Category World News

Ukraine’s European allies marshalled resources this week to provide the besieged country with air defences against drones and ballistic missiles.

The European Union also announced an 18th round of sanctions designed to sever all remaining Russian energy imports, and proposed a fivefold increase in the common defence budget to boost EU defence research and procurement.

European leaders convinced the United States to symbolically rejoin the 52-nation Ukraine Defence Contact Group coordinating defence donations, but not as a donor.

It was the first such meeting attended by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth since February, when he told EU members that pushing Russia out of Ukraine’s internationally recognised territory was unrealistic.

Operational developments

As the ideological chasm between the EU and the US over Ukraine widened, Russia continued to pound Ukrainian defenders, making a few inroads.

Russian forces seized Degtyarnoye in Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region, Popov Yar in its eastern Donetsk region, and Kamenskoye in the southern region of Zaporizhia on July 17. They captured Belaya Gora on Sunday and Novotoretskoye on Tuesday, both in Donetsk.

While holding its front line, Ukraine has targeted Moscow with long-range weapons for the past two weeks.

Russian air defences downed 13 drones approaching Moscow on Saturday, said its mayor, and Ukrainian drones disrupted traffic in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday, said Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation.

Then, on Monday, Russia claimed to have shot down 74 Ukrainian drones, a third of them near Moscow. Others must have hit their targets, because a fire at Kamenolomny station in the Rostov region caused delays to train services in the Caucasus.

Kovalenko also said that on June 11, Ukrainian drones attacked the Lukhovitsky Aviation Plant in the Moscow region, which produces MiG-29 and MiG-31 fighters. Ukraine’s General Staff said drones also hit the Shipunov Design Bureau – a manufacturer of anti-aircraft missiles.

The following day, Ukraine reportedly blew up a gas pipeline in Khanty-Mansiysk, about 3,000km (1,900 miles) from Moscow. The pipeline reportedly supplied military production facilities.

Drone air defence

At Monday’s meeting of Ukraine’s allies, known as the Ramstein format, after the German town where the meetings began, the United Kingdom and Germany pledged to jointly provide Ukraine with an unspecified number of missiles to defend its skies.

“Boris and I have agreed to jointly supply Ukraine with critically needed anti-aircraft missiles,” UK Defence Secretary John Healy said, referring to German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.

Ukraine uses the German-made IRIS-T and US-made NASAMS and SHORAD missile defence systems against drone attacks, which have intensified in recent weeks.

From July 17 to 22, Ukraine shot down or electronically suppressed 833 of 968 unmanned aerial vehicles targeting its cities and critical infrastructure.

The largest attack came on Monday, when Russia launched 426 drones overnight, along with five Kh-47 M2 Kinzhal ballistic missiles, four Kalibr cruise missiles, one Iskander-K cruise missile and 14 Kh-101 cruise missiles.

The largest attack of the war on July 9 used 728 drones, and the head of the German Planning and Command Staff, Major-General Christian Freuding, said on Saturday that Russia plans to further increase its drone production capacity with the goal of launching 2,000 drones in one overnight strike package.

Ukraine has used a variety of methods to down or disable drones, including man-portable air defence kits, heavy machineguns and electronic warfare. But its most successful methods so far have proven the German radar-assisted Gepard anti-air 35mm gun and its domestically-developed interceptor drones, said Ukrainian drone warfare expert Olena Kryzhanivska.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made such domestically produced weapons a top priority.

Inaugurating a new government headed by Yulia Svyrydenko on July 17, Zelenskyy said its top priority was to increase domestic arms production: “Currently, about 40 percent of the weapons in the hands of our warriors are made in Ukraine. In six months, it should be no less than 50 percent,” he said.

The goal was “to push the war back onto Russia’s territory – back to where the war was brought from. So that they feel what they’ve done”, Zelenskyy said.

Pistorius revealed details of a separate German collaboration with the US to provide Ukraine with Patriot air defence batteries.

