WASHINGTON: NATO has agreed to launch a new program to provide reliable military aid and training to Ukraine and help it get ready to join the alliance.
The plan will supplement, but not replace, the two-year-old Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which was created by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after Russia launched its February 2022 invasion into Ukraine. That group, with more than 50 nations from Europe and around the world, coordinates the delivery of much-needed weapons and training to Ukraine.
But the failure of the US Congress to fund any weapons for months due to partisan gridlock late last year and early this year, as well as similar lags in European Union funds, underscored how vulnerable that effort was to the vagaries of politics.
And the delays allowed Russian troops to gain the advantage on the battlefield, and led to widespread complaints from Ukraine’s forces about lack of equipment and weapons.
Some officials have described the new NATO organization as a way to “Trump-proof” alliance support for Ukraine in case former President Donald Trump wins the November election. But that may be a reach.
Here’s what is planned and what it will and won’t do:
Ukraine Defense Contact Group
Over the past two years, the US-created group has evolved into a more sophisticated and organized effort that so far has pumped more than $100 billion in weapons, equipment and training into Ukraine.
The US alone has sent more than $53.6 billion in security aid, including about $25 billion in presidential drawdown authority, under which weapons are taken from Pentagon stocks and sent quickly to Ukraine. The US has provided more than $27 billion in longer-term funding for weapons contracts through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
The rest of the NATO members and other international partners have provided about $50 billion in weapons and security assistance, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, an independent research organization based in Germany.
An international coordination center was set up at Lucius D. Clay Kaserne, the US Army base in Wiesbaden, Germany, to identify Ukraine’s needs, and to locate equipment, weapons and spare parts in other countries that could fill those requirements. That group may eventually be absorbed into the new NATO organization.
And the contact group set up eight so-called capability coalitions headed by various countries to concentrate on specific military requirements: such as fighter aircraft, tanks, artillery, naval assets, air defense, de-mining, cyber and drones. Those are expected to continue.
The new NATO plan
Under the plan endorsed by NATO heads of state on Wednesday, the alliance will take on a broader role to coordinate training and equipment donations.
The effort will be based at the US Army Garrison Wiesbaden in Germany and is expected to be led by a US three-star general. There will be about 700 staff members, including some who will work at logistics nodes in eastern allied nations.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the new program would put support for Ukraine on a “firmer footing for years to come” but would avoid making the alliance a party to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
And NATO also is pledging to provide at least €40 billion ($43.3 billion) within the next year, and “to provide sustainable levels of security assistance for Ukraine to prevail,” while taking into account budgets and other agreements.
The new coordination effort is dubbed the NSATU — NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine — and it will oversee three main areas:
A way to help Ukraine join NATO
A critical component of the new NSATU is that it will help facilitate Ukraine’s effort to become a member of NATO.
Membership in the alliance requires that nations meet a litany of political, economic and security criteria. For example, Ukraine’s military forces will have to meet certain standards of conduct and training, and their weapons and equipment have to be interoperable with those of other allied nations.
The NSATU will help ensure that as time goes on the weapons and training for Ukraine fit what would be required for NATO membership.
In announcing the effort earlier this year, Stoltenberg said it would help to organize training for Ukrainian military personnel in NATO member countries, coordinate and plan donations of the equipment that Kyiv needs, and manage the transfer and repair of that military equipment.
But is it Trump-proof?
Likely not.
A key incentive for the broader NATO organization, according to some officials, is the worry that Trump could regain the presidency and scale back support for the alliance as well as help to Ukraine.
Earlier this year, Trump reiterated his threat that he will not defend NATO members that don’t meet defense spending targets. And he set off alarms in Europe by suggesting he would tell Russia to attack NATO allies he considered delinquent.
And the gap in US funding for Ukraine this year was the result of opposition from Republican allies of Trump in Congress who blocked the aid package for months.
While moving some assistance for Ukraine under the NATO umbrella provides greater consistency, any change in US administrations could trigger shifts in US policy. And that could include limits on spending to support Ukraine or any other diplomatic or military operations.
Participation in the Ukraine contact group, for example, could be upended, as well as any other Pentagon program.
NATO agrees to take on coordination of some Ukraine security support
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NATO agrees to take on coordination of some Ukraine security support
- The delays allowed Russian troops to gain the advantage on the battlefield
- Some officials have described the new NATO organization as a way to “Trump-proof” alliance support for Ukraine in case former President Donald Trump wins
Russian attack on Ukrainian city of Kharkiv injures 11, governor says
- Kharkiv has been a frequent target of Russian attacks since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022
KYIV: A Russian attack on the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine injured at least 11 people on Tuesday, including a child, regional officials said.
Governor Oleh Syniehubov said via the Telegram messaging app that the attack had damaged infrastructure and the authorities were working to verify the type of weapon used.
He and Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said it was likely that a civilian production facility had been hit. Terekhov said a fire had broken out.
Located 30km from the border with Russia, Kharkiv has been a frequent target of Russian attacks since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Last week, a Russian guided bomb attack on the city struck a five-story apartment block, inuring 10 people, local officials said.
German court acquits McCann suspect of unrelated sexual offense charges
- German national, who has been identified by local media as Christian Brueckner, acquitted of two counts of rape and two of sexual abuse
- Prosecutors had argued he should be given a 15-year prison sentence and kept in preventive detention once he has served it
BRAUNSCHWEIG, Germany: A German court on Tuesday acquitted a man who is also under investigation in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann in a trial on charges of unrelated sexual offenses.
The Braunschweig state court acquitted the 47-year-old German national, who has been identified by local media as Christian Brueckner, of two counts of rape and two of sexual abuse.
