KYIV: Thousands of Ukrainian troops are taking part in an incursion aiming to destabilize Russia by showing up its weaknesses, a top Ukrainian official has told AFP as the assault entered its sixth day.
“We are on the offensive. The aim is to stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilize the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border,” the security official said on condition of anonymity.
The Russian army had said about 1,000 Ukrainian troops were deployed in the cross-border incursion which began on Tuesday and appeared to catch the Kremlin off guard, allowing Ukrainian forces to penetrate Russian defensive lines.
Asked whether the 1,000 figure was right, the official said: “It is a lot more... Thousands.”
After days of official silence, President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the offensive for the first time in his nightly address on Saturday, saying that Kyiv was “pushing the war into the aggressor’s territory.”
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has waged an unrelenting offensive, occupying swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine and subjecting Ukrainian cities to daily missile and drone attacks.
After re-capturing large areas in 2022, Ukrainian forces have largely been on the backfoot and are increasingly struggling with manpower and arms supplies.
But Ukrainian units stormed across the border Tuesday in what so far has been the largest and most successful such offensive by Kyiv in the conflict.
Its troops have advanced several kilometers forcing Russia’s army to rush in reserves and extra equipment — though neither side has given precise details on the forces committed.
Russia has evacuated tens of thousands of civilians from the area and Ukraine has also evacuated thousands of people from the Sumy region across the border.
Ukraine on offensive
The operation has “greatly raised our morale, the morale of the Ukrainian army, state and society,” the Ukrainian official said, speaking late Saturday after weeks of Russian advances in eastern Ukraine.
“This operation has shown that we can go on the offensive, move forward,” the official said.
“It seems that the Russians have problems with coordination, preparedness for action,” he said.
But he said there had been little effect so far on fighting in the east.
“The situation is basically unchanged. Their pressure in the east continues, they are not pulling back troops from the area,” he said, adding only that “the intensity of Russian attacks has gone down a little bit.”
The official said Ukrainian troops would respect international humanitarian law while on Russian territory and had no plans to annexe areas they currently hold.
“There is no idea of annexation... We are operating in strict accordance with international law,” he said, contrasting this with alleged violations by Russian troops in occupied territory.
Asked whether capturing the Kursk nuclear power plant near the border was an aim, he said: “We will see how the Kursk operation will develop.”
“We absolutely will not cause problems for nuclear security. This we can guarantee,” he said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has urged both sides “to exercise maximum restraint in order to avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences.”
US weapons
The White House said Wednesday it was contacting Ukraine to learn more about the “objectives” of the incursion.
President Joe Biden in May allowed Kyiv to use American-supplied weapons against targets just across the Russian border to repel Moscow’s push on the Kharkiv region.
But White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said that “nothing had changed” about US policy discouraging broader strikes or attacks inside Russia.
Asked whether Western partners had been kept in the dark about Ukraine’s offensive, the official said this was “incorrect.”
“Judging by how actively Western arms are being used, our Western partners played a part indirectly in the planning,” he said.
The official said he expected Russia would “in the end” manage to stop Ukrainian forces in Kursk and retaliate with a large-scale missile attack including “on decision-making centers” in Ukraine.
There has already been more intense bombardment of Ukraine’s Sumy region just across the border from Kursk.
And an overnight missile attack near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv killed a man and his four-year-old son, emergency services said.
Explosions rang out Saturday night in the center and east of Kyiv after Ukraine’s air force said two Russian missiles were headed toward the city.
Thousands of Ukrainian troops on incursion to ‘destabilize’ Russia: official
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Thousands of Ukrainian troops on incursion to ‘destabilize’ Russia: official
- President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the offensive for the first time in his nightly address on Saturday
- Ukrainian units stormed across the border Tuesday in what so far has been the largest and most successful such offensive
Ukraine government approves 2025 draft budget, PM says
Ukraine’s government has approved the 2025 draft budget, which has a strong focus on defense spending, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday.
Shmyhal, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the draft, to be submitted to parliament, provided for 2 trillion hryvnias ($48.2 billion)in revenues and 3.6 trillion hryvnias in expenditures.
The draft, put together 2-1/2 years into the Russian invasion of the country, also included a provision of 2.22 trillion hryvnias ($53.5 bln) for defense.
Shmyhal said preparations in drafting the budget, the third since the start of the invasion, had been completed “despite all the challenges and uncertainty.”
“The priority for this budget is very clear — the country’s defense and security,” he wrote. “We will again direct all domestic resources to these objectives.”
There would be, he said, “more money for Ukrainian weapons, equipment, drones.”
More than 400 billion hryvnias would be allocated for social security, with funds for indexing pensions and providing subsidies and a total of 211 billion hrynias on health care.
Local authorities would receive assistance and advantageous credits provided for entrepreneurs. Capital expenditure would be made more transparent and the government would press on with rebuilding projects and those in the energy sphere.
1 person shot during scuffle at pro-Israel rally in Boston suburb, authorities say
- Police were called at 6:40 p.m. to the scene of what they described as a small rally in Newton
- Words were exchanged before a passerby rapidly crossed the street and tackled one of the demonstrators, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said
BOSTON, USA: A pro-Israel rally in a Boston suburb turned violent Thursday evening when a passerby was shot during a scuffle after confronting a group of demonstrators, authorities said.