Ballistic air defence

Ukraine has no domestic solution for countering Russia’s deadliest long-range weapons, its ballistic missiles.

The only effective defence it possesses is the US-made Patriot surface-to-air missile system.

Pistorius revealed on Monday that “during my trip to Washington last week, I agreed with Pete Hegseth that Germany would contribute to the rapid provision of five much-needed Patriot systems.”

A complete Patriot system consists of a central radar and antenna array, and at least six launch vehicles carrying four interceptor missiles each.

It appeared that Germany would pay for these systems. In return, the US would award it – and other countries donating their Patriots to Ukraine – priority placement in the production queue when buying replacement systems.

Zelenskyy told Newsmax and the New York Post that he would separately buy Patriot systems and pay for them with Ukrainian-built drones.

“I told President Trump: ‘The American people need this technology, and you should have it in your arsenal.’ I believe this is a mega deal – a win-win for both sides. We’re ready to share our experience with America and European partners,” Zelenskyy told Newsmax.

Europe at the forefront of Ukraine aid

While the US administration of Donald Trump remains willing to sell military kit to Ukraine after suspending donations, Europe remains ideologically committed to bankrolling Ukraine’s defence and ending its own reliance on the US.

Presenting the EU’s next seven-year, 1,816-billion-euro ($2,130bn) budget on July 16, Ursula Von Der Leyen proposed a 131-billion-euro ($154bn) budget for defence and space, a fivefold increase on the 2021-27 budget.

The money, which is in addition to that spent by EU national governments, would go towards buying European defence goods, investing in European defence industries, cybersecurity and dual-purpose critical infrastructure.

Von Der Leyen proposed establishing a European Competitiveness Fund for defence research and innovation. She also proposed doubling the Ukraine Assistance Fund to 100 billion euros ($117bn).

On July 18, the EU succeeded in agreeing on an 18th raft of sanctions against Russia.

It bans the last remnants of Russian energy purchases from the EU, worth about 23 billion euros ($27bn), and lowers a price cap on oil carried to third parties on EU-insured tankers.

The UK, where much of the world’s tanker fleet is insured, has coordinated with the EU to follow the price cap of $47.60 per barrel, down from the price cap imposed in December 2022 of $60.

“The UK and EU are working in lockstep to combat those callously fuelling the fires of destruction in Ukraine,” said the UK Foreign Office.

The new price cap will be dynamic, and is to be set 15 percent below market prices every six months.

The EU forbade companies from transacting with the Russian-built Nordstream I and II pipelines, which were blown up in 2022, ensuring they would never be repaired or rescued from bankruptcy.

The EU also banned any refined oil products from entering the EU, and added 105 vessels to the Russian shadow fleet banned from entering EU ports or receiving services, bringing the total to 444.

The EU increased the number of Russian banks banned from transacting with its financial sector from 23 to 45, and sanctioned dozens of entities and companies believed to be helping Russia circumvent sanctions to its defence industry, 11 of them non-Russian.

Diplomacy versus all-out war

Amid this barrage of new measures from the EU and its slender mercantile collaboration with the US, diplomacy was not entirely given up.

Ukraine proposed, and Russia accepted, a third round of direct talks in Istanbul on Thursday. Putin would attend China’s 80th anniversary celebrations commemorating its defeat of Japan in World War II, the Kremlin said, and could meet with Trump if the latter accepted the invitation.

Trump has spent most of his political career demonising China, however, and might resist casting it in the role of peace broker.

US Air Force general Alexus Grynkewich told Bild last week that “the EU and the US have only 18 months to prepare for a global military conflict with China and Russia.

“China and Russia are preparing for a simultaneous strike on Taiwan and Europe,” Grynkewich was quoted as saying.

Nearly 80 students who participated in protests against Israel’s occupation of Gaza were expelled, given one-to-three-year suspensions, and were denied degrees at Columbia University.

