KHARKIV REGION: Ukrainian soldiers preparing for battle say they have little faith in prospects for a quick ceasefire, and many reject suggestions that Kyiv should give up any of its hard-fought territory to Russia.
Reuters interviewed troops at two training bases in the northeastern Kharkiv region this week, days ahead of a planned meeting in Alaska between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine fears the two leaders could use their summit on Friday to dictate terms of peace and force Kyiv to abandon territory, a move Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has flatly rejected.
“Give it away to whom? Give it away for what?” asked the commander of a training base for Ukraine’s 58th Motorized Brigade, whose call sign is Chef.
Trump said on Monday that both Kyiv and Moscow would need to cede land to end the war, now in its fourth year. European Union leaders rallied to Ukraine’s defense on Tuesday, saying it must have the freedom to decide its own future.
The joint statement came as Russian forces made a sudden thrust into eastern Ukraine in a bid to break a key defensive line, likely aimed at boosting pressure on Kyiv to give up land.
The rapid battlefield push by Russia’s larger and better-equipped army followed months of deadly air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities.
A Gallup poll released last week found that 69 percent of Ukrainians favor a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible. However, around the same number believe fighting won’t end soon.
“Every path to peace is built through negotiations,” said another 58th Brigade soldier, call sign Champion, sitting inside an armored vehicle.
“But I cannot say that tomorrow there will be peace just like that... Because the enemy continues to creep in.”
Trump said his talks with Putin would be “a feel-out meeting” and that he would tell the Russian leader to “end this war.” But he also hinted that he may walk away and let the two sides continue fighting.
Other Ukrainian troops training in the Kharkiv region also welcomed a ceasefire, but said the Kremlin would need to be forced into making peace.
“Until Russia suffers losses big enough to give up the idea of military pressure on us, (fighting) will continue,” said an instructor from the 43rd Separate Mechanized Brigade, whose call sign is Snail.
“We will not be able to stop this otherwise.”
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Ukrainian troops doubt quick ceasefire, reject territorial concessions
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Ukrainian troops doubt quick ceasefire, reject territorial concessions
- Ukraine fears Trump and Putin could use their summit to dictate terms of peace and force Kyiv to abandon territory
- Trump said on Monday that both Kyiv and Moscow would need to cede land to end the war
Ancient cures and AI: WHO seeks evidence for traditional medicine
- The World Health Organization opens a major conference on traditional medicine on Wednesday, arguing that new technologies, including artificial intelligence
NEW DELHI: The World Health Organization opens a major conference on traditional medicine on Wednesday, arguing that new technologies, including artificial intelligence, can bring scientific scrutiny to centuries-old healing practices.
The meeting in New Delhi will examine how governments can regulate traditional medicine while using emerging scientific tools to validate safe and effective treatments.
The UN body hopes this push will help make ancestral practices more compatible with modern health care systems.
“Traditional medicine is not a thing of the past,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a video released ahead of the three-day conference.
“There is a growing demand for traditional medicine across countries, communities, and cultures.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his own message, said the summit would “intensify efforts to harness” the potential of traditional medicine.
Modi is a longtime advocate of yoga and traditional health practices and has backed the WHO Global Center for Traditional Medicine, launched in 2022 in his home state of Gujarat.
Shyama Kurvilla, the head of the center, said reliance on traditional remedies was “a global reality,” noting that 40-90 percent of populations in 90 percent of WHO member states used them.
“With half the world’s population lacking access to essential health services, traditional medicine is often the closest — or only care — available for many people,” she told AFP in New Delhi.
’Evidence-informed’
The UN agency defines traditional medicines as the accumulated knowledge, skills and practices used over time to maintain health and prevent, diagnose and treat physical and mental illness.
But many lack proven scientific value, while conservationists warn that demand for certain products drives trafficking in endangered wildlife, including tigers, rhinos and pangolins.
“WHO’s role, therefore, is to help countries ensure that, as with any other medicine, traditional medicine is safe, evidence-informed, and equitably integrated in systems,” Kurvilla added.
