MOSCOW: A senior Russian commander said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces had been pushed out of one village in Russia’s border region but that Kyiv’s forces were still probing along the front more than nine days since the lightning incursion into Russia.
The biggest foreign attack on sovereign Russian territory since World War Two unfurled on Aug. 6 when thousands of Ukrainian troops smashed through Russia’s western border in an embarrassment for the Russian top military brass.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that his forces had advanced a few kilometers and that the goal of replenishing an ‘exchange fund’ of prisoners of war was being achieved. One Ukrainian official said Kyiv was carving out a buffer zone to protect its population against attack.
Major General Apti Alaudinov, who commands Chechnya’s Akhmat special forces who are fighting in Kursk, said that Russian forces had forced out Ukraine from Martynovka about 18 kilometers from the border.
“We have burned everything that moves, everything that we have been able to find,” Alaudinov told Russian state television from Kursk region, reminding viewers of Russia’s defeat of Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia.
Alaudinov, a close ally of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, said that Ukraine was sending in more forces into the Russian region but that the shift in resources was weakening Ukrainian forces at other parts of the front.
“The enemy is pushing, he is trying to get through from everywhere, push through,” Alaudinov said, admitting that initiative was still with Ukraine. “But every day the enemy’s forces are melting.”
The Russian town of Sudzha, a transhipment hub for Russian natural gas flowing to Europe via Ukraine, was not under full Ukrainian control, he said. Ukraine on Wednesday said it was fully under Ukrainian control.
Alaudinov also spoke of the chaotic battlefield situation in the region when his forces arrived shortly after the incursion, with forests teaming with Ukrainian forces and a lack of clarity on whose forces were where.
Ukraine’s incursion appeared aimed at forcing Moscow to slow its advance along the rest of the front inside Ukraine, though the Russian defense ministry also reported intense battles along the Ukraine front and said that its troops had taken better positions at several points.
Ukraine said there was no sign Russian military pressure was receding along the eastern front inside its borders on Thursday and reported the heaviest fighting in weeks near Pokrovsk.
GOING INTO RUSSIA
Supported by swarms of drones, heavy artillery and tanks, Ukrainian units have since carved out a sliver of the world’s biggest nuclear power and battles were ongoing along a front about 18km inside Russian territory on Thursday.
Kursk’s acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, said that the Glushkov district, which has a population of 20,000, was being evacuated. At least 200,000 people have so far been evacuated from the border regions, according to Russian data.
Kremlin deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, visited Kurchatov, the town servicing the Kursk nuclear power station which is just 40km from the fighting.
While the Ukrainian attack has embarrassed Moscow, revealed the weakness of its border defenses and changed the public narrative of the war, Russian officials said what they cast as a Ukrainian “invasion” would not change the course of the war.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, has been advancing for most of the year along the 1,000-km front in Ukraine and has a vast numerical superiority. It controls 18 percent of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian incursion into Russia has yielded its biggest battlefield gains since 2022.
FIGHTING IN RUSSIA
The West, which backs Ukraine and has said it will not allow President Vladimir Putin to win the war, has repeatedly said it knew nothing of the Ukrainian plans to attack Russia. Russian officials say they do not believe such statements.
“Of course they are involved,” Russian lawmaker Maria Butina said. “When I studied in the United States the main rule was: ‘Don’t poke the bear’. What the West is doing today? They are poking the bear.”
Putin said on Monday that Ukraine “with the help of its Western masters” was aiming to improve Kyiv’s negotiating position ahead of possible peace talks.
Russia’s defense ministry published footage which it said showed a Russian drone destroying a US-made Stryker armored combat vehicle in the Kursk region. Russian officials have warned that if Western weapons were used on Russian territory, then Moscow would consider that a grave escalation.
By bringing the war to Russia, Zelensky faces the risk of weakening Kyiv’s defenses along the front in Ukraine while Russia has already sent in thousands of reserves in a bid to expel the Ukrainian soldiers.
And if Ukraine wants to hold the Russian territory it has taken, it will need to build a sophisticated logistics operation to support its forces, military analysts said.