The university’s annual alumni weekend, which includes the May 7, 2025, Butler Library demonstration on its campus, and the May 31, 2024, “Revolt for Rafah” encampment, have been adjourned from the Judicial Board’s findings on Tuesday.

Pro-Palestinian student camps at Columbia University became the scene of a global wave of campus demonstrations against Israel’s occupation of Gaza in 2024. Before university administrators called NYPD officers to dismantle the camps, which drew dozens of arrests.

In a post on X, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), an umbrella coalition of student groups, wrote, “Suspension from Columbia for protesting genocide is the highest honour.”

The student body remarked, “We reject Columbia has any reputation that it is deserving of protecting, and we categorically state that we do not want to uphold it.”

Why, then, did Columbia fire these students? And why has the Trump administration repressed higher education?

What has occurred?

Nearly 80 students have been disciplined by Columbia University for participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, “separating them from the University.”

Following a number of demonstrations on campus, including the Butler Library’s occupation by students during the school’s final exams on May 7 earlier this year, the disciplinary action follows.

That day, 78 people were detained by the NYPD. In response to the protests, the university is asking to cut all financial ties with Israel, cut all financial relationships with Israel, and show solidarity with Palestinians as the Israeli military fights on.

The suspended students took part in a “peaceful teach-in” that included readings and discussions of the Palestinian author and activist Basil al-Araj, who was killed by Israeli forces in 2017 according to student organizers.

Civil liberties organizations and fellow students have voiced opposition to the massive disciplinary action, which has been hailed as the largest of its kind in Columbia’s history.

According to organizers, the crackdown is a part of a larger effort to stop pro-Palestinian activism on US campuses, and it is related to a pending agreement between Columbia and Trump administration officials.

The majority of students were suspended for two years, according to Columbia Spectator, the university’s student newspaper. According to reports, the students have been asked to apologize to the university before returning to campus.

The Trump administration announced earlier this year that it would withhold about $400 million from funding Columbia University, citing the school’s alleged failure to adequately address anti-Semitism in the wake of campus pro-Palestinian protests.

In exchange for negotiations to reinstate its funding, Columbia agreed to a list of demands made by the government. The university also consented to enforcing a ban on face-protected clothing and gave 36 campus police officers unique authority to arrest students, among other things.

What has Columbia said?

The University claimed in a statement released on Tuesday that hundreds of students had been impacted by the disruption at Butler Library during the reading period, which ultimately resulted in the interim suspension of Columbia participants.

According to the university, sanctions would include probation, one-year to three-year suspensions, degree revocations, and expulsions.

In order to protect student privacy, it did not disclose the names of the students who faced each of these sanctions or how many were facing them.

Our institution must concentrate on fulfilling its academic mission for the community. Respect for one another and the institution’s fundamental work, policies, and rules must also be maintained, according to the statement. “Discretion of University policies and regulations results in consequences for academic activities that result in disruptions.”

What has the response been?

Just over a month after the 30-year-old, a legal permanent resident of the United States, was released from immigration custody&nbsp, in Louisiana, President Donald Trump met with lawmakers in Washington, DC, to discuss the suspensions and expulsions.

Under the Trump administration, Khalil is still facing deportation because it has relied on a secret provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to deport foreign students who engage in pro-Palestinian advocacy.

The student activist group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), an umbrella coalition of student organizations, criticized Columbia for its Tuesday suspensions and expulsions, noting that “While the US and Israel starve 2.1 million Gazans to death, Columbia has diligently worked with Trump’s administration to suspend dozens of students for pro-Palestine activism.”

The group claimed that the suspensions “hugely exceed sentencing precedent for teach-ins or non-Palestine-related building occupations” and that they were the highest suspensions ever for a single political protest in Columbia’s history.

Despite the school’s sanctions, the student body stated in its statement that “students continue to support the US- and Columbia-backed genocide against Israel.”