Kurvilla, who studied at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and taught global health policy at Boston University, said that “40 percent or more of biomedical Western medicine, pharmaceuticals, derive from natural products.”
She cited aspirin drawing on formulations using willow tree bark, contraceptive pills developed from yam plant roots and child cancer treatments based on Madagascar’s rosy periwinkle flower.
The WHO also lists the development of the anti-malaria treatment artemisinin as drawing on ancient Chinese medicine texts.
’Frontier science’
“It’s a huge, huge opportunity — and industry has realized this,” Kurvilla.
Rapid technological advancements, including artificial intelligence, had pushed research to a “transformative moment,” to apply scientific rigour to traditional remedies.
The WHO will also launch what it calls the world’s largest digital repository of research on the subject — a library of 1.6 million scientific records intended to strengthen evidence and improve knowledge-sharing.
Dr. Sylvie Briand, WHO’s chief scientist, said AI can assist in analizing drug interactions.
“Artificial intelligence, for instance, can screen millions of compounds, helping us understand the complex structure of herbal products and extract relevant constituents to maximize benefit and minimize adverse effects,” she told reporters ahead of the conference.
Briand said advanced imaging technologies, including brain scans, were shedding light on how practices such as meditation and acupuncture affect the body.
Kurvilla said she was excited by the possibilities.
“It is the frontier science that’s allowing us to make this bridge... connecting the past and the future,” she said.
The meeting in New Delhi will examine how governments can regulate traditional medicine while using emerging scientific tools to validate safe and effective treatments.
The UN body hopes this push will help make ancestral practices more compatible with modern health care systems.
“Traditional medicine is not a thing of the past,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a video released ahead of the three-day conference.
“There is a growing demand for traditional medicine across countries, communities, and cultures.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his own message, said the summit would “intensify efforts to harness” the potential of traditional medicine.
Modi is a longtime advocate of yoga and traditional health practices and has backed the WHO Global Center for Traditional Medicine, launched in 2022 in his home state of Gujarat.
Shyama Kurvilla, the head of the center, said reliance on traditional remedies was “a global reality,” noting that 40-90 percent of populations in 90 percent of WHO member states used them.
“With half the world’s population lacking access to essential health services, traditional medicine is often the closest — or only care — available for many people,” she told AFP in New Delhi.
’Evidence-informed’
The UN agency defines traditional medicines as the accumulated knowledge, skills and practices used over time to maintain health and prevent, diagnose and treat physical and mental illness.
But many lack proven scientific value, while conservationists warn that demand for certain products drives trafficking in endangered wildlife, including tigers, rhinos and pangolins.
“WHO’s role, therefore, is to help countries ensure that, as with any other medicine, traditional medicine is safe, evidence-informed, and equitably integrated in systems,” Kurvilla added.
Kurvilla, who studied at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and taught global health policy at Boston University, said that “40 percent or more of biomedical Western medicine, pharmaceuticals, derive from natural products.”
She cited aspirin drawing on formulations using willow tree bark, contraceptive pills developed from yam plant roots and child cancer treatments based on Madagascar’s rosy periwinkle flower.
The WHO also lists the development of the anti-malaria treatment artemisinin as drawing on ancient Chinese medicine texts.
’Frontier science’
“It’s a huge, huge opportunity — and industry has realized this,” Kurvilla.
Rapid technological advancements, including artificial intelligence, had pushed research to a “transformative moment,” to apply scientific rigour to traditional remedies.
The WHO will also launch what it calls the world’s largest digital repository of research on the subject — a library of 1.6 million scientific records intended to strengthen evidence and improve knowledge-sharing.
Dr. Sylvie Briand, WHO’s chief scientist, said AI can assist in analizing drug interactions.
“Artificial intelligence, for instance, can screen millions of compounds, helping us understand the complex structure of herbal products and extract relevant constituents to maximize benefit and minimize adverse effects,” she told reporters ahead of the conference.
Briand said advanced imaging technologies, including brain scans, were shedding light on how practices such as meditation and acupuncture affect the body.
Kurvilla said she was excited by the possibilities.
“It is the frontier science that’s allowing us to make this bridge... connecting the past and the future,” she said.
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