Russian commander says Ukraine’s forces pushing along the border front
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Russian commander says Ukraine’s forces pushing along the border front
- Biggest foreign attack on sovereign Russian territory since World War Two unfurled on Aug. 6 when thousands of Ukrainian troops smashed through Russia’s western border
Indonesia launches national Islamic finance center to boost local halal industries
- Center to serve as platform to develop local industries, from Muslim fashion to halal tourism and food
- Indonesia ranked 3rd in 2023 Global Islamic Economy Indicator, behind Saudi Arabia and Malaysia
JAKARTA: President Joko Widodo opened on Tuesday the Indonesia Islamic Financial Center, a new special area in Jakarta dedicated to strengthening the country’s Shariah economy and helping local industries tap into the global halal market.
Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, with about 87 percent of its 270 million population professing Islam. Its government has lately been working to further develop the local halal industry to harness the potential of the domestic market.
“Indonesia has a huge chance, a potential to become a global halal hub, the center of the global halal ecosystem, as long as we strengthen our Shariah economy ecosystem,” Widodo said during the opening ceremony.
“Indonesia’s Shariah banks, an important part of the Shariah economy ecosystem, must continue to grow with modern management, must be competitive (and) professional to reach the potential markets we have — our 236 million Muslim population — while also growing to become the standard of Shariah banking in Indonesia, in the ASEAN region, and in the world.”
The IIFC comprises Indonesia’s biggest Islamic bank, Bank Syariah Indonesia, and Danareksa, a state-owned holding company.
The center will serve as a platform for the development of local industries — from Muslim fashion to halal tourism and food.
“(The center) will support all aspects so we don’t lose our potential to other regions or countries,” Widodo said.
BSI’s tower at IIFC — the construction of which is to be completed next year — will be a “center for business and halal ecosystem literacy,” the bank’s director Hery Gunardi said.
“We are ready to develop and accelerate the nation’s goal of becoming a sustainable global hub and establishing an Islamic ecosystem.”
Indonesia was ranked third in the 2023 Global Islamic Economy Indicator, which measures the strength of the Islamic economy in 73 countries. It was placed just behind Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.
“This area will become a platform to strengthen the Shariah economy ecosystem that will also boost the growth of our national economy,” State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir said.
Through the halal industry, among other avenues, “Indonesia has great potential to become the largest Islamic economy country in the world,” he added.
Nigeria bus crash kills at least 25 children on religious trip
- Organizers of the religious pilgrimage gave a higher toll of 40, with 31 injured
- The children were from Kwandare village and heading to the nearby town of Saminaka for the annual Maulud festivities marking the birth of the Prophet
KANO, Nigeria: A bus carrying Muslim faithful celebrating the birth of Prophet Muhammad crashed in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna state, killing at least 25 children, an official told AFP Tuesday.
Organizers of the religious pilgrimage gave a higher toll of 40, with 31 injured.
The accident occurred on Sunday when the speeding bus overloaded with young adherents of the Tijjaniyya Sufi order lost control and crashed into a truck in Lere district, Kabiru Nadabo, head of the local office of Nigeria’s road safety agency, FRSC, said.
“The bus was overloaded with 63 children and the driver was speeding recklessly when he lost control and rammed into an articulated truck,” Nadabo said.
“Fifteen of them died on the spot while 48 injured were taken to various hospitals, among which 10 died the following day, raising the death toll to 25,” he said.
The children were from Kwandare village and heading to the nearby town of Saminaka for the annual Maulud festivities marking the birth of the Prophet, said Nadabo.
He said the death toll could have changed since the injured were taken to hospitals in various locations and he did not get further updates.
Dikko Dahiru, one of the organizers of the trip, said 40 children were killed in the accident, while 31 were injured.
“The bus was carrying 71 passengers and 36 died instantly while four more died in hospital the next day,” said Dahiru, whose nephew was among the dead.
“Thirty-one were taken to hospitals with severe injuries, 11 of them in critical condition,” he said.
Road accidents are common on Nigeria’s poorly maintained roads due largely to speeding and disregard for traffic rules.
Russia says shot dead Ukrainian agent who tried to blow up car
- The suspect, whom it did not name, allegedly worked for Ukraine’s GUR intelligence agency
- A pistol with ammunition was found at the scene
MOSCOW: Russia’s FSB security service said Tuesday it shot dead a Ukrainian agent who attempted to plant explosives under the car of a senior defense industry official.