The group continued, “Every university in Gaza has been destroyed,” quoting testimony from students’ July disciplinary hearings. Academicians have been murdered in the hundreds. Incinerated books and archives The civil registry has been made indefinite for entire families. Not a war, this. It is an “erasure campaign”

“We won’t be deterred,” he declared. According to the statement, “We are committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation.”

Why has Trump repressed the university sector?

Comparisons have been made between the anti-Vietnam War era, when student activism directly challenged US foreign policy, and the anti-war protests against Israel’s occupation of Gaza that took place last year across US university campuses from Columbia to UCLA to Harvard.

Trump capitalizes on this by portraying students as part of a left-wing, anti-Semitic uprising and imposing sanctions on universities, particularly “elite” ones.

According to the administration, universities have failed to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence during demonstrations, citing incidents of anti-Semitic chants and campfires.

The administration has been conducting investigations by the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education against more than 50 universities, including Columbia, since the beginning of 2025.

As evidenced by demands placed on Harvard and Columbia, executive orders and actions have been implemented, including freezing billions in federal research grants and threatening to revoke tax-exempt status or accreditation.

The Harvard program’s refusal to have its programs audited for “ideological capture” resulted in the freezing of billions of dollars in federal funding. The administration threatened to outlaw international students from Harvard, citing “national security” and “high campus crime rates, which underscore the White House’s grip on universities.

Harvard has sued the administration to get a temporary ban on international students from entering the country.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, praised the two nations’ “invincible” relationship when he visited China earlier this year for his third meeting with Xi Jinping since taking office in 2023.

According to experts, the proximity will likely increase even more now with President Trump’s announcement to impose a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports for obvious political reasons.

According to Tulio Cariello, director of content and research at the Brazil-China Business Council (CEBC), “the relationship between Brazil and China is much more positive and promising than the one with the United States today.”

Brazil was shocked by Trump’s pledge to impose a 50-percent tariff on Brazil, which is scheduled to go into effect on August 1. This is especially true given that, as Trump had previously stated on April 2, Brazilian imports will be subject to 10 percent of the “Liberation Day” tariffs.

In addition, that was significantly lower than the percentages other Brazilian competitors in the United States had, which indicates that there is still room for growth for businesses in South America’s most populated nation.

Thus, the sudden decision to impose a 50-percent tariff was a rude shock, especially for industries like car parts, coffee, and orange juice, which are major US exporters.

Following the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, where leaders of developing nations expressed “serious concerns” about the increase in tariffs, which it claimed were “incompatible with WTO]WTO] rules, the 50-percent tariff was introduced.

Trump directly connected the tariff to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s current predicament, which he called a “witch hunt,” in a letter defending the measure. Bolsonaro, who is frequently referred to as the “Trump of the tropics,” is facing legal action for allegedly trying to sway a coup to hold onto his position of power despite his 2022 defeat to Lula.

Trump also falsely claimed a Brazil trade deficit. Brazil has a $ 7.4 billion deficit with the US and a $ 31 billion surplus with China.

The tariffs’ political nature marked a sharp departure from Trump’s usual rationale, which caused widespread condemnation from China and Brazil’s political spectrum.

A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in the aftermath that “tariffs should not be used as a tool of coercion, intimidation, or interference.”

Trump risks tarnishing the US’s reputation as a trustworthy trade partner by using tariffs as political leverage rather than economic reasons, according to experts, making China appear more predictable and stable in comparison.

According to Mauricio Weiss, an economics professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, “China has shown no indication of backtracking on decisions or making abrupt changes.”

boosting Chinese ties

The Asian nation surpassed Brazil in 2009, according to &nbsp, and trade and investment ties between the two nations have only grown stronger since.

On Monday, Brazil’s Ministry of Finance announced plans to set up a tax advisory office in Beijing, a start of a positive trend. Brazil has only four other countries with such offices, three in South America and one in the US.