Police were called at 6:40 p.m. to the scene of what they described as a small rally in Newton. Words were exchanged before a passerby rapidly crossed the street and tackled one of the demonstrators, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said.
“A scuffle ensued. During that scuffle, the individual who had come across the street was shot by a member of the demonstrating group,” Ryan said during a news conference late Thursday.
Scott Hayes, 47, of Framingham, was arrested on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and violation of a constitutional right causing injury. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Hayes, who works as a contractor for National Grid, was ordered to be fitted with a GPS monitor and to stay away both from the city of Newton and from the individual who had been shot and to not be in possession of a dangerous weapon.
Hayes, who appeared to have bruising to his face during his court appearance Friday afternoon, was also required to post a $5,000 cash bail and to abide by a 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.
Prosecutors also told the court that an application for a criminal complaint has been applied for against the individual who was shot.
They said they opted for an application for a criminal complaint instead of an arrest because the alleged assault and battery was not committed in the presence of a police officers.
The shooting victim, who was not identified, was being treated at a hospital for life-threatening injuries, Ryan said.
Acting Newton Police Chief George McMains asked witnesses to provide investigators with photos or videos of the confrontation. He said police would provide extra patrols at “houses of worship” over the next several days.
Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller called the shooting a “frightening incident” and asked for everyone to remain calm as police investigate.
“I know people will have a lot of questions, and we will share information with Newtonians and the press when we are able,” Fuller said. “It’s really early stages of an active investigation.”
Pope slams Harris and Trump on anti-life stances, urges Catholics to vote for ‘lesser evil’
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE: Pope Francis on Friday slammed both US presidential candidates for what he called anti-life policies on abortion and migration, and he advised American Catholics to choose who they think is the “lesser evil” in the upcoming US elections.
“Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies,” Francis said.
The Argentine Jesuit was asked to provide counsel to American Catholic voters during an airborne news conference while he flew back to Rome from his four-nation tour through Asia. Francis stressed that he is not an American and would not be voting.
Neither Republican candidate Donald Trump nor the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, was mentioned by name.
But Francis nevertheless expressed himself in stark terms when asked to weigh in on their positions on two hot-button issues in the US election — abortion and migration — that are also of major concern to the Catholic Church.
Francis has made the plight of migrants a priority of his pontificate and speaks out emphatically and frequently about it. While strongly upholding church teaching forbidding abortion, Francis has not emphasized church doctrine as much as his predecessors.
Francis said migration is a right described in Scripture and that anyone who does not follow the Biblical call to welcome the stranger is committing a “grave sin.”
He was also blunt in speaking about abortion. “To have an abortion is to kill a human being. You may like the word or not, but it’s killing,” he said. “We have to see this clearly.”
Asked what voters should do at the polls, Francis recalled the civic duty to vote.
“One should vote, and choose the lesser evil,” he said. “Who is the lesser evil, the woman or man? I don’t know.
“Everyone in their conscience should think and do it,” he said.
It’s not the first time Francis has weighed in on a US election. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Francis was asked about Trump’s plan to build a wall at the US-Mexico border. Francis declared then that anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants “is not Christian.”
In responding Friday, Francis recalled that he celebrated Mass at the US-Mexico border and “there were so many shoes of the migrants who ended up badly there.”
Trump pledges massive deportations, just as he did in his first White House bid, when there was a vast gulf between his ambitions and the legal, financial and political realities of such an undertaking.
The US bishops conference, for its part, has called abortion the “preeminent priority” for American Catholics in its published voter advice. Harris has strongly defended abortion rights and has emphasized support for reinstating a federal right to abortion.
In his comments, the pope added: “On abortion, science says that a month from conception, all the organs of a human being are already there, all of them. Performing an abortion is killing a human being. Whether you like the word or not, this is killing. You can’t say the church is closed because it does not allow abortion. The church does not allow abortion because it’s killing. It is murder.”
However, cells are only beginning the process of developing organs in the earliest weeks of pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that by 13 weeks, all major organs have formed. For example, cardiac tissue starts to form in the first two months — initially a tube that only later evolves into the four chambers that define a heart.
Pope Francis decries deaths of Gaza children in Israeli bombings
- The pope said: “I do not think that they are taking steps to make peace“
- He said he speaks on the phone with members of a Catholic parish in Gaza “every day” and “they tell me ugly things, difficult things“
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT: Pope Francis on Friday decried the deaths of Palestinian children in Israeli military strikes in Gaza, calling bombings of schools, on the “presumption” of striking Hamas militants, “ugly.”
On the flight back to Rome from Singapore, the pontiff expressed doubt that either Israel or Hamas, now at war for eleven months, were seeking to end the conflict.
“I am sorry to have to say this,” the pope said. “But I do not think that they are taking steps to make peace.”
Francis was speaking in a press conference with journalists after a demanding 12-day tour across Southeast Asia and Oceania. He said he speaks on the phone with members of a Catholic parish in Gaza “every day” and “they tell me ugly things, difficult things.”