The suspect, whom it did not name, allegedly worked for Ukraine’s GUR intelligence agency and targeted a “senior employee of a defense enterprise in the Sverdlovsk region,” the FSB said.
He was detained while “placing an improvised explosive device in a hiding place, put up armed resistance and was neutralized by return fire,” the FSB added.
A pistol with ammunition was found at the scene, while law enforcement seized components used for making explosives during a search of his residence, it continued.
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.
Ukraine has often targeted Russian officials it believes are complicit in the Kremlin’s full-scale military assault on its territory, which began in 2022.
In December 2023, pro-Russian Ukrainian defector Illia Kyva was shot dead near Moscow in an attack claimed by Kyiv’s security services.
Kremlin says Russian army expansion needed to address growing threats on western flank
- Putin on Monday ordered the regular size of the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops
MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Tuesday that an order by President Vladimir Putin to transform Russia’s army into the second largest in the world was needed to address growing threats on Russia’s western borders and instability to the east.
Putin on Monday ordered the regular size of the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active servicemen in a move that would make it the second largest in the world after China’s.
“This is due to the number of threats that exist to our country along the perimeter of our borders,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
“It is caused by the extremely hostile environment on our western borders and instability on our eastern borders. This demands appropriate measures to be taken.”
Climate fund chief targets poor countries
- The GCF’s priority target list includes Algeria, the Central African Republic, Chad, Iraq, Lebanon, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea and South Sudan.
- Also on the list is war-torn Somalia, hit by major floods last year and still reeling from its worst drought in decades
PARIS: Green Climate Fund chief Mafalda Duarte is on a mission to help vulnerable nations that have yet to receive a penny from the world’s largest dedicated source of climate finance.
The United Nations’ flagship organization for chanelling climate funding was set up for developing countries worst hit by climate impacts even if they are least responsible for carbon pollution that drives warming.
Money disbursed helps nations to draw down their greenhouse gas emissions, on the one hand, and adapt to storms, droughts and heatwaves made worse by climate change, along with sea level rise, on the other.
The fund, which began doling out grants a decade ago, has identified 19 climate-vulnerable nations that have received no or very limited funding.
“We are deliberately targeting those,” Duarte told AFP in an interview, taking stock of her first year in charge and outlining her ambitions.
The GCF’s priority target list includes Algeria, the Central African Republic, Chad, Iraq, Lebanon, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea and South Sudan.
“Our goal is to equip the organization such that it becomes a partner of choice for the most vulnerable... and that it delivers where the funds are most needed,” said the Portuguese development economist.
Also on the list is war-torn Somalia, hit by major floods last year and still reeling from its worst drought in decades.
The GCF has pledged to invest more than $100 million over the next year to help the East African nation unlock investments and develop climate projects.
These include funding off-grid solar energy in rural communities, boosting resilience of the agricultural sector and helping with access to more money in the future.
“We need to adjust our mechanisms to be responsive to this type of country with weak institutional capacity,” she said, insisting on the need for projects to reach isolated populations despite security challenges.
The GCF was first funded by wealthy nations a decade ago as a key component in the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement.
It funnels grants and loans for projects mostly in Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and the Caribbean.
But its ambitions have been hindered by limited resources and a cumbersome bureaucracy, making it hard for some of the world’s most at-risk countries to access funding.
How to streamline the process for getting money in a timely manner will be critical issues at November’s COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan.
Duarte aims to triple the GCF’s capital to $50 billion by 2030 — an ambitious goal, but a small fraction of the trillions experts say is needed overall.
Founded in 2010, the fund today has some 250 partners implementing projects on the ground, spanning UN agencies, development banks, government ministries and agencies, the private sector and NGOs.
Another 200 have expressed interest in aligning with the fund.
“If we are able to work with this vast network of partners that are closer to the realities on the ground where investments are happening, we can make a really big difference,” she said.
As of last month, the fund has committed $15 billion to 270 projects.
In the last 12 months, the GCF approved close to $790 million for the world’s poorest countries — a fourfold increase compared to 2022.
But it remains a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed, experts say.
Currently, donor nations decide what contributions they make to the fund.
At COP29, countries are expected to set a new global climate finance goal, though divisions over its size and scope have hampered negotiations.
As discussions enter a critical phase, Duarte has a simple message for governments: “Be bold. We don’t have the luxury of waiting.”