The Brazilian government’s ministry said in a statement to Al Jazeera that the motivation is not politically motivated, but rather that it is because of the need to strengthen cooperation in fiscal and customs matters.

China has sought to increase domestic production by gaining access to both natural resources and raw materials, including oil, iron ore, copper, lithium, and agricultural products.

However, China has, according to CEBC, invested more than $ 73 billion in Brazil since 2007. Energy, infrastructure, agribusiness, and technology are some of the key sectors where the majority of those funds are going.

Weiss remarked that while the United States invests more heavily in Brazil, China’s investments are more focused and coordinated across all levels.

Brazilians are also consuming more and more Chinese goods. Seven out of ten electric vehicles sold in Brazil were produced by Chinese manufacturer BYD, which is now a common sight.

BYD’s purchase of a massive factory in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia was especially symbolic of China’s growing presence, which was to the detriment of the US.

Additionally, the two nations have agreed to look into how transportation can be integrated. A bi-oceanic rail corridor connecting Brazil and Chancay, a port built by China, is planned.

China’s regional influence was clearly demonstrated by Xi’s inauguration of the megaport in November, where total investment is anticipated to be worth $3.5 billion over the next ten years.

In response to concerns about Trump’s intentions for the region, other Latin American countries like Peru, Colombia, and Chile have also indicated their intention to rekindle relations with China. He has previously pledged to “take back” the Panama Canal, including through force.

Some claim that Brazil’s strengthening of relations with China does not imply that the South American nation will begin exporting goods to China because the two nations purchase goods from Brazilian companies in very different ways.

Brazil won’t export its goods to China because of this. That isn’t very logical, according to Livio Ribeiro, a researcher at the Getulio Vargas Foundation’s Brazilian Institute of Economics.

Weiss believes that Chinese investments could still be crucial in enabling Brazil to expand its industrial potential and diversify its economy.

Weiss argued that the ability to produce more of these products both domestically and internationally will already present a significant growth opportunity.

Lula said that because “China needs Brazil and Brazil needs China,” both countries will be “indispensable partners.”

Fire officials and scientists claim that wildfire activity is on the rise as the country approaches its hottest months of the year.

Experts claim that the most intense fires typically occur in the US from late spring through the first few months of the fall because the vegetation is dry and the temperatures are high.

California has come to represent both the intensity and scope of those wildfires. More fires were reported in the western state in 2024 than in any other region of the state.

The Eaton and Palisades fires in the Los Angeles area alone contributed nearly $40 billion in insured losses, according to Gallagher Re, the insurance company Gallagher Re just last week. In those fires, 30 people were reportedly killed.

California is the subject of a national debate over how to deal with wildfires and what appropriate state and federal roles should exist in response to that toll.

US Senator Alex Padilla demanded more funding for fire preparedness earlier this month on the six-month anniversary of the deadly infernos, as President Donald Trump had suggested.

The upcoming peak fire season is upon us. California has a year-round fire season, but it’s just beginning’s peak fire season, Padilla said.

He noted that the relatively mild January fires in Los Angeles were caused by winter rather than the scorching, dry summer months.

Even under less than ideal circumstances, experts claim that that indicates the potential size of California’s wildfires.

Potential for a “quite severe” season

California’s wildfires have been moderate so far this year, according to scientists, but they are expected to increase as the summer gets warmer, especially in the state’s drought-stricken regions, where they have been.

In a recent phone call, Max Moritz, a wildfire specialist at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), stated, “We’ve had a number of small-to-medium-sized fires, but nothing too startling so far.”

“But that’s kind of where we’d like to be right now,” he said. And as we approach the drier months, some things have been revealed that indicate what might turn out to be a fairly severe fire season.

Scientists frequently point out that wildfire seasons can be influenced by a variety of variables and are challenging to predict.

Wildfire-related events, such as those caused by high winds, extreme heat, or lightning strikes, are also eerie. A downed power line or a campfire’s failure to properly extinguish a campfire are just two examples of human error or negligence that can cause a fire to burn the landscape.