However, Brueckner will remain in prison another year because he is still serving a seven-year sentence for rape in a different case, German news agency dpa reported.
Brueckner had been on trial since February over offenses he is alleged to have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. Defense lawyers had pointed to what they labeled a lack of evidence and witnesses who weren’t credible, and suggested he might not have been charged if he hadn’t also been a suspect in the McCann case.
Prosecutors had argued he should be given a 15-year prison sentence and kept in preventive detention once he has served it.
The verdict can be appealed, dpa reported.
Brueckner has not been charged in the McCann case, in which he is under investigation on suspicion of murder. He spent many years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance there in 2007. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance.
He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2019 by the Braunschweig court for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005.
The Braunschweig state court has jurisdiction because Brueckner had his last German residence in that city in Lower Saxony.
Over 1,000 evacuated from Crimea oil terminal fire: mayor
MOSCOW: Over 1,000 residents have been evacuated due to a fire at a large oil terminal in Russian-annexed Crimea, a local official said Tuesday, after Ukraine claimed it had struck the depot.
Kyiv has ramped up strikes targeting Russia’s energy sector in recent months, aiming to dent revenues used by Moscow to fund its invasion, now grinding through its third year.
Ukraine said Monday its forces had carried out a “successful strike” on an offshore oil terminal overnight in Feodosia.
Russian-installed authorities in Crimea then said a fire had broken out at the depot in the Black Sea port town of some 70,000 people and that there were no casualties.
Russia has not said there was a Ukrainian strike on the terminal.
“To ensure the safety of people living near the scene of the emergency situation, 1,047 people have been temporarily evacuated to shelters,” the Russian-appointed mayor of the town of Feodosia, Igor Tkachenko, wrote on Telegram.
On Monday, the fire caused road and train closures, but the Russian consumer safety watchdog said Monday initial checks did not find excess levels of air pollution.
The watchdog said the fire was raging at the Sea Oil Terminal, whose website says it “stores fuel in case of emergency situations and ensures Crimea’s energy security.”
The fire has spread to “up to 2,500 square meters, a source in the emergency services told RIA Novosti news agency Tuesday.
“The Feodosia terminal is the largest in Crimea in terms of transshipment of oil products, which were used, among other things, to meet the needs of the Russian occupation army,” the Ukrainian military said, vowing to continue such attacks.
Ukraine insists such strikes are fair retaliation for Russian attacks on its own energy infrastructure that have plunged millions into darkness.
Votes are being counted in the election for a truncated government in Indian-controlled Kashmir
- A final result is expected to be declared later Tuesday by the region’s electoral office
- Nearly 8.9 million people were eligible to vote in the election that began on Sept. 18 and concluded on Oct. 1
SRINAGAR, India: Votes were being counted Tuesday in the recent election for a largely powerless local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the first since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.
Thousands of additional police and paramilitary soldiers patrolled roads and guarded 28 counting centers as officials tallied votes. A final result was expected to be declared later Tuesday by the region’s electoral office.
Nearly 8.9 million people were eligible to vote in the election that began on Sept. 18 and concluded on Oct. 1. The overall turnout was 64 percent across the three phases, according to official data.
It was first such vote in a decade and the first since Modi’s Hindu nationalist government scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s long-held semi-autonomy in 2019.
The unprecedented move downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. Both are ruled directly by New Delhi through its appointed administrators along with unelected bureaucrats and security setup. The move — which largely resonated in India and among Modi supporters — was mostly opposed in Kashmir as an assault on its identity and autonomy amid fears that it would pave way for demographic changes in the region.
The region has since been on edge with civil liberties curbed and media gagged.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Early results may give an indication of the vote’s direction. However, exit polls by major television channels in last two days projected the regional National Conference emerging as a single largest party followed by the Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Such mandate is likely to be seen as a referendum against Modi’s 2019 move.
The National Conference fought the election in alliance with India’s main opposition Congress party.
Their coalition may still need support of some seats to form the government, that is likely to come from Peoples Democratic Party, another Kashmiri group. Five seats are appointed and 90 elected, so a party or coalition would need at least 48 of the 95 total seats to form a government.
The vote will allow Kashmir to have its own truncated government and a regional legislature, called an assembly, rather than being directly under New Delhi’s rule.
However, there will be a limited transition of power from New Delhi to the assembly as Kashmir will remain a “union territory” — directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament as its main legislator. Kashmir’s statehood must be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states of India.
The region’s last assembly election was held in 2014, after which the BJP for the first time ruled in a coalition with the local Peoples Democratic Party. But the government collapsed in 2018, after the BJP withdrew from the coalition.
Polls in the past have been marked with violence, boycotts and vote-rigging, even though India called them a victory over separatism.
Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
Son of Osama bin Laden deported from France, barred from returning
- Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he had signed an order banning Omar Binladin from France
PARIS: A son of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden has been deported from France, where he lived for years painting landscapes in a Normandy village, and barred from returning after posting comments on social media deemed to have glorified terrorism.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he had signed an order banning Omar Binladin from France, and that Binladin had previously been deported. He gave no details about the timing of the deportation or where Binladin had been sent.
“Mr Binladin, who has lived in the Orne region for several years as the spouse of a British national, posted comments on his social networks in 2023 that glorified terrorism,” Retailleau said on X.
“The administrative ban ensures that Mr.Binladin cannot return to France for any reason whatsoever.”
Binladin could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to local weekly newspaper Le Publicateur Libre, Binladin caught the attention of French authorities over a social media post on the birthday of his father, who was killed by US forces in 2011. Reuters was not immediately able to locate the social media post.
The paper reported in July 2023 that police had searched for Binladen in the village of Domfort, Normandy.
