MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused Kyiv of trying to attack the Kursk nuclear power station, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from where Ukrainian forces are mounting a major cross-border offensive.
The Kremlin leader did not present any evidence for his claims or provide further details on the alleged attack.
The claim comes hours after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its chief would visit the facility next week, with Russia having repeatedly sounded the alarm over a possible hit since Ukrainian troops and tanks stormed into its western Kursk region on August 6.
That offensive has now dragged into its third week, with Kyiv laying claim to dozens of Russian border settlements and Russia scrambling to fight off the most serious attack by a foreign army on its territory since World War II.
“The enemy tried to strike the nuclear power plant at night, the IAEA has been informed,” Putin said in a televised government meeting on Thursday.
There were no previous reports of the attempted strike on the facility in Russian media.
Kursk region Governor Alexei Smirnov told Putin the facility was working as usual.
There was no immediate reaction from officials in Kyiv to Putin’s claim.
Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations of threatening nuclear safety throughout the 2.5-year conflict.
Russian troops seized the abandoned Chernobyl power plant in northern Ukraine and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — in the first days of its full-scale military offensive.
It still controls the Zaporizhzhia site, and has been accused of “nuclear blackmail” by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Moscow, in turn, claims Ukrainian forces have tried to strike the plant on multiple occasions with drones.
Earlier this month a fire broke out in one of the Zaporizhzhia plant’s cooling towers.
Russia said it was the result of a Ukrainian attack, while Kyiv said Russia had purposefully started the blaze.
After Ukraine launched its armed incursion into the Kursk region, the IAEA urged both Russia and Ukraine to exercise “maximum restraint” to “avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences.”
Ukraine’s shock assault on Russian territory has upended the course of the conflict, reinvigorating Ukrainian morale two and a half years into the conflict.
Zelensky on Thursday visited his commander-in-chief in the Sumy border region, from where Ukraine is pouring troops and military hardware into Russia.
But Kyiv’s troops are still facing grinding setbacks in the eastern Donetsk region, where they have been under pressure for months.
On Thursday, Russia claimed to have captured another small village there.
In Russia, Putin has been accused of publicly downplaying the seriousness of the Ukrainian incursion.
Kursk Governor Smirnov said Thursday 133,000 people have fled or been evacuated from border districts since Ukraine launched the attack.
Concrete air-raid shelters were being installed in cities across the region on Thursday, including Kurchatov, next to the Kursk nuclear power plant.
And more than 110 Russian schools located close to the border will teach classes remotely when the academic year starts in September, the education minister said Thursday.
Russia’s FSB security service said on Thursday that it had launched a criminal case against several journalists, including CNN correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, for having “illegally” crossed the border after they reported from the Kursk region.
The offensive has further knocked already minimal hopes that the two sides could be prepared to start discussing a possible peace settlement.
Moscow has ruled out direct talks with Kyiv amid the Kursk attack, while Zelensky had already said he will not deal directly with Putin and demands Moscow pull its troops completely out of Ukraine, including Crimea, and pay reparations.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Ukraine on Friday in a bid to kick-start stalled diplomacy over the conflict.
“It is India’s strong belief that no problem can be resolved on a battlefield,” Modi said in Warsaw on Thursday, adding that his country supports “dialogue and diplomacy for restoration of peace and stability as soon as possible.”
Putin accuses Ukraine of trying to attack Kursk nuclear plant
https://arab.news/5ekxd
Putin accuses Ukraine of trying to attack Kursk nuclear plant
- Claim comes hours after the IAEA said its chief would visit the facility next week
- Russia has repeatedly sounded the alarm over a possible hit since Ukrainian troops and tanks stormed into its western Kursk region on August 6
Indian women entrepreneurs to visit UAE to study AI governance, medical innovation
- Delegation will attend panel discussions, networking opportunities with UAE industry leaders in Dubai
- India, UAE have witnessed significant rise in bilateral exchanges since signing free trade pact in 2022
NEW DELHI: Dozens of women entrepreneurs from the Indian Women Network of the Confederation of Indian Industry will depart to the UAE next week to study AI governance in education and medical innovation.
IWN was launched in 2013 by India’s largest and oldest industrial body, the CII, to create the largest network for professional women and promote their participation, growth and leadership in the workplace. Today, it has established chapters in almost two dozen Indian states.
For its first international trip, IWN will lead a 35-member delegation comprising women entrepreneurs from various sectors of Indian industries for a two-day visit to the UAE’s commercial capital, Dubai, starting Nov. 4.
“Dubai was chosen as the destination because of its progressive strides in areas such as AI governance in education, medical innovation, R&D and women’s empowerment,” Megha Chopra, co-chair of CII’s IWN chapter in New Delhi, told Arab News on Thursday.
“The delegation will explore how Dubai has successfully implemented forward-thinking strategies in these sectors, drawing valuable insights to inspire similar growth and innovation in India.”