A fire that has been quickly snuffed out can become more large and intense once it begins, depending on factors like wind strength and firefighter access.

According to Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science and forest policy at the University of California, Berkeley, “it’s really difficult to come up with a single explanation for why some seasons are so much more intense than others.”

For instance, California’s fire seasons of 2020 and 2021 saw the largest number of fires ever to spread across vast areas of land.

By comparison, the following years were comparatively tame, despite scientists’ claims that fire seasons with higher-than-average activity levels were caused by factors like climate change.

However, there are some indicators that scientists and fire officials use as indicators, such as the presence of drought and the moisture content of soil and plant life. A fire can be started by many catalysts, but thick, dry vegetation is largely the fuel for its spread and unstoppable nature.

According to Stephens, southern California’s chaparral landscape, which is characterized by low-lying shrubs like sage, is particularly susceptible to fire and has experienced a “very dry” year.

According to the US Drought Monitor, about 23 percent of California is currently experiencing severe to exceptional drought, with the majority of those areas being located in southern California.

According to the state agency Cal Fire, the Madre Fire, the state’s largest fire of the year so far, which raged in central California’s San Luis Obispo County, totaling about 80, 000 acres (32, 400 hectares).

The term used by fire officials to describe the portion of a fire that is more than 95 percent contained refers to the area of the fire that is effectively protected by protective lines.

shifting emergency management policies

The Trump administration’s proposed changes to politics also loom over the fire season this year, which raises questions about concerns about weather forecasting and emergency services.

According to scientists, these services are crucial for understanding how each fire season develops.

Fire weather is undoubtedly an example of how heavily we rely on modelled forecasts for various weather events, according to Moritz. We all run the risk of worse outcomes if these services are negatively impacted.

Trump has spearheaded efforts to lower the federal government since taking office for a second term, including by reducing its reliance on scientific research and emergency services.

For instance, the National Weather Service (NWS) lost nearly 600 workers as a result of the Trump-led employee reduction earlier this year. Since then, the president has been criticized for a string of floods that nearly 135 people have died in Texas. Democratic lawmakers have attributed staffing cuts to a lack of staffing that would allow for forecasting and emergency response efforts.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which regulates the federal response to disaster recovery, has also been under administration scrutiny.

Trump had suggested shifting FEMA’s responsibilities to local and state governments. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reportedly put in place a policy in June that required her to personally approve any FEMA expenses over $100,000.

That has caused a decline in services, according to critics. CNN reported just last Monday that Ken Pagurek, the head of FEMA’s urban search and rescue operations, resigned over bureaucratic issues.

Trump has threatened to withhold disaster aid from states like California if his immigration and other policy priorities don’t align with his own. Democrats are to blame for the wildfires in Los Angeles, according to him and his allies.

“One of our country’s worst catastrophes has already been experienced.” Simply put, they are unable to extinguish the fires. What’s wrong with them, exactly? Trump published a letter in January.

preventing wildfires that are out of control

California has attempted to put its own measures into action to combat the difficulties brought on by longer, more intense fire seasons, though.

In addition to these strategies, there is a greater emphasis on fuel-saving initiatives, such as prescribed burns, which intentionally introduce fire into a landscape under controlled circumstances to help thin out the vegetation.

We have undoubtedly encouraged prescribed burns. We’re actually doing more of them than we once did, according to Cal Fire’s Jesse Torres, a spokesperson.

He claims that these efforts typically occur in the late spring, after periods of rain when wetter weather lessen the risk of a prescribed burn spreading out of control.

However, according to fire scientists, those efforts have not yet reached the scale necessary to seriously affect the state’s fire activity.

Cal Fire claims to have covered only 156, 000 acres (63, 100 hectares) of land in the current fiscal year, but it anticipates that figure will increase, despite its annual goal of treating 500, 000 acres (202, 300 hectares) of land with fuel reduction efforts.