“Please, when you see the bodies of killed children, when you see that, under the presumption that some guerrillas are there, a school is bombed, this is ugly,” the 87-year-old pontiff said. “It is ugly.”
The pope, who has supported calls for a ceasefire in the conflict and for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, said “sometimes I think it’s a war that is too much, too much.”
The Israel-Hamas war was triggered by Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, when the militant group killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The resulting Israeli military campaign has reduced the Strip to rubble and killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
The United Nations said on Thursday that the war has left Gaza’s economy “in ruins.”
The pope spoke about a range of other issues during the 40-minute press conference. He criticized both former US President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris’ policies, and said US Catholics would have to “choose the lesser evil” when they vote in November, without elaborating.
’HAPPY’ WITH CHINA DEAL
Francis also said a Vatican deal with China over the appointment of Catholic bishops in the communist country was showing good results, indicating it will almost certainly be extended when it comes up for renewal this fall.
The pope said the results of the 2018 deal, in which China gets some input into selection of Catholic bishops, “are good.” “I am happy with the dialogue with China,” said the pontiff. “We are working with good will.”
Conservative Catholics have sharply criticized the agreement as handing over too much control to China. The Vatican says the accord resolves a decades-long split between an underground church swearing loyalty to the Vatican and the state-supervised Catholic Patriotic Association.
The deal has never been published, but only described by diplomatic officials. The Vatican says the pope retains final decision-making power in appointment of Chinese bishops.
PARIS, ARGENTINA, CLERGY ABUSE
The pope also firmly denied a French media report that he will go to Paris in December for the reopening of Notre-Dame cathedral. Francis said: “I will not go to Paris.”
A small French outlet had reported the pope would go for the cathedral’s planned Dec. 8 reopening ceremony, five years after a devastating fire. The pontiff also said on Friday he was still considering whether to travel this year to Argentina, his home country.
“I would like to go,” said Francis, who is the first pope from the Americas and before becoming pontiff served as the archbishop of Buenos Aires. “But it is not yet decided. There are some things to resolve first.”
The pope said that if he did go to Argentina, he would like to make a stop on the way from Rome in the Canary Islands, an autonomous Spanish territory off the coast of northwestern Africa. It has become an increasingly popular destination for migrants braving an Atlantic crossing to try to reach Europe.
Caring for migrants has been a key theme of Francis’ 11-year papacy. He made his first visit as pope to the Italian island of Lampedusa, also confronting an influx of migrants.
“There is situation there with migrants, who are coming by sea,” he said of the Canaries. “And I would like to be close to the government and people.”
Francis was also asked about Catholic clergy abuse, and the case of a French priest, known as Abbe Pierre, who was long celebrated for his work with homeless but was later revealed to have been accused of assaulting at least seven women. He died in 2007.
The organization Pierre founded, Emmaus, disclosed an additional 17 testimonies against the late priest on Sept. 6.
The pope said he did not know when the Vatican had first become aware of the allegations. “Certainly, after his death, surely,” said Francis. “But before (his death), I don’t know.”
Strike at Argentina’s flagship airline hits 30,000 passengers
- The 24-hour strike led to the cancelation of 319 flights, mainly impacting domestic and regional travelers, but also hundreds of passengers heading to the United States and Europe
- Since taking office in December, Milei has applied a drastic austerity program in a bid to rein in chronic inflation and decades of government overspending
BUENOS AIRES: A strike by pilots and crew demanding salary increases in inflation-hit Argentina affected more than 30,000 passengers on Friday, according to the Aerolineas Argentinas airline and unions.
As workers walked off the job for the second time this month, President Javier Milei was preparing to sign a decree declaring the aviation sector an “essential service” to guarantee a minimum level of service during such strikes, his spokesman said.
The 24-hour strike led to the cancelation of 319 flights, mainly impacting domestic and regional travelers, but also hundreds of passengers heading to the United States and Europe.
Costa Rican engineer Alex Rodriguez, 53, was stranded while on his way to visit one of South America’s top tourist attractions, the breathtaking Iguazu Falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil.
“We had planned the holiday a long time ago, about three months ago. We came from very far away, it was expensive and then everything fell through,” he told AFP.
The general secretary of the Association of Aeronautical Personnel (APA), Juan Pablo Brey, said the purchasing power of aviation staff had fallen 40 percent since Milei took office in December.
Since taking office in December, Milei has applied a drastic austerity program in a bid to rein in chronic inflation and decades of government overspending.
However, annual inflation still stands at 236.7 percent and the economic slowdown sparked by the budget cuts has hit Argentines’ pockets hard.
Brey told a local radio station that cabin crew earned 729,000 pesos ($730 at the official exchange rate) and ground crew members 500,000 pesos — half what they could make at some low-cost companies.
Aerolineas Argentinas said the strike was “untimely, abusive and out of context, promoted by union leaders in an irresponsible manner.”
Milei’s spokesman Manuel Adorni said that those striking would be “fined and sanctioned.”
Milei had tried to privatize Aerolineas Argentinas as part of his sweeping economic reforms, but was forced to remove the company from the list of those to be privatized to get his measures through parliament earlier this year.
