safety and transport ministries to mobilize all available relevant personnel and equipment to prevent traffic and other accidents.
Court to rule on ineligibility for France’s Le Pen in March
- “This case is a lot less simple than some wanted to think. I still hope we will be heard” by the court, Le Pen, 56, told reporters
- Her defense lawyer Rodolphe Bosseult had earlier told judges that prosecutors’ sentencing request was “a weapon of mass destruction of the way things work in a democracy“
PARIS: French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen will learn in March whether she will be declared ineligible for elections, a Paris court said on Wednesday at the end of a trial for embezzling funds from the European Parliament.
Prosecutors have asked judges at the Paris criminal court that any sentence shutting Le Pen out of public office be applicable even if she appeals the court’s ruling.
That means that if found guilty on March 31, she could be blocked from participating in France’s next presidential election, scheduled for 2027 at the latest.
“This case is a lot less simple than some wanted to think. I still hope we will be heard” by the court, Le Pen, 56, told reporters following the hearing.
Her defense lawyer Rodolphe Bosseult had earlier told judges that prosecutors’ sentencing request was “a weapon of mass destruction of the way things work in a democracy.”
Bosseult added that if imposed, the penalty would affect “the whole electoral roll or even the validity of the vote” in any election.
Prosecutors’ bombshell request was topped off with a five-year jail term, three of which suspended, and a fine of 300,000 euros ($320,000).
At issue in the case are employment practices for assistants in the European Parliament to representatives of Le Pen’s National Front party — since renamed the National Rally (RN) — between 2004 and 2016.
Prosecutors say the party created a “system” using MEPS’ parliamentary allowances to hire people who in fact worked for the outfit in France — not in Brussels or Strasbourg.
The defense struggled throughout the case to produce evidence that any of the supposed assistants had in fact carried out relevant work.
And the European Parliament itself said the RN had cooked the books to the tune of 4.5 million euros.
Prosecutors said that Le Pen could again misuse public funds if allowed to continue in elected office, as justification for their sentencing request.
But her lawyer Bosselut said that the RN’s financial practices at the time were “banal... shared by every European party” in the parliament.
Buoyed this year by the RN’s unprecedented success at snap parliamentary elections, becoming France’s largest single party in parliament, Le Pen has characterised the sentencing request as an attempt to remove her by means of the judiciary rather than a political fair fight.