After 28 nations called for the end of the Gaza war, protesters have been demanding more than just words. Many of those same nations, Soraya Lennie points out, continue to send weapons and operate normally with Israel.

Warning: This story contains references to suicide

In a damp, crowded basement at the southern entrance of the Dariala Gorge, the mountainous no-man’s-land between Georgia and Russia, more than 90 Ukrainian deportees from Russia are being held.

The deportees at the Georgian border checkpoint can only step outside when they need the toilet, and they must go in pairs under the watchful eyes of Georgian border guards.

They are here because they can’t cross the border directly from Russia to Ukraine due to the war, and Georgia refuses to let them in because many have criminal backgrounds, so they are stranded. Some have now been living in the basement for nearly two months.

Most of these men – along with a handful of women – are former prisoners in Russia who have been deported after serving their sentences, but some have been expelled for other reasons, such as problems with their immigration documents.

On Sunday night, July 20, they mounted a protest.

“We’re not allowed outside!” one of the men shouted as they were surrounded by security personnel on the premises.

“We’re being tortured here,” called another.

“It’s damp, there’s [disabled people] here without medical attention, there’s nothing here at all,” he added.

A video sent by the deportees to Al Jazeera shows one man very seriously harming himself during the Sunday night protest.

“He’s been here more than a month,” 45-year-old Nikolai Lopata, one of the other detainees, told Al Jazeera by phone.

“He was promised twice [that] he would be taken away. He bought [travel] tickets twice, and both times no one returned the money,” Lopata said, noting that the man, who suffers from anxiety, has repeatedly been denied permission to travel through Georgia to Ukraine.

An ambulance arrived after more than an hour, and paramedics bandaged his wounds, then left without him. The man, who appeared in the video to be in his late 30s or early 40s, was not hospitalised and remains at the checkpoint, volunteers at the scene who are in contact with Al Jazeera said.

‘They won’t let us in or out’

The detainees, who have arrived from Russia or territories occupied by Russia and have been released from prison in recent months, are now stuck in limbo in this buffer zone, Lopata explained. In total, approximately 800 deportees are thought to be stuck in Russia or at Russian-Georgian border points, experts say.

“They [Georgian border officials] took our documents. They won’t let us in or out of Georgia. They keep telling us ‘tomorrow, tomorrow’. Some people have been here for more than a month and a half in terrible, unbearable conditions,” Lopata said.

Originally from Dnipro in central Ukraine, Lopata said he had been living in Russia, where he has a Russian wife, two children and a sister, since 2005. But in 2010, he was convicted of murder. When he completed his sentence in 2024, he was sent to a deportation centre for another year. By then, the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine was raging, so getting a one-way flight to Kyiv was impossible.

“Last summer, they [the Russian authorities] promised to send me to Georgia. Then, in winter, they promised to send me to Ukraine through Belarus. Then, we were taken to the border of Georgia, which supposedly accepts us, but Georgia is not accepting,” Lopata said.

Instead, when he reached the border on July 4, Lopata said, he was photographed, fingerprinted and had his documents confiscated by Georgian border officials before being taken to a cellar.

“We don’t do anything. We sit in the basement,” Lopata continued, explaining that the men sleep in shifts because there are only 40 beds.

The men are provided with very little and lack reliable medical assistance, instead having to rely on emergency care.

“An ambulance comes almost every day, sometimes twice a day, because there are disabled people, there are sick people,” Lopata said, adding that there is someone with epilepsy, a person with HIV, and another with tuberculosis. “But they don’t offer anything besides immediate help. Yesterday, for example, they made an injection of painkiller, then said, ‘That’s it, we can’t help with anything else.’”

Activists and volunteers try to bring essentials to the detainees each week.

Food, household items and personal hygiene products are delivered by Volunteers Tbilisi, an organisation helping Ukrainian refugees in Georgia.