The trip, which also includes panel discussions and networking opportunities, aims to “foster knowledge-sharing, networking and leadership development” as well as making connections with UAE-based industry pioneers, she added.
For Chopra, executive director at software company RateGain Travel Technologies, the learning retreat is an important extension of the India-UAE economic partnership.
“This trip also highlights the significance of women’s roles in enhancing bilateral ties and contributing to economic progress, with IWN creating a platform where Indian women entrepreneurs can not only draw inspiration, but also forge connections that could lead to tangible business partnerships and investments,” she said.
India and the UAE have significantly advanced bilateral exchanges since they signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in 2022.
The UAE is the largest Middle Eastern investor in India, with investments amounting to about $3 billion in the financial year 2023-24, according to Indian government data.
The two countries also expect to increase the total value of bilateral trade in non-petroleum products to more than $100 billion and trade in services to $15 billion by 2030.
“By connecting 35 women entrepreneurs from diverse Indian industries with eminent leaders and disruptors in Dubai, the delegation fosters knowledge exchange and cultivates potential avenues for cross-border collaborations,” Chopra said.
“In essence, the IWN delegation strengthens the India-UAE economic bond, championing women’s leadership as a key driver of continued growth and collaboration between the two nations.”
Taliban FM goes viral riding motorcycle through Kabul
- Amir Khan Muttaqi filmed on a motorbike in Wazir Akbar Khan area
- Kabul residents admit that public safety has been increasing in the city
Kabul: A video of Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister riding a motorcycle through Kabul has gone viral on social media, with people saying it showed improving security under Taliban rule.
Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to Arab News that the video shot this week shows Amir Khan Muttaqi riding after sunset in the Wazir Akbar Khan area of the Afghan capital.
The street where Muttaqi was driving is less than 1 km away from the Arg — the presidential palace, which since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan three years ago has served as the meeting place of the country’s interim government.
The surrounding neighborhood was known as the diplomatic zone of Kabul before most representatives of the international community left the country after its Western-backed government collapsed and US-led troops withdrew in August 2021.
The sighting of a minister riding on the street was for some residents a reflection of the country being safer now than during the two-decade period of foreign military presence following the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
“The security is very good now. The security forces are trying day and night to make sure people live in peace without any fear,” Hamza Kawsar, a resident of Kabul, told Arab News on Thursday.
“Unlike the leaders in previous regimes, our current leaders are not hiding from the people. They live a simple life. The foreign minister’s move to come out alone is proof of this.”
While people generally acknowledged that security had improved, many other pending issues were left unaddressed or aggravated.
“It’s been two weeks, and I can’t get my national ID. I go from one office to the other and my work is delayed,” said Rahmanullah, 22, who came from Logar province to Kabul to have his documents issued.
“It’s good that the ministers and other people are able to go around in the city without any worries. But in some offices it’s very difficult to see director-level officials, let alone a minister.”
For Javed Rahimi, a shopkeeper, the motorcycle video was a PR stunt and many new problems emerged with Taliban rule, including huge unemployment, poverty and bans on women’s education and work.
He admitted, however, that cases of theft, robbery, and deadly blasts, which were common before, had decreased.
“The good thing is that there’s no war and conflict anymore,” he said. “Our countrymen are not dying in explosions and attacks every day.”
Russia’s ‘comprehensive’ treaty with Iran will include defense, Lavrov says
- The United States accused Tehran in September of delivering close-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine
Military ties between the two countries are a source of deep concern to the West as Russia wages war in Ukraine while Iran and Israel have exchanged missile and air strikes in the Middle East.
“The treaty on a comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and Iran that is being prepared will become a serious factor in strengthening Russian-Iranian relations,” Lavrov told state television.
He said the agreement was being prepared for signing “in the near future.” Russia has said it expects Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian to visit Moscow before the end of the year.
“It will confirm the parties’ desire for closer cooperation in the field of defense and interaction in the interests of peace and security at the regional and global levels,” Lavrov said. He did not specify what form the defense ties would take.
Russia has deepened its ties with Iran and North Korea, which are both strongly antagonistic toward the United States, since the start of its war with Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a similarly titled “comprehensive” treaty in June, including a mutual defense clause, and the US and NATO say Pyongyang has sent some 10,000 soldiers to Russia for possible deployment in the war.
Russia has not denied their presence, and says it will implement the treaty as it sees fit.
The United States accused Tehran in September of delivering close-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine, and imposed sanctions on ships and companies it said were involved in delivering Iranian weapons.
Tehran denies providing Moscow with the missiles or with thousands of drones that Kyiv and Western officials have said Russia uses against military targets and to destroy civilian infrastructure, including Ukraine’s electrical grid.
The Kremlin declined to confirm its receipt of Iranian missiles but acknowledged that its cooperation with Iran included “the most sensitive areas.”
