Category World News

On Saturday, September 27, 2018, this is how things are going.

Fighting

• A 74-year-old woman was killed and two others were hurt in a Russian attack in the Kherson region of Ukraine, according to Regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin’s post on Telegram. According to Prokudin, the attack damaged about 70 homes and one administration building.
• According to the General Staff of Ukraine, Ukrainian forces attacked the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia. The General Staff confirmed the collision and fire in a Facebook post, adding that the extent of the damage was being looked into.
• According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Yunakivka in the Sumy region is being held by Russian forces, according to TASS news agency.

diplomacy and politics

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, was charged by Russia on Friday with making “irresponsible” threats after he claimed Moscow’s top officials should check for bomb shelters close to the Kremlin if Ukraine doesn’t stop its offensive against him.
• President Zelenskyy stated in an interview with Axios, a newspaper in the United States, that Russian officials “must know where their bomb shelters are,” adding that “they will need it in any case.”
• According to the Wall Street Journal, US President Donald Trump told Zelenskyy he was willing to ease restrictions on Ukraine’s use of American-made long-range weapons to attack deep inside Russia, but he did not, according to unnamed officials at their meeting on Tuesday.
• Unnamed sources cited Zelenskyy as saying he asked Trump for Tomahawk missiles in an Axios report from Friday.

Regional security

• Zelenskyy claimed that Ukraine’s military had recently “reported violations of our airspace by reconnaissance drones, which are likely Hungarian,” along the nation’s border with its neighbor. Zelenskyy later made reference to “very strange incidents” in his nightly video address and demanded “thorough checks.”
• In a response to Peter Szijjarto, the Hungarian foreign minister, Zelenskyy said in a post on X, “President Zelenskyy is losing his mind.” He is now beginning to recognize the absence of certain things.
• Andrii Sybiha, the foreign minister of Ukraine, earlier on Friday stated that Kyiv had placed a ban on three senior Hungarian military officials in response to Hungary’s earlier entry ban on them.
• In response to increasing reports of Russian airspace being violated, European Union Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius reported that EU defense ministers have agreed to build a “drone wall” along their borders with Russia and Ukraine.

The electoral commission of Moldova forbade two pro-Russian parties from participating in this Sunday’s high-stakes election, which was overshadowed by allegations of Russian interference.
• In advance of the tense Moldovan parliamentary elections this weekend, two people were detained by Serbian police on Friday, accused of conducting “combat-tactical training” for dozens of protesters.
• Maia Sandu, the president of Moldova, claimed Russia had paid “hundreds of people” to destabilize the nation before Sunday’s election.

Energy

• Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, discussed plans to either build a second nuclear power plant or expand the country’s already-existing one in order to supply energy to Ukraine’s occupied regions at Friday’s Kremlin, according to Russian RIA Novosti news agency.
• Lukashenko added that, according to RIA reporting, he also stated after the meeting that he and Russia have come to an agreement to provide Belarus with gas for the next five years.
• The exiled opposition leader of Belarus’s opposition, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, claimed the energy plans “proves once more” that Lukashenko “is complicit in Russian aggression” and “always puts all of Europe in danger.”

The high-stakes election this weekend, which was overshadowed by claims of Russian interference, has been suspended by Moldova’s electoral commission.

The commission cited allegations of illegal financing, voter bribery, and undeclared foreign funds as justification for the commission’s decision to axe the Heart of Moldova and Moldova Mare parties on Friday. Before Sunday’s election, both parties had campaigned for closer ties with Moscow to challenge the pro-Western government.

Following a ruling from the Chisinau Court of Appeal that temporarily curbed the party’s activities for a year, the court of appeal decided against the Heart of Moldova. Following earlier this month’s allegations of money laundering, illegal financing, and attempts to bribe voters, the Ministry of Justice requested the ban.

The organization disputed the allegations, calling the action a political purge.

This isn’t justice, but a culmination of a dirty show planned by the authorities to silence us, the statement read. Irina Vlah, the party’s leader, also denounced the decision, calling it a “political spectacle, concocted a long time ago.”

The electoral commission announced that Heart of Moldova’s candidates would be removed from the Patriotic Electoral Bloc (BEP), which has been the party’s main adversary in opposition to the ruling party of Action and Solidarity (PAS). The bloc has 24 hours to change its candidate list to ensure eligibility.

The commission also forbade Moldova Mare, citing its involvement in a “camouflaged electoral bloc” linked to a banned party, as well as vote-buying, covert financing from abroad, and its involvement in what it called a “camouflaged electoral bloc.”

Moldova, a former Soviet republic that acquiesced to the EU in 2022, is viewed as crucial to the outcome of Sunday’s election. The outcome will determine whether the nation stays in favor of Moscow or reverses its course.

Under President Maia Sandu’s leadership since 2021, the PAS has enjoyed a strong parliamentary majority, but analysts fear that as Russia-friendly blocs grow in popularity.

The PAS is under pressure on a number of fronts, especially with no significant pro-European candidates for the election.

President Donald Trump has once more sided with him by preventing the release of $4 billion in foreign aid.

The Trump administration’s latest success in its efforts to reform the funding the US gives to humanitarian and other efforts abroad is the ruling from Friday that reverses a lower court’s order.

Additionally, it is the most recent instance of the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court granting a broad definition of presidential authority.

The Congress had already approved the aid, but it was scheduled to expire on September 30. Trump attempted to “pocket rescission,” which would mean turning the clock back on how much time was being used, by attempting to freeze the aid.

The funds had been set aside for UN peacekeeping missions and efforts to promote democracy overseas in part.

Trump was given the deadline of September 3 to send the funds to the US District Judge Amir Ali. He warned that Trump’s action “presented a serious and urgent threat to the separation of powers.”

There is little precedent for a president to recoup funds that the legislative branch has already approved, given that Congress has the power of the purse under the US Constitution. The “pocket rescission” tactic was last employed in 1977, according to the White House.

Administration attorneys argued in court filings that the funding’s distribution would be “contrary to US foreign policy.”

Trump has attempted to reform US foreign aid, slashing UN funding, and largely destroying the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The administration has argued that the spending cuts are intended to cut costs while slashing domestic immigration enforcement funding.

Critics claim that the cuts threaten the US’s long-term interests and undermine Washington’s soft power abroad.