“There is no access to fresh air, there is a lot of heat and the cellars are closed,” organiser Maria Belkina told Al Jazeera.

“These are not conditions you can live in at all.”

Route through Moldova cancelled

Anna Skripka, a lawyer for the NGO, Protection of Prisoners of Ukraine, told Al Jazeera that this problem has been mounting for the past two years of the war in Ukraine: “This humanitarian disaster started in 2023.”

Skripka said some people have become so desperate they have tried to kill themselves. “They didn’t understand what was going on,” she said.

“The conditions there are terrible.”

According to Skripka, there are 84 men and seven women currently being detained, and while the women are held in a separate room, their conditions are also poor.

“The women complain to me that they’re not being taken to the toilet,” Skripka said.

“They asked us to buy them a bucket with a lid to go to the toilet.”

Previously, deportees at this border crossing were transferred by bus to Tbilisi Airport to fly to Moldova and then on to Ukraine. That’s how Ukrainian activist Andriy Kolomiyets, considered a political prisoner by the Russian human rights group Memorial, returned home earlier this month after serving 10 years on drug and attempted murder charges.

Skripka explained that 43 detainees managed to leave between early June and July, landing in Moldova and then getting a bus to Ukraine. But four of them got off the bus and stayed in Moldova, prompting the landlocked Eastern European country to halt cooperation.

“They’re already back in Ukraine,” Skripka said about the missing four, which Al Jazeera could not confirm, “but Moldova said, ‘Stop, we do not want to risk it.’”

As a result, since mid-July, Moldova has refused passage for Ukrainian deportees from Russia.

While Georgia was cooperative at first, it has also begun refusing to allow deportees through on the basis that many are ex-convicts who have served prison time in Russia, seriously limiting the options for Ukrainians trying to return.

“Most of these individuals have a serious criminal past and have been convicted numerous times for grave or particularly grave crimes,” the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

But Skripka said that it is unfair to smear them all as hardened criminals. Some were expelled from Russia for lacking proper paperwork. Others have had their Russian citizenship revoked.

Their treatment, Skripka argues, goes beyond bureaucratic injustice; it raises serious legal and moral questions.

“They were beaten, pushed from another country by the barrel of a machinegun … they are victims of war crimes,” Skripka said.

Further complicating things, many of the deportees lack the proper documentation.

Ukraine has been issuing “white passports” – emergency documents to allow citizens to travel home – but these only last for 30 days.

Some Ukrainian politicians have spoken out.

Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of “weaponizing the deportation of Ukrainian citizens through Georgia”.

Russia is weaponizing the deportation of Ukrainian citizens through Georgia. We propose that Russia transport them directly to the Ukrainian border instead.

Since June, Russia has significantly increased the number of deported Ukrainian nationals, mostly former convicts, to the…

“We are actively working with the Georgian and Moldovan sides to get the rest of our people transited to Ukraine,” he wrote.

“To avoid further complications, we publicly offer Russia to send these categories of Ukrainian citizens directly to the Ukrainian border. We will be prepared to take them on from there. There are relevant parts of the border where this can be done.”

A matter of national security

Once detainees have returned to Ukraine, they must undergo a thorough security check.

“They were in Russia for a long time. Everything is possible. They could have been recruited [by Russian intelligence]. This is a matter of national security for Ukraine,” Skripka explained.

There are also fears that the number of deportees will soar in the coming months as there are hundreds of Ukrainians who are still waiting in Russian deportation camps.

“According to our calculations, there are about 800 people. And if they are all brought to Georgia, it will be a disaster,” Skripka warned.

Meanwhile, in March, an edict issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin demands that Ukrainians living in the territories claimed by Moscow must either leave or accept Russian citizenship by September 10. This could potentially lead to mass deportations.

Lopata, meanwhile, can’t wait to leave, although not necessarily home.

“My house in Ukraine has been bombed. My parents have been killed, and I don’t know where to go,” he said.