India says frontier disengagement with China along their disputed border is ‘almost complete’
- The two countries reached a new pact on military patrols that aims to end a four-year standoff that hss strained relations
- Ties between the two countries deteriorated in July 2020 after a military clash killed at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese
NEW DELHI: India and China have moved most of their frontline troops further from their disputed border in a remote region in the northern Himalayas, India’s defense minister said Thursday, some 10 days after the two countries reached a new pact on military patrols that aims to end a four-year standoff that’s strained relations.
Rajnath Singh said the “process of disengagement” of Indian and Chinese troops near the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh is “almost complete.”
The Line of Actual Control separates Chinese and Indian-held territories from Ladakh in the west to India’s eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety. India and China fought a deadly war over the border in 1962.
Ties between the two countries deteriorated in July 2020 after a military clash killed at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese. That turned into a long-running standoff in the rugged mountainous area, as each side stationed tens of thousands of military personnel backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets in close confrontation positions.
Earlier this month the two neighbors announced a border accord aimed at ending the standoff, followed by a meeting between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the recent BRICS summit in Russia, their first bilateral meeting in five years.
It’s not clear how far back the troops were moved, or whether the pact will lead to an overall reduction in the number of soldiers deployed along the border.
“Our efforts will be to take the matter beyond disengagement; but for that, we will have to wait a little longer,” Singh said.
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said Thursday that the frontline troops were “making progress in implementing the resolutions in an orderly manner.”
The pact called for Indian and Chinese troops to pull back from the last two areas of the border where they were in close positions. After the deadly confrontation in 2020, soldiers were placed in what commanders called “eyeball to eyeball” positions at least six sites. Most were resolved after previous rounds of military and diplomatic talks as the two nations agreed to the creation of buffer zones.
However, disagreements over pulling back from in the Depsang and Demchok areas lasted until the Oct. 21 pact.
“It is a positive move,” said Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda, who from 2014 to 2016 headed Indian military’s Northern Command, which controls Kashmir region, including Ladakh. “Given how deep mistrust has been between the two countries and how all confidence building measures collapsed, it is quite a positive beginning,” he said.
However, Hooda added, it will take time for both countries to return to their pre-2020 positions. “It does not mean everything is going to as normal as it existed earlier. We have to re-establish traditional patrolling and also the buffer zones need to be sorted out,” he said.
The border standoff also damaged business ties between the two nations, as India halted investments from Chinese firms and major projects banned.
India says frontier disengagement with China along their disputed border is ‘almost complete’
- Two countries have reached new pact on military patrols that aims to end four-year standoff that has strained relations
- India says “process of disengagement” of Indian and Chinese troops near Line of Actual Control is “almost complete”
NEW DELHI: India and China have moved most of their frontline troops further from their disputed border in a remote region in the northern Himalayas, India’s defense minister said Thursday, some 10 days after the two countries reached a new pact on military patrols that aims to end a four-year standoff that’s strained relations.
Rajnath Singh said the “process of disengagement” of Indian and Chinese troops near the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh is “almost complete.”
The Line of Actual Control separates Chinese and Indian-held territories from Ladakh in the west to India’s eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety. India and China fought a deadly war over the border in 1962.
Ties between the two countries deteriorated in July 2020 after a military clash killed at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese. That turned into a long-running standoff in the rugged mountainous area, as each side stationed tens of thousands of military personnel backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets in close confrontation positions.
Earlier this month the two neighbors announced a border accord aimed at ending the standoff, followed by a meeting between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the recent BRICS summit in Russia, their first bilateral meeting in five years.
It’s not clear how far back the troops were moved, or whether the pact will lead to an overall reduction in the number of soldiers deployed along the border.
“Our efforts will be to take the matter beyond disengagement; but for that, we will have to wait a little longer,” Singh said.
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said Thursday that the frontline troops were “making progress in implementing the resolutions in a orderly manner.”
The pact called for Indian and Chinese troops to pull back from the last two areas of the border where they were in close positions. After the deadly confrontation in 2020, soldiers were placed in what commanders called “eyeball to eyeball” positions at at least six sites. Most were resolved after previous rounds of military and diplomatic talks as the two nations agreed to the creation of buffer zones.
However, disagreements over pulling back from in the Depsang and Demchok areas lasted until the Oct. 21 pact.
“It is a positive move,” said Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda, who from 2014 to 2016 headed Indian military’s Northern Command, which controls Kashmir region, including Ladakh. “Given how deep mistrust has been between the two countries and how all confidence building measures collapsed, it is quite a positive beginning,” he said.
However, Hooda added, it will take time for both countries to return to their pre-2020 positions. “It does not mean everything is going to as normal as it existed earlier. We have to re-establish traditional patrolling and also the buffer zones need to be sorted out,” he said.
The border standoff also damaged business ties between the two nations, as India halted investments from Chinese firms and major projects banned.
